Interpol Issues ‘Red Notice’ for Arrest of WikiLeaks’ Julian Assange
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By Kevin Poulsen
- November 30, 2010 |
- 5:42 pm |
- Categories: Wikileaks
The international police organization Interpol has issued a Red Notice for the arrest of WikiLeaks’ founder Julian Assange, in connection with a sex crime investigation in Sweden.
A Red Notice is kind of international wanted poster seeking the provisional arrest of a fugitive, with an eye towards extradition to the nation that issued the underlying arrest warrant. Interpol transmits the notices to its 188 member countries, including Britain, where Assange is believed to be located. Interpol has no authority to compel a subject’s arrest. It issued 5,020 Red Notice last year for a variety of crimes.
A terse extract of Assange’s notice appeared on Interpol’s website Tuesday, without a photograph, reporting that the 39-year-old Australian is wanted for “sex crimes” by the International Public Prosecution Office in Gothenburg, Sweden.
A Swedish judge on Nov. 18 ordered Assange “detained in absentia” to answer questions in a rape, coercion and molestation investigation in Stockholm. A court approved an international arrest warrant for the ex-hacker two days later, at which point Sweden reportedly applied to Interpol for the Red Notice. Assange’s lawyer appealed the detention order to the Svea Court of Appeal, but lost. Assange filed a new appeal Tuesday to the Swedish Supreme Court.
The investigation stems from separate encounters Assange had with two women during his August visit to Sweden, where he was applying for Swedish residency and attempting to secure the protection of Swedish free-press laws for his secret-spilling website. According to local news reports, the women told investigators the sexual encounters began as consensual, but turned non-consensual. One woman said Assange ignored her appeals to stop when the condom broke.
Assange has denied any wrongdoing, and hinted that the complaints are the result of a U.S. “smear campaign” targeting WikiLeaks — leading some supporters of the group to publicly investigate the two women and their families.
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Wikileaks founder Julian Assange takes his seat during a press conference in Geneva, Nov. 4. Photo: Keystone, Martial Trezzini/AP
On Sunday, he outraged top U.S. officials and sent shock waves through the world of global diplomacy when he began rolling out a leak of a quarter-million U.S. State Department diplomatic cables that revealed the private views of U.S. diplomats towards foreign leaders around the world.
The Obama administration is exploring possible criminal charges against Assange under the Espionage Act, The Washington Post reported Monday — in what would be a virtually unprecedented move against a journalistic organization.
In a statement earlier this month, Assange’s British counsel said that his client repeatedly offered to cooperate with local investigators while he was in Sweden, and has offered to answer questions remotely from Britain since then.
“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,” wrote attorney Mark Stephens. “Pursuing a warrant in this circumstance is entirely unnecessary and disproportionate.”
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This is what happens when you show a little light of truth about our criminal governments, they will falsely accuse you and make you disappear, sometimes you just disappear. So much for open and honesty with the Obama regime.
If this was anyone else, would Interpol really be involved? Really?
If this was anyone else, would they just happen to encounter the daughter of a high US diplomat and just happen to have sex with her in sweden, a country with the worlds most lax laws regarding rape accusations and the encounter just happens to turn handily nonconsentual.
What’s next, Julian Assange goes on a drunken rage in a hardware store, he tips over a shelf which falls on a laptop and the random letter combination it types turns out to hack into US missile control and launch some nukes at North Korea?
Of course this is a smear campaign! America’s military meshugganas, diplomats, intelligence agency crooks and politicians don’t want this WikiLeaks’ ability to reveal everything they do to continue. These criminals are frightened to death by the truth. How do you think they can continue to control American public opinion, foreign policy and YOU when an entity devoted to full disclosure and truth exists? Face facts, the dark current of evil that runs beneath the flow of American life wants Assange dead. And American business is even more terrified of the truth. Assange and WikiLeaks have a big target on their heads and half of America wants to kill the truth at any cost.
It’s freakin about time! This spooky dude needs to have “an accident,” and I don’t say that lightly. However, when one deliberately put others lives in harms way, people that are helping to fight “Islamic Facism,” well, perhaps the world would be better off without that individual.
NOte – Please, before replying, any of you juvenile anarchist out there need to finish high school first (-:
Totally obvious they will contrive anything to bring this guy down. This is the very type of corruption he is exposing! Sooner or later this krap will be “leaked” as well. Soon, the truth will be illegal to reveal on every level. Facism plain and simple.
Maybe it’s just me and my level of cynicism has gone beyond the pale, but it’s just amazing to see the number of individuals who’ve gone hyperbolic on this wikileak incident. So let see, the US Government has been lying and fabricating information to it’s own people and to the rest of the world. Other Government in the world at large have been lying and fabricating informatin to the world and to their own people. Human beings talk trash behind the backs of other people, whoop-di-doo, what a hoot. Let’s see, the Chinese have been cyber attacking everyone, what a surprised, I’m amazed. This is news! Where have you been for last ten plus years. Anyone with a good traceroute program can see it. These attacks aren’t only coming from China. North Korea is shipping enriched uranium to Iran. The Saudis have been taking our money and yanking our chain for years. The Saudis are secretly afraid of Iran, and want the Israels and the US to take Iran out, at our expense. Israel is cyber attacking Iranian nuclear facilities. Hamid Karzai is a raving lunatic and has swindled the US out of some 20 Billion dollars, most of it is probably in a Swiss bank account. Walls Street and the big Banks constitute the biggest Ponzi Scheme in history. The news media is inept, it doesn’t really report news (i.e. facts and real information). They just sit around spouting of personal opinions(They always end everything with a smile, like some David Lynch surrealistic movie). This list goes on and on and on and on an on and on, and yet people act like Pandora’s box has opened. It’s been wide open and obvious for some time. The world for the most part is being run by a bunch of individuals with the mentality of eighteen year old self entitled prima donnas all dedicated to their own sense of self importance; alway with those never smiling little smirks. Kinder-garden is in session and all the adults are comatosed, but we’re all living in the safety zone and it’s all fine.
Every day I feel more like an orphan in Zombie land.
Rather than going after Assange, I’d like to see the effort going towards stopping cyber attacks from China, but that’ll will never happen because big business will just rationalize it as being the cost of doing business. They keep stealing or our secrets and brain drain will be the new outsourcing paradigm. The secrets are out, but most people already new this. Hey kill the messenger and everything will be peachy keen. Out of sight no thinky thinky, and we can all go shopping.
Telling the truth these days is very, very, very dangerous. Assasination is not out of the question.
@ MJ3
You’re a disgrace to the human race, but I wouldn’t ever say that you ‘need to have an accident’.
I think the bigger issue here is that the condom broke. Honestly – I’ve never had a condom break. What the hell are these people doing that causes condoms to actually break? Am I missing out on something?
@MJ3
Lives?
possibly..
Careers… definitely.
Far too many times things are “Secret” because someone screwed up and doesnt want to be fired. Either in an election or the old fashion way.
Wikileaks is doing what the Press SHOULD have been doing for the last 30 years.
Secrecy for the sake of secrecy breeds the most vile kinds of corruption and incompetence.
with as much as this guy is in the news interpol couldn’t find a photo??? perhaps someone can show them how the google works.