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Tag: Julian Assange

  • Wikileaks Dumps The Syria Files, Over 2 Million Emails Leaked

    Syria is in a bad place right now. The violence has been terrible for quite some time, but the countless deaths of civilians has only recently captured the attention of the West. To help expose what’s been happening in the country, a group of revolutionaries shared leaked emails with Western press back in March. Wikileaks is now finishing the job.

    The latest release from Wikileaks is called the Syria Files and it hopes to shed some light not only on the current conflict, but the politics and decisions that led up to the violence that now consumes the country. Over 2 million emails from over 680 Syria-related domains cover the history of the region from August 2006 to March 2012.

    Wikileaks is once again partnering with press outlets around the world to share the information contained in the documents. Wikileaks themselves will be presenting much of the information, but the AP, alongside other international press outlets, will be publishing their own stories based on the leaks over the next two months.

    Julian Assange, currently fighting extradition to Sweden and seeking asylum in Ecuador, said that the material in the leaks is not only relevant to Syria:

    “The material is embarrassing to Syria, but it is also embarrassing to Syria’s opponents. It helps us not merely to criticise one group or another, but to understand their interests, actions and thoughts. It is only through understanding this conflict that we can hope to resolve it.”

    What Assange means is that the emails reveal the part that other countries have been playing in the conflict. It was only until recently that people started to pay attention to the conflict, but it has been going on for over a year now. It’s not beyond the realm of reason to assume that one or two of the major powers have had a hand in the conflict. We won’t know for sure until the emails start getting published though.

    Wikileaks also revealed that 42,000 of the leaked emails were infected with viruses or trojans. Those emails may have been traps set by the Syrian Electronic Army, the group that targeted Syrian protesters with fake Facebook phishing attacks. Weirdly enough, the same group also attacked the LinkedIn blog. Maybe the emails will provide further clarification on why the Syrian government hates social networks so much.

    If you want to take a look at the Syria Files, just head over to Wikileaks to check them out. Here’s hoping that these leaks will have a positive impact and help stop hostilities in Syria.

  • Julian Assange Still Seeking Asylum in Equador

    WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange is still waiting for clearance from Ecuador’s government to grant him asylum. Assange is wanted in England on charges of sexual assault, but fled to the Ecuador embassy to avoid arrest. Police are not allowed to enter the embassy without the permission of the Ecuadorian government, who is now in the process of deicing if they will allow him to be granted asylum.

    The former computer hacker is wanted for skipping bail to avoid extradition to Sweden, where the charges are filed. They can allow him to live in equador (in which case he still runs the risk of being arrested on the way to the airport). They can allow British police to enter the Embassy, therefor allowing him to be arrested, or they could let him stay at the Embassy indefinitely.

    Right now the Ecuadorean authorities are waiting for information they requested from the UK, United States and Sweden before they make a decision, which could take a few days. In the meantime, Assange is given a a small furnished room to reside in.

    [source: reuters]

  • Julian Assange Applies For Political Asylum In Ecuador

    It was only a few weeks ago that Julian Assange, founder of Wikileaks, lost his appeal to the UK Supreme Court. It seemed like it was all but certain that he would be extradited to Sweden over charges of sexual assault. Then the unthinkable happened, Assange fled to the Ecuador embassy in London and filed for political asylum.

    The Independent is reporting that Assange fled to the Ecuador embassy on Tuesday afternoon. He applied for political asylum under the United Nations Human Rights Declaration. It is clear that Assange feels his extradition and charges he faces in Sweden are politically motivated. If granted asylum, he would be protected by Ecuador’s government against what he views as political attacks.

    The Ecuador embassy confirmed the application for asylum and said that he would remain under their protection at the embassy until they finish processing his request. While they are protecting Assage, it would seem that the Ecuadorian government isn’t trying to make enemies of those who want the Wikileaks founder. The embassy issued a statement stating they are not intending to interfere in the “judicial processes of either the United Kingdom or Sweden.” They also will apparently speak with delegates from the UK, Sweden and the US on the matter.

    If Assange’s request for asylum is not granted, however, he could be in more trouble than before. The Independent is also reporting that Assange has breached his bail conditions by going to the embassy. His bail conditions stated that he had to remain at a specific address from 10 p.m. to 8 a.m. Since he stayed overnight at the embassy, he violated the bail conditions and is now wanted by the police.

    All of this is just one more crazy layer on top of the already crazy Wikileaks saga. It’s anybody’s game now and nobody knows where it’s going to end up. Will Assange be granted asylum and find himself taking it easy in Ecuador? Or will his request be rejected and end up behind bars in Sweden? We probably won’t know anything for a few days, but we’ll let you know as soon as we do.

