DawgTalkers.net Forums DawgTalk Tailgate Forum WikiLeaks set to release more info...

Quote:

---

Assange has denied any wrongdoing, and hinted that the complaints are the result of a U.S. “smear campaign” targeting WikiLeaks — leading some supporters of the group to publicly investigate the two women and their families.

---

Quote:

---

I'd say his life has turned into a very predictable hell. How does he personally make money from this? Im asking for real, I don't know. Wikileaks looks like a typical model money loser to me, no?

---

Quote:

---

It was initially assumed, when the molestation and rape charges were filed in Sweden against Wikileaks founder Julian Assange a couple months back, that they were a political hit job--an attempt to silence him for publishing stuff that powerful people don't want to see published.

Then the stories underlying the charges were published, and it seemed something else was at work. (Women scorned).

But now Wikileaks has published a whole new trove of documents, causing US politicians to howl that Julian Assange should be arrested for espionage.

And now Interpol has issued a warrant for Assange's arrest on the sex charges!

What are those sex charges, anyway?

Assuming they're the same Swedish sex charges, to hear the Sydney Herald's Asher Moses tell it, they're complaints from two women annoyed that they let Assange seduce them.

The two women who filed the original charges had sex with Assange on successive nights. Both seemed pissed that he charmed them into bed and then never called them again. Both were mortified to learn, after the fact, that he had had sex with them on back-to-back evenings. One was annoyed that, after seducing her in a movie theater, he spent the 45 minutes in the cab riding from a movie to her apartment "tweeting and texting and reading stories about himself." Both said he preferred not to wear a condom. One said he seemed to have an aversion to the word "no." And so on...

At least as the Sydney Herald's Asher Moses tells it, there's not much in the stories about forced sex or "molestation" or politically-driven hit jobs. Mostly it's about two Julian Assange fans annoyed that the rock star Wikileaks founder charmed their pants off and then bolted.

The rape charges have since been dropped. The "molestation" charge is outstanding.

And now Interpol has issued a warrant for Assange's arrest...


Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/reminder-...1#ixzz16pJucVCQ

---

Quote:

---

The award is judged by a group of retired senior US military and intelligence personnel, and past winners. This year the award to Julian Assange was unanimous.

Previous winners and ceremony locations:

Coleen Rowley of the FBI; in Washington, D.C.
Katharine Gun of British intelligence; in Copenhagen, Denmark
Sibel Edmonds of the FBI; in Washington, D.C.
Craig Murray, former UK ambassador to Uzbekistan; in New York City
Sam Provance, former sergeant, U.S. Army, truth-teller about Abu Ghraib; in Washington, D.C.
Frank Grevil, major, Danish army intelligence, imprisoned for giving the Danish press documents showing that Denmark’s prime minister disregarded warnings that there was no authentic evidence of WMDs in Iraq; in Copenhagen, Denmark
Larry Wilkerson, colonel, U.S. Army (retired), former chief of staff to Secretary Colin Powell at the State Department, who has exposed what he called the “Cheney-Rumsfeld cabal”; in Washington, D.C.
http://original.antiwar.com/mcgovern/2010/08/15/can-wikileaks-help-save-lives/

---

Quote:

---

The man who leaked the Pentagon Papers on the Vietnam war in 1971, Daniel Ellsberg, has given his backing to Wikileaks.

Speaking to BBC World Service, Mr Ellsberg disagreed with US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's statement that the latest leaks could endanger lives.

"That's a script that they role out every time there's a leak of any sort," he said.

It is not leaks, but "silences and lies" that put peoples' lives in danger, he believes.

---

Quote:

---

Reuters
» Print

This copy is for your personal, non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies for distribution to colleagues, clients or customers, use the Reprints tool at the top of any article or visit: www.reutersreprints.com.
Analysis: Hard case for U.S. against WikiLeaks's Assange
8:47pm EST

By Mark Hosenball

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. authorities could face insurmountable legal hurdles if they try to bring criminal charges against elusive WikiLeaks chief Julian Assange, even if he sets foot on U.S. soil.

The Justice Department is investigating a series of leaks of hundreds of thousands of classified U.S. documents that the whistleblower website has provided to news media and made public on its own website.

