back to article UK cops have warrant to cuff Assange, talking to his lawyer

Julian Assange's lawyer said he is talking to the Metropolitan Police this morning, after which he and his client will decide what to do next. A European arrest warrant has been issued for Assange. Scotland Yard said this morning it would not be commenting until an arrest was made. This might be a job for them, or for another …

COMMENTS

This topic is closed for new posts.
  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    About time

    this numpty has had his day, and now with luck will pay the price.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Black Helicopters

      S.Y.F.F.U.F.

      Damn right, we need to take him out like Terrence and Phillip because if we don't stop him now he'll leak that there is no Santa Clause.

      Think of the children!

      1. Lionel Baden
        Unhappy

        Huh!!

        What do you mean there is no santa !!!

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Thumb Down

      I Doubt

      Luck will play any part in the process. He will be subjected to a well planned screwing at the hands of the people you eagerly enjoy bending over for.

  2. Dekken
    FAIL

    For what?

    What law(s) has he broken?

    What crimes has he been accused of?

    None. The only lives he has put at risk are those of the useless diplomats/politicians who gamble with lives. The troops are in no more risk than they ever were (which is a shit load, but hey, they're not my kids dying to put extra money in some gobshites pocket.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Putting a life at risk is _NOT_ a criminal offence

      Putting a life at risk may be morally despicable, abhorrent and unacceptable to any normal human being. It is not, however, a criminal offence. Violating a specific law is.

      I am not going to comment regarding the rape allegations, it is a different story.

      Everything else he has done so far is not an offence where he resides or in the country of his citizenship. NATO should blame only itself for not going for a uniform and mandatory secrets regime for all member countries. If it had one this would have been a crime anywhere in Europe sans Sweden and Switzerland. Not that this would have stopped Assange from emigrating to let's say Venezuela or Zimbabwe.

      Disclosing USA state secrets is not a crime anywhere in Europe, so he has so far not committed any crime regarding the current round of leaks. Now, his "pending disclosure" of bank stuff is a different matter. There he may run afoul of banking and data protection legislations nearly anywhere.

    2. Random Glitch

      What laws..

      I think possession of classified documents wherein you are not the intended recipient and distribution of said data contravenes the 'Official Secrets Act' (UK legislation). Presumably also what ever the equivalents are in other countries.

      That said I think it is a shame.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        As far as I know...

        ...all the cables are the property of the USA, and whilst there are cables that mention the UK, they are not technically UK secrets. I would hope that the UK Official Secrets Act does not allow for prosecution of a non-UK national for the possession / distribution of non-UK 'secrets'...

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        none

        > I think possession of classified documents wherein you are not the intended recipient and

        > distribution of said data contravenes the 'Official Secrets Act' (UK legislation).

        > Presumably also what ever the equivalents are in other countries.

        >

        > That said I think it is a shame.

        He is being arrested on another unrelated charge: I wonder if the ladies who accused him are real?

        1. Random Glitch

          re: none

          Re: He is being arrested on another unrelated charge: I wonder if the ladies who accused him are real?

          I realised I should have qualified that better; it was in response to Dekken's question of "What law(s) has he broken?"

          Given the nature of the leaks, any charges brought against him will be met with sceptasism.

          Probably not harming wikileak's ad profits though! (joking)

      3. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        What laws?

        'Official Secrets Act' (UK legislation). I thought to be in contravention of that you had to sign it in the first place? It may be that all that inconvenient nonsense has been done away with of course...

        1. Stratman

          title

          Re. What laws

          "'Official Secrets Act' (UK legislation). I thought to be in contravention of that you had to sign it in the first place? It may be that all that inconvenient nonsense has been done away with of course..."

          The Official Secrets Act applies to everyone in the UK regardless of whether they have signed it or not.

          The signing bit is to scare those who may potentially come into conflict with it, such as MOD civil servants like my eldest son.

        2. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Official Secrets Act applies.

          as the act is a law, not a contract, and individuals are bound by it whether or not they have signed it.

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Big Brother

    fgdfgb

    I love how people (media and government officials) seems to think that if they "get" Assange, Wikileaks will somehow end. Surely they know that he is just the founder and it will carry on without him pretty much as if he was still around.

    But then they think the same about "al quaida" as well don't they.