  • Julian Assange Loses UK Supreme Court Appeal

    We received word last week that a decision would me made today in regards to Julian Assange’s bid to avoid extradition. It would appear that he he has lost that bid as the UK Supreme Court issued their verdict today and they are letting the extradition go ahead.

    Here’s the judgement from the document released by the UK Supreme Court:

    The Supreme Court by a majority of 5 to 2 (Lady Hale and Lord Mance dissenting) dismisses the appeal and holds that an EAW issued by a public prosecutor is a valid Part 1 warrant issued by a judicial authority within the meaning of section 2(2) and 66 of the 2003 Act.

    As we reported, Assange’s lawyers were challenging whether or not the Swedish public prosecutor could be considered a “judicial authority” when issuing a European arrest warrant. That argument obviously failed before the court. In their decision, the court says that the Vienna Convention extends “judicial authority” to prosecutors.

    “…the Supreme Court is not bound as a matter of European law to interpret Part 1 of the 2003 Act in a manner which accords with the Framework Decision, but the majority held that the court should do so in this case. The immediate objective of the Framework Decision was to create a single system for achieving the surrender of those accused or convicted of serious criminal offences and this required a uniform interpretation of the phrase ‘judicial authority’. There was a strong domestic presumption in favour of interpreting a statute in a way which did not place the United Kingdom in breach of its international obligations.”

    The two dissenters – Lord Mance and Lady Hale – said that the framework decision was unclear. In their statement, the two said:

    “In this case, the correct interpretation of ‘judicial authority’ in the Framework Decision, a question of EU law, was far from certain. Thus if Parliament had intended to restrict the power to issue EAWs to judges or courts, that would not have required a deliberate intention to legislate inconsistently with the Framework Decision. As the words in the statute were ambiguous, it was appropriate to have regard to ministerial statements, and those statements showed that repeated assurances were given that an issuing judicial authority would have to be a court, judge or magistrate.”

    After the verdict was made, RT reports that Assange’s legal team requested a 14-day extension. It’s reported that Assange’s defense lawyer, Dinah Rose, argued that the court’s decision was made based upon legal precedents that were not discussed during the appeal. In this case, the legal precedent is the

    So what’s next for Assange? Fair Trials International put together a informative document that details what the future holds for the Wikileaks founder. They say that Assange’s only hope at the moment is to appeal the decision to the European Court of Human Rights, but Fair Trials says that his extradition being stopped is very unlikely.

    As for Assange’s trip to Sweden, Fair Trials says that he can expect to be arrested upon landing in Sweden and then held in detention until his first court hearing. From there, it’s unlikely that he will be granted bail so he will most likely be stuck in detention until his actual court date. Fortunately, Sweden usually gets prisoners through the court system fairly quickly and Assange will have access to his lawyer throughout all of this.

    For their part, Wikileaks has been rather quiet since the ruling came this morning. Their Twitter account announced the verdict and gave out some resources regarding the trial. There has been no formal announcement from Assange or anybody on his legal team.

    It looks like the fight against extradition is not over yet. We’ll keep an eye out for any developments today and throughout the week. It will be interesting to see the reaction from both sides of the debate.

    [Lead image: Protests outside of Supreme Court this morning courtesy of @_cypherpunks_]

  • Julian Assange To Find Out If He’s Being Extradited Next Week

    It’s been a long time since Julian Assange was arrested for an alleged rape and sexual assault in Sweden. According to Wikileaks, he’s been detained in house arrest for 533 days. He’s been in and out of court hearings, starting a TV show, running for Australian government positions and even guest starring on the Simpsons. It’s those court hearings that are the most important though and we should finally hear a verdict next week.

    The Guardian is reporting that the U.K. supreme court will finally decide on whether or not Assange should be extradited to Sweden. The verdict is expected to come Wednesday, but they’ve been putting off this verdict for long enough already. I wouldn’t be surprised if it was delayed once again.

    For those who are just joining us, the case is pretty simple. Swedish prosecutor Marianne Ny issued the original European Arrest Warrant for Assange. The Wikileaks founder’s lawyers argue that Ny outstepped her authority to issue such a warrant. During the appeal proceedings in February, the defense argued that Ny “lacks the impartiality and the independence from both the executive and the parties which constitute essential features of the exercise of judicial authority under domestic and European law.”

    The Swedish authorities argue that they don’t need to be “independent and impartial” when in the “preliminary stages of an investigation.” Sweden apparently thinks that extraditing an Australian citizen from the U.K. to Sweden is part of a preliminary investigation. I don’t know what preliminary means in Sweden, but I’m pretty sure it doesn’t mean a full-fledged extradition that assumes Assange is guilty without trial.

    Seven justices will be deciding the Assange case according to The Guardian. They speculate that the large number of justices means that the U.K. is taking the issue very seriously. That could be why they have taken so long to decide this particular case.

