World

WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange remains the subject of an active criminal investigation by the United States Justice Department and Federal Bureau of Investigation, newly published court documents reveal. Papers released in US legal proceedings have revealed that a "criminal/national security investigation" by the US Department of Justice and FBI probe of WikiLeaks is "a multi-subject investigation" that is still "active and ongoing" more than four years after the anti-secrecy website began publishing secret US diplomatic and military documents. Confirmation that US prosecutors have not closed the book on WikiLeaks and Mr Assange comes as a consequence of litigation by the US Electronic Privacy Information Centre to enforce a freedom of information request for documents relating to the FBI's WikiLeaks investigation. Justice Department lawyers last month told the US District Court in Washington DC that there had been "developments in the investigation over the last year." In a document filed with the court on Monday, the US Government further affirmed that the "main, multi-subject, criminal investigation of the [Department of Justice] and FBI remains open and pending" making it necessary "to withhold law enforcement records related to this civilian investigation." In August 2013 US Army private Chelsea Manning, formerly Bradley Manning, was sentenced to 35 years imprisonment, with the possibility of parole in eight years, as a consequence of his conviction on espionage and other charges for leaking thousands of classified US military and diplomatic documents to WikiLeaks. During Private Manning's trial US military prosecutors made repeated references to Mr Assange, alleging that the WikiLeaks publisher guided and directed the soldier's disclosure of classified information. The US Department of Justice opened an investigation of WikiLeaks after Private Manning's arrest in May 2010. Australian diplomatic cables released to Fairfax Media under freedom of information laws later revealed that senior Justice Department officials privately described the investigation as being "unprecedented in scale and nature." Since June 2012 Mr Assange has resided at Ecuador's London embassy where he has been granted political asylum by Ecuador on the grounds that he is at risk of extradition to the US to face conspiracy or other charges. British police are on guard outside the embassy 24 hours a day, waiting to arrest Mr Assange so he can be extradited to Sweden to face questioning about sexual assault and rape allegations that were first raised in August 2010. The cost of the continuous police presence has now exceeded 5.9 million ($10.7 million). Mr Assange's lawyers have advised that his extradition to Sweden could facilitate his extradition to the United States. The British and Swedish governments have declined to provide assurances that Mr Assange would not be extradited to the US. Former Foreign Minister Bob Carr stated in June 2012 that Mr Assange had received more consular assistance than any other Australian over a comparable period. In his recently published diary, Mr Carr observed that "strictly speaking" he didn't know if this was actually the case and that he made the claim "to needle [Assange's] self-righteousness." "He's no more likely to be extradited by the Americans from there than from the United Kingdom," Mr Carr wrote. "Sure enough, my needling has an effect," Mr Carr added. "His mother is sounding off on AM the next morning claiming we should be defending him in Sweden as if it's our job to fight the court cases of Australians in trouble overseas." Mr Carr later told a Senate estimate committee hearing in February 2013 that he would not "over-service" Mr Assange's consular case and had told the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade to make no further representations on the matter because it "doesn't affect Australian interests''. Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has said she believes Australia has provided "appropriate consular support" to Mr Assange. "He chose to seek political asylum in the Ecuadorian Embassy I have judged that the support that we have given to Mr Assange is appropriate in the circumstances," she said in an interview with an Indian newspaper.

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Assange targetted by FBI probe, US court documents reveal

