WikiLeaks news compilation

[Cigar Guy]

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange arrested by Scotland Yard


WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange arrested by Scotland Yard

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was arrested by officers from Scotland Yard's extradition unit today.

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange Photo: EPA

By Richard Edwards, Crime Correspondent 10:27AM GMT 07 Dec 2010

The 39-year-old Australian was held when he attended a central London police station by appointment at 9.30am.

He will appear before a district judge at City of Westminster Magistrates' Court later today, where his lawyers are expected to fight extradition proceedings.

A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: "Officers from the Metropolitan Police Extradition Unit have this morning arrested Julian Assange on behalf of the Swedish authorities on suspicion of rape.

"Julian Assange, 39, was arrested on a European Arrest Warrant by appointment at a London police station at 9.30am. "He is accused by the Swedish authorities of one count of unlawful coercion, two counts of sexual molestation and one count of rape, all alleged to have been committed in August 2010.

"Assange is due to appear at City of Westminster Magistrates' Court today." Mr Assange has not been seen publicly for 31 days, since an appearance in Geneva, and was believed to have been in hiding in the south-east of England as the latest tranche of wikileaks material was released.

A European Arrest Warrant was issued by the Swedish last month but could not be acted upon because it did not contain sufficient information for the British authorities. A spokesman for Marianne Ny, the Swedish prosecutor, said the extra details were sent last week.

Police processed the warrant yesterday and arrangements were made with Mark Stephens, Mr Assange’s British lawyer, for the Wikileaks founder to attend a central London police station. Mr Stephens said his client was keen to discover what allegations he was facing so he could clear his name.

"It's about time we got to the end of the day and we got some truth, justice and rule of law," he said. "Julian Assange has been the one in hot pursuit to vindicate himself to clear his good name. "He has been trying to meet with her (the Swedish prosecutor) to find out what the allegations are he has to face and also the evidence against him, which he still hasn't seen."

The 39-year-old Australian has been under intense pressure since the release of thousands of secret documents in recent weeks. Kristinn Hrafnsson, spokesman for WikiLeaks, said Mr Assange had been forced to keep a low profile after several threats on his life.

Sweden’s Supreme Court upheld a court order to detain Mr Assange for questioning on suspicion of “rape, sexual molestation and unlawful coercion” after he appealed against two lower court rulings. He denies the allegations. His details were also added to Interpol’s most wanted website, alerting police forces around the world.

Mr Stephens said he would fight any bid to extradite his client. He added that Mr Assange “has been trying to meet with the Swedish prosecutor since August this year”. Mr Assange’s troubles deepened when his Swiss bank account was shut down after it was found he had given a false address. Postfinance, the financial arm of Swiss Post, said: “The Australian citizen provided false information regarding his place of residence during the account opening process.”

Mr Assange had allegedly told Postfinance he lived in Geneva but could offer no proof that he was a Swiss resident. News of his potential arrest came as WikiLeaks was criticised for publishing details of hundreds of sites around the world that could be targeted in terrorist attacks.

Among the British sites listed are a transatlantic undersea cable landing in Cornwall; naval and motoring engineering firm MacTaggart Scott, based in the small Scottish town of Loanhead; and BAE Systems sites, including one in Preston, Lancashire.

The revelations prompted Sir Peter Ricketts, David Cameron’s national security adviser, to order a review of computer security across all government departments.

 

[Cigar Guy]

Factbox: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange arrested


Factbox: WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange arrested

LONDON | Tue Dec 7, 2010 10:46am GMT

LONDON (Reuters) - Here are some facts about Julian Assange, founder of the WikiLeaks website, who was arrested by British police on a European warrant issued by Sweden, London's Metropolitan Police said on Tuesday.

* PERSONAL LIFE:

-- Assange was born in Townsville, Australia, in July 1971, to parents who were involved in theater and travelled frequently. Assange's mother runs a puppet theater.

-- In his teens, Assange gained a reputation as a sophisticated computer programer.

-- In 1995 he was arrested and pleaded guilty to hacking. He was fined, but avoided prison on condition he did not reoffend.

-- In his late 20s, he went to Melbourne University to study mathematics and physics.

-- Assange has no permanent home and was often seen carrying a rucksack, moving from city to city and staying with friends in countries from Iceland to Kenya.

-- He is described by those he has worked with as highly intelligent, determined, intense and at times paranoid.

-- He is known for being highly secretive. It has been reported that he carries several mobile phones and at one point believed he was being followed.

-- Assange is wanted in Sweden for questioning about allegations of rape, sexual molestation and unlawful coercion, and an arrest warrant was received by London's Metropolitan Police. Authorities in Sweden, where Assange has spent much of his time, were seeking to have him detained to investigate the allegations by two Swedish women. He has denied any wrongdoing.

* WIKILEAKS WEBSITE:

-- Assange began WikiLeaks in 2006, creating a web-based "dead letter drop" for would-be leakers.

-- His website has five full-time staff, several dozen active volunteers and 800 part-time volunteers. Assange has said he has received hundreds of documents and does not have enough resources to go through all of them.

-- Assange said he thinks there is still a place for investigative journalism and hoped that WikiLeaks could complement traditional media.

-- He said that WikiLeaks has never compromised a source.

-- Assange is an avid user of social media networks such as Facebook and Twitter and is known for his sometimes sharply worded tweets. WikiLeaks' pages have some 300,000 to 400,000 followers.

Sources: Reuters/WikiLeaks website/BBC

(Reporting by David Cutler in London and Mia Shanley in Sweden)

 

[Cigar Guy]

WikiLeaks says to continue operating despite arrest


WikiLeaks says to continue operating despite arrest

STOCKHOLM | Tue Dec 7, 2010 6:27am EST

WikiLeaks spokesman Kristinn Hrafnsson (C) listens to questions from the media during an event at the Frontline club in London, December 1, 2010. (REUTERS/Paul Hackett)

STOCKHOLM Dec 7 (Reuters) - WikiLeaks said on Tuesday it will keep operating as normal after the arrest of its founder, Julian Assange, in Britain.

"WikiLeaks is operational. We are continuing on the same track as laid out before," said Kristinn Hrafnsson, spokesman for the group.

"Any development with regards to Julian Assange will not change the plans we have with regards to the releases today and in the coming days."

Hrafnsson said the operation would be run by a group of people from London and other locations.

 

[singveld]

wiki leak is history.
made too many enemies.

 

[Cigar Guy]

Wikileaks: Daniel Assange calls for father to be treated fairly

The Australian son of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has urged fair and apolitical treatment for his father and said he hoped his arrest in Britain wasn't a "step towards his extradition to the US."


Jemima Khan lends her support

Jemima Khan appeared in court to lend her support to Wikileaks founder Julian Assange as he was put behind bars over sexual allegations originating from Sweden.


Julian Assange: 'don't shoot the messenger'

Governments around the world must not "shoot the messenger" by attacking disclosures by WikiLeaks, Julian Assange said on Tuesday.


Celebrity bail bid fails

Film director Ken Loach and Jemima Khan offered £20,000 each as surety over allegations Julian Assange raped two women.

 

[Cigar Guy]

Wikileaks: Swedish prosecutors' office targeted by Anonymous cyber attack


Wikileaks: Swedish prosecutors' office targeted by Anonymous cyber attack

The website of the Swedish prosecutor's office pursuing WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has come under cyber attack in the latest salvo in a campaign by online supporters of Mr Assange who have also struck PayPal and the Swiss Post Office bank.

Media outside Westminster Magistrates Court in London waiting for the appearance of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange Photo: PA

7:00AM GMT 08 Dec 2010

PandaLabs, the malware detection laboratory for computer security firm Panda Security, said the prosecutor's website, aklagare.se, was brought down by members of the loose "cyber hacktivist" group called "Anonymous."

The attack on the Swedish prosecutor's website came as Mr Assange, whose release of secret US diplomatic cables has sparked an international furore, was refused bail by a British judge over allegations of sex crimes in Sweden.

Sean-Paul Correll, a threat researcher at PandaLabs, said Anonymous had dubbed the attacks on the websites of the Swedish prosecutor's office, PayPal and the Swiss Post Office bank as "Operation Avenge Assange."

He said they were part of a battle being waged online between supporters and opponents of WikiLeaks, whose website has come under repeated cyber attack itself and has seen US companies gradually withdrawing their support.

"We have two sides of this attack spectrum," the PandaLabs researcher said. "We have the Anonymous guys on one side fighting for freedom of information and freedom of press," Mr Correll said. "And we have other people who consider themselves patriots who are trying to defend the greater interests of the United States."

WikiLeaks itself has been under cyber attack since Assange began releasing the first US documents last week, forcing it to repeatedly change addresses and web hosts. Amazon dropped WikiLeaks from its servers last week and PayPal blocked financial transfers to the site while the Swiss Post Office bank closed accounts held by Assange, the Australian-born WikiLeaks founder.

PayPal's official blog, ThePayPalBlog.com, came under distributed denial of service, or DDoS, attack on Saturday and was down for at least eight hours, Mr Correll said. He said that as of 6:00pm (2300 GMT) on Tuesday, the Swiss Post Office bank site had been down for more than 20 hours.

Correll said the Swedish prosecutor's website was attacked by over 500 computers at the direction of Anonymous. "It literally went down the second they announced the target," he said.

 

[Cigar Guy]

WikiLeaks: The raucous underground lifestyle of young Saudi royals


WikiLeaks: The raucous underground lifestyle of young Saudi royals

Raucous underground parties with plentiful supplies of alcohol, drugs and prostitutes have become the norm for Saudi Arabia's privileged youth, according to a leaked cable from the US consulate in Jeddah.

The underground nightlife for Jeddah's elite youth is thriving and throbbingPhoto: ALAMY

By Alex Spillius in Washington 7:00AM GMT 08 Dec 2010

In what could prove one of the most provocative disclosures from the WikiLeaks trove of State Department documents, an account of a Halloween party last year provides a rare glimpse into the Islamic kingdom's secret social scene.

"Behind the facade of Wahhabi conservatism in the streets, the underground nightlife for Jeddah's elite youth is thriving and throbbing. The full range of worldly temptations and vices are available – alcohol, drugs, sex – but strictly behind closed doors," read the cable, which is dated November 18, 2009.

Consular officials attended the party in Jeddah at the mansion of a young prince, whose name was removed from the cable released by the website. Though not in line for the throne, the host was among thousands of princes who enjoy a state purse, round-the-clock security and sufficient clout to prevent the feared religious police from spoiling their fun.

There was no trace of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice as about 150 young men and women in their 20s and 30s attended the party, leaving their prohibitive local attire at the cloakroom to reveal their party clothes underneath.

"The scene resembled a nightclub anywhere outside the Kingdom: plentiful alcohol, young couples dancing, a DJ at the turntables, and everyone in costume," said the cable. Alcohol is strictly forbidden throughout Saudi Arabia, while typical convictions for drug possession include public flogging and long jail sentences.

A young Saudi male contact told an official: "The increased conservatism of our society over these past years has only moved social interaction to the inside of people's homes."

 

[Cigar Guy]

Gaddafi, the leader whose tantrums are global incidents

Colonel Muammar Gaddafi, Libya's leader, hates sleeping above the ground floor, can't travel without his favourite nurse and likes to wear tracksuits to meetings, according to confidential diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks.


WikiLeaks: Britain feared Colonel Gaddafi over Lockerbie bomber

Britain feared that Libyan leader could “cut us off at the knees, just like the Swiss”, unless the Lockerbie bomber was released, leaked cables show.


WikiLeaks: Desperate Housewives stifles Islamic extremism

Popular US television shows including Friends and Desperate Housewives have done more to stifle Islamic extremism in Saudi Arabia than hundreds of millions of dollars spent on propaganda, according to a leaked diplomatic cable.


Wikileaks: foreign powers reluctant to trust US with secrets

Foreign powers have become more reticent in their dealings with the US government since hundreds of classified diplomatic cables were made available on the Internet, according to US officials.

Julian Assange: Extradition case involving Wikileaks founder could last many months

Julian Assange will fight extradition to Sweden in a case that could be dragged out for months, costing the British taxpayer tens of thousands of pounds.

 

[Cigar Guy]

Duplicate post deleted.

 

[Windsor]

wiki leak is history.
made too many enemies.

The foundations of true democracy is being rock at the moment. Peoples from all over the world are talking and taking both sides of the divide. At this time if writing, there is much that is going on by activists siding with Assange. If fact, a Cyberwar is happening right now as we speak.

 

[Cigar Guy]

Special Report: STD fears sparked case against WikiLeaks boss

Swedish Director of Prosecution Marianne Ny answers questions during a news conference at the police headquarters in Gothenburg December 7, 2010. The sexual misconduct case against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is a personal matter and not connected with his work releasing secret U.S. diplomatic cables, Ny said on Tuesday. Credit: Reuters/Adam Ihse/Scanpix Sweden

By Mark Hosenball
WASHINGTON | Tue Dec 7, 2010 4:27pm EST

WASHINGTON (Reuters) The two Swedish women who accuse WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange of sexual misconduct were at first not seeking to bring charges against him. They just wanted to track him down and persuade him to be tested for sexually transmitted diseases, according to several people in contact with his entourage at the time.

The women went to the police together after they failed to persuade Assange to go to a doctor after separate sexual encounters with him in August, according to these people, who include former close associates of Assange who have since fallen out with him. The women had trouble finding Assange because he had turned off his cellphone out of concern his enemies might trace him, these sources said.

Assange, who was arrested and held in custody by a British court Tuesday, has both admirers and detractors. His WikiLeaks group publishes secret documents from governments and companies, most recently making public a vast trove of U.S. State Department cables between Washington and embassies abroad that have cast a revealing and sometimes embarrassing eye on the inner workings of U.S. diplomacy.

Assange's elusiveness may have worked against him in the Swedish investigation, which might well have gone nowhere had he taken the women's calls and not left Sweden when police started looking into the allegations.

The Swedish investigation has undergone head-spinning twists and turns. After initially issuing a warrant for Assange's arrest on rape and molestation charges in mid-August, a Swedish prosecutor dropped the rape charge the next day. After this U-turn, it appeared likely that the whole investigation of the 39-year-old Australian computer hacker would be abandoned.

Assange's accusers then hired a lawyer who declared he would press prosecutors not only to keep the investigation going but to reinstate rape charges. The case was soon transferred to one of Sweden's three Directors of Public Prosecutions, Marianne Ny, who indeed decided to reinstate the rape investigation and continue the molestation probe. She ordered that Assange should be subject to official interrogation about the allegations.

After Assange left the country, Swedish authorities issued a European arrest warrant under which Assange could be detained and returned to Sweden. A spokeswoman for Swedish prosecutors affirmed, however, that at the moment Assange is not formally charged in Sweden with any criminal offense, but is only wanted for questioning.

SWEDISH ENCOUNTERS

The most serious accusation Swedish prosecutors made against him in a statement on their website is that he committed "rape, less serious crime" -- the least serious of three levels of rape charges that are on the statute books in Sweden. Conviction carries a maximum four year jail sentence and a minimum of less than two years, depending upon the circumstances.

As described by several people who were in contact with Assange and his inner circle at the time the allegations against him surfaced, both of his accusers are young Swedish women who came into contact with him during a visit to Sweden on behalf of WikiLeaks.

One of the women, identified in the British court hearing on Sweden's extradition request as Miss A, was listed on publicity for Assange's Swedish visit as a spokesperson for a group hosting the WikiLeaks leader. People who were in contact with both Assange and other members of his entourage at the time say that the woman at some point invited him to stay at her residence.

Assange's financial resources are opaque, but by most accounts he maintains an austere lifestyle, supporting himself on the donations of wealthy and not-so-rich supporters and overnighting in a succession of friends' spare rooms.

According to the accounts of Assange's associates, his overnight stays at his erstwhile spokeswoman's residence soon evolved into a sexual relationship between the two. During one of their encounters, the woman later said, a condom Assange was wearing broke or split.

People who saw Assange and the woman in the days after this incident is said to have occurred said the two displayed little if any obvious sign of tension or hostility; to some who saw them at the time, it was not clear their relationship was anything other than amicable and chaste. A few days later, however, people who were in contact with Assange then told Reuters, a second, younger woman went to a seminar addressed by Assange.

FIFTEEN DOLLAR TRAIN TICKET

According to an account published by London's Daily Mail -- which said it had access to heavily redacted versions of the statements both women made to Swedish police -- the second woman had become obsessed by Assange after watching him on television. After hearing him speak at the seminar, the newspaper said, the woman, identified in court as Miss W, loitered outside the meeting hall, and eventually was invited to lunch with Assange and his entourage at a local bistro.

A day after their initial meeting -- which the Mail account said included a visit to a natural history museum -- Miss W agreed with Assange that he should spend the night at her apartment about 45 minutes outside Stockholm. The paper says she had to pay for his $15 train ticket because he had no cash and didn't want to use a credit card in case it would help authorities locate him.

That night, according to the accounts of both the newspaper and people who were in contact with Assange and his inner circle, he and Miss W had sex using a condom.

The next morning, however, under circumstances which remain deeply murky, the sources said, Assange allegedly had sex with the woman again, this time without a condom.

Then, after a meal during which the Mail says that the woman joked that she could be pregnant, they parted on friendly terms, with Miss W buying Assange his train ticket back to Stockholm.

Two people who were in contact with Assange's entourage before, during and after these events said that while some details are still unclear, it appears that after parting from Assange, Miss W became increasingly concerned that he might have given her a sexually-transmitted disease.

According to the sources, Miss W anxiously tried to phone Assange to plead with him to go to a doctor and be tested for sexually transmitted diseases. However, the sources said that Assange had turned his phone off, leaving Miss W no way to get in touch with him.

Becoming increasingly anxious about possible dire consequences of having had sex without a condom, Miss W then began trying to contact Assange through various people she believed were in touch with him. This eventually led her to Miss A -- who according to people who followed the case closely was not previously acquainted with Miss W.

LEGAL CLINIC

The two women proceeded to compare notes on their encounters with Assange and decided that they would insist that he should go to a hospital or doctor and submit to testing for sexually-transmitted diseases. Eventually they managed to get in touch with Assange, according to a person who closely followed the case at the time.

But by the time the women had wrung this concession from Assange, the source said, it was a Friday evening and hospitals and medical clinics were closed. At this point, Miss W, apparently exasperated at Assange's evasive behavior, decided to take her story to police, though initially she didn't want Assange to be prosecuted.

According to a version of the story published by London's Guardian newspaper, which has been in close and continuing contact with Assange for months, Miss A decided to go to the police with Miss W to offer moral support, but did not want charges brought against Assange either.

After taking statements from the women, according to both published accounts and to accounts confirmed by Swedish officials at the time, police officers passed the reports on to prosecutors. Based on the reports a prosecutor serving after-hours duty on a Friday night then decided to issue a warrant for Assange's arrest on suspicion of rape -- a charge which the Guardian said at the time was related to Assange's alleged encounter with Miss W.

The next morning, however, the file was sent for review to a more senior prosecutor, who concluded there was insufficient evidence to support the rape accusation and canceled the arrest warrant. But the second prosecutor decided that the investigation should continue as a lesser accusation of "molestation" against Assange, Swedish officials said at the time.

Over the following several days, prosecutors spoke about wanting to question Assange, though also dropped heavy hints that they wanted to wrap up their investigation rapidly -- with the most likely outcome being a closing of the file.

However, new life was injected into the investigation after Miss A and Miss W hired Claes Borgstrom, a prominent Swedish lawyer. Borgstrom confirmed to reporters at the time that his clients' allegations against Assange related to efforts he made to have sex with them without wearing condoms, and his subsequent reluctance to be tested for sexually transmitted diseases.

Borgstrom said at the time that he would appeal the authorities' initial decision to close the rape investigation to a higher authority. Subsequently, Marianne Ny, one of three senior Swedish prosecutors who hold the title of Director of Public Prosecutions, issued a statement about the case, which, in an official translation published on the English language page of the Swedish Prosecution Authority's website, declared that: "There is reason to believe that a crime has been committed. Considering information available at present, my judgment is that the classification of the crime is rape."

In their official statement, prosecutors added that the original "molestation" investigation of Assange -- which was never officially closed -- also would continue and "will be extended to include all allegations in the original police report... There is reason to believe that a crime has been committed. Based on the information available, the crimes in question come under the heading of sexual coercion and sexual molestation, respectively."

In a flurry of statements and Twitter messages after the case first erupted, Assange and WikiLeaks charged that the whole Swedish case was the product of some kind of "dirty tricks campaign" related to the group's work. In one Tweet, WikiLeaks said that "The charges are without basis and their issue at the moment is deeply disturbing." Another Tweet said: "We were warned to expect 'dirty tricks'. Now we have the first one."

Assange kept to this theme in subsequent statements to the media. "I know by experience that WikiLeaks' enemies will continue to bandy around things even after they have been renounced. I don't know who's behind this but we have been warned that, for example, the Pentagon plans to use dirty tricks to spoil things for us."

But Assange was also quoted saying that he had "never, whether in Sweden or in any other country, had sex with anyone in a way that is not founded on mutual consent."

The Swedish prosecutor, Ny, said Tuesday the case was a personal matter and not connected with his work releasing secret U.S. diplomatic cables. "I want to make it clear that I have not been put under any kind of pressure, political or otherwise," Ny said in a statement.

Tuesday, a lawyer representing the Swedish government laid out for a British judge four specific charges of sexual misconduct, three related to Miss A and one related to Miss W. The word "rape" was not part of the charges but "unlawful coercion" and Assange's alleged reluctance to use condoms was.

Assange understood in August that Swedish authorities were seeking to question him about sexual misconduct charges, but the WikiLeaks founder left the country anyway, fearing a "media circus," according to someone who spoke with him at the time.

By bolting Sweden without appearing for interrogation, however, Assange forced the Swedes and British to launch an international legal effort that has created precisely the kind of media extravaganza he hoped to avoid.

(Additional reporting by Peter Griffiths and Michael Holden in London; Editing by Jim Impoco and Claudia Parsons)

 

[Cigar Guy]

Australia blames U.S. for leaks, Assange in UK jail


Australia blames U.S. for leaks, Assange in UK jail

A screen shot of a web browser shows the WikiLeaks home page with a portrait of its founder Julian Assange in Lavigny, December 4, 2010. Credit: REUTERS/Valentin Flauraud

By Rob Taylor and Keith Weir
BRISBANE, Australia/LONDON | Wed Dec 8, 2010 8:19am EST

BRISBANE, Australia/LONDON (Reuters) - Australia blamed the United States on Wednesday for the release by WikiLeaks of U.S. diplomatic cables and said its Australian founder Julian Assange should not be held responsible.

Assange spent the night in a British jail after a judge in London on Tuesday refused to grant bail to the 39-year-old. Assange was detained after Sweden issued a European Arrest Warrant for him over alleged sexual offences.

He has spent time in Sweden and was accused this year of sexual misconduct by two female Swedish WikiLeaks volunteers. The pair's lawyer said their claims were not a politically motivated plot against Assange. "It has nothing to do with WikiLeaks or the CIA," lawyer Claes Borgstrom said.

Assange has angered U.S. authorities and triggered headlines worldwide by publishing the secret cables. Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd said the people who originally leaked the documents, not Assange, were legally liable and the leaks raised questions over the "adequacy" of U.S. security.

"Mr Assange is not himself responsible for the unauthorized release of 250,000 documents from the U.S. diplomatic communications network," Rudd told Reuters in an interview. "The Americans are responsible for that," said Rudd, who had been described in one leaked U.S. cable as a "control freak."

CARRY ON

WikiLeaks vowed it would continue making public details of the confidential U.S. cables. Only a fraction of them have been published so far. The latest cables, reported in Britain's Guardian newspaper, said Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi made threats to cut trade with Britain and warned of "enormous repercussions" if the Libyan convicted of the 1988 Lockerbie airline bombing died in a Scottish jail. He was freed in August 2009.

WikiLeaks also released cables on Wednesday that showed Saudi Arabia proposed an "Arab army" be deployed in Lebanon, with U.S. air and naval cover, to stop Shi'ite Hezbollah militia after it seized control of parts of Beirut in 2008. Like many of the cables, the disclosures give an insight into diplomacy which is normally screened from public view.

Assange has become the public face of WikiLeaks, hailed by supporters including campaigning Australian journalist John Pilger and British film maker Ken Loach as a defender of free speech, but he is now battling to clear his name.

Lawyer Borgstrom told a news conference the accounts provided by the two Swedish women were credible and that he saw a good chance that Sweden would eventually press charges.

"More than 50/50," he said, when asked what the likelihood was of such a development. The original source of the leaked cables is not known, though a U.S. army private, Bradley Manning, who worked as an intelligence analyst in Iraq, has been charged by military authorities with unauthorized downloading of more than 150,000 State Department cables.

U.S. officials have declined to say whether those cables are the same ones now being released by WikiLeaks. Assange defended his Internet publishing site in a newspaper commentary on Wednesday, saying it was crucial to spreading democracy and likening himself to global media baron Rupert Murdoch in the quest to publish the truth.

Suspected attacks by hackers sympathetic to Assange and against censorship brought down the websites of the prosecution Swedish authority and of Borgstrom's law office. The prosecution authority, whose www.aklgare.se website was down for most of Tuesday evening and some of Wednesday, said in a statement it had filed a complaint with the police after what it called an "overload attack."

(Additional reporting by Michel Rose in London and Patrick Lannin in Stockholm; editing by Andrew Marshall and Matthew Jones)

 

[Cigar Guy]

Saudis killed Yemeni civilians in border war - cable


Saudis killed Yemeni civilians in border war - cable

A screen shot of a web browser displaying the WikiLeaks website with a picture of its founder Julian Assange in Bern December 4, 2010.
Credit: Reuters/Pascal Lauener

RIYADH | Wed Dec 8, 2010 5:55pm IST

RIYADH (Reuters) - Saudi armed forces killed Yemeni civilians when fighting Shi'ite rebels in a brief border war despite assurances that only rebel targets were hit, leaked U.S. diplomatic cables quoted a Saudi official as saying.

Top oil exporter Saudi Arabia fought Yemeni rebels for several months in a border war that ended with a ceasefire in February. In public statements during the fighting, Saudi Arabia said that only rebel positions in the border area were attacked. But the leaked cables suggest civilians died.

"We tried very hard not to hit civilian targets," Prince Khaled bin Sultan, son of Crown Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz, told the U.S. ambassador in Riyadh, according to the cable from the Riyadh embassy in February.

"Obviously some civilians died, though we wish that this did not happen," the prince, who is also assistant defence minister, said in the meeting requested by the ambassador to relay U.S. concerns about civilian casualties in the conflict.

Prince Khaled confirmed that Saudi forces hit a building the United States believed to be a clinic but the Saudis thought it was being used as a base by rebels.

He also said the Yemeni military had helped recommend rebel targets, the cable said. Riyadh denied at the time that it was offering military aid and said it acted in self-defence after border positions had been attacked by the Shi'ite rebels.

But some Yemeni intelligence had been poor, with a Saudi fighter pilot aborting a sortie after sensing something was wrong, the cable reported. It said the target turned out to be the headquarters of a Yemeni military commander.

Saudi Arabia is Yemen's biggest donor and very worried al Qaeda will exploit instability in the poor southern neighbour.

(Reporting by Ulf Laessing; editing by Mark Heinrich)

 

[Cigar Guy]

WikiLeaks: hackers 'crash Mastercard site with cyber attack'


WikiLeaks: hackers 'crash Mastercard site with cyber attack'

Hackers today claimed to have crashed the MasterCard website in revenge for the firm suspending services to whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks.

Photo: ALAMY

12:58PM GMT 08 Dec 2010

Anonymous, understood to be a loose-knit group of internet activists, tweeted: "We are glad to tell you that mastercard.com is down and it's confirmed."

Another message read: "There are some things WikiLeaks can't do. For everything else, there's Operation Payback."

Mastercard was not immediately available to comment but repeated attempts to load the site met without success.

So-called distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks also appeared to have been launched against PayPal, PostFinance, and the Swedish prosecutors office.

"We can confirm that there was an attempted DDoS attack on paypal.com," a spokeswoman said. "The attack slowed some payments down for a short while but we remained fully operational throughout." DDoS attacks, which are illegal in the UK, involve overloading a website with requests so it stops working.

"While we don't have much of an affiliation with WikiLeaks, we fight for the same reasons," the Anonymous group said in a statement on its website. "We want transparency and we counter censorship... This is why we intend to utilise our resources to raise awareness, attack those against and support those who are helping lead our world to freedom and democracy."

The WikiLeaks website has itself been hampered by repeated denial of service attacks and the withdrawal of services from banks and websites.
WikiLeaks relies on online donations from a worldwide network of supporters to fund its work but Visa and MasterCard yesterday suspended all payments to the whistle-blowing site..

On Monday, the Swiss post office's bank, PostFinance, shut accounts opened by WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange containing a defence fund and personal cash of 31,000 euro (£26,000). Spokesman Alex Josty said the bank's website buckled under a barrage of traffic yesterday but the onslaught seemed to have eased off.

"Yesterday it was very, very difficult, then things improved overnight. But it's still not entirely back to normal," he said. The website for Swedish lawyer Claes Borgstrom, who represents the two women at the centre of Assange's sex crimes case, was also unreachable today.

On Saturday it emerged online payments processor PayPal had cut access for donations to WikiLeaks, with the company saying its payment service cannot be used for activities "that encourage, promote, facilitate or instruct others to engage in illegal activity". The company providing WikiLeaks with its domain name, EveryDNS.net, also cut off service because the domain wikileaks.org was repeatedly attacked.

WikiLeaks staff complained of a series of denial of service attacks, in which thousands of computers request information at the same time. Online store Amazon stopped hosting the site last week saying WikiLeaks did not own or control the rights to the classified content it was publishing.

WikiLeaks has said it has lost assets worth 100,000 euro (£84,000) in a week as a result of the moves to end agreements with PayPal and other companies. Founder Julian Assange was refused bail yesterday by a London court pending an extradition case over alleged sexual assaults in Sweden.

 

[Cigar Guy]

Women boasted 'conquest' of WikiLeaks founder

Women boasted 'conquest' of WikiLeaks founder

Published Dec 9 2010

The two Swedish women who have brought sex charges against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange boasted about their relationship with him days before going to the police.

Anna Ardin​

Based on information available on various websites quoting police and court files, and reports in the Swedish media, here's an account of what happened.

The story goes back to August this year, when Assange was in Stockholm to speak at the invitation of Sweden's Social Democratic Party. The event organiser was 31-year-old Anna Ardin, press secretary of the Brotherhood Movement, which is an adjunct of the Social Democratic Party.

Ardin, who has been described as a feminist, leftist and animal rights activist, previously worked at the Uppsala University, handling equality issues for the students' union.

After pressing charges against Assange, she has been called a "CIA agent" on various blogs and Twitter. The internet is abuzz with conspiracy theories on how Assange was framed.

Speculation about her ties to CIA is being fuelled by her alleged association with anti-Castro groups funded by the US. When Assange arrived in Stockholm on August 11, Ardin invited him to stay at her flat while she visited her family for a few days out in the country.

Sofia Wilen​

Ardin returned home on August 13 and she and Assange had sex that night.
Both have admitted a condom was used and that it broke.

On August 20, Ardin went to the police alleging that Assange deliberately broke the condom during sex.

The second accuser, Sofia Wilen, 26, is Ardin's friend.

Sofia reportedly worked hard to bed Assange, according to her own confession and she was also the first to complain to police.

 

[Cigar Guy]

WikiLeaks: US 'surprised' by Gordon Brown's Trident suggestion

Gordon Brown’s suggestion of slimming down Britain’s Trident nuclear deterrent caused surprise and concern among Whitehall officials, leaked US diplomatic cables have revealed.


WikiLeaks: Robert Mugabe is a 'crazy old man'

Robert Mugabe is a "crazy old man" who cannot be dealt with through "quiet diplomacy" forever, South Africa told the United States, according to a diplomatic cable released by WikiLeaks.


Wikileaks: corruption could push Kenya into violence

Kenya could descend back into violence worse than during the crisis that followed the 2007 election unless reform is speeded up and corruption tackled, a US cable released by WikiLeaks has claimed.


WikiLeaks: US 'lobbied Russia on behalf of two credit card companies'

The United States lobbied Russia on behalf of two of the world’s biggest credit card companies to ensure that they did not lose out on a lucrative new payments system.


WikiLeaks: 'Operation Payback' targets credit card companies

Army of hackers hits Mastercard and Visa in "Operation Payback", forcing websites to grind to a halt.

 

[Cigar Guy]

The 'Anonymous' hackers behind WikiLeaks defence

The "Anonymous" internet hacking group, who have launched a series of cyber attacks on websites perceived to be enemies of WikiLeaks, are closely linked to the notorious mischief-making website 4chan.org.


WikiLeaks cyberwar disrupts Christmas shopping

Anonymous hackers launched what is thought to be an unprecedented revenge attack on the websites of companies which are accused of bowing to US pressure to hinder the release of diplomatic cables on the WikiLeaks website.


WikiLeaks: Shell 'knows everything' about Nigerian government

The top Shell executive in Nigeria told US diplomats that the company "knows everything" about decisions made in all the main ministries of the Nigerian government, according to WikiLeaks documents.

 

[chinchai]

Good thread. Very informational posts. Up your points for the good work.

 

[Cigar Guy]

WikiLeaks supporters vow to step up cyber attacks

LONDON (Reuters) - More cyber attacks in retaliation for attempts to block the WikiLeaks website are likely in a "data war" to protect Internet freedom, a representative of one of the groups involved said on Thursday.


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Small Swedish firm keeps channeling funds to WikiLeaks

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - While major payment providers MasterCard, Visa and PayPal have stopped transfers to WikiLeaks, a small company with a base in south Sweden said on Thursday it would carry on as a lone channel for donations.

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Facebook deletes pro-WikiLeaks hackers' account

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(Reuters) - Facebook and Twitter deleted the accounts of cyber activists who targeted Visa and other Internet payment sites that sought to block the WikiLeaks website after its release of U.S. diplomatic cables.

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Guantanamo files may star in next WikiLeaks release

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - WikiLeaks' next assault on Washington may highlight U.S. government reports on suspected militants held at Guantanamo Bay, which some U.S. officials worry could show certain detainees were freed despite intelligence assessments they were still dangerous.

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[Cigar Guy]

Small Swedish firm keeps channeling funds to WikiLeaks


Small Swedish firm keeps channeling funds to WikiLeaks

By Niklas Pollard STOCKHOLM | Thu Dec 9, 2010 11:38am EST

STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - While major payment providers MasterCard, Visa and PayPal have stopped transfers to WikiLeaks, a small company with a base in south Sweden said on Thursday it would carry on as a lone channel for donations.

The three big companies stopped servicing WikiLeaks after the website's release of U.S. diplomatic cables that have angered and embarrassed Washington.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has also been remanded in custody in Britain on accusations of sexual crimes in Sweden.

Flattr, a British-Swedish firm operating a web-based donation system, is one of few avenues left open to people who want to donate money to finance WikiLeaks' operations.

"We will never stop this as long as WikiLeaks' operations are legal," Leif Hogberg, a system developer and co-owner of the small firm, said in a telephone interview.

"Since we are a British company with a Swedish subsidiary it is British and Swedish law that apply in our case, and WikiLeaks is not illegal in Britain or Sweden at present."

Hogberg said the company had not been put under any "direct pressure" to cancel transfers to WikiLeaks.

"However, we have noticed that some payment providers don't really want to co-operate with us right now," he said, declining to disclose the identities of the payment providers.

Hogberg declined to say how much money had been transferred to the organization in the months it had been registered as a recipient of donations through Flattr, which has about 50,000 doners around the world.

Flattr was co-founded by Peter Sunde, one of the men behind file sharing website The Pirate Bay.

The Flattr payment system, which collates the clicks a donor makes to an individual cause and then divies out the sum contributed by the donor on a monthly basis, also made it difficult to estimate the exact amount donated, Hogberg added.