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Sweden court upholds Assange arrest warrant

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A Swedish court has upheld an arrest warrant against Julian Assange,dismissing a challenge by the Australian founder of the WikiLeaks website who is wanted for questioning by Swedish prosecutors in an investigation of alleged sex crimes.

The Svea appeals court upheld a decision by a lower court on Thursday saying there was no reason to lift the detention order just because it cannot be enforced at the moment.

"In the view of the Court of Appeal there is no reason to set aside thedetention solely because Julian Assange is in an embassy and the detentionorder cannot be enforced at present for that reason,'' the court said in astatement.

"The fact is that Julian Assange can leave the embassy if he so wishes.This fact means that the restriction of his freedom cannot be equated with adeprivation of liberty."

The court said that "interviews must take place here in Sweden in view of the nature of the crimes and the investigation and the fact that a possible trial requires him to be in Sweden", dismissing Assange's claim that he is effectively under house arrest.

Assange's lawyers have argued that the detention ordershould be lifted, on the grounds that it cannotbe enforced while he is at the embassy and because it is restrictingon his civil rights.

No charges have yet been brought against Assange, 43, in Sweden but he is wanted for questioning by police over allegations of sexual misconduct and rape involving two women he met during a visit to the Scandinavian country in 2010.

A European arrest warrant has also been issued to support the Swedish move.

Assange, who has been holed up in the Ecuador embassy in London for two years, denies the allegations and has been fighting a legal battle against extradition since his arrest in Britain in December 2010.

The UK has refused to grant Assange safe passage out of the embassy so he can travel to Ecuador, despite Ecuador granting the Australian refugee status.

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Sweden court upholds Assange arrest warrant

WikiLeaks founder claims rape allegations are false, politically motivated

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(CNN) -

A Swedish appeals court on Thursday denied WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's latest request to dismiss an arrest warrant for alleged rape and molestation -- cases that he says are false and politically motivated.

Assange, 43, has been living in London's Ecuadorian Embassy for more than two years to avoid extradition to Sweden, where prosecutors want to question him about 2010 allegations that he raped one woman and sexually molested another.

Assange, who has not been charged, denies the allegations and says he fears Sweden would extradite him to the United States, where he could face the death penalty if he is charged and convicted of publishing government secrets through WikiLeaks.

The Australia native has argued the warrant should be dismissed because, in part, Swedish authorities refuse to interview him at the Ecuadorian Embassy, thereby prolonging a preliminary investigation that he says should have concluded long ago.

The appellate court nodded to this argument, agreeing that "the failure of the prosecutors to examine alternative avenues is not in line with their obligation ... to move the preliminary investigation forward."

But it concluded that, in balance, the arrest warrant must remain in effect because the crimes alleged are serious and because "there is a great risk that he will flee and thereby evade legal proceedings if the detention order is set aside."

"In the view of the court of appeal, these circumstances mean that the reasons for detention still outweigh the intrusion or other detriment entailed by the detention order," appellate judges wrote in Thursday's ruling.

Another appeal expected

Michael Ratner, a U.S. attorney for Assange, expressed dismay over the ruling.

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WikiLeaks founder claims rape allegations are false, politically motivated

WikiLeaks Assange awaits Swedish appeal verdict

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November 20, 2014

STOCKHOLM: A Swedish appeals court will rule Thursday on whether to uphold an arrest order for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange who is wanted for questioning over alleged sex crimes.

The Australian, who has been holed up in the Ecuador embassy in London for two years to avoid extradition to Sweden, could be able to leave the building if the court rules in his favour.

In August he said we would leave soon, amid reports that he was suffering from a heart condition and other ailments.

A European arrest warrant was issued to enable Swedish prosecutors to question Assange about accusations of rape and sexual molestation brought against him by two women in their 30s when he visited the country in 2010. Assange denies the claims.

Last month he said he was confident of winning the appeal.

We will win because the law is very clear. My only hope is that the court is following the law and is not pressured politically to do anything outside of the law, Assange said via a video link screened at a human rights film festival in Barcelona.

His lawyer in Sweden Per Samuelsson refused to comment ahead of the verdict Thursday.

Assange fears extradition to Sweden could lead to him being transferred to the United States to face trial over WikiLeaks publication of classified US military and diplomatic documents.

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WikiLeaks Assange awaits Swedish appeal verdict

Assange loses appeal in sex case

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Assange speaks from a window of the Ecuadorian Embassy in London on December 20, 2012.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS

(CNN) -- A Swedish appeals court on Thursday denied WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's latest request to dismiss an arrest warrant for alleged rape and molestation -- cases that he says are false and politically motivated.