    1. Mark 65

      He's not even the founder

      "Was Wikileaks your idea as many assumed?

      I don’t call myself a founder.

      Nobody really knows about the founders, says Wikipedia …

      Yes. This is simply because some of the people in the initial founding group are refugees, refugees from China and other places. And they still have family back in their home countries."

      He is a co-founder at best by his own admission and attributes much of the work to Chinese dissidents. He is the editor in chief though and perhaps has elected himself as "man with target on back" to keep the heat off of others.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Troll

    just wandering...

    I am not sure how to put this, so forgive my ignorance... if after he is arrested, the police make any type of reference to WikiLeak, then what can he do? Technically, his arrest (on the surface) is not politically motivated and have absolutely nothing to do with WikiLeak. He is being arrest for a sex offense. But once he is arrested, if the police start to make clear references to WikiLeak, what happens then?

    1. Stratman

      title

      Investigations will continue. If other information comes to light it too will be investigated.

      Peter Sutcliffe, aka The Yorkshire Ripper, was arrested over a set of false number plates.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Troll

        @Stratman, 7th December 2010 13:16 GMT

        thanks for the reply, but that wasn't the question I was trying to ask.

        if after his arrest, he notice that he being heavily questioned about WikiLeak instead of the sex charge. This could/would mean that his arrest is politically motivated and have nothing to do with the sex charges. What happens then? after all, he is already in the police's hands.

        1. Stratman

          title

          I hope and expect his brief will keep the questioning confined to the rape allegations. If Plod strays into fishing territory m'learned friend's advice should be to say nothing.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    It is yet another bit of history repeating

    http://www.fandango.com/mortdunpourri_v136405/summary

    Or its IMDB entry:

    http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0076410/

    It is rather unsurprising that the British establishment and its right arm - the Beeb have done everything in their power for this movie to never be seen on the screen in Britain. Not that USA is any different. Looking at the cast that did took some effort

    It has been shown on prime time TV in every other European country. In some (Russia) more than once.

    Same story as we have with Assange today, but 30 years back in the years of photocopying with a camera instead of download sites and newspapers instead of the Internet. With what will probably be the same logical ending for all participants.

    1. Lionel Baden

      probably nothing cynical about this

      as most people know the british dislike the french in general, and this is also reflected in their viewing habits

      i know of very few french films personally.

  6. Sir Runcible Spoon

    Sir

    From the BBC web page covering his arrest..

    "Mr Assange is accused by the Swedish authorities of one count of unlawful coercion, two counts of sexual molestation and one count of rape, all alleged to have been committed in August 2010"

    Is it just me, or have I been hearing about the alleged sexual assaults since before August?

    If you put all this in a film, people would be moaning about how implausable it all was and what a lame plot device to get him into custody.

    Step 2 will be the extradition request to the US on trumped up charges (now that he is in custody).

    Lame plot guys.

  7. xyz Silver badge
    Happy

    I'm just waiting for the kiddy porn stash to be found....

    ...as well as the news he killed Cock Robin and sank the Titanic.

    So, we've got Amazon, Paypal and a host of others (sic) who we now know are ar$e lickers to "The Man" and all because the US gov can't control their data and have staff whose clearances are above their mental capacity.

    I still find it very, very funny. It's like everyone finding out that your missus has been shagging around and you blaming the bloke that told them about it.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Joke

      "Well, technically

      my marriage wasn't in trouble until you told me- I was perfectly happy and she was just getting a bit of what I wouldn't give her.

      But now, there's pressure to dump her, she's embarrassed and has run off, and our relationship's in tatters.

      So it's YOUR FAULT! HOMEWRECKER!"

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Alert

    Aust links

    open letter published by 200 notable figures denouncing Gillard's treatment of Assange:

    http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/12/07/3086962.htm

    "...without foundation, it pre-empts the outcome of any proceedings, it denies him the presumption of innocence and it prejudices his right to fair trial." -- Spencer Zifcak

    Alternate Australian news site:

    http://www.sbs.com.au/news/

    1. Mark 65
      Troll

      Gillard

      Gillard is an irritating tw*t at best (and ginger, and Welsh - think female Kinnock) with an utter inability to even address a question posed, instead preferring to recite a PR script from memory which often contains the same incredibly nauseating catchword over and over again. I though Rudd was a pillock but I have an infinite respect for the man as a statesman when compared to this mindless muppet.

