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LONDON, U.K. -- Julian Assange, the elusive and enigmatic figure behind WikiLeaks, has once again gone into hiding from the Swedish authorities who are pursing him for alleged sex crimes. Assange’s attorney Bjorn Hurtig said his client had removed himself from public gatherings over fears of being killed by U.S. forces. “There were a lot of threatening statements made by politicians in the U.S., particularly Sarah Palin. You should keep in mind that during this period I’ve known Julian, he has actually received death threats in the media...that he should be given the death sentence,” Hurtig said via an interpreter...

The extradition hearing for WikiLeak's founder Julian Assange is set to begin Monday in London, with his lawyers prepared to make arguments he could eventually end up in Guantanamo Bay if first extradited to Sweden. Assange, of Australia, is wanted for questioning by Swedish prosecutors for incidents with two women in August and faces possible charges of rape, unlawful coercion and sexual molestation. He maintains the encounters were consensual. After Swedish authorities requested that a European Arrest Warrant be issued, Assange turned himself in to U.K. police on Dec. 7. After a week in custody, he was granted bail on...

The enemies of liberty may be gaining steam in Egypt right now, but Hollywood doesn’t seem to notice. No, to them we’re still our own worst enemy. Mike Fleming at Deadline reports that no less than seven potential film projects based on cyber-anarchist Julian Assange and his whistle-blowing organization WikiLeaks are under consideration: The Hurt Locker screenwriter Mark Boal and Management 360 have partnered with financier/producer Megan Ellison to option The Boy Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest, an article about WikiLeaks' Julian Assange in The New York Times Magazine written by the newspaper's executive editor Bill Keller. Ellison, an exec...

Anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks has been nominated for the 2011 Nobel Peace Prize, the Norwegian politician behind the proposal said on Wednesday, a day after the deadline for nominations expired. The Norwegian Nobel Committee accepts nominations for what many consider as the world's top accolade until February 1, although the five panel members have until the end of the month to make their own proposals. Norwegian parliamentarian Snorre Valen said WikiLeaks was "one of the most important contributors to freedom of speech and transparency" in the 21st century. "By disclosing information about corruption, human rights abuses and war crimes, WikiLeaks is...

Sources say that while evidence proves “that Manning had allegedly unlawfully downloaded tens of thousands of documents onto his own computer and passed them to an unauthorized person,” there’s no record of any interactions with WikiLeaks or Assange. Similarly, Assange, who is under house arrest at a British mansion and facing possible extradition to Sweden, maintains that he doesn’t know who was the source of the leak. “That’s not how our technology works, that’s not how our organization works,” Assange said. “I never heard of the name of Bradley Manning before it appeared in the media.” High Tech Terrorists “The...

U.S. military officials tell NBC News that investigators have been unable to make any direct connection between a jailed army private suspected with leaking secret documents and Julian Assange, founder of the whistleblowing website WikiLeaks. The officials say that while investigators have determined that Manning had allegedly unlawfully downloaded tens of thousands of documents onto his own computer and passed them to an unauthorized person, there is apparently no evidence he passed the files directly to Assange, or had any direct contact with the controversial WikiLeaks figure.

Former Swiss banker Rudolf Elmer on Monday gave WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange data on about 2,000 clients that he contends may have evaded taxes, published reports said. At a press conference in London, Elmer told reporters about 40 politicians and “pillars of society” were among the individuals he gave Assange information on, the reports said. Elmer told The Observer newspaper during the weekend that the individuals named in the data include “business people, politicians, people who have made their living in the arts and multinational conglomerates — from both sides of the Atlantic.” Elmer once headed the Cayman Islands office...

The offshore bank account details of 2,000 "high net worth individuals" and corporations – detailing massive potential tax evasion – will be handed over to the WikiLeaks organisation in London tomorrow by the most important and boldest whistleblower in Swiss banking history, Rudolf Elmer, two days before he goes on trial in his native Switzerland. British and American individuals and companies are among the offshore clients whose details will be contained on CDs presented to WikiLeaks at the Frontline Club in London. Those involved include, Elmer tells the Observer, "approximately 40 politicians". Elmer, who after his press conference will return...

Ever since Julian Assange consummated his pathological compulsion for recognition and notoriety by releasing stolen classified documents via WikiLeaks, and his subsequent arrest, journalists have mobilized en masse to defend Assange and his conduit to pandemonium and criminality, WikiLeaks. Statistically speaking, the modes, or the four most prevalent of the various defenses used to defend Assange and WikiLeaks, are as follows:

Well, well. I was scouring the Internet and came across something worthy of mention – none other than a Craigslist posting from Mr. Creeper himself, Julian Assange. Wikileaks dude! Seems like the type of chick he’s looking for is a woman who’s not afraid to get night-sticked on the street of Athens and who’s an avowed vegan. Now who would’ve guessed that, eh? Snort. See below! H/T goes to Brett Winterble of Covert Radio.

While Julian Assange is famous for his conspiracy theories about the CIA, it seems his current plight has not affected his fellow tin foil hat wearers who follow British messiah David Icke. You would think that Icke's followers, who believe that the world is ruled by a secret cult of alien masonic lizards, would be supportive of Assange's stand against the Man, or in this case reptile. But a look into the Ike forums reveals that they believe that Assange is all part of the Lizard plot. Icke's cult works on the basis of connections which are sometimes pretty dubious,...

In an exclusive interview with Cenk Uygur on MSNBC’s Dylan Ratigan Show, Julian Assange described criticism in Washington and elsewhere of WikiLeaks as nothing short of attacks on journalism and the first amendment. Pressed by Uygur on comments made recently by Mike Huckabee and others who consider Assange a terrorist, the WikiLeaks founder dismissed Huckabee as “another idiot trying to make a name for himself.” Assange called people like Sarah Palin and Huckabee “shock jock politicians.” Assange called attempts to shut down WikiLeaks and arrest its leader “digital McCarthyism” and issued what he described as a “warning to journalists” that...

What is really behind WikiLeaks? If WikiLeaks equals free speech, then why do those defending it want UN to impose censorship on the internet? By Julio Severo Out of curiosity, it was great to learn about the US embassies' cables, and it would also be very interesting to see the Brazilian ambassies cables. Sadly, there was still no a leak from such secret communications of Brazil. Excepting some exotic facts, did WikiLeaks reveal really sensitive information? In one of the leaks on critical installations for the US security, there is a mention of an Australian factory that produces antivenom. Can...

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....