WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange may be a fan of Benedict Cumberbatch, but the controversial activist isn’t happy with the actor’s new WikiLeaks film, “The Fifth Estate.” 
 
 Cumberbatch, who portrays Assange in the DreamWorks drama, had apparently reached out to Assange before shooting the film, but the WikiLeaks founder later declined and went on to explain in a new letter why he refused to meet with the British actor while again voicing his displeasure with the film. 
 
 “I believe you are a good person, but I do not believe that this film is a good film,” Assange wrote. 
 
 “Your skills play into the hands of people who are out to remove me and WikiLeaks from the world…I believe that you should reconsider your involvement in this enterprise.” 
 
 This isn’t the first time WikiLeaks has criticized the Bill Condon-directed drama, which is partly based on the book “Inside WikiLeaks: My Time With Julian Assange and the World’s Most Dangerous Website,” by Daniel Domscheit-Berg. 
 
 Last month, the controversial site blasted the new film for its inaccuracies and depictions of the WikiLeaks staff. 
 
 “Most of the events depicted never happened, or the people shown were not involved in them. It has real names, real places, and looks like it is covering real events, but it is still a dramatic and cinematic work, and it invents or shapes the facts to fit its narrative goals,” the org wrote. 
 
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 Read Assange’s letter to Cumberbatch below: 
 
 Date: Tue, 15 Jan 2013 
 
 From: Julian Assange 
 
 To: Benedict Cumberbatch 
 
 Subject: Message from Assange 
 
 Dear Benedict, 
 
 Thank you for trying to contact me. It is the first approach by anyone from the Dreamworks production to me or WikiLeaks. 
 
 My assistants communicated your request to me, and I have given it a lot of thought and examined your previous work, which I am fond of. 
 
 I think I would enjoy meeting you. 
 
 The bond that develops between an actor and a living subject is significant. 
 
 If the film reaches distribution we will forever be correlated in the public imagination. Our paths will be forever entwined. Each of us will be granted standing to comment on the other for many years to come and others will compare our characters and trajectories. 
 
 But I must speak directly. 
 
 I hope that you will take such directness as a mark of respect, and not as an unkindness. 
 
 I believe you are a good person, but I do not believe that this film is a good film. 
 
 I do not believe it is going to be positive for me or the people I care about. 
 
 I believe that it is going to be overwhelmingly negative for me and the people I care about. 
 
 It is based on a deceitful book by someone who has a vendetta against me and my organisation. 
 
 In other circumstances this vendetta may have gone away, but our conflict with the United States government and the establishment press has created a patronage and commissioning market – powerful, if unpopular – for works and comments that are harmful to us. 
 
 There are dozens of positive books about WikiLeaks, but Dreamworks decided 
 
 to base its script only on the most toxic. So toxic is the first book selected by Dreamworks that it is distributed to US military bases as a mechanism to discourage military personnel from communicating with us. Its author is publicly known to be involved in the Dreamworks production in an ongoing capacity. 
 
 Dreamworks’ second rights purchase is the next most toxic, biased book. Published and written by people we have had a bitter contractual dispute with for years, whose hostility is well known. Neither of these two books were the first to be published and there are many independent authors who have written positive or neutral books, all of whom Dreamworks ignored. 
 
 Dreamworks has based its entire production on the two most discredited books on the market. 
 
 I know the film intends to depict me and my work in a negative light. 
 
 I believe it will distort events and subtract from public understanding. 
 
 It does not seek to simplify, clarify or distil the truth, but rather it seeks to bury it. 
 
 It will resurrect and amplify defamatory stories which were long ago shown 
 
 to be false. 
 
 — 
 
 My organisation and I are the targets of political adversary from the United States government and its closest allies. 
 
 The United States government has engaged almost every instrument of its justice and intelligence system to pursue—in its own words—a ‘whole of government’ investigation of ‘unprecedented scale and nature’ into WikiLeaks under draconian espionage laws. Our alleged sources are facing their entire lives in the US prison system. Two are already in it. Another one is detained in Sweden. 
 
 Feature films are the most powerful and insidious shapers of public perception, because they fly under the radar of conscious exclusion. 
 
 This film is going to bury good people doing good work, at exactly the time that the state is coming down on their heads. 
 
 It is going to smother the truthful version of events, at a time when the truth is most in demand. 
 
 As justification it will claim to be fiction, but it is not fiction. It is distorted truth about living people doing battle with titanic opponents. It is a work of political opportunism, influence, revenge and, above all, cowardice. 
 
 It seeks to ride on the back of our work, our reputation and our struggles. 
 
 It seeks to cut our strength with weakness. To cut affection with exploitation. To cut diligence with paranoia. To cut loyalty with naivety. To cut principle with hypocrisy. And above all, to cut the truth with lies. 
 
 The film’s many distortions buttress what the prosecution will argue. Has argued. Is arguing. In my case, and in that of others. These cases will continue for years. 
 
 The studio that is producing the film is not a vulnerable or weak party. 
 
 Dreamworks’ free speech rights are not in jeopardy – ours are. 
 
 Dreamworks is an extremely wealthy organisation, with ties to powerful interests in the US government. 
 
 I must therefore question the choices and motives behind it: the opportunism, fears and mundanity; the unwritten rules of film financing and distribution in the United States; the cringe against doing something useful and brave. 
 
 I believe that you are a decent person, who would not naturally wish to harm good people in dire situations. 
 
 — 
 
 You will be used, as a hired gun, to assume the appearance of the truth in order to assassinate it. To present me as someone morally compromised and to place me in a falsified history. To create a work, not of fiction, but of debased truth. 
 
 Not because you want to, of course you don’t, but because, in the end, you are a jobbing actor who gets paid to follow the script, no matter how debauched. 
 
 Your skills play into the hands of people who are out to remove me and WikiLeaks from the world. 
 
 I believe that you should reconsider your involvement in this enterprise. 
 
 Consider the consequences of your cooperation with a project that vilifies and marginalises a living political refugee to the benefit of an entrenched, corrupt and dangerous state. 
 
 Consider the consequences to people who may fall into harm because of this film. 
 
 Many will fight against history being blackwashed in this way. It is a collective history now, involving millions of people, because millions have opened their eyes as a result of our work and the attempts to destroy us. 
 
 I believe you are well intentioned but surely you can see why it is a bad idea for me to meet with you. 
 
 By meeting with you, I would validate this wretched film, and endorse the talented, but debauched, performance that the script will force you to give. 
 
 I cannot permit this film any claim to authenticity or truthfulness. In its current form it has neither, and doing so would only further aid the campaign against me. 
 
 It is contrary to my interests, and to those of my organisation, and I thank you for your offer, and what I am sure is your genuine intent, but I must, with inexpressible regret, turn it down. 
 
 Julian Assange ||||| Julian Assange rips the movie about him as a ‘geriatric snoozefest’ 
 
 By Agence France-Presse 
 
 Wednesday, October 9, 2013 22:22 EST 
 
 Wikileaks founder Julian Assange Thursday renewed his attack on a film about the whistleblowing website, calling it a “geriatric snoozefest” as he released a letter written to its star Benedict Cumberbatch. 
 
 The Australian hacker, who has been holed up at the Ecuadoran embassy in London after claiming asylum a year ago to avoid extradition to Sweden, has refused to meet the British actor. 
 
 Cumberbatch stars as Assange in director Bill Condon’s thriller “The Fifth Estate,” which won a long ovation at its world premiere during the Toronto Film Festival last month and is due for release in the United States next week. 
 
 He requested a meeting to study his subject’s manner, but Assange refused as “such an interaction might appear to legitimize a film intending to mislead the public with numerous inaccuracies”. 
 
 “I believe you are a good person, but I do not believe that this film is a good film,” said Assange’s letter to the actor, who revealed last month he considered quitting the movie after receiving it. 
 
 “Feature films are the most powerful and insidious shapers of public perception, because they fly under the radar of conscious exclusion,” said the letter. 
 
 “This film is going to bury good people doing good work, at exactly the time that the state is coming down on their heads. It is going to smother the truthful version of events, at a time when the truth is most in demand. 
 
 “As justification it will claim to be fiction, but it is not fiction. It is distorted truth about living people doing battle with titanic opponents. It is a work of political opportunism, influence, revenge and, above all, cowardice.” 
 
 In comments accompanying the release of the letter, he added: “The result is a geriatric snoozefest that only the US government could love.” 
 
 According to Assange, Cumberbatch’s reply was “courteous and considered” with the actor admitting aspects of the script troubled him. 
 
 The letter exchange took place in January. 
 
 At the Toronto Film Festival, Cumberbatch, who has won rave reviews, said he wanted to see Assange carry on his work exposing secrets. 
 
