USEmbassyCablesPart1

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Assange issues warning to journalists

Mayor turned to drug baron - WikiLeaks Cables


http://www.justiceforeveryone.co.uk/adam.htm

Norwegian paper says it has all cables


Rudd's Asia-Pacific plan rushed - cables


Assange says he could be killed in Jail  

Assange signs $A1.5m book deal


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US Embassy Cables

Julian Assange defends decision not to face questioning in Sweden

julian assange close up
The WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, said he did not need to be 'at the beck
and call of people making allegations'. Photograph: Lewis Whyld/PA


The US Embassy Cables

 NWO Project Blue Beam and HEAD OF ILLUMINATI

Julian Assange defends decision not to face questioning in Sweden

WikiLeaks founder says he is not obliged to return to be questioned over sexual assault allegations



Julian Assange today defended his decision not to return to Sweden for questioning over allegations of sexual assault, saying he did not need to be "at the beck and call of people making allegations".

The WikiLeaks founder said he was not obliged to return to the country, adding that there were "serious problems" with the prosecution against him.

In a separate interview with the Times, Assange claimed documents had been leaked to the Guardian by the Swedish authorities in an attempt to "undermine" his bail application hearing last week.

Speaking from the mansion in East Anglia where he is staying under the terms of his bail, he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "I don't need to go back to Sweden. The law says I also have certain rights, and these rights mean that I do not need to speak to random prosecutors around the world who simply want to have a chat, and won't do it in any other standard way."

Assange said he had waited in Sweden for five weeks to be interviewed by police – "so I can put my side of the case forward" – but the interview did not happen.

He added that he had been told there was no reason for him to remain in the country.

In a separate interview with the Times, Assange said documents had been leaked to the Guardian by the Swedish authorities in an attempt to "undermine" his bail application hearing last week. However, the documents were not leaked to the Guardian by Swedish authorities, and details from the documents to which Assange referred were only published after the 16 December hearing.

Asked by the BBC's John Humphrys why he would not return to Sweden to deal with the allegations, Assange said: "If they want to charge me, they can charge me. They have decided not to charge me."

He added: "They have asked, as part of their application, that if I go to Sweden and am arrested, I am to be held incommunicado.

"They have asked that my Swedish lawyer be gagged from talking to the public."

Asked by Humphrys: "Are you a sexual predator?" Assange said it was a "ridiculous" suggestion, adding: "Of course not".

He was then asked how many women he had slept with. He refused to answer, saying: "A gentleman doesn't count."

Discussing the effect WikiLeaks had brought through its publications, Assange said the organisation had "changed governance – we have certainly changed many political figures within governments".

Assange was granted bail on 14 December, but remained in jail for a further two days after the Swedish authorities challenged the decision.

The Times reportedthat Assange was unhappy with the Guardian for "selectively publishing" sections of the documents.

The Guardian was allowed access to documents relating to the case – including interviews with some of the central characters – but none of these were in fact leaked for such a purpose.It is understood Assange's defence team had seen copies of everything seen by the Guardian. Assange's final bail hearing was on Thursday 16 December.

The Guardian published an article which included some details from the police statementsonline at 9.30pm on Friday 17 December, and in the Guardian newspaper on Saturday 18 December.

• This article was amended on 23 December 2010. A quote in the original referred to "changed governments". This was taken from a transcript on the BBC website which has subsequently been revised.





WikiLeaks: the latest developments

WikiLeaks rallies in Australia, US congressman writes to Robert Gates about Bradley Manning's "cruel and unusual" punishment and more of today's WikiLeaks news and views

Julian Assange
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange outside Beccles police station in Suffolk. Photograph: Paul Hackett/Reuters

A pre-recorded message from Julian Assange has been played to pro-WikiLeaks rally in Australia. He said he wants to return home to Sydney Melbourne and compared WikiLeaks to the peace movement, environmentalism and feminism. He said:

For the internet generation this is our challenge and this is our time. We support a cause that is no more radical a proposition than that the citizenry has a right to scrutinise the state.

The state has asserted its authority by surveilling, monitoring and regimenting all of us, all the while hiding behind cloaks of security and opaqueness. Surely it was only a matter of time before citizens pushed back and we asserted our rights.

Australia's ABC adds that he called on Australia's prime minister, Julia Gillard, to take "active steps to bring me home".

