Assange

Move over Jay Leno. Watch out David Letterman. The next person getting his own talk show is none other than WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange.

Touting the new series on its Web site yesterday, WikiLeaks proclaimed that the show would feature in-depth conversations between Assange and "key political players, thinkers, and revolutionaries from around the world" all focusing on the theme of "the world tomorrow."

Calling Assange "a pioneer for a more just world and a victim of political repression," the WikiLeaks press release dubbed him uniquely qualified to conduct global discussions on how to … Read more

The U.S. Justice Department will be allowed access to WikiLeaks-related Twitter accounts, including information about what Internet and e-mail addresses are associated with them, a federal district judge ruled today.

The 60-page ruling from U.S. District Judge Liam O'Grady in Virginia represents a second victory for the Department of Justice, which sought the court order as part of a grand jury probe that appears to be investigating whether WikiLeaks principals including editor Julian Assange violated American criminal laws.

"The Twitter order did not violate the Constitution," O'Grady concluded. In addition, he said, there was … Read more

WikiLeaks editor Julian Assange has lost his bid to avoid extradition to Sweden to face questioning over allegations of sexual assault.

On Wednesday, the High Court in London said the 40-year-old Australian must comply with an extradition ruling made by chief magistrate Howard Riddle in February. Assange has been living in the U.K. under bail while his appeal was heard.

Assange's lawyers argued that the WikiLeaks editor would not be able to get a fair hearing in Sweden and that the Swedish prosecutor making the extradition request is not qualified to issue the European Arrest Warrant served on … Read more

WikiLeaks has been forced to shut down its secret-divulging operations until it can raise cash, the organization announced today.

"We are forced to temporarily suspend publishing whilst we secure our economic survival," the group said in a statement. "For almost a year we have been fighting an unlawful financial blockade. We cannot allow giant U.S. finance companies to decide how the whole world votes with its pocket. Our battles are costly."

On a special "Donate" page, WikiLeaks argues that Visa, MasterCard, PayPal, Western Union, and Bank of America have "tried to economically … Read more

The Library of Congress says it was not responsible for categorizing a WikiLeaks-related book as "extremist" and that it has decided to removed that label.

A spokesman for the library told CNET today that it adopted that classification in its catalog automatically after another major library system--apparently the National Library of Australia--had applied it to a recent book about the document-leaking Web site. Librarians call this practice "copy cataloging."

"Copy-cataloging was the method used for the book in question," Library of Congress spokesman John Sayers said. "With the huge quantity of material it … Read more

WikiLeaks editor Julian Assange has appeared at the Royal Courts of Justice on the first day of a High Court bid to avoid extradition.

On Tuesday, the court began hearing an appeal by Assange against a decision by Belmarsh Magistrates' Court in February to send him to Sweden for questioning about allegations of rape and sexual coercion.

His defense barrister, Ben Emerson, kicked proceedings off on Tuesday by arguing that the actions behind the allegations of sexual misconduct against Assange would not be judged offenses under British law.

Read more of "Julian Assange's extradition appeal kicks off" … Read more

Shortly after the hackers with the AntiSec online activist campaign announced the release of about 90,000 military e-mail addresses and other data purloined from Booz Allen Hamilton, AntiSec followers on Twitter were anticipating a second data dump.

The Twitter account of someone believed to be a main operative in the AntiSec hacking campaigns, AnonymouSabu, warned on Sunday: "ATTN: Tomorrow will be two of the biggest releases for Anonymous in the last 4 years. Everyone brace. This is literally explosive."

After the Booz Allen Hamilton (BAH) release, AnonymouSabu tweeted: "ATTN Intelligence Community: BAH Is just the beginning. #… Read more

Adrian Lamo, the ex-hacker who became notorious for turning in alleged Wikileak-er Bradley Manning, says he has no regrets about his role in aiding the U.S. Army's criminal prosecution of the young soldier.

"Sometimes you need to consider the good of the many versus the good of the one," he told CNET in a recent interview. Lamo says he's scheduled to talk with prosecutors in Manning's case today for the first time and expects to be called as a witness in future proceedings.

In April, Manning was declared fit to stand trial on a … Read more

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange says Facebook, Google, and Yahoo are actually tools for the U.S. intelligence community.

Speaking to Russian news site RT in an interview published yesterday, Assange was especially critical of the world's top social network. He reportedly said that the information Facebook houses is a potential boon for the U.S. government if it tries to build up a dossier on users.

"Facebook in particular is the most appalling spying machine that has ever been invented," Assange said in the interview, which was videotaped and published on the site. "Here we have … Read more