    If Assange does lose the appeal, he still has one avenue available to him. He can take the case up to the European Court of Human Rights which only has 14 days to respond to the appeal. This isn’t the first time the ECHR has shown up recently as one of the founders of The Pirate Bay has appealed to it as a last ditch effort to avoid fines and a prison sentence.

    If the U.K. Supreme Court does deliver a verdict next Wednesday, we’ll be sure to let you know. The outcome of this case has a lot riding on it. Not only will the outcome immediately affect Assange, but it could have an effect on future extradition proceedings.

    [lead photo courtesy of acidpolly on flickr]

  • Wikileaks May Have Led To Execution Of Convicted Assassin

    Surely you recall the massive diplomatic cable leaks that Wikileaks spearheaded a few years ago. It was a massive event that had everybody from all sides calling Julian Assange a traitor (even though he’s not even a U.S. citizen) and calling for his execution. They claimed that the leaks put foreign diplomats and those working for the U.S. overseas at risk.

    Let’s back up a little bit now. You may remember back in 2010 that an Iranian nuclear scientist, Masoud Ali-Mohammadi, was assassinated. A man by the name of Majid Jamali Fashi, a kick-boxer, was arrested and charged with the murder. The Iranian government claimed that he was acting on behalf of Israel. He was recently hanged for his supposed crime Tuesday.

    These two stories seem to have nothing in common. One was a leak of diplomatic cables while the other was a man accused of assassination. The Times of Israel figures that it goes much deeper than that. They quote a story from The Times (paywall) that found the cable leaks contained a document that pointed an unnamed man that matched Fashi down to the fact that he was trained in martial arts. These documents were released a few days before the arrest of Fashi.

    The timing does indeed work out and the leaked cable does point to a man that Fashi fit the description of. Do I believe that the leaks had anything to do with his capture? It’s hard to tell at this point and probably will be for a long time. Iran is really secretive about their court trials while they spoke for Fashi saying that he admitted to working for Israel.

    A country like Iran will do anything to get their man. This is the country that will stoop to creating their own Internet just to keep its people away from any information that’s critical of the country’s leadership. I wouldn’t put it past the Iranian authorities to arrest some guy and make him admit to these crimes just to get their guy. They, like North Korea, like to make accusatory statements and blame all of their failings on anybody else but themselves.

    It all comes down to what you think of Wikileaks. If you were one of the people crying out for Assange to be executed for treason, then you’ll likely believe that Wikileaks led to the death of a potentially innocent man. If you think that Wikileaks can do no wrong, then you probably think that this is all just a big coincidence.

    It’s too hard to tell right now, but it does spin a cautionary tale about the risks of leaking confidential information. In today’s open world, information should be free. Wikileaks and its ilk more often than not help keep government’s accountable through this information sharing. There are risks involved, of course, but does the risk outweigh the potential failings of government being kept hidden?

  • Wikileaks’ Assange to Host TV News Program

    Wikileaks’ Assange to Host TV News Program

    Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is stretching himself pretty thin these days. While being detained in London and attending successive extradition appeals over sexual assault claims, Assange has continued to be involved with the Wikileaks organization. In addition, Assange has considered running for public office in Australia, guest starred on The Simpsons, and will have a movie made based on his life.

    Now, Assange will be hosting a television news program called “The World Tomorrow with Julian Assange.” The show was tentatively announced in January, but the details are now finalized and the show will premiere on Tuesday, April 17 at 7:30 am EDT. The show will air on the Russia Today television network, available on the DISH Network and to some Comcast and Time Warner cable subscribers. The show will also air on the Russia Today website.

    The show will feature interviews with controversial figures from around the world. In addition, Assange will undoubtedly use the program to promote Wikileaks stories he feels haven’t been accurately reported. In an interview with Russia Today, Assange made it clear that he was making “The World Today” because of his frustration with other media outlets distorting information Wikileaks has released. It also came across that Assange was lonely, having been under house arrest for more than a year. The full version of that interview with Assange will air on Russia Today on Monday.

    A trailer for the show has been posted by Russia Today:

    Russia Today has also released footage of a longer report on the show. In the news segment, the reporter says the name of the first guest on “The World Tomorrow” is being kept secret, but that he or she is “particularly contoversial.”

    What do you think? Is Assange the freedom fighter he bills himself as? A vain self-promoter? A rambling ball of paranoia? All of those things? Let me know your opinion in the comments field below.

  • Julian Assange Gets Movie Based On His Life

    Despite being confined to a house in the UK, Julian Assange gets around. He has started work on a TV series, starred on The Simpsons and is even running in politics. It seems that the Wikileaks founder is now going to be the subject of a new movie – he just won’t be starring in it.

    Network TEN, an Australian television station, has announced UNDERGROUND, a made for TV film that explores the early life of Assange. The network announced that they have secured Rachel Griffiths (Six Feet Under) and Anthony LaPaglia (Without a Trace) to star in the movie alongside newcomer Alex Williams who will play a young Assange.

