Assange seeks asylum....in Ecuador Embassy

"A Robust Extradition Arrangement." Is he taking the piss do you think?

I think that's polite for, The UK ships out its own citizens to the States, so what is the Aussie Whinger on about?

http://news.sky.com/home/uk-news/article/16252337



Australia gives every impression of being glad to see the back of him...

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/wikileaks/9350912/WikiLeaks-Julian-Assange-Thanks-for-nothing.html

What a guy.

In their book WikiLeaks, David Leigh and Luke Harding of The Guardian, the newspaper that first championed Assange, describe the staff’s revulsion at his behaviour. Over lunch at a London restaurant, one reporter asked if he wasn’t worried that Afghan civilians who had co-operated with the coalition forces could be exposed to danger by WikiLeaks’ revelations, Assange replied: “So, if they get killed they’ve got it coming to them. They deserve it.” A silence fell over the table.

He deserves everything that is coming to him - according to the laws of karma.

This whole situation gets more and more ridiculous - see below who is now interfering: LL

Prominent Americans urge Ecuador to accept Julian Assange's asylum request
Michael Moore, Oliver Stone and Noam Chomsky among signatories to letter delivered to Ecuador's embassy in London
Updated 12:38 PM Jun 26, 2012
LONDON - A letter signed by leading US figures in support of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's application for political asylum in Ecuador has been delivered to the country's London embassy.

Among those who signed the letter were Michael Moore, Oliver Stone, Noam Chomsky and Danny Glover.

Other signatories included the author Naomi Wolf, comedian Bill Maher and Daniel Ellsberg, the former US military analyst turned whistleblower, who leaked the Pentagon Papers in 1971 and has been a long-standing supporter of Assange.

Robert Naiman, policy director at the Just Foreign Policy campaign group, delivered the letter to the embassy on Monday, along with a petition signed by more than four thousand Americans urging President Rafael Correa to approve Assange's request for asylum.

The Australian national arrived at Ecuador's embassy last week in the latest dramatic twist in his fight to avoid extradition to Sweden, where he is wanted for questioning over alleged sex offences.

The letter, which has been posted online, states that its signatories believe Assange has good reason to fear extradition from the UK to Sweden, "as there is a strong likelihood that once in Sweden, he would be imprisoned, and then likely extradited to the United States".

Adding that the US government "has made clear its hostility to WikiLeaks", it says he could face the death penalty in the US if he was charged and found guilty under the Espionage Act.

"We also call on you to grant Mr Assange political asylum because the 'crime' that he has committed is that of practicing journalism," says the letter, which is addressed to Correa.

It concludes: "Because this is a clear case of an attack on press freedom and on the public's right to know important truths about US foreign policy, and because the threat to his health and well-being is serious, we urge you to grant Mr Assange political asylum."

Ecuador's ambassador to the UK, Anna Alban, has gone back to Ecuador to brief Correa on Assange's application and to hold a series of meetings at the foreign ministry.

Assange was set to be extradited to Sweden, where he faces accusations of raping a woman and sexually molesting and coercing another into sex in Stockholm in August 2010, while on a visit to give a lecture.

He denies all charges, saying the sex was consensual and the allegations against him are politically motivated. GUARDIAN

Where's Sean Penn? He's another one who usually cannot resist shoving his bien-pensant nose in.

I rather hope Ecuador does take him in. He isn't likely to have a very long lifespan there - it's not the most stable of places, and I think it's about due for a coup by disgruntled generals?

Anyway, how do the Useful Idiots think Assange is going to reach Ecuador in the first place?

Levitation?

Extradition law is horribly complex. But from discussions over the weekend with one better versed in it than me, the terms of extradition to Sweden would limit the freedom of action of the Swedish authorities to those matters for which he has been extradited - ie the sexual assualt charges.

If it is a case of him facing other, unassociated charges - eg other criminal issues, extradition to the US etc, then the matter would come back to the UK courts.

Quite logical, if you think about it.

So far, as I understand it, the Swedes want to interview him on the sexual charges, with a view to prosecution, IF the allegations are found to be valid in the eyes of Swedish law. He is not being hauled into court until the above conditions have been met; if they cannot be proven enough to start proceedings then he will be allowed to leave. He did a runner, after all, and then said the Swedish authorities could go and interview him in the UK, or he would agree to a video interrogation. In other words, you do it the Assange way, or tuff sh!t! But things don't work like that; the Swedes got angry and that is when the extradition order was taken out. To my mind, the did this deliberately, like the bolting into the Embassy, just for the publicity. Those ladies in Sweden deserve at least to be heard; why is he so against that? Maybe he cannot prove his innocence? LL

There is another side to this - the Swedish women have been smeared, attacked and generally pitchforked by Assange supporters in the most foul and sexist manner.