      Troll because it's the nearest likeness.

  9. Colin Miller

    The keys to the fort

    ... have already been passed to person(s) unknown.

    If Julian had any sense he'd have forseen his arrest, and given root access to someone he trusts. That person is under strict instructions, that if/when Julian is arrested she is to immediately revoke Julian's access keys, and to continue his work with her keys.

    Further, I'd suspect there are cron jobs running on wikileaks to push out the rest of the documents, and another one on some shared host that will post to several forums the decrypt key to the "Insurance Document" if Julian fails to log into that shared host often enough.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Pirate

      The "insurance" document may be a big error

      Since if he threatens to release it unless some given action is made or not made doesn't that come under the heading of blackmail?

    2. Sam Liddicott

      Insurance

      Don't forget he already posted his "insurance" file - encrypted.

      Expect the keys to pop-up soon

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      nah, you'd be better

      creating a key that'll only work once, THEN cause the revoking of other keys.

      That way, you can give the police what they need and be nice and legal. But when they come to use it again they've not got access!

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Troll

      @Colin Miller, 7th December 2010 10:56 GMT

      if he still have root access to the servers after all this mess, then he is an idiot*. Any way, I honestly don't believe that he is the one handling the maintenance of the servers, someone else should have been doing it for sometime now.

      1. Colin Miller

        reasons not to block his own access

        He may already have revoked his root access when he went into hiding; we probably won't ever know.

        Given that, on *NIX based systems, it is normal to login as yourself, and then to sudo to root, your root access can be blocked without affecting the other admins.

        If someone else blocked his unprivileged account or elevation to root, then he (probably, IINAL) isn't committing a crime under RIPA; if he blocked his own access once he had good grounds to suspect his arrest, then he might be.

  10. ShaggyDoggy

    McKinnon

    Basically, the US authoritah's screwed up over McKinnon, so now they are trying to get thier dominant position back over Assange. Lamers.

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Pardon my French, but...

    Bugger these possibly spurious sex charges, and bugger how the hell he came to be in possession of stolen US classified documents - he's now putting BRITISH lives at risk by publishing that damned US National Interests listing that details BRITISH companies and sites that are apparently vital to US interests - including nuclear engineering stuff, for gawd sake. It's a terrorists target list, for crying out loud.

    The man's a bloody maniac, and MUST be stopped. The Official Secrets Act is but one tool for the Police to use; the Theft Act another (Handling stolen property). However they get the madman, I bloody hope they do it toot sodding sweet.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Thumb Up

      Yes

      Have to admit your correct there. I was a bit dubious about all this until that document was released, and its amusing to see large governments squirming.

      However, I cannot think of any benefit to anyone other than terrorists of that particular list.

      It certainly doesnt expose government double dealing or meddling or anything, it just puts people at risk. The line is now crossed IMHO.

      Its a real shame, because I *really* wanted to see precisely how the banks were screwing us over, and the governments now have the moral authority to lock him away in a dark hole forever.

      1. adrianww
        Stop

        Let's face it...

        ...if the local terrorist cells _really_ needed that list in order to work out likely targets to attack, then they're probably too stupid to do anything other than blow themselves up by accident.

        I mean, have you actually read the thing? If you apply the slightest bit of thought - even in the absence of any detailed local knowledge - most of it just looks like a list of bleeding obvious candidates!

    2. Anonymous Coward
      FAIL

      who is the maniac?

      dude, if it's such a big deal to have that list floating about, why did the US give "up to 3 million" SIPRnet users access to it?

  12. adrianww
    WTF?

    On the one hand...

    ...I don't think Julian Assange's approach to running the show and his Secret Agent Man lifestyle have done WikiLeaks any favours. He certainly comes across as a bit of an attention seeker and that distracts from the actual content.

    On the other hand, it certainly also looks as though various governments are trying to stitch him up.

