WikiLeaks and Anonymous spar over fundraising campaign

If politics often makes strange bedfellows, fundraising can make just as strange enemies, WikiLeaks found this week. The secret-spilling website ended up at odds with the loose network of hackers known as Anonymous after WikiLeaks introduced a pop-up window seeking donations.

The window showed up when Internet users tried to reach newly leaked files, including an advertised 13,734 emails from the private intelligence firm Stratfor about Mitt Romney and the Republican Party.

To get the window to go away, it appeared users had to donate or share the link through Twitter or Facebook. Some users said they could evade the campaign by disabling Javascript or that the window vanished after repeated attempts to reach WikiLeaks documents.

After the fundraising campaign went live, members of Anonymous denounced the window as a “paywall,” saying it was wrong to hinder access to leaked files. The hacking collective has usually been an ally of WikiLeaks, seeing its quest to reveal government and corporate secrets as a common cause.

“This, dear friends will lose you all allies you still had,” one Anonymous Twitter account declared. A longer statement, linked through another Anonymous account, said WikiLeaks had become “the One Man Julian Assange Show,” straying from its core mission of revealing vital information.

WikiLeaks countered on Twitter that the window wasn’t a paywall, pointing out that users could also share or tweet the campaign. It later removed the pop-up without added comment. Members of Anonymous greeted the decision with approval, with one major account writing that the two groups were still friends.

Supporters of WikiLeaks' Julian Assange ordered to pay his bail

LONDON -- The cost of helping WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange fight allegations of sexual assault became painfully real Monday for a group of supporters who were ordered by a British judge to pay money they had pledged for his bail now that he has fled inside the Ecuadorean Embassy.

Nine of the anti-secrecy campaigner's backers are on the hook for about $150,000 among them because he jumped bail in June by putting himself out of the reach of British police. Assange, 41, sought asylum inside the embassy in central London to evade extradition to Sweden, which wants to question him in connection with allegations that he sexually abused two women last year.

Chief Magistrate Howard Riddle said Monday that the nine supporters had "failed in their basic duty" to ensure that Assange did not abscond.

The group had acknowledged making no attempt to persuade him to give himself up, out of sympathy with his fears that the Swedish investigation was merely a pretext to spirit him to the United States to face possible charges of espionage in connection with WikiLeaks' release of thousands of classified government files.

Vaughan Smith, at whose country mansion Assange stayed for months under a form of house arrest, told the court that for him and the eight others to urge the now-fugitive to quit the embassy would have been "a very public betrayal."

Riddle wrote in his judgment that he felt "real respect" for the nine backers' convictions.

"In declining to publicly (or as far as I know privately) urge Mr. Assange to surrender himself, they have acted against self-interest. They have acted on their beliefs and principles throughout," Riddle wrote in his judgment. "In what is sometimes considered to be a selfish age, that is admirable."

But he said the integrity of the bail system needed to be upheld. Moreover, it should have been clear to the nine supporters that Assange, who had vowed to fight extradition tooth and nail, posed a substantial flight risk, Riddle said.

WikiLeaks' Julian Assange urges U.S. to end 'war on whistle-blowers'

LONDON -- WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange on Sunday called on the U.S. to end its "war on whistle-blowers" and demanded the release of Bradley Manning, the American soldier suspected of passing thousands of classified documents to Assange's secret-spilling website.

Assange made the appeal from the balcony of the Ecuadorean Embassy in London, where he has been holed up for two months in an effort to avoid arrest and extradition to Sweden to face charges of sexual assault. It was the 41-year-old Australian's first public appearance since seeking refuge inside
the embassy June 19.

He was careful to remain on embassy property and thus out of reach of British police, who have vowed to arrest him the instant he crosses into the public domain. By international convention, embassies are the sovereign territory of the countries they represent.

Assange thanked Ecuador for granting him political asylum Thursday and said President Rafael Correa had displayed courage, although Correa has been criticized for cracking down on journalists in his own country.

Assange made no mention of the actual allegations he is fleeing –- namely, that he sexually assaulted two women in Stockholm in August 2010. The Swedish government had asked for his arrest and extradition from Britain so that investigators could question Assange, who acknowledges having sex with the women but insists that it was consensual.

Assange and his supporters say the allegations are merely a pretext for his eventual extradition to the U.S., which they believe wants to try him -– and perhaps execute him –- for espionage. As yet, no charges have formally been brought against Assange in the U.S.

"We must use this moment to articulate the choice that is before the government of the United States of America," Assange told a crowd of supporters who waited outside the Ecuadorean Embassy, in one of London's toniest neighborhoods.

