Republicans set sights on WikiLeaks and Assange - Newspaper. The Republicans plan to hold a congressional inquiry into WikiLeaks and its founder, Julian Assange, following the organisation’s release of thousands of classified United States diplomatic cables. The party, which will wrest control of house committees from the Democrats, has included WikiLeaks in a list of priorities for investigation. The move is partly political, aimed at the attorney general, Eric Holder, whom the Republicans claim has been too slow and too weak in reacting. He said last month that the justice department was looking at what action can be taken against Assange but that lawyers are struggling to find legislation under which the Australian national can be prosecuted.
Congressman wants WikiLeaks listed as terrorist group. The incoming chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee says WikiLeaks should be officially designated as a terrorist organization.
Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.), the panel's presumptive next head, asked the Obama administration today to "determine whether WikiLeaks could be designated a foreign terrorist organization," putting the group in the same company as al-Qaeda and Aum Shinrikyo, the Japanese cult that released deadly sarin gas on the Tokyo subway. "WikiLeaks appears to meet the legal criteria" of a U.S. Rep. Peter King Wants Treasury Dept. To Put Wikileaks On Terrorist List. Treasury Says It Cannot Sanction Wikileaks Or Julian Assange - Corruption Currents. The Treasury Department said it doesn’t have enough evidence to place sanctions on Wikileaks or its leader Julian Assange, Dow Jones Newswires reported.
Leon Neal/AFP/Getty Images Julian Assange, leader of Wikileaks. Responding to Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., who asked the department to add it to its blacklisted entities list maintained at the Office of Foreign Assets Control, the Treasury said none of its current programs can reach either Wikileaks or Assange. The Treasury administers but doesn’t create the criteria for sanctions; that power comes either legislatively or by executive order.