Assange, 43, has been living in London's Ecuadorian Embassy for more than two years to avoid extradition to Sweden, where prosecutors want to question him about 2010 allegations that he raped one woman and sexually molested another.

Assange, who has not been charged, denies the allegations and says he fears Sweden would extradite him to the United States, where he could face the death penalty if he is charged and convicted of publishing government secrets through WikiLeaks.

The Australia native has argued the warrant should be dismissed because, in part, Swedish authorities refuse to interview him at the Ecuadorian Embassy, thereby prolonging a preliminary investigation that he says should have concluded long ago.

The appellate court nodded to this argument, agreeing that "the failure of the prosecutors to examine alternative avenues is not in line with their obligation ... to move the preliminary investigation forward."

But it concluded that, in balance, the arrest warrant must remain in effect because the crimes alleged are serious and because "there is a great risk that he will flee and thereby evade legal proceedings if the detention order is set aside."

"In the view of the court of appeal, these circumstances mean that the reasons for detention still outweigh the intrusion or other detriment entailed by the detention order," appellate judges wrote in Thursday's ruling.

Another appeal expected

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Assange loses appeal in sex case

» Chelsea Manning on containing ISIS in Guardian op-ed …

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If properly contained, Isis will not be able to sustain itself on rapid growth alone, and will begin to fracture internally. Photograph: via AP

The Islamic State (Isis) is without question a very brutal extremist group with origins in the insurgency of the United States occupation of Iraq. It has rapidly ascended to global attention by taking control of swaths of territory in western and northern Iraq,including Mosul and other major cities.

Based on my experience as an all-source analyst in Iraq during the organizations relative infancy, Isis cannot be defeated by bombs and bullets evenas the fight is taken to Syria, evenif it is conducted by non-Western forces with air support.

I believe that Isis is fueled precisely by the operational and tactical successes of European and American military force that would be and have been used to defeat them. I believe that Isis strategically feeds off the mistakes and vulnerabilities of the very democratic western states they decry. The Islamic States center of gravity is, in many ways, the United States, the United Kingdom and those aligned with them in the region.

When it comes to regional insurgency with global implications, Isis leaders are brilliant strategists. Its clear to me that they have a solid and complete understanding of the strengths and, more importantly, the weaknesses of the west. They know how we tick in America and Europe and they know what pushes us toward intervention and overreach. This understanding is particularly clear considering the Islamic States astonishing success in recruiting numbers of Americans, Britons, Belgians, Danes and other Europeans in their call to arms.

Attacking Isis directly, by air strikes or special operations forces, is a very tempting option available to policymakers, with immediate (but not always good) results. Unfortunately, when the west fights fire with fire, we feed into a cycle of outrage, recruitment, organizing and even more fighting that goes back decades. This is exactly what happened in Iraq during the height of a civil war in 2006 and 2007, and it can only be expected to occur again.

And avoiding direct action with Isis can be successful. For instance,in 2009 and 2010, Isis attacked civilians in suicide and car bombings in downtown Baghdad to try and provoke American intervention and sectarian unrest. But they were often not effective in their recruiting efforts when American and Iraqi forces refused (or were unable) to respond, because the barbarity and brutality of their attacks worked against them. When we did respond, however, the attacks were sold to the Sunni minority in Iraq as a justified response to an occupying government favoring the Shia government led by former prime minister Nouri al-Maliki.

Based on my intelligence work in Iraq during that period, I believe that only a very focused and consistent strategy of containment can be effective in reducing the growth and effectiveness of Isis as a threat. And so far, Western states seem to have adopted that strategy. With very public humanitarian disasters, however, like the ones onMount SinjarandIrbilin northern Iraq, and the beheadings of journalistsJames FoleyandSteven Sotloff, this discipline gets tested and can begin to fray.

As a strategy to disrupt the growth of Isis, I suggest focusing on four arenas:

Eventually, if they are properly contained, I believe that Isis will not be able to sustain itself on rapid growth alone, and will begin to fracture internally. The organization will begin to disintegrate into several smaller, uncoordinated entities ultimately failing in their objective of creating a strong state.

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Tommy Chong: Edward Snowden Showed Us How Many Freedoms We’ve Lost – Video

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Tommy Chong: Edward Snowden Showed Us How Many Freedoms We #39;ve Lost
Air Date: November 19th, 2014 This video may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for educational purposes only. This constitutes a #39;fair use #39; of any such copyrighted...

