The Sydney Morning Herald: WikiLeaks to drop another bombshell. - Turismo Associati

WIKILEAKS has revealed plans to publish a new tranche of secrets, this one seven times larger than last month's massive 400,000 military reports about the Iraq war.

The announcement comes days after Swedish authorities issued an arrest warrant for the organisation's editor, the Australian citizen Julian Assange, following a two month investigation into allegations of rape.

WikiLeaks announced on Twitter yesterday afternoon: "Next release is 7x the size of the Iraq War Logs. Intense pressure over it for months."

It has published two massive tranches of secret US military reports about the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq - 77,000 files on Afghanistan in July, and 400,000 files on Iraq last month. It has not discussed where the material came from. But US authorities have charged a soldier, intelligence analyst Bradley Manning, over the thefts.

Mr Assange has been in England since leaving Sweden in August after publicity surrounding the allegations made by the two women.

Both had separate and brief sexual liaisons with the WikiLeaks editor while he was there, and both allege they had consensual sex with him, but that he refused to wear a condom.

Mr Assange and his supporters have alleged he is the victim of a US-initiated smear campaign as a result of his work.

"I request the District Court of Stockholm to detain Mr Assange in his absence, suspected of rape, sexual molestation and unlawful coercion," the Swedish Director of Prosecutions, Marianne Ny, said last week.

In a statement the same day Mr Assange's London lawyer, Mark Stephens, said the allegations were "false and without basis". He also said Mr Assange has repeatedly offered to be interviewed.

"All of these offers have been flatly refused by a prosecutor who is abusing her powers by insisting that he return to Sweden at his own expense to be subjected to another media circus that she will orchestrate."

Author: Dylan Welch - Source: smh.com.au

# 1

There seems to be a new way to accuse celebrities of sexual assaults: make the claims through the media. Ask actor Charlie Sheen or Wikileaks founder Julian Assange.

Adult film actress Capri Anderson told Good Morning America on Monday that she planned to file a criminal and civil complaint against the star of Two And A Half Men for assault and false imprisonment. It stems from a rowdy night in a New York City hotel, a fairly common occurrence where Sheen is concerned.

So far, at least, no international warrant has been issued for his arrest. Of course Anderson actually hasn't filed her complaint so leaking it to the media was putting the cart before the horse a bit.

But Sheen is having to defend himself. He already is the laughing stock of such shows as Craig Ferguson, who often warns Sheen to put the hooker back in the closet. Sheen already has a history of allegations of domestic violence.

Now, Assange may or may not have the entire force of Interpol looking for him but much of the media has abandoned coverage of the alleged war crimes he has uncovered.

Swedish prosecutors insist they need him arrested to question him on allegations of rape and sexual molestation allegedly committed in the third week of August. Whether Assange offered to be questioned or not at the time as he and his lawyers claim, he definitely was in Sweden for more than a month after the allegations were leaked to a tabloid Aug. 21.

Prosecutors have yet to explain why they didn't swoop down on him, turn on the Gestapo lights and give him the third degree. At least they could have brought him in and questioned him.

Even now it remains clear that if an international arrest warrant has been issued, why hasn't he been picked up. His lawyers say that could take two weeks because of paperwork and an appeal of the warrant itself.

For me, choosing between who to take it on the lamb with would be easy. Sheen would go to Aspen; Assange to Iceland. (Source: huffingtonpost.com)

By Redazione (inviato il 23/11/2010 @ 09:43:57)