• Bradley Manning's lawyer, David Coombs, has posted the following statement on his blog about the US army private's citizenship:

PFC Manning does not hold a British passport, nor does he consider himself a British citizen. He is an American, and is proud to be serving in the United States Army. His current confinement conditions are troubling to many both here in the United States and abroad. This concern, however, is not a citizenship issue. Instead, it is one involving a basic fundamental right not to be unlawfully punished prior to trial. 

PFC Manning is not being held like any other detainee at Quantico. He is in Maximum Custody and under Prevention of Injury watch over the repeated recommendation of brig forensic psychiatrists. There has been no stated justification for PFC Manning's confinement conditions. It is the hope of the defense that through the various inquiries into the arbitrary nature of his confinement status, he will soon receive relief from these onerous conditions

• Democratic congressman Dennis Kucinich, a candidate for his party's nomination in the last two presidential elections, has suggested in a letter to the US defence secretary that Manning could be being subject to "cruel and unusual" punishment in military jail. His phraseology is important - "cruel and unusual" punishment is in violation of the US constitution.

Since his arrest in May, Manning has been a model detainee, without any episodes of violence or disciplinary problems. He nonetheless was declared from the start to be a "Maximum Custody Detainee", the highest and most repressive level of military detention, which then became the basis for the series of inhumane measures imposed on himNow, reports indicate that the Army has taken Pfc. Manning, a soldier with documented mental health problems, and confined him under conditions that are almost guaranteed to exacerbate his mental health problems. If true, the Army's treatment would obviously constitute "cruel and unusual punishment" in violation of the Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution.

• Here is a link to Thursday's Wikiblog

12.50pm: The Telegraph has published cables on homegrown UK terrorism. In one, a US congressional delegation (which included Gabrielle Giffords, the congresswoman shot last month in Tucson) is told the following by a member of MI6 (name redacted):

The internal threat is growing more dangerous because some extremists are conducting non-lethal training without ever leaving the country. Should these extremists then decide to become suicide operatives, HMG intelligence resources, eavesdropping and surveillance would be hard pressed to find them on any "radar screen." XXXXXXXXXXXX described this as a "generational" problem that will not go away anytime soon

2.35pm: Clay Shirky on Comment is free:

For half a century, from 1946 to 2005, this use of transnational networks to get around national controls was asymmetric: governments could use this technique to surveil citizens, but not vice-versa. In 2006, WikiLeaks launched, holding out the possibility of evening up the odds, however slightly, in favour of the citizens. For the first three years of its existence, this change was more potential than actual, but in 2010, with the release of the Collateral Murder video, the Afghan war logs, and, most significantly, the US embassy cables, increased oversight of the state by citizens became real

3pm: The Cutline blog has a report on an event last night in New York with New York Times executive editor Bill Keller and the Guardian's editor-in-chief, Alan Rusbridger. The two said Assange would have their support if the US were to bring a criminal prosecution against him:

"If, God forbid, ever this came to court, I would be completely side-by-side with him in terms of defending him with respect to what he did," said Rusbridger, one of the panelists, acknowledging that Assange and WikiLeaks should be afforded the same protections as journalists when it comes to the publication of government secrets. "Completely shoulder to shoulder," Rusbridger continued. "I've got great admiration for him in a lot of stuff he's done."

And Keller?

"In terms of his right to be protected for publishing secrets, I think we do stand by him," said the Times chief, though he was a bit less unequivocal in his response. "I think the Times' lawyers would prefer I not declare what I'd do in a court of law. Outside a court of law, I agree it would be very difficult to come up with a prosecution of Assange in a way that wouldn't be applicable to us."

There is more in the post on WikiLeaks-style drop boxes for news organisations.

4.15pm: Aftenposten, the Norwegian newspaper, has published a series of cables on political reform in Jordan. King Abdullah this week fired his cabinet and ordered the new prime minister to carry out political reforms.

This isn't the first time reforms have been promised in the country, and Aftenposten's own report (translation here) notes that Abdullah "has also promised reforms before – without having to implement them."

The cables discusses barriers to reform, such as tribal leaders with an interest in the status quo, but also whether Abdullah can implement it. When the prime minister most recently fired was appointed in 2009, US diplomats noted that "while the king's enthusiastic push for revitalised reforms and expressed anti-corruption sentiment is noteworthy, his designation letter to the new premier is a tall order for a cabinet and a parliament not yet formed, much less proven."

