Julian Assange's mother arrives in Ecuador to plead son's asylum case

 

Julian Assange has been living in the Ecuadorian Embassy 

in London since applying for political asylum on June 19.

The mother of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will meet with Ecuadorian authorities Monday to urge them to grant her son asylum.

Christine Assange, who arrived in the capital city Quito on Saturday, told reporters she will appeal to Ecuador's stance on human rights during her meeting.

"Surely, the president and his staff will make the best decision," Christine Assange said, according to a report in the state-run El Ciudadano website.

Her son has been holed up inside the Ecuadorian Embassy in London since applying for political asylum on June 19.

He is seeking to avoid being sent to Sweden over claims of rape and sexual molestation and said he fears if he is extradited there, Swedish authorities could hand him over to the United States.

If her son is sent to the United States, he "could expect a sentence of death or many years in prison with torture as they are doing now with Bradley Manning," Christine Assange said, according to the El Ciudadano report.

"If they did that to a U.S. citizen, they would have fewer qualms about doing it to a foreigner."

Manning is a U.S. Army intelligence analyst suspected of leaking hundreds of thousands of classified military and State Department documents while serving in Iraq. Many of those documents ended up on the WikiLeaks website.

He is being held on charges of aiding the enemy, wrongfully causing intelligence to be published on the Internet, transmitting national defense information and theft of public property or records, among others. He could go to prison for life if convicted.

Ecuador has said it is weighing Julian Assange's asylum request and will make the decision on its own, in its own time.

"Ecuador will make its own, independent decision," President Rafael Correa said in an interview to a local television station earlier this month. "The case is under review."

Correa noted that capital punishment exists in the United States for a "political crime," and that fact could be sufficient grounds to grant Julian Assange asylum.

Correa also stressed he is not afraid of international repercussions that might stem from whatever decision Ecuador makes.

"We have to see whether everything that's being done in the case of Julian Assange is compatible with ... the constitution and our view of human rights, political rights and due process," the president said.

Julian Assange was arrested in Britain in 2010 because Swedish authorities wanted to question him about the sexual molestation and rape allegations, which he denies. His bail conditions included staying every night at the home of a supporter outside London.

UK police say he violated his bail by staying at the embassy. After he entered it, they served him with notice to turn himself in -- an order he ignored, marking a further violation.

Diplomatic protocol prevents police from entering the embassy to arrest him.

Christine Assange said Saturday her son was being treated well at the embassy.

"I am grateful for the facilities Ecuador offered to my son in London," she said.

Two women have accused Julian Assange of sexually assaulting them in August 2010, when he was visiting Sweden in connection with a WikiLeaks release of internal U.S. military documents. He was arrested in Britain that December and has been fighting extradition since, saying the allegations are retribution for his organization's disclosure of American secrets.

Susan Benn of the Julian Assange defense fund has said the United States had empaneled a grand jury in its goal to press charges against the WikiLeaks founder. Turning himself in to British authorities would start a process that would end with Julian Assange being extradited to the United States, Benn said.

WikiLeaks, which facilitates the anonymous leaking of secret information, has published about 250,000 confidential U.S. diplomatic cables, causing embarrassment to the government and others. It also has published hundreds of thousands of classified U.S. documents relating to the conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Julian Assange sought refuge at the embassy five days after the Supreme Court of the United Kingdom dismissed a bid to reopen his appeal of the decision to send him to Sweden, his last option in British courts.

British officials have met with Ecuadorian authorities, but no information has been released about those meetings.

 

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Assange to UK cops: 

No, I will not come out of my Ecuadorean embassy

 

Julian Assange will stay in Ecuador's embassy in London, having decided not to comply with a British police order to turn himself in for extradition to Sweden, a spokeswoman for the WikiLeaks founder said Friday.

"Julian will remain in the embassy under the protection of the Ecuadorian government," spokeswoman Susan Benn told reporters outside the embassy.

Scotland Yard on Thursday served a "surrender notice" on the 40-year-old Australian requiring him to attend a police station at a date and time of their choosing.

British media reports indicated he had been ordered to present himself at a central London police station at 11:30am on Friday.

A Scotland Yard spokesman confirmed that Assange had not yet gone to a police station, but refused to confirm the date or time he had been told to present himself.

Asked if he would leave the Ecuadoran embassy, Assange told BBC television in a telephone interview late Thursday: "Our advice is that asylum law both internationally and domestically takes precedence over extradition law so almost certainly not."

The embassy confirmed to AFP on Friday that Assange remained inside the property -- a flat in a mansion block in the plush Knightsbridge district of central London, across the street from the famous Harrods emporium.

In a statement Thursday on the embassy's website, the diplomatic mission also confirmed that Scotland Yard officers had delivered a letter to Assange through them.

