http://www.aawsat.com/english/news.asp?section=1&id=23233
Authorities Seek WikiLeaks Founder; Website Moves
02/12/2010
The homepage of the WikiLeaks.org website is pictured in Beijing. (R)
File photo of Wikileaks founder Assange listening during a news
conference in London. (R)
In this photo illustration, a "WikiLeaks" graphic is displayed on a
laptop in a cafe in New York. (AP)
WASHINGTON, (AP) - The U.S. government, apparently aided by freelance computer
hackers, chased WikiLeaks from an American commercial computer network and
temporarily stopped the leak of embarrassing diplomatic documents. But within
hours, the website was back online, publishing from a fortified bunker in
Sweden.
The virtual chase Wednesday was mirrored by a real-life pursuit as European
authorities hunted for the site's fugitive founder, Julian Assange, who is
wanted in Sweden on rape charges.
Undeterred, Assange continued releasing confidential government documents. Some
showed how the Obama administration and Congress helped persuade Spain not to
pursue charges against members of George W. Bush's administration for allowing
torture of terrorism suspects.
Amazon.com Inc. prevented WikiLeaks from using the U.S. company's computers to
distribute State Department communications and other documents, WikiLeaks said
Wednesday. The WikiLeaks site was inaccessible for several hours before it
returned to servers owned by its previous Swedish host, Bahnhof, which are
housed in a protective Cold-War era bunker. Tech blogs have compared it to a
lair from a James Bond movie.
"We have been under attack and we have had to move to different servers,"
WikiLeaks spokesperson Kristinn Hrafnsson said. "But we have ways and means to
bypass any closure in our services."
Amazon's move to evict WikiLeaks from its servers came after congressional
staff called the company to inquire about its relationship with WikiLeaks, Sen.
Joe Lieberman, the Connecticut independent, said Wednesday.
"The company's decision to cut off WikiLeaks now is the right decision and
should set the standard for other companies WikiLeaks is using to distribute
its illegally seized material," Lieberman said in a statement. He added that he
would have further questions for Amazon about its dealings with WikiLeaks.
The White House said it was taking new steps to protect government secrets
after WikiLeaks released thousands of sensitive U.S. diplomatic cables.
Officials said national security adviser Tom Donilon has appointed a senior
aide to identify and develop changes needed in light of the document dump.
Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard called WikiLeaks' publication of
classified documents "an illegal thing to do" on Thursday.
But Gillard did not indicate Australia was about to take legal action against
Australian-born Assange. The country's attorney general reiterated that
authorities are investigating whether Assange has broken any Australian laws,
but have not yet reached a conclusion.
The White House on Wednesday spurned a call from Assange for Secretary of State
Hillary Rodham Clinton to step down if she had any role in directing U.S.
diplomats' spying on other foreign leaders. "Mr. Assange's suggestion is
ridiculous and absurd, and why anyone would find his opinion here relevant is
baffling," said spokesman Tommy Vietor, adding Clinton was doing an
"extraordinary" job. The White House said U.S. diplomats do not engage in
spying.
Clinton was in Astana, Kazakhstan, enduring repeated comments about the
WikiLeaks disclosures as she met with foreign officials at a conference of
international leaders.
Among those she met with was Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, who had
been described in newly released U.S. diplomatic cables as "feckless" and a
party animal.
"We have no better friend, we have no one who supports the American policies as
consistently as Prime Minister Berlusconi has, starting in the Clinton
administration, through the Bush administration and now the Obama
administration," she said during a summit of the Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe.
The WikiLeaks matter was discussed in virtually all of Clinton's private
one-on-one meetings with European leaders and foreign ministers during the
summit meeting Wednesday.
Assange remained a fugitive Wednesday, shadowed by the Europe-wide arrest
warrant. A German security official, speaking on condition of anonymity because
no authorization was given to discuss the legal steps, confirmed that a warrant
for Assange had been issued in that country.
Hrafnsson noted the "interesting timing" of the warrant but said Assange had
gone into hiding for another reason: "If you think about the threats we've
heard about our people, and against Julian, it's very natural and
understandable that his location is kept secret."
Assange's London-based lawyer, Mark Stephens, complained his client had yet to
receive formal notice of the allegations he faces - something Stephens
described as a legal requirement under European law. The lawyer added that
Assange had repeatedly offered to answer questions about the investigation, to
no avail.
The exact nature of the allegations facing Assange isn't completely clear.
Stephens has in the past described them as part of "a post-facto dispute over
consensual, but unprotected sex." Even Swedish prosecutors have disagreed about
whether to label the most serious charge as rape.
Formal charges have not been filed, but a detention order issued Nov. 18 at the
request of Marianne Ny, Sweden's Director of Public Prosecution, remains in
force pending an appeal by Assange. The case is now before Sweden's Supreme
Court.
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
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