But three specialists in espionage law said prosecuting someone like Assange on those charges would require evidence the defendant was not only in contact with representatives of a foreign power but also intended to provide them with secrets.

No such evidence has surfaced, or has even been alleged, in the case of WikiLeaks or Assange, an Australian-born former computer hacker who has become an international celebrity.

Mark Zaid, a defense lawyer who specializes in intelligence cases, said it would be "very difficult for the U.S. government to prosecute (Assange) in the U.S. for what he is doing."

Assange, who leads a nomadic existence and cultivates an aura of mystery, left Sweden last month after authorities there said they wanted to question him about allegations of rape and other sexual offenses.

Interpol, the international police agency, issued a "red notice" on Tuesday to assist in his arrest over the Swedish investigation. Assange has said the allegations are baseless and criticized what he calls a legal circus in Sweden.

While his current whereabouts are not known, it appeared briefly that Assange could find a home in South America.

Ecuador's deputy foreign minister said the government was trying to invite him to live and lecture there. But President Rafael Correa quickly canceled the invitation, saying WikiLeaks "has committed an error by breaking the laws of the United States and leaking this type of information."

Other parts of U.S. law make it easier to prosecute people for unauthorized disclosures of undercover U.S. intelligence officers' identities and classified information related to nuclear weapons and electronic eavesdropping.

But there is no evidence that Assange or WikiLeaks has trafficked in materials that would fall under those statutes.

Since the WikiLeaks cache of State Department documents first began to surface on Sunday, the Obama administration has issued increasingly strident denunciations of the leakers and promised to take action to shut down such activities.

On Monday, Attorney General Eric Holder said the Justice Department had "an active, ongoing criminal investigation with regard to this matter" and insisted the administration's promises of action were "not saber rattling."

"To the extent that we can find anybody who was involved in the breaking of American law and who has put at risk the assets and the people that I have described, they will be held responsible. They will be held accountable," Holder said, declining to identify any targets of the investigation.

Mark Stephens, a London lawyer who represents Assange, said he was aware of Holder's comments. "Until I see a specific allegation then it's difficult for me to respond," he said.

MANNING'S CASE IS DIFFERENT

Military authorities have detained Bradley Manning, a 23-year-old former U.S. Army intelligence analyst, at a Marine base near Washington in connection with the investigation of the disclosure of U.S. secrets to WikiLeaks.

Earlier this year, Manning was charged with downloading more than 150,000 State Department documents and leaking some cables while assigned to the intelligence branch of an Army unit in Iraq. U.S. officials have declined to say whether the cables Manning is accused of mishandling are the same ones that WikiLeaks recently has been making public.

Because Manning allegedly made unauthorized disclosures of secret material while working for the U.S. government, there is a solid foundation for a criminal case against him, legal experts said.

But Assange has had no relationship with or obligation to the U.S. government.

Under the law -- including the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution that established press freedom -- there would be little distinction between an attempt to prosecute Assange or other WikiLeaks organizers and more established media outlets.

Historically, U.S. authorities have shied away from prosecuting journalists or media organizations.

An Obama administration official said government lawyers working on the Justice Department investigation are trying to be "creative" in their exploration of legal options.

But the official also acknowledged the lawyers are well aware of potentially serious legal challenges that could forestall any attempt to prosecute someone like Assange.

"Congress needs to hear from (the Department of Justice) about what charges the government intends to pursue against the WikiLeaks founder," Kit Bond, the senior Republican on the Senate Intelligence Committee, told Reuters.

"If DoJ has no legal tool to do so, it needs to be upfront with Congress and the American people."

Joseph DiGenova, a former U.S. Attorney in Washington who prosecuted high-profile espionage cases, said federal authorities would face "pretty tough" legal obstacles if they tried to bring a prosecution against Assange.

But he said officials like Holder had to make threats of prosecution, even if they lack legal substance, to "send a signal" to other would-be leakers.

(Editing by John O'Callaghan)

© Thomson Reuters 2010. All rights reserved. Users may download and print extracts of content from this website for their own personal and non-commercial use only. Republication or redistribution of Thomson Reuters content, including by framing or similar means, is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Thomson Reuters. Thomson Reuters and its logo are registered trademarks or trademarks of the Thomson Reuters group of companies around the world.

