LONDON (AP) — Julian Assange’s lawyer was arranging on Monday to deliver the WikiLeaks founder to British police for questioning in a sex-crimes investigation of the man who has angered Washington by spilling thousands of government secrets on the Internet.
Lawyer Mark Stephens told reporters in London that the Metropolitan Police had called him to say they had received an arrest warrant from Sweden for Assange. Assange has been staying at an undisclosed location in Britain.
“We are in the process of making arrangements to meet with police by consent,” Stephens said, declining to say when Assange’s interview with police would take place.
Scotland Yard refused to comment.
The 39-year-old Australian is accused of rape and sexual molestation in Sweden, and the case could lead to his extradition. He has denied the accusations, which Stephens has said stem from a “dispute over consensual but unprotected sex.“ The lawyer has said the Swedish investigation has turned into a ”political stunt.”
The pressure on WikiLeaks mounted from other quarters Monday: Swiss authorities closed Assange’s bank account, depriving him of a key fundraising tool. And WikiLeaks struggled to stay online despite more hacker attacks and resistance from world governments, receiving help from computer-savvy advocates who have set up hundreds of “mirrors” — or carbon-copy websites — around the world.
In one of its most sensitive disclosures yet, WikiLeaks released on Sunday a secret 2009 diplomatic cable listing sites around the world that the U.S. considers critical to its security. The locations include undersea communications lines, mines, food suppliers, manufacturers of weapons components, and vaccine factories.
Pentagon spokesman Col. David Lapan called the disclosure damaging and said it gives valuable information to the nation’s enemies.
“This is one of many reasons why we believe WikiLeaks’ actions are irresponsible and dangerous,” Lapan said.
WikiLeaks has been under intense international scrutiny over its disclosure of a mountain of classified U.S. cables that have embarrassed Washington and other governments. U.S. officials have been putting pressure on WikiLeaks and those who help it, and is investigating whether Assange can be prosecuted for espionage.
In what Assange described as a last-ditch deterrent, WikiLeaks has warned that it has distributed a heavily encrypted version of some of its most important documents and that the information could be instantly made public if the staff were arrested.
For days, WikiLeaks has been hounded by governments, hackers and companies that have forced it to move from one website to another. WikiLeaks is now relying on a Swedish host. But WikiLeaks’ Swedish servers were crippled after coming under suspected attack again Monday, the latest in a series of such assaults.
It was not clear who was organizing the attacks, but WikiLeaks has blamed previous ones on intelligence forces in the U.S. and elsewhere.
WikiLeaks’ huge online following of tech-savvy young people has pitched in, setting up more than 500 mirrors.
“There is a whole new generation, digital natives, born with the Internet, that understands the freedom of communication,” said Pascal Gloor, vice president of the Swiss Pirate Party, whose Swiss Web address, wikileaks.ch, has been serving as a mainstay for WikiLeaks traffic.
“It’s not a left-right thing anymore. It‘s a generational thing between the politicians who don’t understand that it’s too late for them to regulate the Internet and the young who use technology every day.”
Meanwhile, the Swiss postal system’s financial arm, Postfinance, shut down a bank account set up by Assange to receive donations after the agency determined that he provided false information regarding his place of residence in opening the account. Assange had listed his lawyer’s address in Geneva.
“He will get his money back,” Postfinance spokesman Alex Josty said. “We just close the account.”
Assange’s lawyers said the ccount contained about $41,000. Over the weekend, the online payment service PayPal cut off WikiLeaks and, according to his Assange’s lawyers, froze $80,000 of the organization’s money.
The group is left with only a few options for raising money now — through a Swiss-Icelandic credit card processing center and accounts in Iceland and Germany.
Monday marked the first day that WikiLeaks did not publish any new cables. It was unclear whether that had anything to do with the computer attacks.
____
John Heilprin contributed to this story from Geneva. Anne Flaherty and Alicia A. Caldwell in Washington, Raphael G. Satter in London and Malin Rising in Stockholm also contributed.
___
Online:
http://wikileaks.ch
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dizzyinthedark
Posted on December 7, 2010 at 7:34amBarry said he wanted to bring more transparency to Government, well here it is and probably why we don’t see him responding to any of it. Thank you Mr. ‘Helper’ for pushing us closer to the edge of destruction!
Report Post »jreb50
Posted on December 7, 2010 at 4:32amThat’s appropriate. The British police carry no weapons.
Report Post »New-American-Saviors
Posted on December 7, 2010 at 4:31amLet’s see if Britain is really our ally. I worked in a Police agency once where we had the highest number of Suicides by Hanging in the Entire Metropolitan area. Purely coincidental.-True Story.
Report Post »pattybbb1
Posted on December 7, 2010 at 1:15amwikileaks………may be a diversion. leaks on purpose? always right on time. planned? something to think about because we are playing with NWO wantabees…….
Report Post »Tired_of_the_lies
Posted on December 7, 2010 at 1:08amWorth repeating:
“The first ingredient of civil society is the people’s right to know, because without such understanding no human being can meaningfully choose to support anything. Knowledge is the driver of every political process, every constitution, every law and every regulation. The communication of knowledge is without salient analogue. It is living, unique and demands its rightful place at the summit of society.”
– Julian Assange, 2010
Report Post »Insipid
Posted on December 6, 2010 at 11:55pmAll this mess is going to end up creating more regulation and costing us another nudge of freedom. It wont be long until content will be filtered in a manner similiar to China. I hope my hunch is wrong but I am truly concerned.
Report Post »heavyduty
Posted on December 6, 2010 at 11:53pmIt’s not nice to screw with AMERICA. She will stick in your backside and make you like it. I think he is finding this out.
