News - WikiLeaks founder arrested

[HEXUS]

Julian Assange held on suspicion of rape.

Read more.

[[GSV]Trig]

What is that bizzare smell?

Weird how people in the US are calling for the law to be changed so they can prosecute this guy as what he's done isnt actually illegal.
They are refering to him as an "enemy combatant".
He's on the front of Time magazine.
Alleged rape charges.

Doesnt sound too suspiscious does it...

Look at it this way, Assagne has essentially gone upto the school bully, pulled his trousers down infront of the whole playground and the bully has responded in the only way he knows how, threats of violence..

[format]

Sarah Palin's comments were interesting. She said she wanted him hunted down like Al Qa'ida.

[GheeTsar]

I can't say I think the publication of the critical assets document was a great idea - it's not as if this is some expose of some wrongdoing, but I fully support the publication of the other leaks. This witch hunt / smear campaign is really quite alarming though in any case.

[Jay]

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_BCgOgESfNb...ianAssange.jpg

[Arthran]

I think a blogger friend of mine put it best:
http://foldsfive.blogspot.com/2010/12/truthrape.html

[zoomee]

lol - like someone said on another forum - Have you seen Assange? He couldn't rape himself let alone two women

agreed - this is just a smear campaign - after all, wasn't it the swede's who dropped these charges a couple of months ago? - funnily enough re-instated AFTER some mysterious leaks of information....

we need more people like assange to stand up to the world's leaders and pee on their fires

[Kumagoro]

What I find concerning is that governments will use it as an excuse to pass through laws which end
up making us more like a police state and which can be abused for other purposes.

I have never understood how the anti terror laws can be used by for example local councils to spy
on people.

[[GSV]Trig]

Sarah Palin's comments were interesting. She said she wanted him hunted down like Al Qa'ida.

Lets be fair, this woman shouldnt have been allowed to breed, let alone have an opinion on anything, also bare in mind that her yahoo account was hacked and info leaked on wikileaks, so she has a grudge...

[zoomee]

What I find concerning is that governments will use it as an excuse to pass through laws which end
up making us more like a police state and which can be abused for other purposes.

I have never understood how the anti terror laws can be used by for example local councils to spy
on people.

Local councils don't have the power to do squat mate - Local police force however may be able to.....

People should be afraid of the fact that even students these days are labelled as terrorists! - Both the media and governments with their scaremongering should be held accountable for breaches in the simplest of human rights. Say ONE word against government policy and you are automatically labelled a 'terrorist' and flanked on. These basic human rights were a losing are going to affect us in the long term - people need to wake up!. Take for example the fuel protests a couple of years go - we don't hear about anymore of them as anyone protesting is given the label 'terrorist' these days aswell!!!. in the long term its us the public that lose

[crossy]

I can't say I think the publication of the critical assets document was a great idea - it's not as if this is some expose of some wrongdoing, but I fully support the publication of the other leaks. This witch hunt / smear campaign is really quite alarming though in any case.

Agree with that totally - exposing wrong doing is fine with me. I'm not so impressed with the tittle-tattle that's been making the news recently - too much like celebrity gossip.

Where he lost me was when he/they started publishing stuff which doesn't fit those categories - stuff which, to me at least, should be kept confidential. Then we get the bleating "civil libertarians" claiming that he's the new messiah for exposing government misbehaviour (as I said above, yes some of the leaks do fit this, others don't). Publishing all government documents is not a good idea imho.

Much as it disgusts me to agree with Sarah Palin (even slightly) - it's common sense that (for example) that list of sensitive targets will be useful to terrorists. If for no other reason than it'll save them some research time. So stop dicking around with "rape" charges and get the egotistical b-ard for real charges - presumably some of this stuff is covered under Official Secrets (or similar) so nail him with that. I bet he's relieved he's not dissing the French, Russian's or Chinese - guessing that they'd be a little more "forceful" in stopping him.