Thomson Reuters journalists are subject to an Editorial Handbook which requires fair presentation and disclosure of relevant interests.

---

Quote:

---

I see that.. You don't suppose that Putin plays by the rules?

---

Quote:

---

Quote:

---

I'd say his life has turned into a very predictable hell. How does he personally make money from this? Im asking for real, I don't know. Wikileaks looks like a typical model money loser to me, no?

---

I'm guessing "anonymous donations"

He's pissed of a lot of powerful people. On a side note, few people realize how rotten the banks really are.

---

Quote:

---

1. We live in an age of continued mistrust of our government.. it started to grow in the 60s and has grown from being something the fringe radicals did to something pretty much everybody does. Some will say this mistrust is for good reason.. I'm not going to argue that. I'm just going to say that very few people in this country have the level of trust that the folks in the 50s had.. and we likely never will again. Very very very few people will ask what they can do for their country.... without at least thinking about what their country can also do for them...

---

Quote:

---

I'm kinda surprised NSA hasn't launched a denial of service attack on this site yet. You'd think they would have the means to do something like that. :: shrug ::

---

Quote:

---

WikiLeaks Provider Cuts Service, Site 'Killed'

Published December 03, 2010

Associated Press

STOCKHOLM -- WikiLeaks' domain name system provider says it has withdrawn service to the wikileaks.org name.

EveryDNS says it dropped the website late Thursday after it became the "target of multiple distributed denial of service attacks."

The whistle-blower group posted on its Twitter account: "WikiLeaks,org domain killed by US everydns.net after claimed mass attacks"

The American provider says in a statement that the attacks have threatened the stability of its infrastructure.

Link

---

Quote:

---

Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) is taking a stand as one of Julian Assange’s few defenders in Washington, arguing that the WikiLeaks founder should get the same protections as the media.

Attorney General Eric Holder said this week that the Justice Department is examining whether Assange can be charged with a crime for posting hundreds of thousands of leaked government intelligence documents and diplomatic cables.

Many Republicans have gone even further in their attacks on Assange, especially former Arkansas GOP Gov. Mike Huckabee, who said this week that the WikiLeaks founder should be tried for treason and executed if found guilty.

But in a Thursday interview with Fox Business, Paul said the idea of prosecuting Assange crosses the line.

“In a free society we're supposed to know the truth,” Paul said. “In a society where truth becomes treason, then we're in big trouble. And now, people who are revealing the truth are getting into trouble for it.”

“This whole notion that Assange, who's an Australian, that we want to prosecute him for treason. I mean, aren't they jumping to a wild conclusion?” he added. “This is media, isn't it? I mean, why don't we prosecute The New York Times or anybody that releases this?”

Paul followed up with a post to his Twitter account Friday morning: "Re: Wikileaks — In a free society, we are supposed to know the truth. In a society where truth becomes treason, we are in big trouble."

---

Quote:

---

I mean, why don't we prosecute The New York Times or anybody that releases this?”

---

Quote:

---

I voted for Ron Paul, but in this case I disagree.

Quote:

---

I mean, why don't we prosecute The New York Times or anybody that releases this?”

---

No problem here, if it involves issues vital to national security.

---

Quote:

---

If you want to prosecute someone... fry the person that actually handed over the information to WikiLeaks.

---

Quote:

---

j/c

Haven't kept up or read up on this story very much ... but what is the vital national security information that's being spoken of?

---

Quote:

---

@Daman: Governments are far more worried about dirty laundry getting aired than any sort of actually vital State secrets.

---

Quote:

---

And when they try to use powers against people to simply cover up their dirty laundry, we are in trouble.

---

We've been screwed since the git-go, then.

Quote:

---

You know, this "national security" label the government likes to put on everything is a bunch of bs.

