Arrested WikiLeaks chief denied bail in U.K.

[spookyturtle 9,466]

LONDON — WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was refused bail and jailed for a week by a British court Tuesday, pending an extradition hearing over alleged sex offenses in Sweden.

Assange surrendered to U.K. police earlier in the day in the latest blow to his WikiLeaks organization, which faces legal, financial and technological challenges after releasing hundreds of secret U.S. diplomatic cables.

Swedish prosecutors had issued an arrest warrant for the 39-year-old Australian, who is accused of rape and sexual molestation in one case and of sexual molestation and unlawful coercion in another.

Assange surrendered at 9:30 a.m. local time (4:30 a.m. ET) Tuesday. The U.K.'s Guardian newspaper reported that Assange later arrived at a London court accompanied by British lawyers Mark Stephens and Jennifer Robinson.

During his court appearance, Assange said he would fight extradition to Sweden and he provided the court with an Australian address. Britain's Sky News reported that Assange was receiving consular assistance from officials at the Australian High Commission.

The next court hearing is scheduled to take place December 14, and Assange will remain in custody until then because he was deemed to be a flight risk.

Judge Howard Riddle told Assange that he had "substantial grounds" to believe he wouldn't turn up for subsequent proceedings.

In response, WikiLeaks tweeted: "Let down by the UK justice system's bizarre decision to refuse bail to Julian Assange. But #cablegatereleases continue as planned."

'Close call'

Speaking after the hearing, Stephens said it had been difficult to mount an argument for bail because he had not been able to see any of the evidence against Assange.

He said "many people believe this prosecution is politically motivated," but added that he was "sure the British judicial system is robust enough not to be interfered with by politicians." He said he hoped he would be able to say the same for the Swedish system.

Stephens said the judge appeared to have made a "close call" on whether to release Assange on bail. He said the judge had asked to see the evidence, which Stephens believed was "very thin indeed," against Assange.

Several supporters gathered outside the court holding placards reading "Gagging the truth" and "Protect free speech," NBC News said.

"This is going to go viral," Stephens said. "Many people will come forward to stand as an asurety to Mr. Assange."

He said he had been told WikiLeaks would continue to exist in Assange's absence. "They have many thousands of journalists in a virtual journalistic community around the world." Stephens said.

Assange had been hiding out at an undisclosed location in Britain since WikiLeaks began publishing hundreds of U.S. diplomatic cables online last month.

The legal troubles for Assange stem from allegations leveled against him by two women he met while in Sweden over the summer. The arrest warrant under which he was detained by British police arrived on Monday this week.

Assange denies the allegations, which his lawyer Stephens says stem from a "dispute over consensual but unprotected sex." Assange and Stephens have suggested that the prosecution is being manipulated for political reasons.

'He is not violent'

One of the women involved in the sexual abuse allegations told the Swedish daily newspaper Aftonbladet that she had had voluntary relations with him and had never wanted him to be charged with rape, the Guardian said.

"He is not violent and I do not feel threatened by him," she said — anonymously — according to the paper.

A spokesman for WikiLeaks called Assange's arrest an attack on media freedom and said it won't prevent the organization from releasing more secret documents.

"This will not change our operation," Kristinn Hrafnsson told The Associated Press.

Also on Tuesday, The Australian newspaper published an op-ed by Assange in which he says WikiLeaks is "fearlessly publishing facts that need to be made public."

'Poison pill'

British police have been caught in the middle of the legal dispute over WikiLeaks and Assange's rape accusations, a former assistant commissioner at the Metropolitan Police told msnbc.com Tuesday.

"This is a set of circumstances that the Metropolitan Police will not want to get folded into," Andy Hayman said. "They got drawn into it.Ultimately it's between his lawyers, the Swedish authorities and possibly the Americans."

Hayman added that it was now up to Sweden to prove to the U.K. that there were grounds to extradite Assange.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates, visiting with Afghan President Hamid Karzai and U.S. troops in Afghanistan, was pleased by the arrest.

