After formalizing his plea agreement with the United States at a U.S. federal court on the Mariana Islands Wednesday, Julian Assange flew to his native Australia, a newly liberated man.  

The publisher and journalist, who did more than anyone in the past 20 years to expose U.S. crimes to a world saturated in U.S. propaganda obscuring them, was expected to speak publicly for the first time since his release in Canberra, the Australian capital. [He did not appear at Canberra press conferences on Wednesday and Thursday.]

This was the scene at the airport in Canberra when Assange arrived Wednesday night: