WikiLeaks site's Swiss registrar dismisses pressure to take it offline | Media WikiLeaks received a boost tonight when Switzerland rejected growing international calls to force the site off the internet. The whistleblowers site, which has been publishing leaked US embassy cables, was forced to switch domain names to WikiLeaks.ch yesterday after the US host of its main website, WikiLeaks.org, pulled the plug following mounting political pressure. The site's new Swiss registry, Switch, today said there was "no reason" why it should be forced offline, despite demands from France and the US. Switch is a non-profit registry set up by the Swiss government for all 1.5 million Swiss .ch domain names. The reassurances come just hours after eBay-owned PayPal, the primary donation channel to WikiLeaks, terminated its links with the site, citing "illegal activity". The Swiss Pirate Party, which registered the WikiLeaks.ch domain name earlier this year on behalf of the site, said Switch had reassured the party that it would not block the site.
The Blueprint With every day, with every passing hour, the power of the state mobilizes against Wikileaks and Julian Assange, its titular leader. The inner processes of statecraft have never been so completely exposed as they have been in the last week. The nation state has been revealed as some sort of long-running and unintentionally comic soap opera. None of it is very pretty, all of it is embarrassing, and the embarrassment extends well beyond the state actors – who are, after all, paid to lie and dissemble, this being one of the primary functions of any government – to the complicit and compliant news media, think tanks and all the other camp followers deeply invested in the preservation of the status quo. Meanwhile, the diplomatic cables slowly dribble out, a feed that makes last year’s MP expenses scandal in the UK seem like amateur theatre, an unpracticed warm-up before the main event. It’s this triviality which has angered those in power. You know what Terms of Service are?
Julian Assange's lawyers say they are being watched | Media Lawyers representing the WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, say that they have been surveilled by members of the security services and have accused the US state department of behaving "inappropriately" by failing to respect attorney-client protocol. Jennifer Robinson and Mark Stephens of the law firm Finers Stephens Innocent told the Guardian they had been watched by people parked outside their houses for the past week. "I've noticed people consistently sitting outside my house in the same cars with newspapers," said Robinson. "I probably noticed certain things a week ago, but mostly it's been the last three or four days." Stephens said he, too, had had his home watched. Asked who he thought was monitoring him, he said: "The security services." Robinson said the legal team was also experiencing "other forms of pressure" from Washington. The letter, which was released to the press, begins: "Dear Ms Robinson and Mr Assange. He added: "It does seem to be a political stunt."
Editor's note: publishing the cables | World news The articles published today and over coming weeks are drawn from US state department cables which were sent earlier this year to WikiLeaks, an organisation devoted to exposing secrets of all kinds. The Guardian is one of five publications around the world which has had prior access to the material – around 250,000 cables in all – on condition that we observed common deadlines over the timings of release. The others are the New York Times, Le Monde, El País and Der Spiegel. The leaked material is the third such exercise in which the Guardian and other publications have been involved. The previous two involved military records from the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. The current release is of leaked dispatches from more than 250 US embassies and consulates worldwide. WikiLeaks has not revealed the source of its information. During the course of working on the material over many weeks each publication has formed its own individual judgments about specific stories.
2010-12-04: NSW Supreme Court Solicitor Peter Kemp: Letter to Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard By Peter Kemp, Solicitor of the Supreme Court of New South Wales, on 2010-12-04 Dear Prime Minister From the Sydney Morning Herald I note you made a comment of "illegal" on the matter of Mr Assange in relation to the ongoing leaks of US diplomatic cables. Previously your colleague and Attorney General the Honourable McClelland announced an investigation of possible criminality by Mr Assange. As a lawyer and citizen I find this most disturbing, particularly so when a brief perusal of the Commonwealth Criminal Code shows that liability arises under the Espionage provisions, for example, only when it is the Commonwealth's "secrets" that are disclosed and that there must be intent to damage the Commonwealth. Likewise under Treason law, there must be an intent to assist an enemy. Those offences remain unclear and the Swedish prosecutor Ms Ny appears to be making up the law as she wants. An Australian citizen is apparently being singled out for "special treatment" Prime Minister.
Supporters dismissed rape accusations against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange... but the two women involved tell a different story By Angella Johnson Updated: 10:57 GMT, 29 August 2010 Fling: WikiLeaks founder faced charges of rape and sexual molestation, but they were withdrawn It is a story as intriguing and confusing as a Stieg Larsson blockbuster: celebrated internet whistleblower becomes embroiled in a complex sex scandal involving two women, not long after he had masterminded one of the biggest intelligence leaks of all time - against the U.S. That the action takes place in Sweden, Larsson’s home country, and that the protagonist is the flag-waver for freedom of information Julian Assange, founder of WikiLeaks, provides added piquancy. Assange, 39, was attending a seminar in Stockholm earlier this month when he found himself facing charges of rape and sexual molestation - charges that were then, amid much confusion, withdrawn and which he strenuously denies. What does not seem to be in dispute is that he had sex with the two women within four days. The website plans to release more documents.
Pourquoi "Le Monde" publie les documents WikiLeaks LE MONDE | • Mis à jour le | Par Sylvie Kauffmann Pour la deuxième fois, Le Monde publie, à partir de dimanche 28 novembre, sur son site lemonde.fr, et à partir de lundi dans le quotidien, des informations tirées de documents officiels secrets américains, mis à sa disposition par le site WikiLeaks. WikiLeaks est une organisation informelle créée en 2006 par un apôtre de la transparence intégrale, l'Australien Julian Assange, dans le but de rendre publics sur Internet des documents officiels qui n'étaient pas destinés à le devenir. En octobre, nous avons rejoint trois journaux, le New York Times, le quotidien britannique The Guardian et l'allemand Der Spiegel, déjà partenaires de WikiLeaks dans la diffusion d'une première vague de documents militaires américains sur l'Afghanistan, en juillet, pour pouvoir analyser par nous-mêmes une nouvelle masse de documents du Pentagone livrés à WikiLeaks, cette fois sur l'Irak, et offrir aux lecteurs francophones notre propre expertise.
WikiLeaks, une vérité insoutenable ? “Une société transparente est une société totalitaire” F. Baroin (à propos de WikiLeaks) le 29.11.2010 Aucune “révélation” fracassante, rien qui ne peut ébranler le monde. Pourtant WikiLeaks a frappé le cœur du système. Il a rapporté les petites phrases diplomatiques des uns sur les autres, un gossip mondial qui expose finalement ce qui se savait ou se subodorait déjà. Les messages diplomatiques mis en ligne sont le fruit d’un vol. L’incursion de WikiLeaks produit un choc dans ce milieu tempéré par les mandarins omnipotents. Plus de ligne éditoriale, de joug politique dont les injonctions font taire les dossiers. Atteinte à la démocratie, dictature de la transparence, la levée de boucliers est immédiate. Agiter le spectre de l’homme nu, sans intimité relève d’une confondante mauvaise foi. Il ne s’est rien passé. Vogelsong – 3 décembre 2010 – Paris Like this: J'aime chargement…