World

WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange remains the subject of an active criminal investigation by the United States Justice Department and Federal Bureau of Investigation, newly published court documents reveal. Papers released in US legal proceedings have revealed that a "criminal/national security investigation" by the US Department of Justice and FBI probe of WikiLeaks is "a multi-subject investigation" that is still "active and ongoing" more than four years after the anti-secrecy website began publishing secret US diplomatic and military documents. Confirmation that US prosecutors have not closed the book on WikiLeaks and Mr Assange comes as a consequence of litigation by the US Electronic Privacy Information Centre to enforce a freedom of information request for documents relating to the FBI's WikiLeaks investigation. Justice Department lawyers last month told the US District Court in Washington DC that there had been "developments in the investigation over the last year." In a document filed with the court on Monday, the US Government further affirmed that the "main, multi-subject, criminal investigation of the [Department of Justice] and FBI remains open and pending" making it necessary "to withhold law enforcement records related to this civilian investigation." In August 2013 US Army private Chelsea Manning, formerly Bradley Manning, was sentenced to 35 years imprisonment, with the possibility of parole in eight years, as a consequence of his conviction on espionage and other charges for leaking thousands of classified US military and diplomatic documents to WikiLeaks. During Private Manning's trial US military prosecutors made repeated references to Mr Assange, alleging that the WikiLeaks publisher guided and directed the soldier's disclosure of classified information. The US Department of Justice opened an investigation of WikiLeaks after Private Manning's arrest in May 2010. Australian diplomatic cables released to Fairfax Media under freedom of information laws later revealed that senior Justice Department officials privately described the investigation as being "unprecedented in scale and nature." Since June 2012 Mr Assange has resided at Ecuador's London embassy where he has been granted political asylum by Ecuador on the grounds that he is at risk of extradition to the US to face conspiracy or other charges. British police are on guard outside the embassy 24 hours a day, waiting to arrest Mr Assange so he can be extradited to Sweden to face questioning about sexual assault and rape allegations that were first raised in August 2010. The cost of the continuous police presence has now exceeded 5.9 million ($10.7 million). Mr Assange's lawyers have advised that his extradition to Sweden could facilitate his extradition to the United States. The British and Swedish governments have declined to provide assurances that Mr Assange would not be extradited to the US. Former Foreign Minister Bob Carr stated in June 2012 that Mr Assange had received more consular assistance than any other Australian over a comparable period. In his recently published diary, Mr Carr observed that "strictly speaking" he didn't know if this was actually the case and that he made the claim "to needle [Assange's] self-righteousness." "He's no more likely to be extradited by the Americans from there than from the United Kingdom," Mr Carr wrote. "Sure enough, my needling has an effect," Mr Carr added. "His mother is sounding off on AM the next morning claiming we should be defending him in Sweden as if it's our job to fight the court cases of Australians in trouble overseas." Mr Carr later told a Senate estimate committee hearing in February 2013 that he would not "over-service" Mr Assange's consular case and had told the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade to make no further representations on the matter because it "doesn't affect Australian interests''. Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has said she believes Australia has provided "appropriate consular support" to Mr Assange. "He chose to seek political asylum in the Ecuadorian Embassy I have judged that the support that we have given to Mr Assange is appropriate in the circumstances," she said in an interview with an Indian newspaper.

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Assange targeted by FBI probe, US court documents reveal

World

WikiLeaks publisher Julian Assange remains the subject of an active criminal investigation by the United States Justice Department and Federal Bureau of Investigation, newly published court documents reveal. Papers released in US legal proceedings have revealed that a "criminal/national security investigation" by the US Department of Justice and FBI probe of WikiLeaks is "a multi-subject investigation" that is still "active and ongoing" more than four years after the anti-secrecy website began publishing secret US diplomatic and military documents. Confirmation that US prosecutors have not closed the book on WikiLeaks and Mr Assange comes as a consequence of litigation by the US Electronic Privacy Information Centre to enforce a freedom of information request for documents relating to the FBI's WikiLeaks investigation. Justice Department lawyers last month told the US District Court in Washington DC that there had been "developments in the investigation over the last year." In a document filed with the court on Monday, the US Government further affirmed that the "main, multi-subject, criminal investigation of the [Department of Justice] and FBI remains open and pending" making it necessary "to withhold law enforcement records related to this civilian investigation." In August 2013 US Army private Chelsea Manning, formerly Bradley Manning, was sentenced to 35 years imprisonment, with the possibility of parole in eight years, as a consequence of his conviction on espionage and other charges for leaking thousands of classified US military and diplomatic documents to WikiLeaks. During Private Manning's trial US military prosecutors made repeated references to Mr Assange, alleging that the WikiLeaks publisher guided and directed the soldier's disclosure of classified information. The US Department of Justice opened an investigation of WikiLeaks after Private Manning's arrest in May 2010. Australian diplomatic cables released to Fairfax Media under freedom of information laws later revealed that senior Justice Department officials privately described the investigation as being "unprecedented in scale and nature." Since June 2012 Mr Assange has resided at Ecuador's London embassy where he has been granted political asylum by Ecuador on the grounds that he is at risk of extradition to the US to face conspiracy or other charges. British police are on guard outside the embassy 24 hours a day, waiting to arrest Mr Assange so he can be extradited to Sweden to face questioning about sexual assault and rape allegations that were first raised in August 2010. The cost of the continuous police presence has now exceeded 5.9 million ($10.7 million). Mr Assange's lawyers have advised that his extradition to Sweden could facilitate his extradition to the United States. The British and Swedish governments have declined to provide assurances that Mr Assange would not be extradited to the US. Former Foreign Minister Bob Carr stated in June 2012 that Mr Assange had received more consular assistance than any other Australian over a comparable period. In his recently published diary, Mr Carr observed that "strictly speaking" he didn't know if this was actually the case and that he made the claim "to needle [Assange's] self-righteousness." "He's no more likely to be extradited by the Americans from there than from the United Kingdom," Mr Carr wrote. "Sure enough, my needling has an effect," Mr Carr added. "His mother is sounding off on AM the next morning claiming we should be defending him in Sweden as if it's our job to fight the court cases of Australians in trouble overseas." Mr Carr later told a Senate estimate committee hearing in February 2013 that he would not "over-service" Mr Assange's consular case and had told the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade to make no further representations on the matter because it "doesn't affect Australian interests''. Foreign Minister Julie Bishop has said she believes Australia has provided "appropriate consular support" to Mr Assange. "He chose to seek political asylum in the Ecuadorian Embassy I have judged that the support that we have given to Mr Assange is appropriate in the circumstances," she said in an interview with an Indian newspaper.