There's discussion around that even other members of WikiLeaks aren't happy with the way things are happening - asserting that the current campaign is more to do with promoting Assange himself than doing some good. Wouldn't go so far as some, who've suggested that this furore is "useful" to take UK public attention away from current government misbehaviour - like student fee lies.

Just my opinion, so please no abusive flaming ...

[Zhaoman]

I really don't like this 'thermo nuclear device' of sensitive information that Assange is claiming to have. If wikileaks really is a site for transparency and truth then why is he holding back this potentially 'huge' leak? Makes you wonder what kind of sensitive information he is holding back for a rainy day; in fact threatening to leak more info to keep himself safe is blackmail. As far as I'm concerned wikileaks should be releasing all information it gets immediately, any delay at all reeks of censorship and power-grabbing.

But since the US is so pissed off at this I can't help but enjoy it for all its worth. Anyway, as far as I'm concerned I really don't care much if Wikileaks continue unabated or if Assange gets captured and fed to dogs. As far as I see it every side in this is up to something dodgy.

[Saracen]

Local councils don't have the power to do squat mate - Local police force however may be able to.....

What Kumagoro was referring to, I assume, with "anti terror laws can be used by for example local councils to spy on people" was their abuse of the powers conferred by RIPA (Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000). This was a rather controversial piece of legislation when it was introduced, was justified as being essentially intended for anti-terror purposes, and contains extensive powers including for various authorised bodies to both intercept telecommunications and conduct directed surveillance exercises.

Despite the intended purposes for the prevention of serious crime and more relevantly, antiterrorism, it's been used by various local authorities for such critical issues of national security as preventing dog fouling, and intensive surveillance of ordinary people to see if they actually lived within the catchment school of the area they are applying to for their kids.

This was never intended to be what RIPA was used for, but nonetheless that was what some local authorities used to justify their actions, and have since been slapped down quite hard for doing so.

[Saracen]

I saw one very telling point made on a TV discussion, when journalists were talking about the public's right to know, that they seem to think that secret diplomatic communications are fair game and need to be disclosed to the public in full, and that newspapers have every right to print almost any such information they can get their hands on, but they rigorously protect their own right to protect their own sources.

It makes me wonder .... if journalists can use the free speech argument to publish confidential or even secret government communications, on the basis of free speech, then perhaps the government can use the same free speech principle to intercept and publish confidential media conversations. And I wonder who has the better capabilities for intercepting communications, media or government?

I wouldn't mind betting that a lot of the journalists backing Wikileaks right to publish would be among the first to screech in complaint if their own secrets were published.

[Saracen]

Everybody would be well advised to remember that the prime objective of any newspaper is to sell copies.

For instance, I have on occasion been asked to write an article for various publications, none of which I will identify, where my brief was, and I quote, "be provocative". They didn't particularly mind what the subject matter was, didn't particularly mind what stance I took, as long as the article was decently researched, well-written, and provoked a response. The gist of the brief, and once or twice it was explicitly stated, was that their mailbag was getting a bit thin, and they wanted to spice things up a bit.

My experience has been that while most newspapers have an editorial leaning in one direction or another, that doesn't mean every article has to lean in that direction, especially if it's an opinion piece. It's just my inference, but one way for a left-wing newspaper to wind up its readership, and provoke a response, is to provide a right-leaning article. And the converse would apply for a right-leaning newspaper.

We also need to remember, that most people tend to read what they are likely to agree with, or that they perceive as agreeing with them, and not to read contrary views. It is therefore likely that anyone whose views tend to the left will prefer a left-leaning newspaper, and anyone whose views tend to right, we'll select the right-leaning newspaper. And newspapers cater to their known demographic. You can also distinguish between, for instance, those likely to read the Daily Mail and those likely to read the Telegraph, and not only can you would just the political rhetoric but also the style of language, the way that points are pitched, accordingly.

As I said, newspapers are out to sell newspapers. Period.

[Saracen]

It's also worth remembering that two major functions of newspapers are reporting and opinion. And they are very different. It should, however, be obvious when an article purports to report fact or events, and when it, or more likely a contributor, is expressing an opinion.