    The puzzle I find myself pondering is why? Over the last few days, I've been wandering around various WikiLeaks mirrors reading some of the cables that have been released so far and I've yet to find anything that is remotely embarrassing, surprising or warrants the whole brouhaha that is currently going on. They're largely diplomatic cables between US embassies or officials and their own Government offices! What in the holy hell did the massed idiots of the world EXPECT them to contain? They're ALL pretty much going to be US-centric. They're ALL going to contain assessments of international situations with occasional candid comments about other countries, their leaders, their economies or umpty dozen other things that make up day-to-day diplomatic traffic. They're ALL going to contain references to situations and events that highlight the fact that NO government is whiter than white and ALL governments engage in all manner of dodgy and dubious practices in the name of furthering their own national interests while trying to maintain some kind of international balance between their assorted friends and enemies.

    Now, I'll freely admit that I haven't read all of the stuff that has been released so far (because I've actually got a life), but I've looked over a fair few and there really just doesn't appear to be anything even mildly surprising in there. It's all just banal, run-of-the-mill stuff that I would have expected to see. And as for the stuff that has been picked up by the media, I mean, so what! So a member of the Royal Family can be a bit of a silly gobshite - shock horror! Kim Jong-Il is a bit of porker - cor I never knew that! Lots of other boring, boring, boring, boring, booooooring crap that anyone with two brain cells to rub together could probably have predicted.

    All of which, of course, makes the apparent attempt by the US government (and others) to demonize Assange even more of a WTF??? Haven't these people heard of the Streisand effect?

    Oh well, I suppose it makes a change from sports coverage or the latest economic doom and gloom mongering...

    1. Cool Hand Luke

      Couldn't agree more.

      Exactly. The stuff that's been release is hardly Top Secret, hush hush, on the QT now is it?

      The media have whipped this up into an almight frenzy as they always do and people buy it hook, line and sinker.

      For a site that you need some semblence of intelligente to be interested in the subject matter, some of the comments posted on here smack of people who just want to read or hear what fits their agenda.

      When this is all over somone should pay the people at snopes to go through wikileaks.

    2. Blofeld's Cat
      Thumb Up

      Indeed

      I quite agree. It was always unlikely that there would be any really dramatic revelations from these cables, although it is nice to find out that some "rumours" actually had a basis in fact.

      This is after all very low-level classified material that about three million people had legitimate access to. I also imagine that the friends and enemies of the US have been reading this stuff for years anyway. Perhaps some of the cables were put there just for that purpose.

      The PFC who is alleged to have taken the material chose to send it to Wikileaks, but I would not be astonished to learn that other legitimate users have been passing this stuff directly to the "enemy".

  13. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Trainers on?

    "after which he and his client will decide what to do next"

    #stare at each other# RUN! (in unison)

  14. Winkypop Silver badge
    Megaphone

    Bin Laden 0 Assange 1

    A new game in town.

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Alien

    Mars fossil conspiracy?

    My theory about the "insurance" file:- among other things it contains proof that NASA and the U.S. Govt have been suppressing knowledge of current and past complex life on Mars, and elsewhere.

    Expect something about the "Wow" signal as well.

    A certain page which no longer exists presented evidence that NASA airbrushed details out of the raw data from the Spirit and Opportunity rover images, showing clear evidence of fossils, and in one case deliberately destroyed one by grinding it up trying to take rock samples with the RAT. (Morons!)

    Heads up Feds, once the key is out there its a whole new ball game.

    AC, because he recalls what happened to Mckinnon...

  16. Grease Monkey Silver badge

    Whistle Blowing?

    "now putting BRITISH lives at risk by publishing that damned US National Interests listing that details BRITISH companies and sites that are apparently vital to US interests - "

    Now I'm not sure he's putting lives at risk as such, however I'm sure he's gone way beyond his on remit. Wikileaks is supposed to be (as the media are so keen to tell us) a whistle blower. Whistle blowing is generally taken to mean calling attention to some sort of malpractice or other. Most of the stuff published on Wikileaks recently has not been about whistleblowing, it's just been about showing that the US establishment leaks like a leaky thing with holes in it. I think we know that now.

    I don't have an opinion on the sex crimes, they could be made up they might not be. I certainly can't agree with those who assume that they are made up simply because he's pissing off the US. Does that mean that he could go out and commit any crime and you'd believe him innocent?

    I do however wish he'd stop showing off and do the job he claims to do. Simply publishing any and all classified documents is not whisltle blowing.

    When will the keys to the insurance file show up? Will they ever show up? Is there anything in there worth knowing? Is there anything in there that we don't know already?

This topic is closed for new posts.

Other stories you might like