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Julian Assange, leader of the WikiLeaks project that's published extensive secret details of U.S. military and diplomatic activity, has been arrested in London on a Swedish accusation of rape.
"He is accused by the Swedish authorities of one count of unlawful coercion, two counts of sexual molestation, and one count of rape, all alleged to have been committed in August 2010," London's Metropolitan Police said in a statement today.
Assange is scheduled to appear at Magistrates Court in the City of Westminster in London later today, the police said. The police's extradition unit arrested him on a European arrest warrant by appointment this morning.
Assange has denied the charges, which first surfaced months ago. "The charges are without basis and their issue at this moment is deeply disturbing," he said via Twitter in August.
The arrest is a further serious setback for WikiLeaks, whose actions have incurred the wrath of politicians and pundits but also attracted allies drawn to its cause and disturbed by the response to WikiLeaks.
The organization said today that despite the arrest, it's continuing with its current project, releasing 250,000 diplomatic cables. "Today's actions against our editor-in-chief Julian Assange won't affect our operations: we will release more cables tonight as normal," WikiLeaks tweeted.
In addition, Assange, an Australian citizen, is scheduled to publish an opinion piece in The Australian today. An excerpt from a preview begins, "In 1958, a young Rupert Murdoch, then owner and editor of Adelaide's The News, wrote: 'In the race between secrecy and truth, it seems inevitable that truth will always win.'"
Among other WikiLeaks difficulties, Swiss Bank Post Finance yesterday froze an Assange account with 31,000 euros; the bank said he had "provided false information regarding his place of residence." In a response, WikiLeaks said, "The technicality used to seize the defense fund was that Mr. Assange, as a homeless refugee attempting to gain residency in Switzerland, had used his lawyers address in Geneva for the bank's correspondence."
MasterCard stopped processing payments made to WikiLeaks not long after PayPal did the same thing. Amazon and EveryDNS.net also terminated online services, making it harder for WikiLeaks to stay online.
"I call on any other company or organization that is hosting WikiLeaks to immediately terminate its relationship with them," said Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut last week, and the incoming chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee wants WikiLeaks listed as a "terrorist" organization.
WikiLeaks still has plenty of allies, though, and many of them have established WikiLeaks mirror sites that have made it harder to keep the WikiLeaks information offline. And a group calling itself Justice for Assange is organizing a protest today at the court.
Updated 4:32 a.m. PT with further information from WikiLeaks.
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"He is accused by the Swedish authorities of one count of unlawful coercion, two counts of sexual molestation, and one count of rape, all alleged to have been committed in August 2010," London's Metropolitan Police said in a statement today.
Assange is scheduled to appear at Magistrates Court in the City of Westminster in London later today, the police said. The police's extradition unit arrested him on a European arrest warrant by appointment this morning.
Assange has denied the charges, which first surfaced months ago. "The charges are without basis and their issue at this moment is deeply disturbing," he said via Twitter in August.
The arrest is a further serious setback for WikiLeaks, whose actions have incurred the wrath of politicians and pundits but also attracted allies drawn to its cause and disturbed by the response to WikiLeaks.
The organization said today that despite the arrest, it's continuing with its current project, releasing 250,000 diplomatic cables. "Today's actions against our editor-in-chief Julian Assange won't affect our operations: we will release more cables tonight as normal," WikiLeaks tweeted.
In addition, Assange, an Australian citizen, is scheduled to publish an opinion piece in The Australian today. An excerpt from a preview begins, "In 1958, a young Rupert Murdoch, then owner and editor of Adelaide's The News, wrote: 'In the race between secrecy and truth, it seems inevitable that truth will always win.'"
Among other WikiLeaks difficulties, Swiss Bank Post Finance yesterday froze an Assange account with 31,000 euros; the bank said he had "provided false information regarding his place of residence." In a response, WikiLeaks said, "The technicality used to seize the defense fund was that Mr. Assange, as a homeless refugee attempting to gain residency in Switzerland, had used his lawyers address in Geneva for the bank's correspondence."
MasterCard stopped processing payments made to WikiLeaks not long after PayPal did the same thing. Amazon and EveryDNS.net also terminated online services, making it harder for WikiLeaks to stay online.
"I call on any other company or organization that is hosting WikiLeaks to immediately terminate its relationship with them," said Sen. Joseph Lieberman of Connecticut last week, and the incoming chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee wants WikiLeaks listed as a "terrorist" organization.
WikiLeaks still has plenty of allies, though, and many of them have established WikiLeaks mirror sites that have made it harder to keep the WikiLeaks information offline. And a group calling itself Justice for Assange is organizing a protest today at the court.
Updated 4:32 a.m. PT with further information from WikiLeaks.
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