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Hundreds of Afghan lives have been put at risk by the leaking of 90,000 intelligence documents to WikiLeaks because the files identify informants working with NATO forces. In just two hours of searching the WikiLeaks archive, The Times of London found the names of dozens of Afghans credited with providing detailed intelligence to U.S. forces. Their villages are given for identification and also, in many cases, their fathers' names.

      WASHINGTON — It's a tough time to be a member of the U.S. armed forces. Those serving in our all-volunteer military — and their families — are stretched and stressed by more than nine years of war. Unfortunately, our commander in chief — supposedly the champion of our soldiers, sailors, airmen, guardsmen and Marines — isn't doing anything to make serving in uniform any easier. President Barack Obama — fresh from his 3 1/2-hour "visit" to Afghanistan — continues to insist that the U.S. Senate act immediately to allow active homosexuals to serve in the military....

The US vice-president, Joe Biden, today likened the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to a "high-tech terrorist", the strongest criticism yet from the Obama administration. Biden claimed that Assange has put lives at risk and made it more difficult for the US to conduct its business around the world. His description of Assange shows a level of irritation that contrasts with more sanguine comments from other senior figures in the White House, who said the leak of diplomatic cables has not done serious damage. Interviewed on NBC's Meet the Press, Biden was asked if the administration could prevent further leaks, as...

HAGERSTOWN, Md. — A key figure in the government's investigation of thousands of leaked secret war records says the suspected culprit had help. Adrian Lamo is the computer hacker who turned in Army intelligence analyst Bradley Manning. Lamo says someone told him that he helped Manning set up encryption software that Manning allegedly used to send classified information to the whistleblower website Wikileaks. Lamo isn't naming the apparent accomplice. But he says the man is among a group of people in the Boston area who work with Wikileaks.

If WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange needs a home, Ecuador's deputy foreign minister says this Andean nation is happy to provide one. The 39-year-old Australian, who has incensed and embarrassed Washington with the release by his online whistle-blowing organization of hundreds of sensitive diplomatic cables, had sought residency and a work permit in Sweden. But after the release by WikiLeaks beginning in late July of thousands of sensitive documents from the Iraq and Afghan wars, a Swedish court ordered him detained for questioning on sexual assault allegations - claims Assange denies and calls part of a smear campaign. Assange, who keeps...

LAS VEGAS -- A security researcher involved with the Wikileaks Web site was detained by U.S. agents at the border for three hours and questioned about the controversial whistleblower project as he entered the country on Thursday to attend a hacker conference, sources said on Saturday. He was also approached by two FBI agents at the Defcon conference after his presentation on Saturday afternoon about the Tor Project. Jacob Appelbaum, a Seattle-based programmer for the online privacy protection project called Tor, arrived at the Newark, New Jersey, airport from Holland flight Thursday morning when he was pulled aside by customs...

The Obama and Bush administrations have classified too much information unnecessarily and contributed to an overly secretive atmosphere surrounding U.S. policy, lawmakers at a House Judiciary Committee hearing said Thursday. At a hearing on the legal implications of potentially prosecuting WikiLeaks, panel Chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.) said the group’s recent dissemination of classified diplomatic cables might have been embarrassing for the government but that the real-world consequences have been fairly modest. He labeled calls for criminal charges against site founder Julian Assange "extreme measures" and said the widespread outrage in Washington is a sign that caution is needed before proceeding....

He's the whistleblower who has exposed the secrets of governments across the world. But WikiLeaks boss Julian Assange has some embarrassing documents in his own past he would rather the world didn't know about. A series of emails detailing his 'stalkery courtship' of a teenager are revealed - two years before he founded his notorious website. Under the headline 'The creepy, lovesick emails of Julian Assange' the gossip website Gawker reproduces emails to the teenager in his pre-WikiLeaks days. On the day Assange was freed on conditional bail at the High Court pending moves to extradite him to Sweden on...

International man of intrigue Julian Assange barely had a moment to catch his breath from the last charges against him, but now is prepared for the US to have their crack at him. Assange tells Sky News “We have heard today from one of my US lawyers that there may be a US indictment for espionage for me coming from a secret grand jury investigation.” The fun never stops with Assange, stay tuned for more details.

Here’s an interesting take on the lasting effects of WikiLeaks from geopolitical expert George Friedman, Founder of Stratfor. I go on and off with my subscription to Stratfor – they give excellent insights into geopolitics, taking a game theory approach to determine what actions the various actors will take. While I’m not currently a subscriber, I saw this piece float across my inbox, and found it worth sharing. Friedman is not as impressed by the WikiLeaks saga as I thought he’d be! ***** Taking Stock of WikiLeaks By George Friedman Julian Assange has declared that geopolitics will be separated into...

