The Londoner hears that Assange, the WikiLeaks co-founder who fled to the Knightsbridge outpost after allegations of rape and sexual assault, has plans to be housebound until February, when he will host an exclusive VIP bash from the comfort of his current abode. The event was originally slated to occur last month, a fashion show in collaboration with Vivienne Westwoods designer son Ben. Assanges ill health led to a delay in proceedings but now the party will go ahead as planned, with some minor changes.

Ecuadorian Ambassador Juan Falcon Puig is said to be working on two separate parties, with one London Fashion Week celebration taking place at a larger local venue while Assange holds court in the embassy with a glittering guest list of a limited size the residence is a little small for a ball but one of his lawyers, Amal Clooney, and supporter Pamela Anderson will surely be on the A-list. He is then expected, we hear, to appear at the separate party via video link, somewhat like the Wizard of Oz speaking from behind a curtain.

The confirmation that he has no immediate intention to leave soon means a third Christmas spent in captivity for Assange, who moved in on June 12, 2012. We do hope the staff know how to roast a turkey with all the trimmings.

Dont talk to the far Right about being swamped ...

Whod have thought that just one word could crush a movement? Former Tory politician Matthew Parris recalls in todays Times that, while working for the Iron Lady, we had been averaging 500-700 letters a week when, discussing immigration in a TV interview, Mrs Thatcher used the word swamped,, writes Parris.

In the following week she received about 5,000 letters We were swamped indeed: swamped by racist bilge. Its the things people confide in you when they think youre one of them that can be so revealing.

According to Spectator editor Fraser Nelson, however, Mrs Ts choice of words actually led to the demise of the far Right in the 1979 election. The experts sat dumbfounded as the results came in, Nelson writes. She killed the National Front that night, as voters who were concerned about immigration believed they had, in her, someone who understood them. All that on no sleep? Brava.

Buff boys know how to float ones boat

Sir Ian McKellen clearly enjoyed being held aloft in the impossibly buff arms of the Warwick Rowers at the May Fair Hotel last night, where the sporting boys celebrated the launch of their sixth naked calendar.

The veteran actor first came across the project when he was given the calendar on a chat show, alongside fellow guest Kylie Minogue.

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Londoners Diary: Julian Assange stays put (to plan a fashion bash)

Julian Assange following a court hearing in 2010. Photo: TT

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is fighting extradition to Sweden where he is facing sex assault allegations. The Local looks at the key points in his case.

August 2010 - Julian Assange is in Sweden and reportedly has sex with two different women. - The Swedish Prosecutor's Office issues an arrest warrant for him following two separate allegations (one of rape and the other of molestation). - Assange denies the allegations against him.

November 2010 - Stockholm District Court approves a request to detain Assange for questioning on suspicion of rape, sexual molestation, and unlawful coercion. - Assange is not present at the questioning and Swedish police issue an international arrest warrant via Interpol.

Many of Assange's supporters have protested against his arrest. Photo: TT

December 2010 - Assange gives himself up to London police and is taken to an extradition hearing. - He is put in custody pending another hearing and latergranted bail but prosecutors appeal and he is sent back to jail until a higher court can consider the issue. - He is later granted bail and his supporters pay to have him freed for 240,000 (2,853,092 million kronor).

February 2011 - A court in south London rules that Assange should be deported to Sweden, something his lawyers appeal against the following month.

June 2012 - After the Supreme Court in London rules that Assange should be deported to Sweden to face questioning, Assange is granted political asylum at the Ecuadorian embassy in London.

Julian Assange has been living at the Ecuadorian embassy in London for two years. Photo: TT

July 2014 - Assange asks Stockholm District Court to reconsider his arrest warrant. The court says the warrant should stay in place, but Assange appeals the decision.

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Timeline: Julian Assange sex allegations

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange's appeal against the arrest warrant hanging over him is being considered by a court in Stockholm, with the chief prosecutor expected to report back before midnight.

Assange's lawyers have lodged an appeal against the European Arrest Warrant hanging over him for allegationsof rape and sexual molestation in Sweden.

