WikiLeaks Demands Google & Facebook Unseal US Subpoenas

[Hissyspit]

Source: Guardian

WikiLeaks demands Google and Facebook unseal US subpoenas
Call comes after it emerges that US has tried to force Twitter to release WikiLeaks members' private details

guardian.co.uk, Sat 8 Jan 2011 13.50 GMT
WikiLeaks has demanded that Google and Facebook unseal any US court subpoenas they have received after it emerged that a court in Virginia had ordered Twitter secretly to hand over details of accounts and use of the micro-blogging site by five figures associated with the group, including Julian Assange.

- snip -

The court order crucially demands that Twitter hand over details of source and destination Internet Protocol addresses used to access the accounts, which would help investigators identify how the named individuals communicated with each other, as well as email addresses used.

The emergence of the subpoena appears to confirm for the first time the existence of a secret grand jury empanelled to investigate whether individuals associated with WikiLeaks, and Assange in particular, can be prosecuted for alleged conspiracy with Manning to steal the classified documents.

- snip -

The subpoena itself is an unusual one known as a 2703(d) which a recent Federal appeals court ruled was insufficient to order the disclosure of the contents of communication. Significantly, however, that ruling is binding in neither Virginia – where it was issued – or in San Francisco where Twitter is based.

Read more: http://m.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jan/08/wikileaks-calls-google-facebook-us-subpoenas?cat=media&type=article

[Joanne98]

1. WikiLeaks demands Google and Facebook unseal US subpoenas

Source: The Guardian

WikiLeaks has demanded that Google and Facebook reveal the contents of any US subpoenas they may have received after it emerged that a court in Virginia had ordered Twitter to secretly hand over details of accounts on the micro-blogging site by five figures associated with the group, including Julian Assange.

Amid strong evidence that a US grand jury has begun a wideranging trawl for details of what networks and accounts WikiLeaks used to communicate with Bradley Manning, the US serviceman accused of stealing hundreds of thousands of sensitive government cables, some of those named in the subpoena said they would fight disclosure.

"Today, the existence of a secret US government grand jury espionage investigation into WikiLeaks was confirmed for the first time as a subpoena was brought into the public domain," WikiLeaks said in a statement.

The writ, approved by a court in Virginia in December, demands that the San Franscisco based micro-blogging site hand over all details of five individuals' accounts and private messaging on Twitter – including the computers and networks used.



Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/jan/08/wikileaks-calls-google-facebook-us-subpoenas

[Frank Booth]

2. The headline is misleading.

Only the court at this point has the power to allow the targets of the subpoena to be notified. Google and Facebook can and should ask the court for such an order, however.

[EFerrari]

3. It's interesting, though. Wikileaks sure can demand the subpoenas be unsealed.

The targets do have to go to court to get them unsealed but there's no reason why Wikileaks has to sit there passively while all this goes down.

[EFerrari]

4. It's true -- January really IS National Stalking Awarenes Month!

http://www.ovw.usdoj.gov/

[Frank Muller]

5. The Devil?

I think Julien Assange is just trying to save the world from bigger lies. In Europe people are more open to handle critics.