---

Quote:

---

Washington (CNN) -- Unauthorized federal workers and contractors have been warned not to attempt to read the classified documents on WikiLeaks on either government or personal computers.
The White House Office of Management and Budget sent a memo Friday afternoon forbidding unauthorized federal government employees and contractors from accessing classified documents publicly available on WikiLeaks and other websites using computers or devices like BlackBerrys and smart phones.
The memo, sent to general counsels at various government agencies and obtained by CNN, explains that the publishing by WikiLeaks does "not alter the documents' classified status or automatically result in declassification of the documents."
"To the contrary, classified information, whether or not already posted on public websites or disclosed to the media remains classified, and must be treated as such by federal employees and contractors, until it is declassified by an appropriate U.S. Government authority," the memo said.
The memo does allow for reading of articles about the cables on media sites.
OMB spokesperson Moira Mack said the memo "does not advise agencies to block WikiLeaks or other websites on government computer systems."
"This is principally about protecting government IT systems," Mack said.
She described the memo as a template for agencies to use as guidance, saying it "restates and reinforces existing restrictions on access to classified documents by unauthorized personnel or on computers that access the web via non-classified government systems."
Asked if employees could lose their jobs if they access the WikiLeaks website on personal or government computers or devices, Mack told CNN, "Any breaches of protocols governing access to classified material are subject to applicable sanctions under long-standing and existing law."
The State Department sent a warning to staff not to confirm the authenticity of any published documents and to refer all inquiries to the public affairs office.
"The department is reviewing the material that has been made public. We take reports of the deliberate and unauthorized disclosure of classified material very seriously," according to a copy of the memo obtained by CNN. "The security and safekeeping of classified material and the safety of State Department personnel are our highest priorities."
The State Department memo also reminded the staff that even though they are published, the normal standards for handling classified documents apply when viewed at work or home.
"Any classification markings on the downloaded material should be retained. If such material is printed, however, it must be handled as a classified document and stored in a classified container," the memo said.
Separately, the Department of Defense and the Library of Congress have blocked access to the WikiLeaks website from their computers and instructed their employees not to read the documents published by the website, according to representatives of both agencies.
"We have put out a policy saying Department of Defense military, civilian and contractor personnel should not access the WikiLeaks website to view or download the publicized classified information," Department of Defense spokesman Maj. Chris Perrine told CNN. "Doing so could introduce potentially classified information on unclassified networks. This creates 'spillage' which can result in a great cost of time, manpower and money."
The statement echoes similar language in the Office of Management and Budget memo.
Library of Congress spokesman Matthew Raymond issued a statement saying the library "decided to block WikiLeaks because applicable law obligates federal agencies to protect classified information. Unauthorized disclosures of classified documents do not alter the documents' classified status or automatically result in declassification of the documents."
He said the block applies to patrons working in the library's reading room as well as Library of Congress staff.

---

Quote:

---

NEW YORK — Columbia University students eyeing careers in diplomacy are being warned to avoid linking to or posting comments about secret U.S. documents released by the WikiLeaks website.

A spokesman for the Ivy League school confirmed Saturday that the Office of Career Services circulated an e-mail to students at the School of International and Public Affairs, known for cultivating future diplomats.

The Nov. 30 e-mail says an alumnus at the U.S. State Department had contacted the office, saying the diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks were "still considered classified."

The e-mail said online discourse about the documents "would call into question your ability to deal with confidential information."

Most federal government jobs require a background check.

WikiLeaks has been releasing a trove of sensitive U.S. diplomatic cables over the past wee

---

Quote:

---

Damon, not to try to minimize what you're saying, but have you seen some of the stuff that he exposed that was considered "classified"?

For the most part, a bunch of embarasing BS that was more made classified just to keep people from being made look like a$$es and nothing more.



I haven't seen anything that he put out that is truely some major secret that endangers us. I'm all for national security, but when you use one size fits all to cover up every stupid thing people say by using the old "classified" stamp, at some point you're misusing the very concept of that to begin with.

jmho

---

Quote:

---

Quote:

---

j/c

Haven't kept up or read up on this story very much ... but what is the vital national security information that's being spoken of?

---

I don't know, it hasn't been leaked yet. But the government of several countries seem to be concerned..

---

So you started the thread by saying that if you were in charge you'd have him executed ... and you said that without any idea as to what he'd leaked?

Quote:

---

Quote:

---

Quote:

---

j/c

Haven't kept up or read up on this story very much ... but what is the vital national security information that's being spoken of?

---

I don't know, it hasn't been leaked yet. But the government of several countries seem to be concerned..

---

So you started the thread by saying that if you were in charge you'd have him executed ... and you said that without any idea as to what he'd leaked?

---

You say that like there is something wrong with a good ol' fashioned execution just on general principal...