The Svea Court of Appeal was expected to announce its decision as early as Friday, but The Local has learned that the chief prosecutor has until midnight on Monday October 27th to give her response.

If she accepts his appeal and lifts the arrest warrant, it could mean that Julian Assange is able to leave the Ecuadorian embassy where he has been holed up for the past two years since he was granted political asylum by Ecuador.

Last week, Assange commented on the upcoming development in his case.

"We will win because the law is very clear. My only hope is that the courtis following the law and is not pressured politically to do anything outsideof the law," he said via a video link screened at a human rights filmfestival in Barcelona on Wednesday.

Swedish prosecutors want to question the 43-year-old Australian over allegations made by two women in Sweden.

He couldalso face trial in the United States over WikiLeaks publishing a horde ofsensitive military and diplomatic communications.

"As time goes by, political pressure decreases and understanding increases.So I am very confident I will not remain in this situation. I'm completelyconfident," Assange said.

Assange fears the warrant against him is aimed at eventually extraditinghim from Sweden to the United States. Swedish prosecutors said last month thatidea was "far-fetched".

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Assange court ruling expected on Monday

65723603 story Posted by timothy on Thursday October 23, 2014 @05:15PM from the mixed-motivations dept. oxide7 (1013325) writes "In June 2011, Julian Assange received an unusual visitor: the chairman of Google, Eric Schmidt. They outlined radically opposing perspectives: for Assange, the liberating power of the Internet is based on its freedom and statelessness. For Schmidt, emancipation is at one with U.S. foreign policy objectives and is driven by connecting non-Western countries to Western companies and markets. These differences embodied a tug-of-war over the Internet's future that has only gathered force subsequently. Assange describes his encounter with Schmidt and how he came to conclude that it was far from an innocent exchange of views." You may like to read: Post

In any formula, constants (especially those obtained from handbooks) are to be treated as variables.

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Assange: Google Is Not What It Seems

If you buy what someone stands for - intellectually, philosophically or culturally - does this mean you will also buy them literally? Their taste, their likeness? A whole chunk of modern consumer culture is built on betting that the answer is yes, from celebrity product lines to the growing businesses of YouTubers like Bethany Mota, who have become fashion ambassadors.

But what happens when you add politics and morality to the mix? Such are the questions raised by the creation of Wiki License, the commercial arm of WikiLeaks and Julian Assange, which is working with companies around the world to create a line of officially sanctioned "quality apparel and merchandise."

Not just T-shirts but possibly knits, leather jackets - even activewear. USB sticks! Briefcases! The sky's the limit!

In a world where individuals are increasingly encouraged to consider themselves a brand, it is a logical progression, if not an entirely comfortable one.

Indeed, the self-licensing of Assange is arguably the ultimate example of the phenomenon identified by Thomas Frank and Matt Weiland in 1997 compilation of essays from

The Baffler, "Commodify Your Dissent," though they were talking about the business world's co-option of the language of revolution, and Assange is using business to protect (and finance) his revolution, at least according to his representative.

Yet it still seems a somehow inappropriate idea (or so an ad hoc poll of branding experts, fashion folks and friends would suggest). After all, commercial branding is an essentially corporate, establishment idea, and Assange is the opposite.

There's no question that the monetisation of rebellion against the status quo has been going on for a long time; certainly since Fidel Castro helped popularise the concept by adopting a 1960 Alberto Korda photograph of Che Guevara as a symbol of his movement, which then migrated onto everything from T-shirts to bikinis.

It began earlier this year when Assange, the silver-haired WikiLeaks founder and current refugee in the Ecuadorean embassy in London, was approached by a licensing agent in Iceland called Just Licensing with the suggestion that he take control of and monetise his brand image. Olafur Vignir Sigurvinsson, WikiLeaks representative points out two developments. First, a high level of awareness, as revealed in 2011 by the market research firm Ipsos, which looked at perception of WikiLeaks in 24 countries and among 18,829 adults age 16 to 64. The survey showed approximately 80 percent name recognition and, in countries like India and Spain, a more than 80 per cent positive association with it. (Not surprisingly, its lowest rating came from the United States.) And second, the appearance of a host of non-official Wiki/Assange merchandise.

