WikiLeaks about to hit the fan

Who’s afraid of wiretap-friendly social media?
(By Willemien Groot, Radio Netherlands, 11 May 2012)

The micro-blogging service Twitter is standing behind one of its users in a row between the firm and the United States justice department. US authorities are demanding that Twitter hand over one of its member’s messages. Twitter has contested the order, arguing that users are the ‘owners’ of their content.

Twitter filed a motion in a New York state court after a subpoena ordered the firm to disclose user information on Malcolm Harris, a New York-based writer who was arrested at an Occupy Wall Street protest last October.

Harris and hundreds of other campaigners have been accused of disorderly behaviour for blocking traffic on Brooklyn Bridge during the march. Prosecutors claim tweets by Mr Harris would prove that he knew about police instructions ordering protesters not to block traffic.

The Harris case is not an exception. During the 2010 WikiLeaks probe, a US judge ordered Twitter to disclose information about three of its account holders - Birgitta Jonsdottir, a member of the Icelandic parliament, US computer researcher Jacob Appelbaum and Rop Gonggrijp, a Dutch volunteer for WikiLeaks. Twitter only handed over the data after a district court judge upheld a ruling by a US magistrate judge.

Dutch Green Left MP Arjan El Fassed is calling on other internet service providers to clarify their position on privacy regulations – transparency will attract more customers, he says. Authorities in the Netherlands are allowed to ask internet providers for information on their users, but it remains very unclear how often they request information and whether the internet companies actually hand it over.

El Fassed has asked the government to release statistics on the matter but it refused. The government says it would jeopardise specific cases being investigated by the public prosecutor’s service.

The Green Left MP says there are no guidelines on who is authorised to request personal data, how often that information is requested and on what grounds it’s justified. Legislation on telephone wiretaps has been adopted; so, for El Fassed, it’s time to adopt similar regulations for internet use.

While police authorities register whenever user information is requested, they don’t keep any records of whether the user was informed about the handover of that information, which is actually required by law.

El Fassed has decided to take action himself.

“Social media has to be transparent. Authorities have to be open about the rules and rights of the user, because we’re living in a police state. Companies have to make clear to their clients and users what they do if the authorities knock on the door. They have to demonstrate that they will act with reserve if faced with such requests.”

In the US, technology website CNET [1] claims the FBI has asked internet companies like Microsoft, Facebook, Yahoo and Google to build in backdoors for government surveillance. Because of the shift from telephone communication to internet, it’s harder for the FBI to wiretap suspects. So, they’ve proposed a law requiring social-networking sites and providers of VoIP, instant messaging and email to alter their code to ensure their products are wiretap-friendly.

El Fassed is concerned about the extension of surveillance powers. We should at least preserve whatever protection we have, he pleads. People have to realise that once you give away your privacy rights, they’ll be gone for good.

Twitter is the only social media service which upholds the principle that tweets are private property. If the provider is approached by authorities anywhere in the world to hand over account holder information, then the user will be notified. Google has not taken the same position but it does explicitly list which authorities approach it for data in its Transparency Report.

Google and Twitter understand that their clients value their privacy, says El Fassed. They should promote this as a competitive selling point. “And then users would be rewarded for having trust in them.”

The police would protect the protesters if those inconvenienced decided to take matters into their own hands.

Iranian Hanged For Nuclear Scientist Murder May Have Died Because Of WikiLeaks Leak
(The Huffington Post UK | By Charlie Lindlar | May 16, 2012)

A man hanged in Iran on Tuesday for allegedly murdering a nuclear scientist may have been implicated by an illegally leaked cable published by WikiLeaks.

It has been reported that Majid Jamali Fashi, a 24-year-old martial arts expert, was accused of killing Iranian scientist Massoud Ali-Mohammadi on behalf of Israel, only one month after the leaks website released a cable from the USA's Azerbaijani embassy implicating the involvement of someone with a vaguely similar description to Fashi.

According to experts, this may have given Iran the pretext to arrest Fashi, who had attended a kick-boxing tournament in Baku, Azerbaijan, only weeks before in August.

A year following the death of Dr Ali-Mohammadi, killed by a bomb outside his Tehran home in 2010, the Iranian authorities arrested 10 'spies' who they alleged had links to the Israeli intelligence agency, Mossad.

Amongst them was Fashi, who was later shown on state television confessing to the murder.

Fashi's trial was then held in secret with the authorities not disclosing how they caught the 10 'spies', whose fates remain unknown.

The cable, dated 1 September 2009, revealed that a source, identified as an Iranian "licensed martial arts coach and trainer", told the US that Iran was pressuring martial arts clubs to teach the regime's guards and militia how to deal with protesters during the violence that broke out after the controversial re-election of President Ahmadinejad in 2009.

Birmingham University's Scott Lucas, a respected authority on Iran, told The Times: "It could have been used as a pretext against him; to set him up as a person who could take the fall for the assassination."

Another expert, Ali Ansari, who is head of the Institute for Iranian Studies, condemned the WikiLeaks release, saying: "I have always considered the release of the WikiLeaks files, without consideration for those consciously or unconsciously named in them, to be grotesquely irresponsible."

... May Have Died Because Of WikiLeaks Leak

one case offered by wande is, as JT says, a maybe. Which implies a may not be.

Julian Assange to find out next week if he will be extradited to Sweden on sex charges
(By John Aston, Press Association, May 23 2012)

WIKILEAKS founder Julian Assange will find out next week if he is to be extradited to Sweden to face sex crime allegations.