They have a right to be heard, too.

That is undoubtedly a possibility - he does seem to be particularly nervous.

But the point that I was trying to make is that it is unlikely this is an underhand way of the US getting their hands on him. (Mind you if anyone does I suggest surgical gloves and plenty of alcohol disinfectant)

My personal opinion is that Assange is happy to be seen as some kind of Che of the internet, heroically defying the Great Satan.

It's rather more romantic than being regarded as a sex offender - in Sweden of all places.

Somewhere, and I can't remember the details, I saw or heard someone say that the only real evidence the US might have to extradite him was that his server was US based. Now I have probably got this totally wrong .... LL

If it was US based then he is a complete idiot!

Jean-Pierre.t50 wrote:If it was US based then he is a complete idiot!

All I remember is that it was something on TV, and it was when I was actually concentrating on doing something else so I didn't register as such. I have a little time now so I will see if I can find it. Watch this space! LL

Wikileaks taunts Pentagon with server mirrors in USA

Iraq War Logs hosted by...Amazon
By Cade Metz in San Francisco • Get more from this author

Posted in Networks, 25th October 2010 17:13 GMT
WikiLeaks is using US-based servers run by Amazon.com to mirror its controversial data stash, including the classified "Iraq War Logs" released on Friday afternoon, according to internet records.

Since at least Friday night, the famous whistle-blowing site has been hosting data on Amazon's AWS infrastructure cloud, both in the US and Ireland, records collected by UK research outfit NetCraft show. WikiLeaks is also mirroring servers with French service provider Octopuce, according to NetCraft.

WikiLeaks has long maintained its central servers in Sweden with "bulletproof" hosting outfit PRQ. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has said that the servers are kept in Sweden because the country provides legal protection for disclosures on the site. To further guard against takedowns, PRQ keeps almost no information about its clientele and maintains few if any of its own logs.

Recently, the Swedish Pirate Party said that it's also hosting servers for WikiLeaks, and according to one report, some WikiLeaks servers are now inside a Cold War–era nuclear bunker that was carved out of a rock hill in downtown Stockholm.

But on Friday, after WikiLeaks defied warnings from the Pentagon and released nearly 400,000 classified US military documents involving the Iraq War, NetCraft showed that the site was mirroring these and other documents in the US, Ireland, and France, countries that don't offer the sort of protection provided by Sweden.


According to Santa Clara University law professor and tech law blogger Eric Goldman, Amazon may not be legally required to remove the content, but he says the company could be persuaded to do so.

"[Federal law] 47 USC 230 protects Amazon from being liable for WikiLeaks' content in most circumstances. The only relevant exception is that 230 does not protect Amazon if republishing the content constitutes a federal crime. I'm uncertain what crimes could apply to the content publication," Goldman told The Reg.

"However, even if Amazon is insulated from liability, I suspect Amazon will choose to remove the content 'voluntarily' (motivated by a little persuasion from the government), presumably citing a breach of its terms of service as a pretext.

"A more 'ideological' web host would probably fight more vigorously for its users' publishing rights than Amazon will."

The US, Ireland, and France mirrors were first noticed by technology consultant Alex Norcliffe. It's unclear why WikiLeaks is mirroring its servers in such unprotected locations. The move could be part of an effort to accommodate the added traffic expected following the release of the Iraq documents, and the organization may be trying to decentralize its data stash. But it's surprising that the whistle-blowers would use servers based in such countries.

We've contacted WikiLeaks through email addresses it has used in the past, and it has not responded. Presumably, the site's content is still hosted on "bulletproof" servers in Sweden, but these no longer show up in NetCraft's records.

We've also contacted Amazon, and it has yet to respond. Nor has the US Department of Defense, which condemned the release of the Iraq War Logs. The US government has long said that releasing such documents will endanger the lives of soldiers and civilians alike. "We deplore WikiLeaks for inducing individuals to break the law, leak classified documents and then cavalierly share that secret information with the world, including our enemies," the Defense Department press secretary said in a statement on Friday.

Some have speculated that WikiLeaks is now running US-based mirrors as some sort of publicity stunt. "They are waiting for the US to shut down those servers so that they can say 'Oh, look at the information the US doesn’t want you to know!'" said one commenter on Norcliffe's blog.

Norcliffe is less sure. "WikiLeaks has set a confusing new precedent for its approach to hosting; in the past much has been made of its reputation for putting its servers in bunkers in Sweden for apparent legal protection, and yet for this launch the primary websites are being served in some cases from US datacenters.