    The film will be written and directed by AFI Award winning filmmaker Robert Connolly (Balibo). The film is not only about Assange as it explores the young group of hackers that Assange led during the late 1980s and early 1990s in Melbourne. Here’s the official synopsis from the filmmakers:

    “UNDERGROUND is the story of teenage Julian’s early foray into computer hacking up until his first arrest. Set in suburban Melbourne in the late 1980s, UNDERGROUND delves into Assange’s turbulent upbringing with activist mother Christine as well as his first friendships and girlfriend. Forming a hacking circle, nicknamed ‘The International Subversives’, Assange begins breaking into the computer systems of the world’s most powerful organizations. In an era before the internet, the teenagers wage a technological war from their bedrooms, hacking into the US military from their home-jigged computers and parent’s phone lines. All the while they are being hunted by the Australian Federal Police led by Detective Ken Roberts who is charged with shutting them down.”

    The studio tapped the aforementioned big names to play two of the pivotal roles in the film. Griffiths will play Assange’s mother while LaPaglia will be playing Detective Ken Roberts. The other actors in the film are Callan McAuliffe (The Great Gatsby), Laura Wheelwright (Animal Kingdom) and Jordan Raskopoulos (The Axis of Awesome).

    The producer behind the film, Helen Bowden, gives a few more details about UNDERGROUND:

    “Underground is the incredible, true story of a group of schoolboys in Melbourne who were hacking into the some of the biggest corporate and military organizations in the world, at the dawn of the internet age. It is a fascinating tale and we are very excited to be bringing it to the screen.”

    Wikipedia confirms that the events being portrayed in the film actually happened. Spoiler alert: Assange was caught but never went to jail for his hacking exploits.

    The film will begin shooting on April 16 and will continue for four weeks. That’s a ridiculously short time to film a movie, but I guess it has to be since the film is apparently going to air on Network TEN in the second half of 2012. It will be distributed worldwide by NBC Universal.

    Do you think a film about the early life of Julian Assange would be good? Or would you rather see a film based on his work for Wikileaks? Let us know in the comments.

    [h/t: Mashable]

  • Julian Assange, Wikileaks Founder, Getting Into Politics

    Wikileaks Founder Julian Assange can not sit still. While he is technically still under house arrest in London awaiting the judgment on his extradition hearing, he keeps moving along at a pace that’s hard to keep up with. His newest venture has Assange getting into politics.

    Now, Assange is already a very political man. If you ever listen to to him talk, it’s obvious he wears his political leanings on his sleeve. He’s taking his fascination with world politics to the next level, however, by running for the Australian Senate. Assange is an Australian citizen so there should be no problem with his running, except for that nasty extradition hearing and accusations that he sexually assaulted two young women in Sweden.

    According to Mashable, Australia is totally fine with it. The country’s constitution doesn’t stop anybody from running for office unless they have “been convicted and is under sentence, or subject to be sentenced, for any offence punishable under the law of the Commonwealth or of a State by imprisonment for one year or longer.”

    The Wikileaks Twitter account found this news far too interesting and decided to share Assange’s political aspirations with the world. They also announced their intentions to field a candidate for another district in Australia.

    @wikileaks
    WikiLeaks    We have discovered that it is possible for Julian Assange to run for the Australian Senate while detained. Julian has decided to run. 3 days ago via web ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    @wikileaks
    WikiLeaks    We will also be fielding a candidate to run against Julia Gillard in her home seat of Lalor (Vic). #auspol 3 days ago via web ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    @wikileaks
    WikiLeaks    The name of the Laylor candidate and the state Julian will run for will be announced at the appropriate time. #auspol 3 days ago via web ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    @wikileaks
    WikiLeaks    #Assange4Senate: Here is an article looking at how Julian can run for the Aust Senate from house arrest in the UK http://t.co/317O8wAN 3 days ago via web ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    This isn’t the first crazy thing Assange has done while under house arrest. He has been working on a television series, released a massive leak of emails from Stratfor and even took time out to guest star on The Simpsons.

    Wikileaks Julian Assange on The Simpsons 500th Episode from LeakSource Archive on Vimeo.

    At this point, I think it’s fair to start taking bets on what Assange will do next. Running for the Australian Senate while under house arrest is pretty insane. I can’t even imagine what he’ll do next.

  • Anonymous Releases Symantec Code From 2006, Deface Web Sites

    Anonymous continues its promise of attacking a new Web site every Friday as part of its “Fuck FBI Friday” campaign. The victims this week are New York City Ironworks, Symantec, which should be familiar to anyone who follows the exploits of Anonymous, and the Australian Department of Justice.

