Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has passport confiscated

[Park Life 71]

The Australian founder of the whistleblower website Wikileaks had his passport confiscated by police when he arrived in Melbourne last week.

Julian Assange, who does not have an official home base and travels every six weeks, told the Australian current affairs program Dateline that immigration officials had said his passport was going to be cancelled because it was looking worn.

 

However he then received a letter from the Australian Communication Minister Steven Conroy’s office stating that the recent disclosure on Wikileaks of a blacklist of websites the Australian government is preparing to ban had been referred to the Australian Federal Police (AFP).

 

Last year Wikileaks published a confidential list of websites that the Australian government is preparing to ban under a proposed internet filter – which in turn caused the whistleblower site to be placed on that list. "

 

 

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/worl...icle7128506.ece

[Happy Face 29]

 

They got to him before the yanks!

[NJS 4446]

Seriousness aside, I do find it amusing they banned his site for leaking the list of banned sites.

 

Also "it looked worn" has to be up there with "he fell down the stairs".

[Park Life 71]

Seriousness aside, I do find it amusing they banned his site for leaking the list of banned sites.

 

Also "it looked worn" has to be up there with "he fell down the stairs".

 

[Happy Face 29]

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange should be extradited to Sweden to face sexual assault allegations, a judge has ruled.

 

The judgement was delivered at Belmarsh Magistrates' Court, south London, after an extradition hearing two weeks ago.

 

Mr Assange is expected to appeal against the ruling. He denies three allegations of sexual assault and one of rape last August in Stockholm.

 

The 39-year-old says the claims are politically motivated because of the work of his whistle-blowing website.

 

Wikileaks has made headlines worldwide with the publication of sensitive material from governments and high-profile organisations, including leaked US diplomatic cables.

 

Mr Assange was arrested on 7 December under a European Arrest Warrant, and spent nine days in Wandsworth prison before being released on bail.

 

During the hearing two weeks ago, Mr Assange's lawyer argued that rape trials in Sweden were regularly "tried in secret behind closed doors in a flagrant denial of justice".

 

Geoffrey Robertson QC also said his client could later be extradited to the US on separate charges relating to Wikileaks, and could face the death penalty there.

 

Clare Montgomery QC, for the Swedish authorities, told the hearing that evidence from a trial would be heard in private but the arguments would be made in public.

 

In response to the suggested risk of extradition to the US and a possible death penalty, she said Sweden provided "protection against that sort of threat and violation" taking place.

 

The European Court of Human Rights would intervene if Mr Assange was to face the prospect of "inhuman or degrading treatment or an unfair trial" in the US, she said.

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12564865

 

Dawkins wept

Edited February 24, 2011 by Happy Face

[TheMoog 0]

Personally I think the bloke's a scrote and his site is more of a danger than a help to anyone, he's a shit stirrer of epic proportions.

[LeazesMag 0]

Seriousness aside, I do find it amusing they banned his site for leaking the list of banned sites.

 

Also "it looked worn" has to be up there with "he fell down the stairs".

 

you never know, he might tell us the whole truth and nothing but the truth one day

[LeazesMag 0]

Personally I think the bloke's a scrote and his site is more of a danger than a help to anyone, he's a shit stirrer of epic proportions.

 

exactly. Shame they don't have the electric chair.

[Kevin S. Assilleekunt 1]

I think when you lay it out and look at it you can't say that. The recent highly-publicized leaks--ie diplomatic cables--have not had much affect, apart from the fact that certain governments may now try to keep that kind of information (low classification) more secure. Some embarrassing facts came to light, but nothing mind-blowing. In some areas where the media is largely controlled by the government the leaks were not even reported.

 

To put it briefly, there have been a few well documented cases where Wikileaks exposed some serious corruption by specific groups and this resulted in some positive changes. They don't appear to have access to the sort of highly-classified information from the richest nations that could cause any ripples in the pond, let alone 'danger' of any kind. As a result people seem to have lost interest in the story, this may spark up again if Assange gets extradited or so on. He is probably disappointed the spotlight has fallen off him for a while as he could have got a lot more book sales had he released it around the time of his arrest.