Assange says heard 'rumours' of U.S. indictment

[IScreamSundays]

Source: Vancouver Sun

LONDON - WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said on Thursday he had heard rumours that he had been indicted in the United States, shortly after he was freed on bail in Britain.

"We have a rumour today from my lawyer in the U.S., which is not confirmed yet, that there has been an indictment made against me in the U.S.," the 39-year-old Australian told reporters.

The founder of the controversial whistleblower website added there were "many more concerns about being extradited to the USA."

His lawyer, Mark Stephens, claimed earlier this week a secret U.S. grand jury had been set up in Virginia to work on charges that could be filed against the WikiLeaks founder.



Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Assange+says+heard+rumours+indictment/3986326/story.html#ixzz18JXf2RGz

Read more: http://www.vancouversun.com/news/Assange+says+heard+rumours+indictment/3986326/story.html

[EFerrari]

1. A secret indictment of wikileaks pretty much would prove their point. n/t

[Pavulon]

2. Grand Juries operate in this way for financial and other crimes.

nothing new or special for assange. Expect conspiracy, at a minimum.

[Bragi]

50. How about "expect Obama to tell hounds to back off"

I guess not.

[PufPuf23]

65. Why not work on those that have admitted war crimes that killed X00,000 based on lies?

They caused more shame and backlash against the USA than WikiLeaks could have a wet dream about.

They weren't working in my interests, were they working in yours? If they were, puke on you.

I actually have little problem of Empire based on enlightenment and love but not violence nor deception.

How do you explain the Honduras WikiLeaks? Of course, anyone paying attention was closer to reality than Clinton, Obama, McCain, et al and the MSM offered to mass consumers of media in the USA.

[Creative]

3. If this is true, Manning may have flipped.

In any case, it appears that his release will be short-lived.

[IScreamSundays]

4. It is easy to get an indictment from a Grand Jury

All they get to hear is the prosecution's case.

[Pavulon]

5. Works that way for everyone. Nothing special for the worlds new hero..(nt)

[RUMMYisFROSTED]

7. Damn information!

DAMN IT ALL TO HELL!!!

[Bragi]

51. You seem overly-concerned about people not hating Assange

Makes me wonder.

[IScreamSundays]

59. It will distress you to learn that the extradition treaties

between the US and the UK is somewhat cloudy. In fact I believe that the current treaty needs further ratification by the UK. I have read a little about the situation recently. Maybe Assange knew what he was doing when he went to London. Sorry, to dampen your hopes.

[Creative]

6. In any case, Assange will have the opportunity to tell his side of the story.

If he has nothing to hide, he should welcome the opportunity.

[glinda]

8. If he comes here he will be found guilty of something. I think it is an attack.

[glinda]

9. And coincidentally just heard on NPR that he was accused of sex with a minor.

[Creative]

11. I don't know about that, I prefer to focus on the issue at hand.

(Did he, or did he not conspire with Manning?)

[glinda]

13. Don't you find it odd that they could not say what charges were when there

were two women involved yet now there is a completely new charge? I know you are focused on another part of this but this is also a portion of something to tweek public opinion.

[Creative]

14. What I find troubling is that the more we find out about this guy, the more he seems like a creep.

If there was only one woman making claims, I might be inclined to simply dismiss it as smoke. However, there seems to be a pattern developing with respect to this guys behavior. As a result, I am less inclined to simply to dismiss these women's claims.

Nevertheless, Mr. Assange has yet to be convicted of anything; therefore, at this point he must be afforded the presumption of innocence.

Having said that, Mr. Assange has some serious questions to answer.

[EFerrari]

15. One woman recruited the other one to file a claim.

And the original one has skipped town to Palestine. I don't see any women making any claims.

I see a smear campaign.

[Pavulon]

25. You are about to see indictments in federal court.(nt)

[Bragi]

52. Really? You have inside info?

Or just speculating based on latest White House statements?

[Pavulon]

67. meh common sense(nt)

[glinda]

43. I haven't found anything that seems creepy to me at all. The whole sex story is flimsy.

[Creative]

44. Are you suggesting that all of these women are lying?

I find your insensitivity to be very troubling.

[glinda]

58. Some would find my statement amazing given all the things that I have been through and survived. I

stand by my statement. My personal opinion.

They never charged him with rape btw. The women never accused him of rape either.

[Creative]

60. Actually, there are three levels of rape in Sweden and at least one of the women

has accused him of "minor rape." It is not clear to me how rape could be defined as "minor," but I didn't make the laws.