"That sounds like good news to me," he said.

Meanwhile, the Guardian reported that WikiLeaks had no current plans to issue the code for an encrypted version of the rest of its documents — which has been called a "poison pill" — that would enable them to be published instantly, as it had threatened to do if its staff were arrested.

The organization's room to maneuver has been narrowing by the day. It has been battered by Web attacks, cut off by Internet service providers and is the subject of a criminal investigation in the United States, where officials say the release jeopardized national security and diplomatic efforts around the world.

But amid Assange's personal legal troubles, his website continued to reveal state secrets.

According to the latest diplomatic cables — reported by the Guardian — NATO has drawn up secret plans to defend the Baltic states, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, and Poland against any Russian threat.

Nine NATO divisions were identified for combat operations in the event of Russian aggression and countries were grouped together in a new regional defense scheme codenamed Eagle Guardian, the cables said.

And in one of its most sensitive disclosures yet, WikiLeaks released on Sunday a secret 2009 diplomatic cable listing sites around the world that the U.S. considers critical to its security .

Such revelations have prompted the U.S. to consider prosecuting Assange, but the rape allegation presents a more immediate issue.

'Dangerous'

Pentagon spokesman Col. David Lapan called the WikiLeaks' disclosure "dangerous" and said it gives valuable information to the nation's enemies.

NBC News reported that jihadists with connections to al-Qaida have started communicating online about the release.

"We want to exploit this document," one reportedly wrote.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said Monday the Obama administration was considering using laws in addition to the U.S. Espionage Act to possibly prosecute the release of government information by WikiLeaks.

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard told a news conference Tuesday that it is "grossly irresponsible" for WikiLeaks to publish items like critical infrastructure lists.

But she backed away from her comment made last week that posting classified U.S. government documents on the WikiLeaks website was an "illegal" act.

She said police were still investigating whether Assange had broken any Australian laws.

For days, WikiLeaks has been forced by governments, hackers and companies to move from one website to another. It is now relying on a Swedish host.

But WikiLeaks' Swedish servers were crippled after coming under suspected attack again Monday, the latest in a series of such assault

It was not clear who was organizing the attacks. WikiLeaks has blamed previous ones on intelligence forces in the U.S. and elsewhere.

WikiLeaks' huge online following of tech-savvy young people has pitched in, setting up more than 500 mirrors.

Meanwhile, the Swiss postal system's financial arm, Postfinance, shut down a bank account set up by Assange to receive donations after the agency determined that he provided false information regarding his place of residence in opening the account. Assange had listed his lawyer's address in Geneva.

"He will get his money back," Postfinance spokesman Alex Josty said. "We just close the account."

Assange's lawyers said the account contained about $41,000. Over the weekend, the online payment service PayPal cut off WikiLeaks and, according to Assange's lawyers, froze $80,000 of the organization's money.

Visa also said Tuesday that it had suspended all payments to WikiLeaks pending an investigation of the organization's business.

The group is left with only a few options for raising money now — through a Swiss-Icelandic credit card processing center and accounts in Iceland and Germany.

NATO combat plan

According to the latest leaked cables, NATO took a secret decision to draft contingency plans for the former Soviet states of Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania earlier this year at the urging of the United States and Germany.

The move ended years of division within the alliance over how to view Russia, the Guardian said.

In parallel talks with Warsaw, the newspaper added, Washington offered to beef up Polish security against Russia by deploying special naval forces to the Baltic ports of Gdansk and Gdynia, putting F-16 fighter aircraft in Poland and rotating C-130 Hercules transport planes into Poland from U.S. bases in Germany.

NATO leaders were understood to have quietly endorsed the new strategy to defend vulnerable parts of eastern Europe at a summit in Lisbon last month, the Guardian said.