Separately, the South America department of the Foreign and Commonwealth
Office has written to the Ecuadoran embassy reaffirming its commitment to "promoting excellent bilateral relations between the Republic of Ecuador and the United Kingdom government," the statement added.

"The government of Ecuador will continue to foster good relations with the UK government whilst assessing Mr Assange's application for asylum."

He faces allegations in Sweden of sexual assault and rape against two former female volunteers at his WikiLeaks website and was arrested on an extradition warrant in December 2010.

He was bailed and embarked on a marathon round of court battles, but finally exhausted all his options under British law earlier this month when the Supreme Court overturned his appeal against extradition.

Assange says he fears that from Sweden he will be extradited to the United States to face possible espionage charges, after releasing more than 250,000 US diplomatic cables on the WikiLeaks anti-secrecy website.

He sought refuge at Ecuador's embassy in London on June 19, asking the South American country for political asylum.

He has therefore breached his bail conditions -- which state he must be at a given address between 10:00 pm and 8:00 am -- and is liable for arrest.

A Scotland Yard spokesman said officers on Thursday "served a surrender notice upon a 40-year-old man that requires him to attend a police station at date and time of our choosing.

"This is standard practice in extradition cases and is the first step in the removal process.

"He remains in breach of his bail conditions. Failing to surrender would be a further breach of conditions and he is liable to arrest."

But while he remains in the embassy, he is beyond the reach of British authorities.

Following the end of his legal challenges, he was given until June 28 to make a final appeal to the European Court of Human Rights, at which point extradition procedures in Britain could commence.

 

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Flood of email support for Assange asylum bid

 

The Ecuadorian embassies in the United States and Britain have received over 10,000 messages in support of political asylum for Wikileaks founder Julian Assange, Ecuadorian authorities announced Tuesday.

"More than 10,000 emails have been received at the moment," Ecuador's Minister of Foreign Affairs said in a public statement from Quito.

"Thousands of people asking the Ecuadorian government to accord asylum to Julian Assange, founder of Wikileaks, sent a steady stream of messages saying why they support him," the statement added.

Quito received a demand for asylum from the Australian national, who took refuge in London's Ecuadorian embassy on June 19, escaping extradition to Sweden, where he has been charged with two cases of sexual assault.

Assange worries that from Sweden, he will be extradited to the United States to face possible espionage charges, after releasing more than 250,000 American diplomatic cables on the Wikileaks whistleblowing site.

A letter in favour of the request for asylum was also addressed to Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa by the organization Just Foreign Policy, a US group advocating for civil liberties.

Among the signatures on the petition were those of film directors Michael Moore and Oliver Stone, actor Danny Glover and philosopher Noam Chomsky.

Maintaining that Assange's only crime was journalism, the authors of the letter denounced what they believe to be an attack on freedom of the press and the public's right to know the truth about American foreign policy.

Correa responded to the call for asylum Tuesday, saying that Quito must first "analyze the judicial process in Sweden" and that "these things take time. It's not that simple."

That same day, Correa met with his ambassador to Britain, Anna Alban, and Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino to discuss Assange's request.

Correa, a leftist leader critical of Washington, has already expressed sympathy for the Wikileaks founder and said that his country will not accept instances of "political persecution."

 

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Verdict in Julian Assange's extradition appeal expected soon

 

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has surely used up nine lives already. Today the Supreme Court of the U.K. is to decide whether they will reconsider its verdict to extradite him to Sweden to be questioned about allegations of sexual misconduct.

The decision was expected on May 30, but Assange’s lawyer Dinah Rose, who had less than an hour to study the ruling, threw it back to the court once again. The court had made its ruling based on factors that had not been discussed at the hearing, which meant the defendant did not have the opportunity to refute them in court.

Rose and her team were given 14 days to file for a new appeal, and on Tuesday they so filed. If the new appeal is granted, the court will take its time receiving new documents and statements relating to the contentious issue, and it’s anyone’s bet how long the proceedings will last. If it isn’t granted, Assange will be extradited to Sweden within 10 days, where he will be held in isolation, able to communicate only through his lawyer, until such time as he is charged and tried.

To date, no charges of any nature have been filed against Assange, and the Swedish government has declined to question him on foreign soil.

In the meantime, Assange has remained at his borrowed country cottage, appearing in public only as a masked, mysterious figure Clark Stoekley. wearing a black Kevlar Anonymous mask by WikiLeaks Truck artist

His future is, at this point, just as dark and mysterious, but significantly less bulletproof.

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WikiLeaks launches encrypted social network

 

Backers of the whistle-blowing organization WikiLeaks recently launched Friends of WikiLeaks (FoWL), an encrypted social network for like-minded individuals. “Friends of WikiLeaks is a network of people from across the globe who defend WikiLeaks, its people, its alleged sources and its mission,” the website’s homepage says. “We publicly and privately promote WikiLeaks and individuals and organizations aligned with the mission of WikiLeaks. This site will help you to join with people like you in your area and across the world. You will make new friends and new allies, care for treasured values and fight in common cause.” Instead of having users find people to friend, as is the case with Facebook and Google+, Friends of WikiLeaks will assign users 12 friends each, six of which will be from a similar geographic location, and six others from other parts of the world who speak the same language. If a group is assigned an inactive user, the group can boot the user and the service will automatically assign a new “friend” to the group.

Link to site

Read

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"If law fails, CIA will assassinate Assange"

 

Judge Howard Riddle, the bane of Julian Assange's existence for the past three months, has granted Sweden's extradition request. The WikiLeaks founder has already repealed the ruling, but his worst fears have been cemented: the rape charges are going to follow him for the rest of his life, perhaps even after years of repeals. Former Reagan Administration Paul Craig Roberts says there is a concerted effort to shut Assange up. If the legal attempt fails, he'll be assassinated by a CIA assassination team.

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Bradley Manning Wikileaks Case:

 Military Judge Refuses To Dismiss Charges 

 

FORT MEADE, Md. — A military judge refused on Wednesday to throw out the case against an Army private accused of providing reams of sensitive documents to Wikileaks in the biggest leak of government secrets in U.S. history.

Army Col. Denise Lind denied the defense motion to dismiss all 22 charges during a pretrial hearing in the court-martial of Pfc. Bradley Manning. The hearing continued after the ruling and is scheduled to run through Thursday.

The defense has filed several motions seeking dismissal of individual charges, including the most serious, aiding the enemy. That offense carries a maximum penalty of life imprisonment.

Lind scheduled Manning's trial for Sept. 21 through Oct. 12. She also scheduled four more hearings in June, July, August and September.

Manning hasn't entered a plea to the charges. He also hasn't yet decided whether he will be tried by a judge or a jury.

He is accused of sending hundreds of thousands of sensitive documents to Wikileaks, the anti-secrecy website run by Julian Assange, in late 2009 and early 2010. The government says the publication of that material online aided al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula.

Lind also ruled Wednesday that Army prosecutors don't have to provide the defense with transcripts of federal grand jury testimony about the WikiLeaks disclosures. Manning's lawyers were seeking transcripts from a federal investigation into whether Assange can be prosecuted for the disclosure of information that authorities say was provided by Manning.

Lind said that while the FBI and the Army have jointly pursued a WikiLeaks investigation, military prosecutors have no authority to release FBI documents.

The 24-year-old Oklahoma native was ordered court-martialed after he was accused of downloading the documents and diplomatic cables, then sending them to WikiLeaks. He was working as an intelligence analyst in Baghdad when authorities say he copied classified material from government computers in late 2009 and early 2010.

The material WikiLeaks published included cockpit video of a 2007 U.S. Apache helicopter attack that killed a number of civilians, including a Reuters news photographer and his driver. The U.S. government says the civilian deaths were accidental.

Manning has been in pretrial confinement since he was charged in May 2010. His treatment at a Marine Corps base caused support for him to swell. The Quantico, Va., brig commander kept Manning confined 23 hours a day in a single-bed cell, citing safety and security concerns. For several days in March 2011, he was forced to sleep naked, purportedly for injury prevention, before he was issued a suicide-prevention smock.

Manning's supporters have raised funds to place posters in the Washington Metro subway system this week portraying him as a whistleblower, patriot and hero.

Tuesday’s Assange episode 

 http://rt.com/news/a...k-horowitz-796/

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WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange gets biopic treatment with "Underworld"

 

Julian Assange, WikiLeaks founder and television host, is no stranger to drama. With 23 credits on IMDB and an Oscar nomination for the short documentary Collateral Murder, he outranks many a would-be star.

Including the one playing him.

Newcomer Alex Williams has zero IMDB credits, but now he has the attention of the world. He’ll be playing a young Julian Assange in the made-for-TV movie Underground, which focuses on Assange’s early years of recreational hacking in the late ‘80s as a founding member of the International Subversives group.

The government took a dim view of Assange’s exploits and had him arrested. The case took years to investigate and bring to trial, during which the teenage Assange married, fathered a son, and then engaged in a lengthy custody battle when his wife left with the boy. When the hacking case finally did go to trial, he pled guilty to 25 charges of hacking, was fined $2000 with no prison time, and released. He went on to an itinerant existence as a roving computer security specialist.

In other words, it’s rich fodder for dramatists.

The 21-year-old Williams has been upstaged in the press by his more established costars Anthony LaPaglia, who will be playing a cop who pursues the youthful hacker, and Rachel Griffiths, who plays Christine Assange, Julian’s mother. On Twitter, Christine indicated she had no input into the casting, and WikiLeaks had no comment.

“Underground is the incredible, true story of a group of schoolboys in Melbourne who were hacking into the some of the biggest corporate and military organizations in the world, at the dawn of the internet age," producer Helen Bowden said in a statement. "It is a fascinating tale and we are very excited to be bringing it to the screen.”

Filming began on Tuesday in Melbourne and the movie will be released on the Australian network Ten sometime this fall. It’s anticipated that it will air on NBC sometime after that, as NBC has a financial stake in the production company.

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WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange's TV Talk Show to Launch Next Week

 

He has completed 12 episodes of "The World Tomorrow," which will be aired on Russia's RT network and also be available online, with other networks expected to follow.

 

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has finished shooting 12 episodes of The World Tomorrow, his TV talk show that is set to debut next week on Russia's RT news network, formerly known as Russia Today, and online, the organization said Friday.

"The first episode will be aired on RT and released online on Tuesday, with other networks to follow," it said in a statement posted online. Earlier this year, WikiLeaks had spoken of plans for 10 episodes and had mentioned it had secured licensing commitments covering "over 600 million viewers." Back then, it said the show would launch in March.

"Julian Assange, founder and editor-in-chief of WikiLeaks, has been under house arrest, without charge, for almost 500 days," RT said. "Over the past two months, his temporary home in the English countryside has played host to a series of extraordinary conversations with some of the most interesting and controversial people alive."

The group described the show's guests as people who are "stamping their mark on the future: politicians, revolutionaries, intellectuals, artists and visionaries." It didn't mention specific names.

The show's goal is “to capture and present some of this revolutionary spirit to a global audience," Assange. "My own work with WikiLeaks hasn't exactly made my life easier, but it has given us a platform to broadcast world-shifting ideas.”

WikiLeaks promised a “frank and irreverent tone.” Said Assange: "My conviction is that power can only be transformed if it is taken seriously -- but ordinary people must resist the temptation to defer to the powerful."

The music for the show was composed by British-Sri Lankan artist M.I.A., it said.

In a promotional video for the Assange show, Assange mentions his detainment before saying, "But that hasn't stopped us."

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Source of missing WikiLeaks email is found

Yesterday an unusual law came to the fore at the Bradley Manning Trial. The Law of Conservation of Catastrophe is not a legal statute but rather the sociological principle, which states that any attempt to control or prevent chaos results in the same amount of chaos, expressed in different, unanticipated, form. In the 21st Century, it just comes with the territory.

The US government is serious about not allowing its military personnel to work with, or even talk about, WikiLeaks, the international nonprofit organization whose whole purpose is to publicize documents from whistleblowers. Private Bradley Manning has been in custody without trail for 662 days, facing charges that he leaked a huge cache of classified and restricted material to Wikileaks.

Thursday at his trial, the already paranoid and strange world of international spies and military prisons got a little stranger when it was discovered that the email filters the military uses were sending all emails containing the term “WikiLeaks” to spam.

The missing emails had puzzled both sides of the case for the past month, and slowed the proceedings considerably, but Captain Ashden Fein, chief prosecutor, announced that the cause had been discovered: not hacktivists, as feared, but Big Brother, in the form of an extra-aggressive spam filter. Defense attorney David Coombs dryly informed the press that “WikiLeaks” was the specific trigger word. Fein could not be reached for comment today.

Rather than clear “WikiLeaks” from its spam blacklist, the government instead has instructed both sides to root daily through the digital equivalent of trash bins, hunting through their spam filters for caught emails prior to court proceedings.

The irony was not lost on WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s Australian lawyer, Jen Robinson, who tweeted, “Oh the irony: Blocking #WikiLeaks emails trips up Bradley #Manning prosecution by @joshgerstein http://t.co/j1P8wLML “

 

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Bin Laden emails claim his corpse was flown to US before dumped 

at sea

 

FBI (more) on Body
Email-ID 1666377
Date 2011-05-02 15:11:03
From  burton@stratfor.com
To  secure@stratfor.com
Down & dirty done, He already sleeps with the fish....

** Fred's Note: Although I don't really give a rats ass, it seems to me  that by dropping the corpse in the ocean, the body will come back to haunt us....gotta be violating some sort of obscure heathen religious rule that will inflame islam? I was sleeping thru that class at Langley.

The US Govt needs to make body pics available like the MX's do, with OBL's
pants pulled down, to shout down the lunatics like Alex Jones and Glenn Beck.

----------------------------------------------------------------------


Re: OBL's corpse
Email-ID 1097638
Date 2011-05-02 13:36:41
From  burton@stratfor.com
To  analysts@stratfor.com, friedman@att.blackberry.net
List-Name  analysts@stratfor.com

Body is Dover bound, should be here by now.

On 5/2/2011 6:35 AM, George Friedman wrote:

Eichmann was seen alive for many months on trial before being sentenced  to death and executed. No one wanted a monument to him so they cremated him. But i dont know anyone who claimed he wasnt eicjhman. No comparison with suddenly burying him at sea without any chance to view him which i doubt happened.

Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T

----------------------------------------------------------------------

From: Fred Burton
Sender: analysts-bounces@stratfor.com
Date: Mon, 2 May 2011 06:26:07 -0500 (CDT)
To:
ReplyTo: Analyst List
Subject: OBL's corpse
If body dumped at sea, which I doubt, the touch is very Adolph Eichman like. The Tribe did the same thing with the Nazi's ashes.

We would want to photograph, DNA, fingerprint, etc.

His body is a crime scene and I don't see the FBI nor DOJ letting that happen.

All E-Mails Here

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WikiLeaks publishes leaked Stratfor emails, casting light on workings of private US intel firm

 

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange speaks at a news conference in London, Feb. 27, 2012. The anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks began publishing on Monday more than five million emails from a U.S.-based global

LONDON — WikiLeaks said Monday it was publishing a massive trove of leaked emails from the geopolitical analysis firm Stratfor, shedding light on the inner workings of the Texas-based think tank that bills itself as a leading provider of global intelligence to a range of clients.

The online anti-secrecy group said it had more than 5 million Stratfor emails and it was putting them out in collaboration with two dozen international media organizations.

The small selection so-far published to WikiLeaks’ website gave a rare look at the daily routine at a private intel firm: One described a $6,000-a-month payment made to a Middle Eastern source, another carried bits of gossip dropped by a retired spook, and many were filled with off-color office banter.

An initial examination of the emails carried out by The Associated Press turned up a mix of the innocuous and embarrassing, but WikiLeaks chief Julian Assange promised more explosive material in the coming weeks.

“What we have discovered is a company that is a private intelligence Enron,” Assange told London’s Frontline Club, referring to the Texas energy giant whose spectacular bankruptcy turned it into a byword for corporate malfeasance.

Assange accused Stratfor of funneling money to informants through offshore tax havens, monitoring activist groups on behalf of major multinationals, and making investments based on its secret intelligence.

“Stratfor is simply out of control,” he said.

Stratfor pushed back against the suggestion that there was anything improper in the way it dealt with its contacts.

“Stratfor has worked to build good sources in many countries around the world, as any publisher of global geopolitical analysis would do,” the company said in a statement. “We have done so in a straightforward manner and we are committed to meeting the highest standards of professional conduct.”

The Stratfor statement suggested the company wouldn’t be commenting in any further detail on Assange’s allegations.

“Having had our property stolen, we will not be victimized twice by submitting to questioning about them,” the statement said.

How WikiLeaks got the company’s emails remains unclear — Assange refused to answer questions about the matter Monday — but Stratfor said the messages appeared to be the same ones stolen by hackers over the Christmas holidays. The breach, claimed by the Internet activist group Anonymous, ravaged the company’s servers and led to the disclosure of thousands of credit card numbers, among other information.

Several media groups, including Rolling Stone magazine and Germany’s NDR broadcaster, say they have been offered advance access to the emails and that they will publish stories based on the documents if appropriate.

One journalist involved in the deal said that the documents were made available by WikiLeaks within the past month.

“They haven’t told us anything about how they obtained them,” the journalist said, speaking anonymously to discuss sourcing issues.

Austin, Texas-based Stratfor is a subscription-based publisher providing political, economic and military analysis to help customers reduce risk. It charges subscribers for its reports and analysis, delivered through the web, emails and videos.

The emails thus far posted to the Web are generally mundane — dealing with training, staffing, budgets and administration. Others carry boasts about the company’s reach. In one, Stratfor Vice President of Intelligence Fred Burton brags about his “trusted former CIA cronies.” In another, he promises to “see what I can uncover” about a classified FBI investigation.

Messages left for Burton weren’t immediately returned. Stratfor has speculated that some of the leaked emails may have been altered or forged, although the firm did not provide any evidence of tampering.

The hackers involved took to Twitter to reject the suggestion as “pathetic.”

One Stratfor email warned about letting people know too much about how the company operated.

“I think showing too much of our inner workings devalues our Mystique,” the email said. “People don’t know how we collect our intelligence and that’s one of the cool, mysterious things about STRATFOR.”

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Wikileaks Soldier Bradley Manning Nominated for Nobel Peace Prize

 

The secretive committee doesn't reveal who has been nominated, but those with nomination rights sometimes announce their picks. They include Bradley Manning, the U.S. Army private charged with the biggest leak of classified information in U.S. history, Russian human rights activist Svetlana Gannushkina and former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko.

Norwegian Nobel Committee secretary Geir Lundestad told the AP on Monday that "The list of nominees is a mixture of repeated nominations and some new names."

Other names known to be on the list: Tunisian President Moncef Marzouk, Bill Clinton, and Helmut Kohl.

Last week, Manning deferred his plea at an arraignment.

It took roughly an hour for Private First Class Bradley Manning's arraignment in a military court on Thursday. The Wikileaks case is considered to be the largest case for unveiling secret information about the US military. Many US officials, including President Obama, have condemned Manning's actions and accuse him of breaking the law and some are even calling for his execution. So can Manning receive a fair trial in the US? Zack Pesavento, press liaison for the Bradley Manning Support Networks, tells us what went on in the courtroom.

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Bildt 'worried' over WikiLeaks smear plans

 

Swedish foreign minister Carl Bildt said on Thursday he is taking very seriously WikiLeaks' plans to launch a smear campaign against Sweden to stop the potential extradition of founder Julian Assange to the United States.

”I have noted what (daily) Expressen has written about Wikileaks preparing a smear campaign. You can imagine my thoughts on that,” Bildt told the paper from a press conference in London.

According to an internal WikiLeaks memo reviewed by the paper, WikiLeaks is planning to release more classified documents, organize blockades of Swedish embassies and consulates as well as boycotts of Swedish companies.

”It worries me that there are those who pursue smear campaigns and if WikiLeaks does, that says more about WikiLeaks than anything else,” said Bildt to Expressen.

However, Bildt also said that he was not worried about a document WikiLeaks claims to have in its possession which shows he acted as an informant for the US since the 1970s.

”I haven't got a clue what it could be about. But let's see if they have something to publish,” said Bildt to the paper.

”If they do publish these documents we'll probably see a quick end to this story.”

Assange is currently in Britain fighting extradition to Sweden where he is wanted for questioning on rape and sexual assault allegations, and WikiLeaks has long expressed concern that if he is sent to Sweden, Stockholm would quickly send him on to the United States.

Washington is eager to lay hands on the WikiLeaks founder after the organization's publication of hundreds of thousands of classified US diplomatic files, and according to Expressen the group's "smear campaign" against Sweden would be aimed at blocking Assange's further extradition.

"Julian Assange will most probably be freed from the sex crime suspicions, because that is just a trap," the unnamed person with insight into WikiLeaks told Expressen on Wednesday.

Speaking on Thursday, Bildt also completely repudiated WikiLeaks' claims that US political consultant Karl Rove, a former adviser to President George W. Bush and someone who Bildt previously has referred to as “an old friend”, had recruited him as an informant.

”No, of course he didn't. I know very many people around the globe. It is part of the duties of a foreign minister to brief other countries about sensitive topics,” Bildt told Expressen.

] 

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WikiLeaks smear effort to reveal Bildt as US 'spy'

 

WikiLeaks is planning a smear campaign against Sweden to halt the extradition of founder Julian Assange to the United States, including releasing documents allegedly showing that Swedish foreign minister Carl Bildt has acted as an informant for the United States since the 1970s.

According to an internal WikiLeaks memo reviewed by Swedish tabloid Expressen, WikiLeaks plans to release more classified documents, organize blockades of Swedish embassies and consulates as well as boycotts of Swedish companies.

“This is going to hurt Sweden more than the debate about the Mohammad cartoons,” a source with knowledge of the matter told Expressen.

As Assange enters the final stages of his legal battle to avoid extradition to Sweden, his colleagues at WikiLeaks have begun preparing for how to prevent the Swedish government from extraditing the founder of the whistle-blower website to the United States.

“That the Swedish government doesn't take this seriously but rather makes it easier for the American government means Sweden finds itself among the countries that don't support transparency, the rights of the individual, and human rights,” the internal WikiLeaks memo reads.

“That puts Sweden and the country's reputation in great danger and the Swedish government is going to be forced to answer to global public opinion which will hold them responsible for not letting people around the world access information to which they have a right.”

WikiLeaks officials are convinced that Sweden has already made a deal with the United States that would see Assange extradited there to testify against Bradley Manning, the US soldier suspected of leaking thousands of classified US diplomatic cables to WikiLeaks.

There are also fears that Assange could be arrested and put on trial for espionage against the United States, WikiLeaks sources tell Expressen.

“If he's extradited, we fear for his life and that's something Sweden will pay a high price for,” a source said.

Among the documents WikiLeaks plans to make public is a US diplomatic report showing that Carl Bildt has served as an informant for the United States since the 1970s.

“There are secret documents that reveal that Bildt cooperated with the American administration in a way that violates Swedish law,” a WikiLeaks source told the paper.

“He'll be forced to resign. It will be the end of his political career.”

According to WikiLeaks, Bildt's original contact is political consultant Karl Rove, a former adviser to President George W. Bush, and someone who Bildt has openly referred to as “an old friend”.

While WikiLeaks spokesperson Kristinn Hrafnsson refused to comment on the details of the report about Bildt, she told Expressen “it's going to be released soon”.

Swedish foreign ministry spokesperson Anders Jörle said Bildt had nothing to say about the claims.

“We're going to hold off on commenting. We want to see what sort of document it is before we comment,” he told the paper.

However, Bildt acknowledged the Expressen report on his official Twitter account.

"Media reports that Wikileaks is planning what they describe as a 'smear campaign' against Sweden. Good to know," Bildt wrote, alongside a link to the Expressen article.

He also reacted to the report on his blog, challenging WikiLeaks "this in their opinion damning report".

"When that happens, this part of their planned 'smear campaign' will quickly fall apart," he wrote.

 

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Extradition bid 'not a human rights violation'

 

Swedish authorities told Britain's Supreme Court on Thursday that a bid to extradite WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange for questioning over rape claims is valid and does not breach his human rights.

In his final avenue of appeal within the British legal system, Assange's entire case rests on the argument that the Swedish prosecutor who ordered his arrest in December 2010 was not a proper judicial authority.

But Clare Montgomery, a British lawyer acting on behalf of the Swedish prosecuting authorities, rejected claims made the previous day by lawyers for the 40-year-old Australian.

"The issuing member state has the task of identifying who it regards as the judicial authority competent to issue the European Arrest Warrant," she told the panel of seven judges.

Montgomery added that there was "nothing either shocking to the conscience or alternative to basic human rights" for a prosecutor or police officer to issue such a warrant.

She raised the legal systems of France, Denmark, the Netherlands and even Cambodia -- and there was laughter in the court when one of the judges gently ribbed her after she attempted to say "judicial authorities" in Dutch.

It is the second and final day of the hearing at the wood-paneled courtroom in central London.

The judges are expected to defer their decision on Assange's fate for several weeks.

Dozens of supporters were again in court to see the white-haired former hacker, who has become a cause celebre since his anti-secrecy website enraged Washington by leaking thousands of secret US documents.

Britain's Supreme Court only deals with cases that it decides raise a wider point of public interest -- which in Assange's case would be an overturning of the whole fast-track European Arrest Warrant (EAW) system.

On Wednesday, Assange's lawyer Dinah Rose argued that extraditing him to Sweden on the basis of an EAW issued by a prosecutor would breach legal principles dating back 1,500 years.

She said that only a judge or similar official should count as a proper "judicial authority."

One of the judges mentioned the fact that Britain's Serious Organized Crime Agency, which deals with EAW requests, turned down the original warrant issued by Sweden.

The reason was because it did not include a mention of the maximum prison sentence, as stipulated by the EAW system. The detail was included on the second warrant, which was accepted.

Assange has spent most of the last year under virtual house arrest at the mansion of a supporter in Norfolk, eastern England, although he has now moved out.

Assange denies the rape and sexual assault allegations made by two women in Sweden, and insists the sex was consensual.

He has also claimed that the allegations against him are politically motivated. Assange has said he fears he will eventually be handed over to the United States, where Bradley Manning, a US soldier accused of handing documents to WikiLeaks, faces a court-martial.

If the court rejects his appeal, Assange will have exhausted all his options in Britain but he could still make a last-ditch appeal to the European Court of Human Rights, prosecutors have said.

But if Assange wins his case it could call into question the entire EAW system.

While the legal battle has dragged on, Assange's celebrity status has grown.

He is to host his own TV show -- although Russia's state-run RT is the only channel to confirm it will broadcast it -- and will also make an appearance as himself this month on the 500th episode of the US cartoon show "The Simpsons".

A lower court in Britain initially approved Assange's extradition to Sweden in February 2011. An appeal to the High Court was rejected in November, but he subsequently won permission to appeal to the Supreme Court.

  

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Extradition 'undermines' legal principles: lawyer

Julian Assange, head of WikiLeaks, has appeared at Britain’s Supreme Court, starting the new leg in his battle against his rape allegations and his potential extradition to Sweden.

The 40-year-old Australian's lawyers told the Supreme Court in London that the Swedish prosecutor who issued the European Arrest Warrant in December 2010 was not a proper judicial authority.

"This appeal involves a single issue of law which can be very simply stated. The question is whether a Swedish prosecutor has judicial authority for the purposes of the extradition act," Assange's lawyer Dinah Rose told the court.

Rose said legal principles going back 1,500 years were "undermined" by the fact that the warrant for Assange's arrest was issued by a prosecutor, saying there was no guarantee they would be independent and impartial" like a judge.

She said it was "a serious interference with individual liberty".

Seven judges -- six male and one female -- are hearing Assange's appeal over two days at the court in London and are not expected to return their judgment for several weeks.

Dozens of supporters gathered in bright winter sunshine as Assange arrived as a peace activist outside sang "he shall be released".

He sat in court flanked by female supporters and near supporter Vaughan Smith, at whose mansion in eastern England Assange has spent most of the last year under virtual house arrest.