There is only one official e-commerce site (wikileaks.spreadshirt.com), which sells T-shirts, polos and sweats, as well as a messenger bag for $75, so far.

Originally posted here:
The branding of Julian Assange

Assange v Sweden: Final Extradition Hearing, Day 2, 2/2/2012
February 2, 2012 was the second and last day of the final extradition hearing of Julian Assange v the Swedish Prosecution Authority. Clare Montgomery QC spoke for Sweden. One of Montgomery #39;s...

By: Arran ET

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Assange v Sweden: Final Extradition Hearing, Day 2, 2/2/2012 - Video

MultiViral (feat. Julian Assange,)

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MultiViral (feat. Julian Assange,) - Video

Lawyers claim the 43-year-old is most likely under auditory surveillance Assange has been in embassy for two years to avoid extradition to Sweden Legal team say confinement is a deprivation of liberty under European law

By Ian Gallagher For The Mail On Sunday

Published: 16:02 EST, 18 October 2014 | Updated: 10:59 EST, 19 October 2014

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Julian Assange fears he is being bugged at the Ecuadorian Embassy in London.

Lawyers claim the WikiLeaks founder, who has been holed up in the embassy for the past two years to avoid extradition to Sweden, is most likely under auditory surveillance.

Last year a covert listening device was found behind a plug socket in the ambassadors office, but security experts described it as rudimentary and unlikely to have been the work of police or the security services.

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Julian Assange fears that his embassy hideout in London is being bugged

Assange v Sweden: Final Extradition Hearing, Day 1, 2/1/2012
The final extradition hearing of Assange v Swedish Prosecution Authority occurred on the 1st and 2nd of February, 2012. The co-founder and editor-in-chief of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange and...

By: Arran ET

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Assange v Sweden: Final Extradition Hearing, Day 1, 2/1/2012 - Video

Choosing a cloud hosting partner with confidence

+Comment Silicon Valleys biggest companies are an essential part of both the US states data-processing operation and a barely controllable element in American foreign policy, says WikiLeaks fugitive Julian Assange in his latest interview.

Talking to Pando Daily (from the Ecuadorian embassy in London), Assange dubs Google, Facebook and Apple "surveillance barons", which is not a new observation. He also highlights the US states reliance on the internet giant to increase American "soft power" abroad:

Google perceives that its overlapping networks should include networks of traditional US soft power, hard power, and networks in other countries where it is either collaborating with the establishments of those countries or if it feels it doesnt have an in with the elite of the other countries, it brings in the people that might one day replace it.

Assange also criticises Googles network of digital rights groups - for being tame and domesticated, which means Google rarely comes under scrutiny. Google funds over 150 academic departments, think tanks and "citizens groups", offering them advertising, analytics help and fund-raising tools and often hard cash. The support for these organisations helps shape the policy agenda to one that doesnt disrupt Googles business.

The problem is that a lot of groups that would normally criticize Google, the nonprofits that are involved in the tech sector, are funded directly or indirectly by Google. Or by USAID. Or by Freedom House. Google and its extended network have significant patronage in the very groups that would normally be criticizing it, says Assange. Its the nature of organizations. They dont like to bite the hand that feeds them.

Assange singles out the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), which received more than half of its annual income from just one of a series of controversial "cy pres" class action payouts*. The out-of-court payments over privacy breaches saw university departments and groups enriched by Google and Facebook, while the individuals who brought the class action didnt receive a penny.

The EFF is a great group, and theyve done good things for us, but nonetheless it is significantly funded by Google, or people who work at Google, says Assange.

Although hes now known as a notorious conspiracy theorist, Assange has found a conspiracy hidden in plain view.

But a better indicator of Google's influence is not when money changes hand, but when it doesn't. Take for example, the implications of the CJEUs Gonzalez ruling, which upheld that Google wasnt exempt from European data protection law, and which confirmed that individuals have the right to ask for links to old and irrelevant information to be removed from Google.

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Julian Assange discovers Google's given MONEY to EFF