Posted on 08/02/2010 12:06:22 PM PDT by atomic conspiracy
The 39 year-old told journalists at the Frontline Club last night that US government insiders had informed him about discussions to charge him as a co-conspirator to espionage.
The discussions were later dropped.
Mr Assange says despite this he still fears he is at risk of being forcefully detained by the US government as a material witness in the prosecution of US intelligence analyst Bradley Manning.
Mr Manning, 22, was arrested in Baghdad in May and charged earlier this month with multiple counts of mishandling and leaking classified data, after a computer hacker turned him in.
In the United States an authority has the right to detain and hold a material witness for an indefinite period to ensure they give their testimony in a criminal investigation.
The Wikileaks founder said: "Today the White House put out a private briefing to reporters about Wikileaks and me and it quoted a section from an interview with me in Der Spiegel saying that I enjoy crushing --------.
"Somehow the White House finds that offensive.
"In terms of returning to the United States I don't know. Our sources advise from inside the US government that there were thoughts of whether I could be charged as a co-conspirator to espionage, which is serious.
"That doesn't seem to be the thinking within the United States any more however there is the other possibility of being detained as a material witness and being kept either in confinement or not being allowed to leave the country until the Manning case is concluded."
He also claimed that Bradley Manning is being held in a secluded facility in Kuwait which he says is like "a second Guantanamo Bay". He also accused the US government of doing this to "hide" Mr Manning from effective civil representation.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
Wikipedia article on wikileaks
Among the more interesting items:
-Wikileaks receives extensive legal support from mainstream media organizations such as AP, the LA Times, and the National Newspaper Publishers Association.
-Wikileaks has paid for 3 high-priced lawyers to defend accused traitor Bradley Mannin.
-Unsavory characters like the Russian mafia, and the governments of China, Zimbabwe, and Myanmar also have good reason to hate Assange. So far, their efforts to take him down have met with little success, probably for fear of offending the west.
With the current uproar over Assange's attacks on western security having diluted the public's attention and possibly eroded his western protection, the Russians, Chinese or others might decide this is a good time to take much more decisive measures.
Arrested? I was thinking drawn and quartered...
He ought to fear being SHOT as a traitor!
Enemy.
It sounds to me like being arrested and extradited to the U.S. might save his life.
I fear he will be left in a room full of rocking chairs with 20 long tail cats.
If the Russians are ready to act, and the CIA willing to look the other way whether Bambi likes it or not, Assange might finally get the point——of a radioactive umbrella.
When was the last time we did that anyway? If know of MANY people who should have had that happen to them. I guess we don’t do that anymore sigh...
“Our sources advise from inside the US government”
HUMMMMMM. So Manning isn’t the ONLY one!
Assange should be picked up by Interpol and forwarded to the U.S. force his role in making the materials from Manning widely publicized. He had the option not to publish and decided it was still a good idea. There is as much blood on his has as Manning's.
Hang him.
You play with fire....
People like this creep makes ya’ wonder why we bothered to save Europe in two world wars.
US agencies can’t act against him for sure; Bambi can’t afford to offend the media industrial complex. There are other actors in this however, and US field operatives who would normally try to thwart their operations might well be inclined to look the other way.
SOMEONE, after all, took down the Canadian artillery genius Gerald Bull in 1990 even though he was under CIA and MI-6 surveillance at the time.
I had met Mr. Bull several times during this stay in the states, btw, and liked him very much. He was working for Saddam, though, and had to pay the price. As someone else said, play with fire.....
“He ought to fear being SHOT as a traitor!”
A traitor to what? He’s not an American.
Hank
“People like this creep makes ya’ wonder why we bothered to save Europe in two world wars.”
He’s not from Europe either.
Hank
Agree—make an example of this POS and all who aided/abbetted him.
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