 “What I’d like to see is the man … able to carry on his work as founder of WikiLeaks. Beyond that, due process has to take place in whatever shape or forms that happens,” he said. 
 
 WikiLeaks enraged the United States in 2010 by publishing hundreds of thousands of classified documents on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as a huge cache of US diplomatic cables that embarrassed governments worldwide. 
 
 Ecuador granted Assange asylum last year but Britain refuses to grant him safe passage out of the country, leaving him stuck inside the embassy. 
 
 Britain says it is obliged to see him extradited to Sweden where he faces sex crime allegations that Assange denies and claims are politically motivated. ||||| Washington (CNN) The leading US intelligence official said Thursday that his foreign counterparts have expressed concern that President-elect Donald Trump is disparaging the US intelligence community, potentially damaging public confidence. 
 
 "I do think public trust and confidence in the Intelligence Community is crucial" both in the US and in other countries that rely on US intelligence, James Clapper, the Director of National Intelligence, told the Senate Armed Services Committee. "I've received many expressions of concern from foreign counterparts about the disparagement of the US Intelligence Community, or I should say, what has been interpreted as disparagement of the US Intelligence Community." 
 
 Clapper was speaking at a hearing on global cyberthreats that focused almost exclusively on Moscow's alleged hacking during the presidential elections. 
 
 The hearing gave lawmakers and senior US intelligence officials the chance to draw a line in the sand for Trump, presenting a united front on their conclusion that Russia is a major threat to the United States and was behind election-related hacking -- a conclusion the President-elect has refused to accept. 
 
 "We assess that only Russia's senior-most officials could have authorized the recent election-focused data thefts and disclosures, based on the scope and sensitivity of the targets," Clapper, Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence Marcel Lettre and the commander of US Cyber Command, Michael Rogers, wrote in a joint statement to the Senate Armed Services Committee. 
 
 Clapper said at the hearing that there was a line between critical thinking about assessment and undermining those gathering the intelligence. 
 
 "I think there is an important distinction here between healthy skepticism which policymakers -- to include policymaker No. 1 -- should always have on intelligence, but I think there's a difference between skepticism and disparagement," he said. 
 
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 And he noted that some intelligence agents die in service for their country. "You only need to walk into the lobby and look at the stars on the wall or the NSA and the number of intelligence people who have paid the ultimate price for their country," he said. 
 
 Rogers told the committee that he was concerned about morale within the Intelligence Community and that having political leaders who are confident in intelligence agencies is "crucial to that." 
 
 "I don't want to lose good, motivated people because they feel there's not room for them to contribute," Rogers said. "Without that confidence, I just don't want a situation where our workforce decides to walk because that's just not a good place for us to be." 
 
 Sen. Lindsey Graham, a South Carolina Republican, said he wanted to convey to Trump that "It's okay to challenge the intel, you're right to do so, but what I don't want you to do is undermine those who are serving our nation in this arena until you're absolutely sure they need to be undermined. 
 
 "And I think they need to be uplifted," Graham added, "not undermined." 
 
 In his opening questions to Clapper, Committee Chairman John McCain noted the Intelligence Community's conclusion that the cyberthefts and disclosures were intended to interfere with the US election process and could only have been authorized by Russia's most senior levels. 
 
 "We stand actually more resolutely on the strength of that statement that we made on the seventh of October," Clapper said. After the election, the Intelligence Community concluded that at least one Russian motive had been to help Trump win. 
 
 Clapper said that the hacking did not succeed in changing any vote tallies, but that it was impossible for intelligence to assess how the information released from the breaches affected voters' attitudes. 
 
 McCain emphasized the Russian role and delivered an implicit rebuke to Trump, who has urged people to "move on" from the issue of Moscow-directed hacking. 
 
 "Every American should be alarmed by Russia's attacks on our nation," the Arizona Republican said. "There's no escaping the fact that this committee meets today ... in the aftermath of an unprecedented attack on our democracy." 
 
 McCain added that the "goal of this review is not to question the outcome of the election nor should it be." It's crucial that the country move forward with full knowledge about what happened and that Congress take bipartrisan steps, he said. 
 
 Russia reacted almost immediately, with Kremlin spokesman Dmitr Peskov telling CNN that Moscow is "sick and tired of those irresponsibly blaming everything on our country. If there is a need for an enemy, why not to try someone else?" 
 