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Assange targetted by FBI probe

May 19, 2014, 8:23 PM 68,982

REUTERS/Anthony Devlin

The @WikiLeaks Twitter handle is widely considered to be run by its founder, Julian Assange.

America's National SecurityAgency (NSA) can "vacuum up and store the actual content of every conversation" in the Bahamas and an unnamed country, the new publicationThe Intercept reportedMonday,based on documents leaked by Edward Snowden.

Intercept editor Glenn Greenwald who wrote about documents leaked by Snowden when he was a columnist at The Guardian said the publicationdidn't reveal the country because it was "very convinced" that doing so would lead to "deaths."

The Intercept

This graphic shows the countries targeted in the program detailed by The Intercept.

After a heated discussion among WikiLeaks, Greenwald, Intercept editor in chief John Cook, and American WikiLeaks hacker turned Der Spiegal contributor Jacob Appelbaum, WikiLeaks tweeted that it would reveal the name of the second country being spied on by the NSA.

That threat implies that WikiLeaks knows the other country which would be possible only if the rogue publishing organizationdeduced it from the redaction or has access to the Snowden documents.

The most plausible way for WikiLeaks to have access to a Snowden cache is if Appelbaum, who led the reporting on several Der Spiegel articles based on NSA documents (which may or may not be from Snowden), shared information with his friend and WikiLeaks editor in chief Julian Assange. Applebaum tweeted thatThe Intercept's redaction was "a mistake."

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WikiLeaks Threatens To Reveal Information That Glenn Greenwald Says Could Lead To 'Deaths'

Politics intelligence

WikiLeaks has threatened to unilaterally release the name of an as-yet unnamed country in which every cell phone call is recorded by the National Security Agency, despite the decision by other news outlets to withhold that information for fear of stoking violence.

That announcement comes after a war of words over Twitter between WikiLeaks and journalists at The Intercept, which reported Monday that the NSA collects cell phone metadata in Mexico, the Philippines and Kenya, and records and keeps for up to a month all cell phone calls in the Bahamas and one unnamed country. The Intercept declined to release the name of that country, the outlet says, due to credible concerns that doing so could lead to increased violence. The Intercept report is based on documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden.

@GGreenwald @johnjcook We will reveal the name of the censored country whose population is being mass recorded in 72 hours. WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) May 19, 2014

The Intercept is a media group launched earlier this year by a group of journalists including two of those originally granted access to the Snowden documents, Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras. The existence of this specific NSA recording program, code named MYSTIC, was previously reported by The Washington Post, which declined to name any of the countries involved.

WikiLeaks threat to publish the identity of the redacted country, if credible, suggests the organization has obtained access to documents leaked by Snowden or has been informed of the countrys identity by someone with access to the documents. Snowden has said he did not leak documents directly to WikiLeaks, but the key players in both organizationsGreenwald, Poitras, WikiLeaks Editor-in-Chief Julian Assangeare well acquainted with one another.

According to the report, the NSA obtained access to the Bahamas cell phone networks by piggy backing on access legally obtained by the Drug Enforcement Agency, with the DEAs cooperation. The Intercept declined to report the code name for a private firm that allows access to cell phone data in the Bahamas due to a specific, credible concern that doing so could lead to violence.

The program, codenamed SOMALGET, is part the NSAs umbrella program MYSTIC, under which, The Intercept reports, the agency also collects metadata on the telecommunications of several other countries, including Mexico, the Philippines, and Kenya, similar to the telecom surveillance the NSA conducts in the United States.

Rather than the anti-terrorism work routinely used to justify the NSAs surveillance activities, SOMALGET, according to NSA documents quoted by The Intercept, exists primarily as a part of the drug war to monitor international narcotics traffickers and special-interest alien smugglers.

In a statement to TIME, NSA spokesperson Vanee Vines did not deny the existence of the program but said, The fact that the U.S. government works with other nations, under specific and regulated conditions, mutually strengthens the security of all. Vines confirmed that the scope of the agencys mandate extends well beyond counterterrorism efforts.

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WikiLeaks Threatens To Reveal Unnamed Country From Snowden Documents