By: selfownership1

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Tommy Chong: Edward Snowden Showed Us How Many Freedoms We've Lost - Video

NSA Debated Phone Tracking Before Edward Snowden Leaks

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WASHINGTON (AP) Years before Edward Snowden sparked a public outcry with the disclosure that the National Security Agency had been secretly collecting American telephone records, some NSA executives voiced strong objections to the program, current and former intelligence officials say. The program exceeded the agency's mandate to focus on foreign spying and would do little to stop terror plots, the executives argued.

The 2009 dissent, led by a senior NSA official and embraced by others at the agency, prompted the Obama administration to consider, but ultimately abandon, a plan to stop gathering the records.

The secret internal debate has not been previously reported. The Senate on Tuesday rejected an administration proposal that would have curbed the program and left the records in the hands of telephone companies rather than the government. That would be an arrangement similar to the one the administration quietly rejected in 2009.

The now-retired NSA official, a longtime code-breaker who rose to top management, had just learned in 2009 about the top secret program that was created shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. He says he argued to then-NSA Director Keith Alexander that storing the calling records of nearly every American fundamentally changed the character of the agency, which is supposed to eavesdrop on foreigners, not Americans.

Alexander politely disagreed, the former official told The Associated Press.

The former official, who spoke only on condition of anonymity because he didn't have permission to discuss a classified matter, said he knows of no evidence the program was used for anything other than its stated purpose to hunt for terrorism plots in the U.S. But he said he and others made the case that the collection of American records in bulk crossed a line that he and his colleagues had been taught was sacrosanct.

He said he also warned of a scandal if it should be disclosed that the NSA was storing records of private calls by Americans to psychiatrists, lovers and suicide hotlines, among other contacts.

Alexander, who led the NSA from 2005 until he retired last year, did not dispute the former official's account, though he said he disagreed that the program was improper.

"An individual did bring us these questions, and he had some great points," Alexander told the AP. "I asked the technical folks, including him, to look at it."

By 2009, several former officials said, concern about the "215 program," so-called for the authorizing provision of the USA Patriot Act, had grown inside NSA's Fort Meade, Maryland, headquarters to the point that the program's intelligence value was being questioned. That was partly true because, for technical and other reasons, the NSA was not capturing most mobile calling records, which were an increasing share of the domestic calling universe, the former officials said.

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NSA Debated Phone Tracking Before Edward Snowden Leaks

Debate on NSA surveillance predated Edward Snowden

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WASHINGTON Years before Edward Snowden sparked a public outcry with the disclosure that the National Security Agency had been secretly collecting American telephone records, some NSA executives voiced strong objections to the program, current and former intelligence officials say.

The program exceeded the agency's mandate to focus on foreign spying and would do little to stop terror plots, the executives argued.

The 2009 dissent, led by a senior NSA official and embraced by others at the agency, prompted the Obama administration to consider, but ultimately abandon, a plan to stop gathering the records.

The secret internal debate has not been previously reported.

The Senate on Tuesday rejected an administration proposal that would have curbed the program and left the records in the hands of telephone companies rather than the government. That would be an arrangement similar to the one the administration quietly rejected in 2009.

The now-retired NSA official, a longtime code-breaker who rose to top management, had just learned in 2009 about the top secret program that was created shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

He said he argued to then-NSA Director Keith Alexander that storing the calling records of nearly every American fundamentally changed the character of the agency, which is supposed to eavesdrop on foreigners, not Americans.

Alexander politely disagreed, said the former official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

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Debate on NSA surveillance predated Edward Snowden

Daily Mail overlooks Edward Snowden in worrying about Russian privacy invasion

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Edward Snowden: the Mail failed to hear his whistle. Photograph: THE GUARDIAN/AFP/Getty Images

Todays Daily Mail splash is headlined Russians spy on UK families via their webcams. It concerns a Russian-based website that is showing scenes from security cameras installed in British homes.

The situation is troubling enough for the UKs information commissioner, Christopher Graham, to have called - on Radio 4s Today programme - for the Russian authorities to take immediate action to take down the site.

He said he was very concerned about the intrusion into peoples privacy and pointed out that it is a very obscure website, run by Russians, registered in an offshore territory administered by Australia.

Fair enough. But I dont seem to recall the Mail splashing on the revelation by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden that the US and UK governments were responsible for a massive intrusion into peoples privacy.

Nor did it do so when information commissioner Graham announced in September 2013 that his expert advisers were investigating the impact of Snowdens disclosures concerning mass internet surveillance on the privacy of UK citizens.

Can anyone explain why the Mail would rather splash on the activities of an obscure Russian website rather than the fact that all our phone calls, emails and internet use are subject to systematic surveillance?

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Daily Mail overlooks Edward Snowden in worrying about Russian privacy invasion


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