"Will it return and reaffirm the revolutionary values it was founded on, or will it lurch off the precipice and bring us all into a dangerous world in which journalists fall silent from the fear of prosecution?" Assange said. "I ask President Obama to do the right thing."

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-- Henry Chu

Photo: Wikileaks founder Julian Assange delivers a statement Sunday from a balcony of the Ecuadorean Embassy, where he has sought asylum in London. Credit: Facundo Arrizabalaga / EPA

 

Britain, Sweden have little leverage with Ecuador over Assange

Granting asylum to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange leaves Ecuador in a testy standoff with Britain over the fate of the provocative activist, still holed up in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London.

Britain said it was disappointed and would not allow Assange safe passage out of the country. Sweden, which is seeking Assange for questioning on allegations of sexual assault, was also dismayed.

But beyond that, it’s unclear what Britain or Sweden could do to show their displeasure with Ecuador, say analysts on both sides of the Assange debate. Neither country has strong ties with the South American nation in the first place, said Gregory Weeks, editor of the Latin Americanist.

PHOTOS: WikiLeaks founder granted asylum in Ecuador

“If anything, Britain is running the risk of putting Ecuador in a stronger position,” Weeks said. “They’re pretty limited in what they can force Ecuador to do one way or another.”

Storming the embassy to arrest Assange, as Ecuador says Britain has threatened to do, could easily backfire. The threat has made other Latin American countries more likely to side with Ecuador, said Mark Weisbrot, co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research.

“You talk to any foreign minister in Latin America,  they can’t believe the British even made this threat,” said Weisbrot, who has argued that Assange faced a real threat of persecution if extradited.

Ecuador grants asylum to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange

LONDON -- Ecuador said Thursday it would grant political asylum to Julian Assange, the controversial founder of the whistle-blowing WikiLeaks website who has been holed up for nearly two months inside the Ecuadorean Embassy in London in a bid to avoid extradition to Sweden on allegations of sexual assault.

Ecuadorean Foreign Minister Ricardo Patino said that Assange's legal and procedural rights had been violated, and that Ecuador accepted his argument that he faced possible political persecution by the United States, which is angry over his release of secret government files.

"We believe his fears are legitimate," Patino told reporters in Quito, the Ecuadorean capital, Thursday morning.

PHOTOS: Assange granted asylum in Ecuador

The much-anticipated decision immediately turned Assange's legal fight into a diplomatic standoff between Ecuador and Britain, which says that it is obliged to turn Assange, 41, over to authorities in Sweden, a fellow member of the European Union.

For Assange himself, the announcement from Quito remains only a symbolic victory for the moment. Britain has refused to grant him safe passage out of the country; rather, police say that Assange is subject to immediate arrest if he sets foot outside the embassy because he breached his bail conditions.

Assange's supporters gathered outside the embassy before the decision was announced. A few protesters were arrested after scuffles with police, Sky News reported.

Ecuador's decision comes amid increasing acrimony between London and Quito over the Assange case. On Wednesday, Patino sharply rebuked the British government for what he described as a threat to raid its embassy to arrest Assange. By convention, embassies are considered sovereign territory of the countries they represent.

Ecuador is not "a British colony," Patino warned.

Assange, who is an Australian citizen, denies allegations that he sexually assaulted two women in Stockholm in August 2010. He has acknowledged having sex with them on separate occasions but disputes their accusations that coercion or force was involved.

He and his supporters insist that the allegations are part of a plot to remove him from Britain and ultimately to ship him to the U.S., which Assange says wants to try –- and possibly execute -– him for orchestrating the leak of thousands of classified State Department and Pentagon documents.

Assange took refuge inside Ecuador's embassy, located in one of London's toniest districts, on June 19, after his legal appeals against being sent to Sweden were virtually exhausted. Earlier that month, Britain's Supreme Court ruled that his extradition could proceed.

The request for political asylum in a third country was a bizarre twist in a saga that has dragged on since Assange was first arrested in December 2010. Although Assange remained "beyond the reach" of police while inside the embassy, Scotland Yard warned that he faced arrest the moment he stepped outside it for violating his bail conditions, which obligated him to abide by a nightly curfew at a
designated address.

The WikiLeaks founder had previously developed some kind of rapport with Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa. Assange interviewed Correa on a Kremlin-backed television show called "Russia Today," a sympathetic exchange in which the two men traded gibes about American arrogance.

Critics have noted the irony of Assange, a free-speech campaigner, appealing for help from a leader who has been accused of mounting a crackdown on journalists in Ecuador.

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-- Henry Chu

Special correspondent Cristina Munoz in Quito contributed to this report.