    The AnonymousIRC Twitter account let it be known yesterday that the group had taken down the Web site for New York Iron Works. What had this company done to incur the wrath of Anonymous? They supply the police of New York City with the equipment they use. While the defacement is no longer on the main page, the Google cache is still holding on to it. It’s similar to the church attacks last week, but this is in response to the Anonymous arrests made last week due to Sabu betraying LulzSec.

    This isn’t the first time Anonymous has retaliated for the arrests of LulzSec members. They took down Panda Security’s Web sites the day after the arrests for their hand in assisting the FBI with the arrests.

    As always, the text explaining the defacement is informative and entertaining:

    (once again)
    LOVE TO LULZSEC / ANTISEC FALLEN FRIENDS
    THOSE WHO TRULY BELIEVED WE COULD MAKE A DIFFERENCE
    LOVE TO THOSE BUSTED ANONS, FRIENDS WHO ARE FIGHTING FOR THEIR OWN FREEDOM NOW
    LOVE TO THOSE WHO FIGHTED FOR THEIR FREEDOM IN TUNISIA, EGYPT, LIBYA
    SYRIA, BAHRAIN, YEMEN, IRAN, ETC AND ETC AND ETC
    LOVE TO THOSE WHO FIGHTED FOR FREEDOM OF SPEECH, FOR A REAL DEMOCRACY,
    FOR A GOVT FREE OF CORRUPTION,
    FOR A FREE WORLD WHERE WE ARE ABLE TO SHARE OUR KNOWLEDGE FREELY

    LOVE TO THOSE WHO FIGHT FOR SOMETHING THEY BELIEVE IN

    WE ARE ANTISEC
    WE ARE THE NEW AND THE OLD LULZSEC GUARD
    WE ARE THE NEW SHADOW GUERRILLA

    WE ARE THE KNIGHTS OF THE LULZ
    WE LL FIGHT TILL THE END

    TO FBI AND OTHER SHITS
    YOU HAVE OUR LOGS, WE HAVE ALL THOSE PMs AND PRIVATE CHATs U DONT WANT TO MAKE PUBLIC
    YOU REALLY FUCKED IT UP TRYING TO TRAP PEOPLE

    ALL YOUR BASE ARE BELONG TO US

    hello friends!
    As the events are unfolding they are changing the fundamental of history as we know it. But dont be mistaken for, We will fight any individual, organization, corporation, and/or government that hinder our movement. While some of our methods may seem unjust we believe that the action taken is needed. We are fighting the very institutions those are supposed to protect us. Fueled by money and power… the true nature of the government is at best: weak.

    To our fallen brothers Your work has not been forgotten, your skills and teachings has spawn another generation of an elite squander. Like the knights at the round table, we have shared may common interests but let us not forget the game we play. AntiSec is still alive and well. We refuse to let some cheesecake ass player hater snitch divert us from our path in life.. a leader? at best a lame-facebook-user-gangsta-wannabe asshole blogger.. Our numbers are many and our skills are eminence… Jeremy, your presence will always live in our hearts..

    > i lol’d at the lame-fb shit..
    > XD

    The tweet and the defacement call for the release of Jeremy Hammond, one of the hackers arrested last week as part of the FBI sting targeting members of LulzSec.

    This was not the only attack, however, as Anonymous also leaked the source code from Symantec’s Norton Antivirus 2006 onto The Pirate Bay Thursday evening according to a Twitter user by the name of @AnonymouStun.

    Symantec responded to the leak on The Inquirer saying that the source code was from the 2006 edition of Norton AntiVirus and that current users are not at risk.

    @AnonymouStun refutes this by saying that Symantec has been using the same source code since and that it’s even being used in the most recent edition of the software.

    In what may be the final attack to conclude today’s Fuck FBI Friday, Anonymous has also taken down the Web site for the Australian Justice Department and defaced it with a giant ASCII Anonymous logo. Wikileaks, who has quite the history with Anonymous, says the defacement is a response to “Australian government failure to support Australians overseas.”

    If you’re confused, they mean Julian Assange, founder of Wikileaks. He’s an Australian-born citizen fighting extradition to Sweden in the UK courts with a decision to be made regarding said extradition in the near future.

    This may be the end of today’s FFF operations, but they will continue until Anonymous feels they’ve had enough. We’ll keep you updated on any more attacks should they happen today.

  • Stratfor Remains Steadfast Against Wikileaks; Emails’ Content Circulates

    Following a data dump of over five million of their emails by Wikileaks, Stratfor, the global intelligence company caught in the sights of the whistleblower organization, has responded with a statement that seeks to downplay the security breach as well as emails’ import. The company decried the theft as “deplorable, unfortunate – and illegal.”

