[philo]

Wikileaks good for us or bad for us?  Seems like the website hosting has withdrawn from hosting it along with the servers who do not want to host the website either following pressure from the US government. 

What do people think?

[erm, sam]

Leak away muthafuka. States are not to be trusted so the more info we have on the shit they are doing in our name the better. I really loved the stuff on the abject patheticness of british politicians concerning the "special relationship" with the US. Seems the Americans were almost sickened by how much the UK wanted to blow them.

[Matt]

http://www.economist.com/node/17629833
 

[erm, sam]

I knew as soon as I posted that somebody would be along to present a more reasoned view that one could get carried away with leaking.

[philo]

what worries me is they can actually stop people from doing it.  What country can wikileaks turn to so that they will be able to host away without being taken down?  I guess the next step would be to stop access to them?  china google wouldn't happen over here! oh wait...

[robertostallioni]

right hand side, loads of available URLs....

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

[Sloper]

Perhaps the US need to improve their data security regime?

[robertostallioni]

If these leaking shenanigans are to continue, and whilst I enjoy finding out this shit, it will harm US external relations. Rather than tightening security(V difficult) i can see the septics turning the "Miss-information" up to 11. Much easier to cloud the waters than keep them clean.

I want the Alien stuff to come out next, by the way.

[Sloper]

Tightening security to the point of no leaks is impossible, tightening to prevent leaks on this scale is piss.

Disable computers to stop saving to USB data sticks etc,
Prevent forwarding to non network (approved) recipients,
Monitor emails / adressees and suspend automatically when data volumes / atatchments exceed x.
Restrict document formats and use specialist soft ware.

Misinformation, far too late.

The problem is that this will impair diplomatic relationships both intra and ex partes, the good thing is that it lifts the veil on a lot of things and should result in better governence and cleaner politics.

[tomtom]

Whether you agree with what he's doing or not... I think the way Assange is slowly being stitched up is

1. Pretty sad
2. Unfortunately enevitable.

I'd be interested in what he has in his 'folder to be released if he is imprisoned' or if it is a bluff....

[Sloper]

I don't find the idea of a stich up very appealing, there are two women claiming to be victims and the case ought proceed, of course it is convenient, but that's bye the bye.  To diminish the validity of their complaints or limit the manner in which the same are investigated on the basis of the web based acitivites of Assange is way out of order.

Will the US et all be looking to do everything they can to undermine his credibility?  One might argue no, as that would make things worse, of course the conspiracy theory is much more fun so carry on.

[tomtom]

I fear the stitch up continues sloper...
Yes - I agree Sloper it would be easy to let this all become a conspiracy but,..

His Swiss bank account has been closed due to 'discrepancies with his home address' which sounds like turfing him out on a technicality

His native australia is investigating whether or not they can prosecute him...

His lawyers repeated claims that he/they have tried to talk to the Swedish prosecutors (the warrant is for an interview not for charges..).

Agreed - if he's a sex pest then let him get done for that.. but if you were one of the governments 'inconvenienced' by this would you be putting all political might that you could into making his life uncomfortable. I do hope that wikileaks is set up so its not just a one man band,....

[Sloper]

I'm no expert on Swiss banking law so cannot comment on the reasons why his funds are frozen, but suffice to say if there's a real whiff of shit the bank will not normally disclose the real reason in fact in England  & Wales to do so is a criminal offence.

As for Oz and others looking to prosecute, well holy fucking statement of the obvious batman . ..  . You opened pandora's box and all you found at the bottom was an international arrest warrant (F, H  & C being otherwised engaged on X Factor).

[superfurrymonkey]

I thought the chief prosecutor in Sweden dropped the case against him.

"In a statement late on Saturday afternoon, the prosecutors office said both charges had been dropped and it was no longer seeking Mr Assange’s arrest."

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/5bee5d7a-ad40-11df-a85a-00144feabdc0.html#axzz17N82II1y

[Bubba]

That still stands I believe, but now they just want to interview him regarding the allegations.

[Snoops]

Whether you agree with what he's doing or not... I think the way Assange is slowly being stitched up is

1. Pretty sad
2. Unfortunately enevitable.

He' s either  incredibly brave or  plain crazy. Something tells me he's either going to 'have a car accident' or maybe 'he's just going to slit his wrists in some woods' cause it all got a bit much..........

[Bubba]

From the way Wikileaks is being mirrored all over the place, torrents available, etc; it must now be clear to US authorities that whatever happens to him, this won't stop easily.

The guy's not stupid, there will be mechanisms in place to continue his work even if he's jailed, "disappeared" or the keys to the sites are taken from him.

The whole thing is reminding me a little of Napster. The music industry crushed Napster in an attempt to stem p2p file sharing, but look what happened....

[slackline]

Of course he'll try to escape this afternoon and "trip" down the stairs 

The Daily Mash are so frequently spot-on with their satire and piss-takes.

[Jaspersharpe]

Assange has been refused bail and remanded til the 14th.

[tomtom]

Assange has been refused bail and remanded til the 14th.

Fucking disgusting. As if he could 'hide' anywhere.. its just to silence him.

I didnt think we were living in a nazi state...

[butters]

Fucking disgusting. As if he could 'hide' anywhere.. its just to silence him.

I didnt think we were living in a nazi state...

The refusal to grant bail probably has more to do with the fact he has been keeping low key since the allegations in Sweden by moving about regularly and has a habit of changing his phone etc. at about the same frequency as I change my underwear than his inability to hide anywhere. Admittedly the police in this country haven't been very proactive in seeking him out though and I suspect it wasn't till the fact he was resident somewhere in this country was made public a couple of days ago that they even gave it a second thought.

Bit difficult to silence him though - he has made sure that the documents are out there in the public domain both by download and by giving copies to more than one newspaper. Now the government could possibly silence the newspapers but all it takes is the release of the encryption key to the download and it is out.

[Jaspersharpe]

The more sinister aspect of all this is the actions of PayPal, Visa, Mastercard etc stopping taking donations to Wikileaks.

[Sloper]

The more sinister aspect of all this is the actions of PayPal, Visa, Mastercard etc stopping taking donations to Wikileaks.

Not at all if their c&C bods were advised that they might be funding a criminal enterprise (the threashold is low q.v our money laundering regs) then this is their only option; they can't afford not to cease & desiste etc.

[philo]

and how exactly can they see it as a criminal activity?  Donations are donations no?  What would happen if lord ashcroft donated say, a few billion of untaxed £££?

[Sloper]

No, they're not.  It's a bit like donating to the Continuity IRA, I can't believe it's not the IRA etc and you'll find out the difference.

Very simple really.

if you're deemed to be suspect of criminal activity then most finance houses wil have a duty to suspend transactions; google monely laundering regulations and str etc

I could bore you about this all night but I need a smoke and a small scotch.