"I can't believe this is incompetence on WikiLeaks' part, but whatever their reason it also seems unlikely a US company like Amazon won't be under pressure soon from US authorities."

As Norcliffe points out, WikiLeaks doesn't appear to be using a CDN for global caching which might have otherwise accounted for an accidental or automatic mirror, but instead seems to be using "round-robin DNS" resolution targeted at definitive IP addresses chosen by the organization. This method is used on WikiLeaks.org, and WarLogs.wikileaks.org gives you a random IP from France, Ireland, or the US.

As recently as October 10, NetCraft records showed PRQ as WikiLeaks' hosting providers. But now, the only providers returned by the research outfit are Amazon and Octopuce.



http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/10/25/wikileaks_hosting_on_amazon_web_services/

For all anyone knows, it was actually the CIA who were hosting the mirror sites, as several Anons appear to have been spooks....

I assume you noticed this:

WikiLeaks has long maintained its central servers in Sweden with "bulletproof" hosting outfit PRQ. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has said that the servers are kept in Sweden because the country provides legal protection for disclosures on the site. To further guard against takedowns, PRQ keeps almost no information about its clientele and maintains few if any of its own logs.

Recently, the Swedish Pirate Party said that it's also hosting servers for WikiLeaks, and according to one report, some WikiLeaks servers are now inside a Cold War–era nuclear bunker that was carved out of a rock hill in downtown Stockholm.

Could this have something to do with his obvious fear of being sent to Sweden?? LL

I confess, I am getting lost, LL, it all sounds a bit James Bond-ish. That's the Pirate Bay lot, isn't it? Haven't they been in a lot of hot water recently? Like, getting blocked by assorted nations?

bb1 wrote:I confess, I am getting lost, LL, it all sounds a bit James Bond-ish. That's the Pirate Bay lot, isn't it? Haven't they been in a lot of hot water recently? Like, getting blocked by assorted nations?

No, the Pirate Party is a Swedish political party, Pirate Bay is a downloading site. LL
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pirate_Party_(Sweden)

Found this:

http://st-julians-itgs.wikispaces.com/WIKILEAKS+DEBATE

Told you I was getting lost....that's a good find, LL.

From digitalspy:

Wikileaks moving servers to international waters?
Published Wednesday, Feb 1 2012, 18:26 GMT | By Mark Langshaw
Wikileaks is allegedly investing in a boat to move its servers into international waters.

The controversial news site is implementing the move in a bid to evade US law enforcement and protect founder Julian Assange from prosecution, according to a Fox News report.

A source within the hacker community told the network that the firm will be governed by maritime law if it moves its servers offshore, making Assange "safe" from punishment under US jurisdiction.

The US authorities have been investigating Assange's operation for several years after it leaked military and State Department files as well as other classified documents online. However, in 2010 it was ruled that the site's founder could not be prosecuted as a journalist, but may still be charged in the US.

Although the US is yet to take action against Assange, he lost an appeal in November 2011 against extradition to Sweden, where he faces sexual assault charges dating back to 2010.

Assange, who denies the allegations, remains on conditional bail in the UK. He arrived at the Supreme Court today (February 1) to have his appeal against the extradition verdict heard.

http://www.digitalspy.co.uk/media/news/a363372/wikileaks-moving-servers-to-international-waters.html

Some more interesting reads:

http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/NF26Dj01.html

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/julian-assange

And this one - sabot, do NOT read while drinking! LL

Julian Assange's internet dating adventures to be made into a film

Source: Guardian

Cyril Tuschi, the director of an acclaimed documentary about imprisoned Russian oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky, is to make a fictional film imagining a trio of romantic assignations involving Julian Assange.

Alongside British screenwriter Michael Gaster, whose credits include the 2010 short Underdogs, Tuschi is working on an English-language script entitled Leaks – Three Dates With Harry Harrison. Co-producer Jan Krüger told Screen International:

"Cyril came up with the fact that Assange had been involved in internet dating using the screen name of Harry Harrison. So, the film recounts three dates with Harry Harrison taking place in 2010. One date is in Iceland when he was establishing a organisation that would change journalism, democracy and the internet. Then we jump to the second date with a fan in Sweden where he is the man of the moment and feted like a popstar … Finally, there is an internet date in a manor house in London, with 'Harrison' all by himself wearing an electronic tag, third date being with a woman journalist who reflects on where he has ended up. The film will chart the rise and fall of someone who pits themselves against authority, a Robin Hood of the digital age who stumbles over his own personality."

Read more: http://m.guardian.co.uk/film/2012/jun/25/julian-assange-internet-dating-film?cat=film&type=article