Lawyers for Assange had asked the UK's highest court to block the move, claiming the European arrest warrant issued against was "invalid and unenforceable".

A panel of seven Supreme Court judges, who heard the case in February, will give their judgment next Wednesday.

The Swedish authorities want Assange, 40, to answer accusations of raping one woman and sexually molesting and coercing another in Stockholm in August 2010 while on a visit to give a lecture.

Assange, whose WikiLeaks website has published a mass of leaked diplomatic cables that embarrassed several governments and international businesses, says the sex was consensual and the allegations against him are politically motivated.

In November 2011, the High Court upheld a ruling by District Judge Howard Riddle - who sat at Belmarsh Magistrates' Court, south London, in February 2011 - that the Australian computer expert should be extradited to face investigation.

If the Supreme Court rejects his appeal it will mark the end of his lengthy legal battle in the UK, but it will still be open to him to ask the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg to intervene.

GI seeks dismissal of 10 counts in WikiLeaks case
(David Dishneau, Associated Press, May 24, 2012)

HAGERSTOWN, Md. — An Army private charged in a massive leak of U.S. government secrets to the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks is seeking dismissal of 10 of the 22 counts he faces.

Pfc. Bradley Manning's civilian defense lawyer posted the motions on his website Wednesday night. A military judge will hear oral arguments at a pretrial hearing starting June 6 at Fort Meade, Md.

Manning contends eight of the counts are unconstitutionally vague. He claims two other charges fail to state a prosecutable offense.

Manning faces the possibility of life in prison if convicted of the most serious charge, aiding the enemy. He is being held at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas.

He allegedly sent WikiLeaks hundreds of thousands of classified diplomatic cables and war logs downloaded from government computers.

Live tonight: Julian Assange extradition judgement
Updated May 30, 2012 18:26:20/ABC News

London's Supreme Court is due to hand down its judgement in WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's extradition case tonight. Follow developments in our live blog

Live tonight: Julian Assange extradition judgement
Updated May 30, 2012 18:47:09

London's Supreme Court has ruled that Australian WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange should be extradited to Sweden to face allegations of sexual assault.

Follow developments in our live blog.:

"I think there is a great danger that Julian Assange may well not only end up going to Sweden but also through to the US.

The Australian Government now should take a greater interest in this case and certainly supply all support that it can."

~ Independent federal government MP Rob Oakeshott

Assange to get consular support - PM
(Australian Associated Press, May 30, 2012)

The Prime Minister Julia Gillard says Australia will provide consular services to Julian Assange, who has lost his appeal against extradition to Sweden.

The Opposition Foreign Affairs spokeswoman Julie Bishop said the Australian Government must provide unqualified support for Mr Assange in consular terms.

"He deserves and should receive the same level of consular support that any Australian citizen should expect in these circumstances," Ms Bishop said.

Swedish prosecutors have sought Assange's extradition from the UK so he can be questioned about claims by two women that they were sexually assaulted by Assange in Stockholm in August 2010.

No warrant on Assange: US envoy
(Mark Baker, The Age, June 1, 2012)

The United States has denied it is secretly preparing legal action against Julian Assange as supporters of the WikiLeaks founder explore fresh legal moves to stop his extradition to Sweden to face rape allegations.

US Ambassador to Australia Jeffrey Bleich yesterday rejected as ''an invention'' claims that Washington was preparing a warrant for the arrest of Mr Assange over WikiLeaks' role in publishing thousands of secret US diplomatic cables last year.

''There is no such thing as a secret warrant. Period. They don't exist,'' Mr Bleich said.

Mr Assange lost on Wednesday a UK Supreme Court appeal that sought to prevent him being sent to Sweden.

But his legal team was granted 14 days to submit an application to reopen the appeal after it was argued a majority of the judges had based their decision on an interpretation of the Vienna Convention on the Law of Treaties, a point of law not argued at the appeal hearing.

Assange supporter Geoffrey Roberston, QC said there were ''technical possibilities'' to challenge the ruling, but he said they were unlikely to prevent eventual extradition.

Mr Bleich said the US had no interest or involvement in the British legal proceedings. ''This is a matter relating to UK and Swedish extradition laws, it had nothing to do with the US. I don't think we care at all.

''People want to create a story but there's absolutely no basis for the US to be interested in this. We're not involved.''

Earlier Mr Assange's mother, Christine Assange, accused the Australian government of failing to give him proper support.

"[They have been] absolutely useless, in fact contrary to help, they've done everything they can to smear Julian and hand him up to the US,'' she said.

But Foreign Minister Bob Carr said Australian officials had made considerable efforts to ensure Mr Assange received proper consular support since he was arrested in Britain in December 2010.

''As far as I can tell, there's been no Australian who has received more consular support in a comparable period than Mr Assange,'' Mr Carr said.

He said consular staff in London had been present at all his legal hearings, had contacted lawyers when he was released on bail and had helped him with family visits while in detention.

Australian officials had also made representations to Swedish authorities to ensure ''due process'' applied in any legal proceedings there.

Opposition foreign affairs spokesman Julie Bishop also accused the government of prejudicing Mr Assange's chances of a fair hearing.

''I'm deeply concerned by the prejudicial statements that have been made by government ministers in the past about Mr Assange, particularly Attorney-General Roxon who said that he had fled from Sweden, a highly prejudicial statement to make in the middle of extradition proceedings,'' she said.

''Likewise the Prime Minister said that Mr Assange had done an illegal act when referring to the publication of the WikiLeaks cables. She's never identified any Australian law that Mr Assange has broken.''