Report Post »M 4 Colt
Posted on December 6, 2010 at 11:51pmThe U. S. needs to make it a point to CRUSH this guy under our boot, remember when Obama wanted to do this to B.P,oil by putting his boot on their throat, well now he really needs to do it to protect our country and not just some publicity stunt for the MSM like he did with the B.P. oil spill stunt..
But so far we have not heard a word from him about this, all i can say is heaven help us if a real emergency comes up in light of all this information being dumped like say a real war between north and south Korea because this jack ass will be at a lost, as what to do and our country will be in real peril then.
Report Post »Internet AnchormanTV
Posted on December 6, 2010 at 11:48pmWhen we allow government to determine who has the right to free speech it is a sad day in America.
Report Post »http://www.youtube.com/user/Fabian4Liberty?feature=mhum
bertr
Posted on December 6, 2010 at 11:47pmi see the police taking him in anyway, the code getting released and the 99% of the rest of the classified documents coming to view in the next few days, damned if they do damned if they dont but we may awaken to a very scarry world in a few days. This may be the breaking point.
Report Post »Conserving Ink
Posted on December 6, 2010 at 11:45pmIf these crimes happened in the Swiss/Norway/Finland areas there is the added complication that in some of these countries the age of consent is around 12.
Report Post »______________________________________________________________
http://conserving-ink.blogspot.com/2010/12/government-we-didnt-elect.html
GeauxAlready
Posted on December 6, 2010 at 11:44pmAssange is just a tool. The little American Traitor who sent the files is the one we need to waterboard. Some how I find it hard to believe this kid worked alone. Then we need to stand him in front of a wall, give him a smoke, say some kind words. Then put six in his chest……………….
Report Post »dontbotherme
Posted on December 6, 2010 at 11:15pmOk…. so, where will he stand trial for the rape charges? Any buddy know?
Report Post »joseph Fawcett
Posted on December 6, 2010 at 11:12pmWow to it all, there is a real cyber war going on, just like a movie or somthing! Kind of exciting to see who will win the Gov or the tecties! I bet the tecties!
http://www.josephfawcettart.com western artist
Report Post »snowleopard3200 {mix art}
Posted on December 6, 2010 at 11:22pmThere is a third possibility to consider too. Both sides lose by a third party intervention, most likely a large government of another hostile power, and smash them down along with much of the internet.
Report Post »New-American-Saviors
Posted on December 7, 2010 at 4:33amDraw this !
Report Post »NickDeringer
Posted on December 6, 2010 at 11:03pm“WikiLeaks’ huge online following of tech-savvy young people has pitched in, setting up more than 500 mirrors.”
This may be too little, too late. America will suffer incalculable damage from this. Hey. Isn’t about time for Oblame-a to go on another golf trip?
Report Post »snowleopard3200 {mix art}
Posted on December 6, 2010 at 11:21pmOnly info for future trips and events scheduled appears to be a trip on Feb 19, 2011 to Canada.
Report Post »ADMIRAL747
Posted on December 6, 2010 at 10:57pmWaterboard him!!
Report Post »TXPilot
Posted on December 6, 2010 at 11:08pmSince it doesn’t look like anyone can stop the damage from being done, we should at least have the satisfaction of making an example out of him. Let Eric Holder put him on trial…spend millions of tax payer dollars, and finally give him a tiny slap on the wrist….yep, that would fix him good…….arghhhh!!
Report Post »13thGenerationAmerican
Posted on December 6, 2010 at 10:53pmThe truth is still the truth though, isn’t it
I can handle the truth, it‘s the lies I can’t stand, I won’t tolerate it.
Report Post »FED-UP-AND-READY-TO-TAKE-ACTION
Posted on December 6, 2010 at 11:01pmThis guy is about to reap a load of seed he have sown……………. VICTORY OR DEATH
Report Post »snowleopard3200 {mix art}
Posted on December 6, 2010 at 11:10pm@Fed up
A few days ago I posted that this guy was dancing with the dragons when you play on a international level; and they do not take very kindly to being awakened or threatened. Indeed he has sewn the seed to the winds and will now reap the harvest that is to come.
I see three major events that may come out of this action as of right now…
First. Our own government will use such an ‘emergency’ or ‘event’ to further cut off the US from the internet, or so heavily burden the access to it everyone will howl in protest leading to further usage of control and abuses of power.
Second. The ‘time bomb’ or whatever he has called it, will be released one way or another, in his own words. He failed to understand that he is only a very small minnow in the world; the nations will be able to survive, in spite of any damages and chaos he is seeking to score.
Third. Do not be surprised if he just up and ‘disappears’ into the night; not necessarily as in ‘dead’ just in ‘gone from sight’ for a time – I doubt his ego will let him stay gone for long.
Report Post »komponist-ZAH
Posted on December 6, 2010 at 11:39pmNice joke, 13th.
Report Post »heavyduty
Posted on December 6, 2010 at 11:56pmYeah, he is going to meet with them in about 40 years maybe. If he was innocent he wouldn’t be hiding. I think he is finally realizing that he has bitten off more than he can chew. Like they said his info isn’t limitless. He will run out one of these days.
Report Post »snowleopard3200 {mix art}
Posted on December 7, 2010 at 1:48amLet this matter be solved in the simplest of ways; let him be brought to trial if there is sufficent evidence to do so, and then have the trial in accordance to that nations laws. Let it be done out in the open to show across the board it to be fair and as close to judiciarily impartial as possible.
Report Post »Polwatcher
Posted on December 7, 2010 at 5:35amMoral of the story: Don’t piss off the King (or Queen).
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