    While those descriptors may be true, Stratfor attempted to inoculate itself against any potential public relations damage stemming from the content of the leaked materials by claiming that “some of the emails may be forged or altered to include inaccuracies” while others “may be authentic.” However, thus far, it’s not really been Wikileaks’ modus operandi to alter the content of the data they’ve previously leaked. On their website, Wikileaks details the verification process of the documents to receive:

    We assess all news stories and test their veracity. We send a submitted document through a very detailed examination a procedure. Is it real? What elements prove it is real? Who would have the motive to fake such a document and why? We use traditional investigative journalism techniques as well as more modern technology-based methods. Typically we will do a forensic analysis of the document, determine the cost of forgery, means, motive, opportunity, the claims of the apparent authoring organisation, and answer a set of other detailed questions about the document. We may also seek external verification of the document.

    Wikileaks’ explanation of their methodology goes on to acknowledge that while the chance of mistake will always exist, “so far our method has meant that WikiLeaks has correctly identified the veracity of every document it has published.”

    In addition to trying to hold a magnifying glass over Wikileaks’ integrity, Stratfor was adamant about not answering for any of the revelations that could be found in the leaked emails. On whether emails could be authentic or the product of forgery, Stratfor attested, “We will not validate either. Nor will we explain the thinking that went into them. Having had our property stolen, we will not be victimized twice by submitting to questioning about them.”

    On January 11, Stratfor CEO George Friedman buffered the public’s expectation of what may be found in the emails. “God knows what a hundred employees writing endless emails might say that is embarrassing, stupid or subject to misinterpretation.” he said. “As they search our emails for signs of a vast conspiracy, they will be disappointed.”

    In the same statement released by Stratfor, the company affirmed Friedman would retain his position as chief executive.

    Knowledge of the information heist has been known since December when hackers stole a large number of company emails. Julian Assange, the founder of Wikileaks who is currently under house arrest in Britain, told Reuters that the purpose for targeting Stratfor was due to how the company targets “activist organizations fighting for a just cause.”

    So far, some revelations have been tweeted out by Wikileaks official Twitter account.

    @wikileaks
    WikiLeaks    WikiLeaks #GIFiles: Federal Judge Sam Kent: Halliburton may have set me up in double sex case http://t.co/WfPOkzsc 18 hours ago via Mobile Web ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    @wikileaks
    WikiLeaks    WikiLeaks #GIFiles: Stratfor links to Goldman Sacks, Mossad | FDL http://t.co/qCK4aeEy 12 hours ago via Mobile Web ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    @wikileaks
    WikiLeaks    After all our questions to the AU/US/UK/SW governments about US plans to prosecute #Assange, we have to find out in a #wikileaks release… 37 minutes ago via Mobile Web ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    @wikileaks
    WikiLeaks    WikiLeaks #GIFiles: Stratfor paid secret Mid East informant “ME1” US$6000 a month. HALF from StratCap investment fund http://t.co/ppdNqhBK 21 minutes ago via Mobile Web ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    @wikileaks
    WikiLeaks    WikiLeaks #GIFiles: Selected Stratfor payoffs, including to “ME1” http://t.co/2Qu4PWxg 13 minutes ago via Mobile Web ·  Reply ·  Retweet ·  Favorite · powered by @socialditto

    Previously, organizations like The New York Times hosted the leaked materials from Wikileaks on their site in a sort of crowd-sourced investigation of the information, offering readers to share any noteworthy finds they came across. This time around, Wikileaks has been working with different organizations (and more), such as McClatchy, that have been examining the documents. “We have begun reviewing the emails and will publish as warranted,” McClatchy’s Washington bureau chief, James Asher, told Reuters.

    So far, one notable piece of information to come from the Stratfor emails: doctors can’t seem to agree on the health assessment of Venezuela’s president, Hugo Chavez.

    Stratfor CEO Friedman is probably at least partly right that some of these emails will be trivial but no doubt a fleck of gold will pan out here and there as journalists continue to sort through them

  • Wikileaks Founder Supreme Court Appeal Begins

    Wikileaks editor Julian Assange is appealing to the Supreme Court in the U.K. to prevent extradition to Sweden.

    ZDNet is reporting that Assange’s lawyers are laying out their arguments today to the seven law lords of the Supreme Court. The basis of their argument is that Swedish prosecutor Marianne Ny acted beyond her powers in issuing a European Arrest Warrant. They say that the High Court made a bad judgment in recognizing the EAW as valid.

    The argument states that Ny “cannot act as judicial authority” when issuing an EAW. They go on to argue that she “lacks the impartiality and the independence from both the executive and the parties which constitute essential features of the exercise of judicial authority under domestic and European law.”

    In court, the defense attorneys gave the judges 15 volumes of legal findings to back up its arguments. The key point is for the judges to consider the the definition of “judicial authority.”

    For those just joining us, Assange is battling extradition to Sweden over two charges of sexual assault.