In any case, it is interesting to note that many of the same people who were unwilling to cut the Duke lacrosse players any slack, how no problems whatsoever with Assange's behavior. I suppose the only thing that matters to them is whether or not this is hurting the US.

On the train ride to her place, she said, Assange logged on to his computer and started reading about himself on Twitter. "He paid more attention to the computer than to her," the report said.

They got to her apartment at midnight — and what happened next "felt very dull and boring," she told police. She later alleged, according to a British lawyer, that Assange pinned her down and refused to wear a condom.

The other woman's tale also emerges as one of casual, uninspired intimacy...

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=131915816

[Violet_Crumble]

72. 'All of these women'? There's two women who got together to get their 'story' straight...

And it's not insensitive at all to strongly suspect that if they've accused Assange of rape, they're both lying through their teeth. It's common-sense.

[GeorgeGist]

49. Character assassination.

Creative? Not at all.

[Creative]

61. We shall see. But it appears that Manning is cooperating, so perhaps

Assange is not worthy of your worship after all.

[The Flaming Red Head]

24. Well, then if National Petroleum Radio said it, it must be true

I can’t find anything on that. Link please.

[Pavulon]

10. If he is guilty he sure will be.. His life is about to get really crappy..(nt)

[elias49]

21. I find it depressing that you take such joy in this...

"Off with their heads!"
Let them rot in prison!!
:popcorn:

[Pavulon]

23. It would be a shame for manning to take all the time and assange get all his lulz

in the form of groupies.

[elias49]

36. You've made it plain that you don't give 2 shits about Manning

Bullshit happens. Right here.

[Pavulon]

40. i dont give a shit for anyone who touched the files from siprnet

until it hit the hands of a media organization..

[Bragi]

53. You'd like that, apparently /nt

[PufPuf23]

68. This reflects more on those that hold this view than Assange.

I don't do hero worship and can compartmentalize issues.

Bigger crimes that resulted in or covered up innocent deaths were exposed by WikiLeaks (that is not a person). More classified or spoken or compartmentalized info is likely more damninb of our corrupt leadership than anything exposed by Assange if he did two violent rapes (though I understand they were after the fact redefined as unwilling sexual relations and at least one of the women has a questionable past and is not cooperating and has relocated away from prosecutors).

Prosecute and convict Assange all you want but hold the Law of the USA and our treaties and be objective as far as lies and deaths.

[Creative]

12. I "think" a lot of things. I want to know...

beyond a reasonable doubt, about this.

[EFerrari]

17. Since there are no charges against him anywhere

you may wait a while.

[Creative]

18. I'm a patient man, but I may not have to wait that long at all.

Justice Department officials are trying to find out whether Mr. Assange encouraged or even helped the analyst, Pfc. Bradley Manning, to extract classified military and State Department files from a government computer system. If he did so, they believe they could charge him as a conspirator in the leak, not just as a passive recipient of the documents who then published them.

Among materials prosecutors are studying is an online chat log in which Private Manning is said to claim that he had been directly communicating with Mr. Assange using an encrypted Internet conferencing service as the soldier was downloading government files. Private Manning is also said to have claimed that Mr. Assange gave him access to a dedicated server for uploading some of them to WikiLeaks.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/16/world/16wiki.html?_r=2&src=twt&twt=nytimes

[EFerrari]

19. You mean, like Bob Woodward encouraged his sources to leak

classified information to him?

What a bunch of bullsh1t. Journalism is not a spectator sport and the NYTs know that. They won the Supreme Court case that allowed them to print the Pentagon Papers.

Please.

[Creative]

37. The Pentagon Papers...? Clearly, you have no idea what you are talking about.

The Times case did not void the Espionage Act.

Times v. United States...its decision did not void the Espionage Act or give the press unlimited freedom to publish classified documents. A majority of the justices ruled that the government could still prosecute the Times and the Post for violating the Espionage Act by publishing the documents. Ellsberg and Russo were not acquitted of violating the Espionage Act; they were freed due to a mistrial from irregularities in the government's case.<3>

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentagon_Papers

[EFerrari]

46. You're putting words in my mouth. I said, the Times won the case.

And there is no legal expert that believes it will be a walk in the park for Holder to use the Espionage Act in this case.

[Creative]

62. No, I am not. You made a misleading and false statement.

"They won the Supreme Court case that allowed them to print the Pentagon Papers."

However, the fact of the matter is they got off on a technicality.

[Violet_Crumble]

73. Yes, you were putting words in their mouth...

The fact of the matter is they won the case. Deal with it..