 "We have suggested cooperation on combating cyberthreats numerous times," Peskov said. "It was rejected." 
 
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 But both Clapper and Rogers said in their testimony that the US has been trying to create international norms for cyber-related conflict. "We continue to engage with partners around the world about what is acceptable and unacceptable behavior in cyberspace, " Rogers said. "We are clearly not where we want to be in this regard." 
 
 Trump has suggested that the Intelligence Community's conclusion on Russia was driven by political interests. Clapper, who enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1961, stressed that he has served every president "in the trenches" since John F. Kennedy. 
 
 "I am apolitical," he said, adding that it was a priority to supply "unvarnished" and "untainted" policy recommendations to policy makers. 
 
 Photos: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange Photos: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange Julian Assange, founder of the website WikiLeaks, has been a key figure in major leaks of classified government documents, cables and videos since his site launched in 2006. Hide Caption 1 of 15 Photos: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange Assange holds a copy of The Guardian newspaper in London on July 26, 2010, a day after WikiLeaks posted more than 90,000 classified documents related to the Afghanistan War. Hide Caption 2 of 15 Photos: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange Assange attends a seminar at the Swedish Trade Union Confederation in Stockholm on August 14, 2010. Six days later, Swedish prosecutors issued a warrant for his arrest based on allegations of sexual assault from two women. Hide Caption 3 of 15 Photos: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange Assange displays a page from WikiLeaks on October 23, 2010, in London. WikiLeaks released approximately 400,000 classified military documents from the Iraq War the day before. Hide Caption 4 of 15 Photos: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange Assange and his bodyguards are seen after a news conference in Geneva, Switzerland, on November 4, 2010. It was the month WikiLeaks began releasing diplomatic cables from U.S. embassies. Hide Caption 5 of 15 Photos: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange Assange sits behind the tinted window of a police vehicle at Westminster Magistrates court in London on December 14, 2010. Assange had turned himself in to London authorities on December 7 and was released on bail and put on house arrest on December 16. Hide Caption 6 of 15 Photos: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange Assange supporters stand outside Belmarsh Magistrates Court in London on February 24, 2011, as a judge ruled in favor of Assange's extradition to Sweden. Hide Caption 7 of 15 Photos: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange Copies of the "unauthorized autobiography" of Assange sit on display in a bookstore in Edinburgh, Scotland, on September 22, 2011. Earlier that month, WikiLeaks released more than 250,000 U.S. diplomatic cables. Hide Caption 8 of 15 Photos: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange Assange speaks to demonstrators from the steps of St. Paul's Cathedral in London on October 15, 2011. Hide Caption 9 of 15 Photos: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange Two police officers stand guard outside the Ecuadorian Embassy in London on June 20, 2012, after Assange took refuge there to avoid arrest and extradition by British police. Ecuador granted him asylum in August 2012. Hide Caption 10 of 15 Photos: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange Assange speaks from a window of the Ecuadorian Embassy in London on December 20, 2012. Facing arrest by British officials, Assange has not set foot outside the embassy since June 2012. Hide Caption 11 of 15 Photos: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange Assange appears with Ecuadorian Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino on the balcony of the embassy on June 16, 2013. Hide Caption 12 of 15 Photos: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange Benedict Cumberbatch stars as Assange in the film "The Fifth Estate." Assange refused to meet the actor, stating: "I believe you are well-intentioned, but surely you can see why it is a bad idea for me to meet with you. By meeting with you, I would validate this wretched film, and endorse the talented, but debauched, performance that the script will force you to give." Hide Caption 13 of 15 Photos: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange Assange speaks during a panel discussion at the South By Southwest Festival in Austin, Texas, in March 2014. Hide Caption 14 of 15 Photos: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange Assange attends a news conference inside the Ecuadorian Embassy in London in August. Hide Caption 15 of 15 
 
 On Wednesday, Trump championed WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's claim that Russia wasn't the source of stolen documents from the Democratic National Committee that his group distributed. 
 
 McCain asked Clapper whether Assange had endangered men and women serving the US with his earlier release of State Department cables. 
 
 "Yes, he has," Clapper said. 
 
 McCain then asked whether Assange should be accorded any credibility -- another implicit rebuke of Trump. Clapper responded, "No, he should not." 
 
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 The President-elect's apparent support for Assange and his dismissal of the intelligence community's findings on Russia have alarmed fellow Republicans, but on Thursday morning, Trump tweeted that "the media lies to make it look like I am against 'Intelligence' when in fact I am a big fan!" 
 