    This of course has sprung up conspiracy theories that the U.S. is pulling the strings of Sweden’s push for extradition. It’s not hard to see why when you take into account the embarrassment the U.S. suffered last year when Wikileaks leaked thousands of U.S. embassy documents.

    If his Supreme Court appeal fails, he can appeal to the European Court of Human Rights. The ECHR has 14 days to respond. If the appeal is rejected, Assange will be extradited. If the appeal is accepted, he will remain in the U.K. until the case is resolved.

    We’ll keep you updated on any changes, including the decision, as they happen.

    [lead photo courtesy of acidpolly on flickr]

  • WikiLeaks Founder Getting Into Television

    WikiLeaks Founder Getting Into Television

    WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange might be coming to a TV near you.

    The WikiLeaks blog announced Monday that Assange will be hosting a “series of in-depth conversations with key political players, thinkers and revolutionaries from the around the world.” The theme will be “the world tomorrow.”

    What spurred the creation of the new TV show are the current revolutions and upheavals across the Middle East. The recent attacks on the Internet and the Western collapse of leading political institutions will also feature heavily on the program.

    For those unaware, WikiLeaks publishes leaked documents from private and public agencies around the world to give the public a look into what governments and corporations are hiding.

    Assange, always the humble one, realizes that he is a pioneer for a more just world and a victim of political repression. He will use this to draw together controversial voices from across the political spectrum to offer their unique ideas for a better future:

    “Through this series I will explore the possibilities for our future in conversations with those who are shaping it. Are we heading towards utopia, or dystopia and how we can set our paths? This is an exciting opportunity to discuss the vision of my guests in a new style of show that examines their philosophies and struggles in a deeper and clearer way than has been done before.”

    The series will begin airing in mid-March, in ten weekly half-hour episodes. Initial licensing commitments cover over 600 million viewers across cable, satellite and terrestrial broadcast networks.

    Would you watch a Julian Assange talk show? Let us know in the comments.

  • Assange Granted Permission To Appeal Extradition

    Earlier today Wikileaks founder Julian Assange was granted the right to appeal against his extradition to Sweden. It’s been a little over a year since Assange was detained in London and awaited extradition to Sweden in order to face two charges of sexual assault. The Supreme Court of the United Kingdom has said that it “has granted permission to appeal” due to the great public importance of the issue, which is whether a prosecutor is a judicial authority.” The hearing is scheduled for February 1, 2012.

    The issue is of some importance to followers of this long news saga, some of whom shared their reactions on Twitter. Due to Assange’s polarizing stature, the tones unsurprisingly ranged from welcoming to weary:

    @stavvers
    Zoe    How much is it costing us to keep listening to an Australian who won’t go to Sweden to answer a couple of questions? #Assange 1 hour ago via web · powered by @socialditto

    @x7o
    x7o    Congratulations to Julian Assange. The appeal will be heard. 2 hours ago via web · powered by @socialditto

    @estheraddley
    esther addley    WOW. Supreme Court has granted Julian #Assange permission to appeal against his extradition to Sweden #Wikileaks http://t.co/84zd0kCR 3 hours ago via web · powered by @socialditto

    @billiegirltoo
    billiegirltoo    So much for the supposed conspiracy to take him down>>Supreme Court Grants Assange Right to Appeal http://t.co/7PbrB3c0 41 minutes ago via TweetDeck · powered by @socialditto

    Assange has managed to stay involved in the activities of Wikileaks, most recently appearing at a conference earlier this month in London to speak about government surveillance. Given that it’s taken over a year of judicial foot-dragging to even get to this point, hopefully the brevity of the hearing – two days – will hasten the process of whether Assange ends up getting extradited to Sweden. Have any of you been following this case (I know, it’s kind of easy to forget about given how long it’s stretched on)? What do you think about Assange being granted a hearing next year? Agree or disagree? Comment with your opinion below.

  • Assange to iPhone, Blackberry, Gmail Users: “You’re All Screwed.”

    Yesterday marked the launch of Wikileaks’ newest project, the Spyfiles, following an announcement from Julian Assange while speaking on a panel at the Bureau of Investigative Journalism at the City University of London. Addressing the audience, Assange casually dropped the bomb that a new batch of files uncover the “international mass-surveillance industry.” From the conference:

    In what sounds like the most dystopian novel I’ve ever read, Wikileaks explained the extent of the surveillance operation in a release:

    International surveillance companies are based in the more technologically sophisticated countries, and they sell their technology on to every country of the world. This industry is, in practice, unregulated. Intelligence agencies, military forces and police authorities are able to silently, and on mass, and secretly intercept calls and take over computers without the help or knowledge of the telecommunication providers. Users’ physical location can be tracked if they are carrying a mobile phone, even if it is only on stand by.