If the court rejects his appeal, the former computer hacker will have exhausted all his options in Britain but he could still make a last-ditch appeal to the European Court of Human Rights, prosecutors have said.

Assange denies the rape and sexual assault allegations made by two women in Sweden, and insists the sex was consensual. He has also claimed that the allegations against him are politically motivated.

WikiLeaks has enraged Washington by leaking thousands of classified US documents about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and Assange has said he fears he will eventually be handed over to the United States.

While the legal battle has dragged on, Assange's celebrity status has grown -- he is to host his own TV show and will make an appearance as himself later this month on the 500th episode of the US cartoon show Simpsons.

Announcing the chat show, WikiLeaks described its founder as "one of the world's most recognisable revolutionary figures" and promised interviews with "key political players and thinkers".

WikiLeaks claims it has secured licensing commitments covering more than 600 million viewers across cable, satellite and terrestrial networks. So far Russia's state-run RT is the only channel to confirm it will broadcast the show.

Assange's extradition to Sweden was initially approved by a lower court in February 2011. An appeal to the High Court was rejected in November, but it subsequently granted him permission to appeal to the Supreme Court.

If this appeal fails, the WikiLeaks founder will have only one other option to stop his extradition - an appeal to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg.

"If the ECHR takes the case then his current bail conditions would remain in force and he would remain in the UK until the proceedings at the ECHR have concluded," the Crown Prosecution Service said in a commentary on the case.

"If the ECHR declines to take the case then he will be extradited to Sweden as soon as arrangements can be made," England's state prosecutor said.

Concerning Assange's case before the Supreme Court, Julian Knowles, an extradition law specialist with the Matrix Chambers law firm, said the question of whether a public prosecutor was a valid judicial authority had been comprehensively tested.

 

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WikiLeaks’ Assange to Guest Star on The Simpsons

 

Julian Assange, founder of the whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks, will guest star on the 500th episode of the animated TV comedy show The Simpsons that will be aired on February 19, The Entertainment Weekly reported.

Assange will be portraying himself as a new neighbor of the Simpsons family, who left their home in Springfield and moved to a rugged and isolated area.

“He invites them over for a home movie and it’s an Afghan wedding being bombed,” The Entertainment Weekly quoted The Simpsons executive producer Al Jean as saying.

Assange recorded his voice from an unknown location, Jean said, as he has been and still is under a house arrest somewhere in Britain and Jean directed him remotely from Los Angeles.

“I was just given a number to call,” Jean said adding that it was Assange, who expressed his interest to appear as a guest in the milestone episode of The Simpsons show.

The news comes a week after Russia Today television channel announced that Assange would host a ten-part political discussion program “The World Tomorrow” beginning in March.

Assange, who gained global notoriety after WikiLeaks published thousands of classified U.S. documents beginning in 2010, is battling an extradition request from Sweden, where he faces charges of sexual abuse of two women.

He was arrested in London in December 2010 and released on bail a few days later.

Assange is scheduled to appeal the extradition order in Supreme Court on February 1.

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Julian Assange Launching TV Show 

 

LONDON -- You've read his leaks. Now watch his show.

Cyber-transparency activist Julian Assange says he's launching a career in television, hosting what he's billing as a new brand of talk show built around the theme of "the world tomorrow."

The show's guests haven't been disclosed, but Assange has promised to give viewers more of what he's been supplying for years: Controversy.

The WikiLeaks secret-spilling site said in a statement released late Monday that "iconoclasts, visionaries and power insiders" would be brought in so that Assange could challenge them on their vision of world affairs and "their ideas on how to secure a brighter future."

The world of television talk shows is a new one for the 40-year-old Australian, whose group has orchestrated the biggest mass-disclosures of secret documents in U.S. history. But the statement argued that Assange was uniquely qualified for the role given his past as "a pioneer for a more just world and a victim of political repression."

Ellis Cashmore, an expert on celebrity culture at England's Staffordshire University, wasn't so sure.

"Assange has got a good, deep voice and agreeable Aussie accent, but he's a slow, deliberate talker and not especially televisual," Cashmore said in an email. "To be true to his image, he would have to make his proposed show subversive; and that might not appeal to many would-be guests."

WikiLeaks said that the show would begin airing in mid-March, although how the show will be produced and who will carry it are open questions.

It's not even clear Assange will be free to host the show. He's currently fighting extradition to Sweden, where he's wanted over sex crimes allegations, and U.S. officials are still weighing possible charges linked to his attention-grabbing leaks.

In its statement WikiLeaks referred queries about the series to the hitherto obscure Quick Roll Productions, whose website carried no indication of where the group was based or who was managing it. An online records search indicated that Quick Roll's site was created about two weeks ago.

Neither Quick Roll nor WikiLeaks returned emails seeking further details on their project.

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