 The intelligence leaders stressed before the Senate that instead of "moving on," Russia requires vigilance. 
 
 "Russia is a full-scope cyber actor that poses a major threat to US government, military, diplomatic, commercial, and critical infrastructure and key resource networks because of its highly advanced offensive cyber program and sophisticated tactics, techniques, and procedures," they said. 
 
 After Thursday's public hearing, Clapper, Lettre and Rogers may brief lawmakers in a closed session to discuss classified material, Senate aides said. Clapper is due to brief Trump Friday on Russia's actions in a private meeting. 
 
 President Barack Obama ordered a full review of Russian meddling into the election a month ago and received the report Thursday morning. Clapper, who will brief Trump on the findings on Friday, said the report will speak to Russia's motivations. He also told lawmakers that an unclassified version will be released to the public. 
 
 Speaking to WMAQ in Chicago Thursday, Obama said it was "important" Trump and Intelligence Community work together. 
 
 "My hope is that when the President-elect receives his own briefings and is able to examine the intelligence as his team has put together and they see how professional and effective these agencies are, that some of those current tensions will be reduced," Obama said. 
 
 "I can speak to my own experience -- it's going to be important to make sure the President and the intelligence communities are both working on the best possible information," Obama continued. 
 
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 Showdown with Congress likely 
 
 Trump's stance sets up a likely clash with Congress, where the push to probe Russia's actions has been intensifying. Republicans like Graham and McCain want broad investigations into Russian behavior in cyberspace and overseas. 
 
 After the hearing, McCain told reporters that Russia's ability to interfere in the elections was "a threat to national security." He added that "In the broadest context, it was an act of war," but said that retaliation would have to be carefully considered. 
 
 "It fits the definition of an act of war, but it doesn't mean you start shooting over it," McCain said. 
 
 McCain said he didn't know why Trump refuses to accept intelligence conclusions on Russia. Asked if he had any concerns about that, McCain said he wanted to wait until Trump was briefed on Friday. 
 
 Graham told CNN in December that he and McCain plan to put sanctions together that hit Russian President Vladimir Putin "as an individual and his inner circle for interfering in our election" and in other nations' elections. 
 
 Graham said that there are "a hundred United States senators ... I would say that 99 of us believe the Russians did this and we're going to do something about it." 
 
 Meanwhile, a broad array of Democrats are calling for a public airing of Russia's efforts to sway the election. Senior Senate Democrats introduced a bill Wednesday to investigate the election interference. 
 
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 Trump's incoming White House press secretary Sean Spicer tried to explain the President-elect's skepticism about the intelligence on Russia in a call with reporters Wednesday, distinguishing between raw data and conclusions drawn from that data. 
 
 Trump "is more skeptical of conclusions from raw data, rather than intelligence and raw data provided," Spicer said. "That's why he's looking forward to meeting on Friday." 
 
 Intelligence officials describe increasing dismay within their community about Trump's attacks and refusal to believe them. 
 
 "It's a sad day when politicians place more stock in Vladimir Putin and Julian Assange than in the Americans who risk their lives daily to provide objective non-partisan intelligence analysis," one official told CNN. 
 
 In Thursday's hearing, Connecticut Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal said Trump's "demeaning and dismissive" comments about intelligence officers were unacceptable and praised their service. 
 
 "I want to thank you on behalf of all the women and men in the intelligence community," Clapper said. "I want to thank you for that."
– The fight between Julian Assange and the team behind the upcoming WikiLeaks movie, The Fifth Estate, is apparently more personal than we realized. In a letter from January, Assange denies a request to meet with Benedict Cumberbatch, the actor who plays Assange in the film, noting, "I believe you are a good person, but I do not believe that this is a good film," the letter says, as per Variety. "Your skills play into the hands of people who are out to remove me and WikiLeaks from the world ... Surely you can see why it is a bad idea for me to meet with you." "I believe you are well intentioned," he continues, noting he would enjoy meeting the British actor and is fond of his work, but "you will be used, as a hired gun, to assume the appearance of the truth in order to assassinate it. By meeting with you, I would validate this wretched film, and endorse the talented, but debauched, performance that the script will force you to give." Ultimately, he encourages Cumberbatch to reconsider his role in the movie; afterward, the actor did consider dropping out, Raw Story reports. The movie is due out next week. Click for the full letter.