Slideshow: WikiLeaks in cartoons (on this page)

In Lisbon, NATO and Russia agreed to cooperate on missile defense and other security issues, and hailed a new start in relations strained since Russia's military intervention in Georgia in 2008. U.S. President Barack Obama has a policy of "resetting" relations with Moscow.

But the WikiLeaks cables point to the underlying tension in the relationship between the former Cold War adversaries.

The plan entailed grouping the Baltic states with Poland in a new regional defense scheme, codenamed Eagle Guardian, the paper said.

Poland, the Baltic states and others were rattled by Russia's brief war against Georgia and have been irked by large-scale Russian army exercises in Belarus and by Moscow's new military doctrine that sees NATO expansion as a threat.

The Guardian said nine NATO divisions — U.S., British, German and Polish — had been identified for combat operations in the event of aggression against Poland or the Baltic states.

Earlier this year, the United States started rotating U.S. army Patriot missiles into Poland.

But the secret cables exposed the Patriots' value as purely symbolic. The Patriot battery was for training purposes, and was neither operational nor armed with missiles, said the Guardian.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/40544697/ns/us_news-wikileaks_in_security/

[scandal 951]

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard told a news conference Tuesday that it is "grossly irresponsible" for WikiLeaks to publish items like critical infrastructure lists.

But she backed away from her comment made last week that posting classified U.S. government documents on the WikiLeaks website was an "illegal" act.

She said police were still investigating whether Assange had broken any Australian laws.

Of course not. Australia is a First World Nation. They don't need to have laws regarding treason, only 3rd world countries as proven by gazillion international studies bother with such things.

[spookyturtle 9,466]

Of course not. Australia is a First World Nation. They don't need to have laws regarding treason, only 3rd world countries as proven by gazillion international studies bother with such things.

Plus Australia backs away from all confrontation. They have Sweden, Norway and Switzerland, you know, those countries with happy people and a high quality of life, to back them up.

[thongd4me 69]

I tried "Wikileaks.com" just now and it said "Sorry This Site is Not Currently Available"

[Ban Hammer 13,395]

I tried "Wikileaks.com" just now and it said "Sorry This Site is Not Currently Available"

your ip has been noted - expect a visit by guys in suits with no sense of humor.

[luckytxn 2,264]

I tried "Wikileaks.com" just now and it said "Sorry This Site is Not Currently Available"

Try http://wikileaks.info/ and try one of the many mirrors.

[thongd4me 69]

your ip has been noted - expect a visit by guys in suits with no sense of humor.

I had that visit yesterday at the office; said "Happy Pearl Harbor Day" to a Japanese guy

[thongd4me 69]

Try http://wikileaks.info/ and try one of the many mirrors.

Gracias. Yo da man, Tex!

PS -

I clicked on the Sweden mirror site and it is up & running; as I said before, Sweden won't

give a rat's a~~ for his Wikileaks activities but

will concentrate on the charges against him only.

Edited December 8, 2010 by thongd4me

[Danno 1,228]

I tried "Wikileaks.com" just now and it said "Sorry This Site is Not Currently Available"

The funny part is, we have cut off their funding sources, closed out servers and now had the guy arrested on trumped up charges.

I don't like what the guy did but could our response be more "Russianesk"?

I mean really, this is the stuff Putin is famous for.

[luckytxn 2,264]

Gracias. Yo da man, Tex!

PS -

I clicked on the Sweden mirror site and it is up & running; as I said before, Sweden won't

give a rat's a~~ for his Wikileaks activities but

will concentrate on the charges against him only.

I read about the charges and am stunned that they are going to try him for something like this. Personally I don't like him doing the disclosures but I am also a freedom of the press supporter. Our own newspapers in this country has had no qualms on publishing anything detrimental to our highest elected officials and even undermine anything that they don't like and even destroy people. They have even had no qualms on publishing material that makes this country look bad but we have never ever asked for them to be assassinated and destroyed. On the contrary we usually exalt them when they do so. Why is this man being so despised when we have in history done the same thing in the name of freedom?