Ecuador expected to decide fate of WikiLeaks' Assange

Ecuador is slated to announce Thursday morning whether Julian Assange, the founder of the secret-spilling WikiLeaks website, will be granted asylum after holing up in its embassy.

The decision is expected to be a major turn in the winding legal and political saga of Assange, a provocative figure whose website has infuriated governments by airing official secrets and has won fervent fans among Internet activists who have rallied behind his cause.

Assange first turned up at the Ecuadorean Embassy in London in June, shortly after the British Supreme Court ruled he could be extradited to Sweden over allegations of sexual assault. The complaints were lodged by two women who claimed Assange had abused them during a Swedish lecture tour.

Assange denies the allegations and has claimed that he is being politically persecuted so he can be sent to the United States, which was angered by the release of secret Pentagon documents and a vast trove of State Department cables. In his bid for asylum, Assange argued that he could face the death penalty for "political crimes" in the U.S., where he claims he has been secretly indicted.

The idea of heading to Ecuador was not new: An Ecuadorean deputy foreign minister had flirted with the idea of giving Assange residency in Ecuador two years ago to ensure he could continue his work.  At the time, President Rafael Correa said he had not approved the offer.

Assange later interviewed President Correa for a television show while under house arrest in Britain. Their rapport was evident during the interview. The leftist president denounced the U.S. and praised WikiLeaks for exposing its actions; Assange chuckled at his jokes.

WikiLeaks founder's mom meets with Ecuador's president

QUITO, Ecuador -- The mother of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange met with Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa here Wednesday to lobby for her son’s request for political asylum. Correa made no comment after the meeting, and it remains unclear how his government will decide the case.

Assange has been holed up for a month in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London, awaiting word on his asylum petition. He is wanted in Sweden in connection with rape and sexual assault allegations and faces extradition from Britain if Ecuador denies his asylum request.

Assange's mother, Christine, an Australian national, arrived in Ecuador several days ago and has said she fears that Sweden  might send her son  to the U.S. to face espionage charges over WikiLeaks' publication of top-secret diplomatic cables.  She said a grand jury was convening in Virginia to consider such charges.

Assange told reporters in Ecuador that she felt abandoned by the Australian government, which she characterized as a “lap dog” of the U.S.

She spoke with Correa for half an hour Wednesday. Ecuador's foreign minister, Ricardo Patino, who accompanied Assange to the meeting, said a decision would be made sometime after the Olympic Games, which end Aug. 12.

 Assange said at a news conference after meeting with Correa that she had been received warmly in Ecuador.

“I am not here to demand anything of Ecuador, or its people, or its president. I am here humbly as a mother to present some facts. Of course I will be most grateful if asylum is granted," she said.

On Friday, Assange is to meet with former Spanish Judge Baltasar Garzon, who has agreed to act as an attorney for her son.  Garzon is best known for issuing an arrest warrant for late Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet.

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-- Cristina Munoz in Ecuador and and Chris Kraul in Bogota, Colombia

Photo: Christine Assange, mother of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, answers questions from reporters at the Carondelet Palace in Quito, Ecuador, after meeting with Ecuadorean President Rafael Correa to request political asylum for her son.  Credit: Rodrigo Buendia / AFP/Getty Images

WikiLeaks: PR firm tried to buff Syria's image after crackdown

A New York-based public relations firm tried to help the Syrian government “brand” its reforms last year as media reported its crackdown on protesters, according to an email released Friday by WikiLeaks.

The firm, Brown Lloyd James, had earlier helped arrange a rosy profile of Syrian first lady Asma Assad in Vogue magazine that praised her as “the freshest and most magnetic of first ladies.” It had been paid $5,000 a month for that work, according to a Foreign Agents Registration Act document.

Months later, in a memo last May to one of her aides, the firm advised Syria that it needed to buff up its image abroad as decidedly unflattering stories of mass arrests and alleged killings spread in the press.

“Mass arrests of activists, protesters and in some cases males older than 15 have skyrocketed, with thousands held in detention centers where human rights activists say they have been subjected to physical and mental abuse,” the Los Angeles Times reported eight days before the firm sent its memo. A later article said dissidents claimed a mass grave filled with slain protesters had been found in the south.

The public relations firm said Syria suffered from “an imbalance in its communications approach” that had failed to reassure the Syrian people and outsiders that it was genuinely pursuing reform.

“Syria seems to be communicating with two hands. One is offering reform and the other, rule of law. Rule of law is a fist. Reform is an open hand. Right now the fist appears to the outside world, and probably to many Syrians, as though it is ten times bigger than the outstretched palm,” the firm wrote in its email, which WikiLeaks dated to May 19, 2011. “They must be brought into better balance.”