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In another sign that a U.S. indictment of WikiLeaks editor Julian Assange may be imminent, his lawyer has said that a grand jury in Alexandria, Va. is currently weighing criminal charges.
"We have heard from the Swedish authorities that there has been a secretly empaneled grand jury in Alexandria," said attorney Mark Stephens, an attorney at the London-based FSI law firm.
Stephens told Al-Jazeera over the weekend that he believes that there is "collusion" between the Swedish government, which has accused Assange of sexual assault, and the United States. "We understand have said that if he comes to Sweden, they will defer their interest in him to the Americans," the attorney said.
While the U.S. Justice Department hasn't confirmed the existence of a grand jury, Attorney General Eric Holder said recently that a criminal probe into WikiLeaks is ongoing. A CNET analysis published today shows that Assange could be prosecuted under the Espionage Act, which previously was used in the extraterritorial prosecution of a non-U.S. citizen, though he would likely claim the law is unconstitutional under the First Amendment.
A State Department spokesman today declined to comment on questions about the grand jury. An extradition hearing on the charges from Sweden has been scheduled for tomorrow in a London courtroom.
Some of the more hawkish members of Congress have called for Assagne to be prosecuted under the portion of the Espionage Act that, in some cases, prohibits the disclosure of "national defense" information. Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.), the incoming head of the House Intelligence Committee, asked Holder to charge Assange under the Espionage Act, as did Senate Intelligence Committee heads Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Kit Bond (R-Miss.). Senate Homeland Security Chairman Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) is publicly wondering why an indictment and extradition "hasn't happened yet."
Also today:
* A Reddit.com discussion thread saying -- without any evidence -- that the CIA set up a WikiLeaks mirror was a hoax. But Techdirt.com reported it as apparently true, as did BoingBoing, which deleted its original story and then ran a retraction.
* Speaking of Wiki-hoaxes, the U.K. Guardian's Declan Walsh in Islamabad has a report saying that two Pakistani newspapers admitted they were duped by a fake account of the WikiLeaks cables that portrayed Indian generals as vain, "geeky" and engaged in a "genocide" against Muslims in Kashmir. And a Twitter note purporting to be from an Australian member of Parliament calling for Assange to be "aggressively interrogated" also appears to be a hoax.
* There's a ballad of Julian Assange up on YouTube. And look for more WikiLeaks-based games soon.
* Here's a profile of Geoffrey Robertson, the Australian-born, London-based lawyer who stands between Assange and deportation.
* Netcraft.com has a list of sites hit by outages in the last 24 hours. At the top: warlogs.wikileaks.org, cablegate.wikileaks.org, anonops.net and anonops.eu (used by Anonymous), sarahpac.com, wikileaks.de, wikileaks.nl, marketplace.mastercard.com.
* Time magazine has closed its poll for Person of the Year. Assange came in first place, and the results will be announced Wednesday morning on the Today show.
* Australian journalists are backing WikiLeaks. A Washington Post editorial on Saturday called such Espionage Act prosecutions "a bad idea."
* The Wikileaks.org domain name (Wikileaks.ch is now the primary one) is back online after EveryDNS yanked them about a week ago. Wikileaks.org is now using San Mateo, Calif.-based Dynadot.com for DNS and is being hosted at Silicon Valley Web Hosting in San Jose. The site currently redirects to the Wikileaks.info site, which is offshore, with hosting and DNS in Russia.
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"We have heard from the Swedish authorities that there has been a secretly empaneled grand jury in Alexandria," said attorney Mark Stephens, an attorney at the London-based FSI law firm.
Stephens told Al-Jazeera over the weekend that he believes that there is "collusion" between the Swedish government, which has accused Assange of sexual assault, and the United States. "We understand have said that if he comes to Sweden, they will defer their interest in him to the Americans," the attorney said.
While the U.S. Justice Department hasn't confirmed the existence of a grand jury, Attorney General Eric Holder said recently that a criminal probe into WikiLeaks is ongoing. A CNET analysis published today shows that Assange could be prosecuted under the Espionage Act, which previously was used in the extraterritorial prosecution of a non-U.S. citizen, though he would likely claim the law is unconstitutional under the First Amendment.
A State Department spokesman today declined to comment on questions about the grand jury. An extradition hearing on the charges from Sweden has been scheduled for tomorrow in a London courtroom.
Some of the more hawkish members of Congress have called for Assagne to be prosecuted under the portion of the Espionage Act that, in some cases, prohibits the disclosure of "national defense" information. Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.), the incoming head of the House Intelligence Committee, asked Holder to charge Assange under the Espionage Act, as did Senate Intelligence Committee heads Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Kit Bond (R-Miss.). Senate Homeland Security Chairman Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) is publicly wondering why an indictment and extradition "hasn't happened yet."
Also today:
* A Reddit.com discussion thread saying -- without any evidence -- that the CIA set up a WikiLeaks mirror was a hoax. But Techdirt.com reported it as apparently true, as did BoingBoing, which deleted its original story and then ran a retraction.
* Speaking of Wiki-hoaxes, the U.K. Guardian's Declan Walsh in Islamabad has a report saying that two Pakistani newspapers admitted they were duped by a fake account of the WikiLeaks cables that portrayed Indian generals as vain, "geeky" and engaged in a "genocide" against Muslims in Kashmir. And a Twitter note purporting to be from an Australian member of Parliament calling for Assange to be "aggressively interrogated" also appears to be a hoax.
* There's a ballad of Julian Assange up on YouTube. And look for more WikiLeaks-based games soon.
* Here's a profile of Geoffrey Robertson, the Australian-born, London-based lawyer who stands between Assange and deportation.
* Netcraft.com has a list of sites hit by outages in the last 24 hours. At the top: warlogs.wikileaks.org, cablegate.wikileaks.org, anonops.net and anonops.eu (used by Anonymous), sarahpac.com, wikileaks.de, wikileaks.nl, marketplace.mastercard.com.
* Time magazine has closed its poll for Person of the Year. Assange came in first place, and the results will be announced Wednesday morning on the Today show.
* Australian journalists are backing WikiLeaks. A Washington Post editorial on Saturday called such Espionage Act prosecutions "a bad idea."
* The Wikileaks.org domain name (Wikileaks.ch is now the primary one) is back online after EveryDNS yanked them about a week ago. Wikileaks.org is now using San Mateo, Calif.-based Dynadot.com for DNS and is being hosted at Silicon Valley Web Hosting in San Jose. The site currently redirects to the Wikileaks.info site, which is offshore, with hosting and DNS in Russia.
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