[Fandango 1,439]

I really don't understand how wikileaks got all this sensitive information in the first place, but in the interest of national security, all things should NOT be available. I am all for transparency in gov't as far as bills, votes, etc...but not wrt to things like this

[alienlovechild 75]

Personally I don't like him doing the disclosures but I am also a freedom of the press supporter. Our own newspapers in this country has had no qualms on publishing anything detrimental to our highest elected officials and even undermine anything that they don't like and even destroy people. They have even had no qualms on publishing material that makes this country look bad but we have never ever asked for them to be assassinated and destroyed. On the contrary we usually exalt them when they do so. Why is this man being so despised when we have in history done the same thing in the name of freedom?

Freedom of the press usually means censorship by prior restraint to publish is a no-no. Here he's already put the info out and there's no practical way to contain it. There's no right to print secrets otherwise there would be no legal way to withhold info.

What he did took no balls or conscience as it's not his country on the line and he made himself a media superstar overnight by doing noting other than running a website. Personally, I don't want our foreign policy and security based on what an Australian hacker deems as justified to glorify himself. Let's give him the secret nuclear launch codes and let hack into the DOD computers if we trust him that much. I don't.

When Wikileaks gets the info on all the other major players in the nation and releases them, then at least there's real transperancy and a level playing field. Until then, he's just a hacker who struck gold and could care less what happens as a result.

[luckytxn 2,264]

Freedom of the press usually means censorship by prior restraint to publish is a no-no. Here he's already put the info out and there's no practical way to contain it. There's no right to print secrets otherwise there would be no legal way to withhold info.

What he did took no balls or conscience as it's not his country on the line and he made himself a media superstar overnight by doing noting other than running a website. Personally, I don't want our foreign policy and security based on what an Australian hacker deems as justified to glorify himself. Let's give him the secret nuclear launch codes and let hack into the DOD computers if we trust him that much. I don't.

When Wikileaks gets the info on all the other major players in the nation and releases them, then at least there's real transperancy and a level playing field. Until then, he's just a hacker who struck gold and could care less what happens as a result.

Who is it that tells us what is a secret and should be so? It is the very government that does so. For many years now they have placed everything under lock and key. We have no idea what they are telling us is the truth or not when only they can tell us their side of everything and only what they want us to know. It was not that long ago we were damning GWB and his lies and when anything came out that showed his administration may of been stretching the truth to take us to war the many howled with pleasure. That info hurt our country a lot and made us look bad but I guess it was OK since it was someone that they hated so much. We are continuously fighting our government to make more disclosures but when it is done so in this case we scream. The past history of this country has always had the papers come out with very harmful stuff to this country but it was OK since it was us that did so I guess. We even give Pulitzers to reporters and newspapers for making disclosures that harm our country and exalt them for coming up with secrets that our government tried to keep a secret. Hippocrites all.

[thongd4me 69]

Who is it that tells us what is a secret and should be so? It is the very government that does so. For many years now they have placed everything under lock and key. We have no idea what they are telling us is the truth or not when only they can tell us their side of everything and only what they want us to know. It was not that long ago we were damning GWB and his lies and when anything came out that showed his administration may of been stretching the truth to take us to war the many howled with pleasure. That info hurt our country a lot and made us look bad but I guess it was OK since it was someone that they hated so much. We are continuously fighting our government to make more disclosures but when it is done so in this case we scream. The past history of this country has always had the papers come out with very harmful stuff to this country but it was OK since it was us that did so I guess. We even give Pulitzers to reporters and newspapers for making disclosures that harm our country and exalt them for coming up with secrets that our government tried to keep a secret. Hippocrites all.

Yes when Hillary was the opposition she never missed an opportunity to shake her finger.

Come to think of it, she's still doing that!

It's not important WHO you shake your finger at but that you continue to shake it.