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange tried to hide his bail address from the public in an astonishing move for the man responsible for leaking thousands of diplomatic secrets. Assange's lawyers argued that the location - a 10-bedroom stately home - should not be disclosed on grounds of privacy during yesterday's hearing at City of Westminster Magistrates' Court. But the move was dismissed by District Judge Howard Riddle, who ruled not to reveal the address would conflict with Assange's commitment to open justice. The judge insisted the address - Captain Vaughan Smith's Ellingham Hall on the Norfolk/Suffolk border - was read out...

The outpouring of support WikiLeaks and Julian Assange have received from the usual paleo-libertarian suspects is as illuminating as it is predictable. Take, for example, Ron Paul’s latest attempt at LewRockwell.com to make excuses for the leaking of highly sensitive government data because—as always—the real villain we should be worried about is Uncle Sam: [S]tate secrecy is anathema to a free society. Why exactly should Americans be prevented from knowing what their government is doing in their name? In a free society, we are supposed to know the truth. In a society where truth becomes treason, however, we are in...

Keep up to speed on the most recent development courtesy of the Guardian: 3.25pm: Assange has been granted bail, to cheers from inside and outside the court. 3.00pm: We doubt whether this actual category of rape would be rape under English law, Robertson told the court, according to Mostrous. (This is the weirdest way to report court proceedings. Why don't they televise it and have done with it?) 2.57pm: Sarah Saunders, a restaurant designer and friend of Assange, signs document offering £150,000 as surety, writes Vikram Dodd from the court. She says it is almost all the money she has....

Things just don’t add up when you look at the Wikileaks story. First, who has ever heard of an all out, worldwide man-hunt for sexual assault; especially by the European Union? The EU has stood behind admitted statutory rapist Roman Polanski and has denied attempts by the United States to extradite him so that he can be tried for his crimes. So why was there this concerted effort by the EU to capture Julian Assange? When by most accounts, the charges appear to be completely trumped up. It appears that the two women accusing him of rape conspired against him...

Christmas is just around the corner, so it's time once again to wish only the best (and in some cases, most needed) gifts for the deserving. Here's a few stocking filler ideas for Santa... Ed Stelmach (Alberta premier): a reputation as a leader. Since he's never had that, instructions would need to be included. Julian Assange (Wikileaks poobah): an end to his self-gratifying 15 minutes of fame. And the proper criminal charge of being in possession of stolen documents. And maybe a 350lb moustached cellmate named 'Mary'. Tom Flanagan (political scientist): an end to the idiotic police investigation which has...

Yesterday, in the Westminster Magistrates Court in London, the lawyers for WikiLeaks co-founder Julian Assange presented to the judge a document from me stating that I have put up $20,000 of my own money to help bail Mr. Assange out of jail. Furthermore, I am publicly offering the assistance of my website, my servers, my domain names and anything else I can do to keep WikiLeaks alive and thriving as it continues its work to expose the crimes that were concocted in secret and carried out in our name and with our tax dollars. We were taken to war in...

To the United States, Julian Assange may now be Public Enemy Number One. Some American politicians have even called for his execution. But less than a year ago, the founder of WikiLeaks was officially entertained at a US Embassy cocktail party by one of the very diplomats whose secrets he would soon spill to the world. Mr Assange's site had already published dozens of leaks embarrassing to the US, including secret Guantanamo Bay detainee handling manuals and the full emails of Sarah Palin, the 2008 Republican vice-presidential candidate. The US State Department condemned the manuals' publication as "a criminal act."

WIKILEAKS founder Julian Assange says Prime Minister Julia Gillard has put his life and freedom at risk by publicly pre-judging his actions as “criminal”. In written correspondence between Mr Assange and the Australian Government, made available exclusively to the Sunshine Coast Daily, Mr Assange highlights serious fears that Ms Gillard's statements questioning the legality of WikiLeaks would violate his right to a fair trial. He said he feared he and his staff could be killed as he was aware senior figures in the United States, including politician Sarah Palin, had been calling for his arrest and assassination. The 39-year-old Queenslander...

As the Wikileaks saga continues to unfold I can’t help but recall the scene in the film Sneakers where Martin “Marty” Bishop (Robert Redford) and Cosmo (Ben Kingsley) discuss the “code breaker.” Cosmo: "There’s a war out there, old friend. A world war. And it’s not about who’s got the most bullets. It’s about who controls the information. What we see and hear, how we work, what we think… it’s all about the information!" There is another scene in the movie where Marty utters the phrase “no more secrets.” And that is increasingly what we are approaching as the global...