GETTY Julian Assange

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In June 2011, President Barack Obama's government warned Iceland hackers were aiming to target the country's electronic infrastructure, according to then-Interior Minister Ogmundur Jonasson. The USA offered help in tackling the hackers, a move that immediately raised the suspicions of Iceland's politicians. Mr Jonasson said he became concerned America was merely attempting to frame Assange, whose website had left Mr Obama's administration red-faced on several occasions.

Mr Jonasson claimed this week he quickly became "suspicious" at America's intentions, explaining he was "well aware that a helping hand might easily become a manipulating hand". He said: "Since they had not been authorised by the Icelandic authorities to carry out police work in Iceland and since a crack-down on WikiLeaks was not on my agenda, to say the least, I ordered that all cooperation with them be promptly terminated.

GETTY Assange has left US authorities red-faced on several occasions

"I also made it clear that they should cease all activities in Iceland immediately." Mr Jonasson said he remains suspicious of America's intelligence organisations and vowed to support Assange again should the opportunity arise. He said: "If I had to take sides with either WikiLeaks or the FBI or CIA, I would have no difficulty in choosing: I would be on the side of WikiLeaks."

Things you may not know about Julian Assange Tue, March 7, 2017 WikiLeaks Founder, Julian Assange has led a very interesting and controversial life which has been at the centre of global debate Play slideshow Getty Images 1 of 10 It is believed that Julian Assange chooses to live in Sweden because the country's media laws are among the world's most protective for journalists

This humiliating revelation comes after a trove of newly-released WikiLeaks documents exposed links between German Chancellor Angela Merkel and US spy agencies. A 90GB cache containing almost 2,500 top-secret documents, now made public by the whistle-blowing website, sheds light on the murky relationship between Germany's Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND) and America's National Security Agency (NSA).

NC Ogmundur Jonasson said the FBI attempted to frame Julian Assange

Commenting on the latest release of classified papers, Assange claimed they could derail Germany's ascendancy within the EU. He said: "This substantial body of evidence proves that the inquiry has been using documents from Mr [Edward] Snowden and yet it has been too cowardly to permit him to testify.

GETTY Assange's Wikileaks whistle-blowing website has humiliated the FBI on numerous occasions