[Creative]

74. It is not me that has to deal with it. This is Assange's problem, not mine.

A majority of the justices ruled that the government could still prosecute the Times and the Post for violating the Espionage Act by publishing the documents.

[Violet_Crumble]

75. Actually, it is you who was putting words in the other posters mouth, not Assange...

Which is why you've got to deal with it. Feel free to ask if anything about what I said isn't crystal clear to you!

[Name removed]

77. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[molly77]

27. Creative

Have you heard about our program called Extraordinary Rendition?

[Pavulon]

29. Assange is not that special..(nt)

[Bragi]

54. No, he's like anyone else who dumped 250 thousand docs /nt

[Creative]

38. Yes, I have, but Assange is waaaaaay too high profile for that to happen.

In fact, the high profile nature of this matter has probably prevented his assassination.

And I don't mean assassination at the hands of the US. This guy has opened more than one can of worms.

[Creative]

64. True, but he has indeed flipped.

[Vinca]

16. I'm worried he'll end up in Gitmo, never to be seen again.

[Creative]

20. Don't worry, the are no longer accepting new applications.

[Pavulon]

22. He could end up like gerry bull, but will probably just end up in federal court..

and then prison.

[Creative]

39. The interesting thing about that case is so many people wanted him dead

no one could figure out where to begin the investigation.

Assange is playing this pretty smart though. I wouldn't be surprised to learn that he surrendered to the British in an effort to avoid Bull's fate.

[Pavulon]

41. If he strokes out taking a dump the US will for sure be blamed..

so no matter what the outcome, it will be the US bogeyman ...

[formercia]

26. Rendition

With a blind eye from the Brits.

If I were in his place, I would have some backup.

Sometimes, it's safer in prison.

[Pavulon]

28. Extradition is the word you are looking for

when assange is indicted he will be extradited. Now is someone snatches his ass and flies him somewhere that is rendition.

[The Flaming Red Head]

30. Sending him to a country that tortures like the US is Rendition

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extraordinary_rendition_by_the_United_States

Extraordinary rendition and irregular rendition describe the abduction and extrajudicial transfer of a person from one nation to another.<1> "Torture by proxy" is used by some critics to describe situations in which the United States has transferred suspected terrorists to countries known to practice torture.

[Pavulon]

31. We have extradition treaties in place with the UK. If he is charged here

he will be sent here.. Extradited...

[Bragi]

55. Untrue, but what's that matter? /nt

[formercia]

32. I meant to say Rendition

saves a lot of paperwork and bad publicity, at least for a while.

I would wager there is a JSOC team on standby as we speak.

[Pavulon]

33. He is not worth the publicity.

better to charge him and extradite him. Or let him be and then handle it in some other manner.

[Name removed]

34. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Pavulon]

35. Yep, my inability to fall for the new savior and the common sense approach

to this issue is shocking. Assange is a egomaniac calling for the potus to resign. so yea, I dont have a problem with his life becoming very compact.

Its not just assange, it is every person who touched it who is not employed by a media outlet. they should all be charged and jailed.

[Bragi]

56. Absolutely agree!

This person is incredible mean-spirited.

[Name removed]

76. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Violet_Crumble]

78. What do you mean 'handle it in some other manner'?

Are you suggesting he be killed? I certainly hope not, but given what I've read in other posts on the topic, I really would like to find out from you what you meant...

[Creative]

42. Exactly...he knows that the safest place to be is a British or US lockup.

[Name removed]

45. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Pavulon]

47. They complete me...

red herring.
?w=500&h=413

http://t0.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:kz_g3u013RZCwM:&t=1

[Creative]

63. Looks like I missed some humorous stuff (deleted posts).

[Bragi]

57. Interesting. Some game being played here? /nt

[Name removed]

48. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[lanlady]

66. did Assange provide software to Manning?

I heard on the news, or whatever passes for news in this country, that Assange may have provided software to Manning to enable him to batch download the documents and transfer them to Assange. Hacking with the help of an insider, in other words. Which puts Assange in somewhat different, less heroic light. But I'll wait until all the facts come out before passing judgment on Assange's motives and actions. I'm still shocked that a 22-year-old Army private had such facile access to State Department materials. That's the real kicker in this whole thing.

[Pavulon]

69. That would be the last nail in his coffin if true..

they would both die in prison along with anyone who touched it if that is true.

Robert Hanssen would be jealous of their work.

[defendandprotect]

70. Isn't that part of the irony...? US had given these documents to many ...

[Pavulon]

71. that would be bad for the assange gaggle..

giving manning software to steal data with would be an aggravating factor at sentencing.