    But the WikiLeaks Spy Files are more than just about ’good Western countries’ exporting to ’bad developing world countries’. Western companies are also selling a vast range of mass surveillance equipment to Western intelligence agencies. In traditional spy stories, intelligence agencies like MI5 bug the phone of one or two people of interest. In the last ten years systems for indiscriminate, mass surveillance have become the norm. Intelligence companies such as VASTech secretly sell equipment to permanently record the phone calls of entire nations. Others record the location of every mobile phone in a city, down to 50 meters. Systems to infect every Facebook user, or smart-phone owner of an entire population group are on the intelligence market.

    The Wikileaks release also explains that citizens involved in overthrowing their respective dictators during the Arab Spring this year discovered listening rooms “where devices from Gamma corporation of the UK, Amesys of France, VASTech of South Africa and ZTE Corp of China monitored their every move online and on the phone.” Further, the Spyfiles announcement details how surveillance entities in the U.S., Italy and France have manufactured viruses to infiltrate private computers and smart phones – they’re looking at you, iPhone, Blackberry, and Gmail users – in order to essentially hijack the device and record its every movement.

    Wikileaks cohort OWNI have taken the Spyfiles release and created a remarkably fascinating – and outright terrifying – interactive map to help make sense of this new information to the visually-inclined. Go ahead and play around with it and become scared.

    Not included in the video above is an extended account of how intelligence surveillance isn’t only limited to certain regions of the world:

    But software users in the West are not safe either. Assange and other members of the panel told reporters how Western intelligence services used electronic devices to monitor the activities of its citizens. In Britain MI5 apparently used specialized voice recognition software implanted into cell phones that could make out who was speaking to whom. Other intelligence agencies had the ability to figure out where exactly the user was located, what they were typing and what they looked like. One of the programs allowed agencies to take photos of unsuspecting victims by using cameras implanted into their phones.

    One intrepid tweeter already seems to have corroborated Wikipedia’s claim:

    @SinkDeep
    submarine    This means MX has a “Nationwide Voice Identification and Database Management” or WTF? Scroll to 14:00-14:30 http://t.co/T0VlPcy0 #spyfiles 51 minutes ago via YoruFukurou · powered by @socialditto

    More mysterious is that Wikileaks seems to be experiencing some accessibility issues with their website right now following the release of the Spyfiles:

    @wikileaks
    WikiLeaks    http://t.co/FmXHDt3X is blocked following #SpyFiles release. We are investigating cause, but it isn’t a capacity issue. 25 minutes ago via web · powered by @socialditto

    Not to be crass about what has been a pretty sobering article up to this point, but does this mean that I should hurry up and pay my parking tickets now or is it really just too late to even worry about that?

  • WikiLeaks Slams The New York Times via Twitter

    Yesterday, the New York Times published an article courtesy of Read Write Web that suggested that WikiLeaks was responsible for exposing the sources behind over 250,000 leaked classified cables from U.S. embassies around the world.

    And today, WikiLeaks has responded via Twitter.

    The article published in the Times echoes accusations made by the German news magazine Der Spiegel. They say that a password leaked by Julian Assange and the taking of files by former WikiLeaks spokesman Daniel Domscheit-Berg contributed to the exposure of the unredacted cables – meaning that sources were exposed.

    From the Times article –

    When Domscheit-Berg left last year, he wound up taking a number of files with him, including that of the original cables. At the same time, Assange had given an “external contact” the file’s password so he could examine the materials. Domscheit-Berg returned the materials late in the year, and this year Wikileaks supporters “released a copy of this data collection onto the Internet as a kind of public archive of the documents that WikiLeaks had previously published.” The full, unedited documents were contained within that copy. The password was also apparently published.

    WikiLeaks hit back with this series of Tweets –

    @wikileaks
    WikiLeaks    Totally false that any WikiLeaks sources have been exposed or will be exposed. NYT drooling, senile, and evil. http://t.co/sl8FD6w 21 hours ago via web · powered by @socialditto

    @wikileaks
    WikiLeaks    Sorry, NYT, It doesn’t matter how many sleazy hack jobs like Ravi Somaiya you hire, we’ve out published your Pentagon tabloid already. 19 hours ago via web · powered by @socialditto

    @wikileaks
    WikiLeaks    There has been no WikiLeaks error. There has been a grossly negligent mainstream media error, to put it generously. 8 hours ago via web · powered by @socialditto

    Daniel Domscheit-Berg left WikiLeaks in 2010 due to the release of documents concerning the Iraq War. In early 2011, Domscheit-Berg launched OpenLeaks, a sort of WikiLeaks competitor.

    If things went down like the Times article says they did, that’s bad news for WikiLeaks. Not only does it damage their security cred but it definitely exposes the sources to retributive measures. Of course, as you can see above, WikiLeaks is vehemently denying that they committed any mistakes. Their implications are that the Times is running anti-WikiLeaks propaganda, as Death and Taxes points out.