This is a US assessment from April 2009:

While the King promotes democratization indirectly, he has proved reluctant to spend political capital on pressing directly for reforms which could encroach on his power base of conservative tribal elites. We continue to push for changes to Jordan's electoral system, increased political space for civil society and the press, and the promotion of women´s rights.



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Archive (121-135 of 831)


Archive (136-150 of 831)





See also



US embassy cables: China plays a strong hand on Sudan

Summary
  1. Chinese officials urge caution on prosecution president Omar al-Bashir, insisting it will only serve to destabilise Sudan. Key passages highlighted in yellow.

Thursday, 04 September 2008, 10:56
C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 KHARTOUM 001354
SIPDIS
DEPT FOR AF A/S FRAZER, S/E WILLIAMSON, AF/SPG
NSC FOR PITTMAN AND HUDSON
ADDIS ABABA FOR USAU
EO 12958 DECL: 08/12/2018
TAGS PGOV, PREL, KPKO, UNSC, AU-1, SU, CM
SUBJECT: CHINA COUNSELS SUDANESE ENGAGEMENT, U.S. RESTRAINT
IN ICC PROCEEDINGS AGAINST BASHIR
Classified By: CDA Alberto M. Fernandez, for reasons 1.4 (b) and (d)


1. (C) Summary: During his recent visit to Sudan, Chinese Special Envoy Zhai Jun strongly counseled the GOS to remain prudent in dealing with the threatened arrest warrant for President Bashir and to continue to engage with the international community, according to Chinese Ambassador Li. Zhai even suggested that Sudan contact the ICC itself. Li encouraged the USG to consider shared interests in Sudan,s stability and not to veto a UNSCR postponing the ICC proceedings. CDA Fernandez thanked China for its helpful message to the GOS, and reported that the USG has made no decision whatsoever regarding an Article 16 vote. He emphasized that the USG's primary concern remains tangible improvements in the situation in Darfur, the recent violence by the regime in Kalma Camp was a setback, and thus far the USG sees no reason to postpone ICC action. End Summary.

Special Envoy Zhen,s Message to Khartoum

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

2. (C) On September 3, Chinese Ambassador Li Cheng Wen briefed Charge Fernandez on Chinese Special Envoy and Assistant Foreign Minister Zhai Jun,s recent visit to Sudan. Zhai, who is responsible for Africa and the Middle East, inaugurated the new Chinese consulate in Juba and discussed the possible ICC indictment of President Bashir with GOS officials in Khartoum. On the latter issue, Li stated that Zhai expressed grave concern about the negative effect an ICC indictment would have on resolving the Darfur crisis. Zhai found Bashir to be quite receptive.

3. (C) According to Li, SE Zhai praised the GOS for its calm handling of the matter thus far, and encouraged GOS officials to continue to mobilize internally and engage the international community, including the UN Security Council and especially the P-5. Zhai also made a "friendly suggestion" that the GOS consider communicating with the ICC itself, either directly or indirectly. Li expressed hope that such contact could influence and perhaps "curb the next steps" in the ICC process. He stated that the GOC views ICC indictment not only as a political, not a legal matter. As such, it is encouraging the GOS to pursue both legal and political solutions to the problem.

ICC Action Threatens Darfur Progress

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

4. (C) Li stated that the GOC is extremely worried about how the ICC indictment will affect stability in Darfur, asserting that it has hardened the rebels' stance towards peace. He believes that GOS officials now understand the gravity of the situation they have created over the years, and hopes they will heed GOC advice continue to engage with the international community. "Not heating up this matter is in the interest of all parties," he said.

5. (C) CDA Fernandez thanked Li for China,s helpful and useful message to the GOS. He noted that while the United States shares GOC concerns about Sudan,s stability, its primary focus is achieving tangible improvements in the situation in Darfur, especially in regards to humanitarian access. He continued that while GOS contact with the ICC might influence P-5 members France and the UK, it does not by itself concern the United States, which is not a party to the ICC.

6. (C) Li concurred that the GOS could do more to speed up humanitarian access and take other positive actions but cautioned that "only pressuring the Sudanese government is no use." Continued antagonism serves to strengthen the suspicions of hardliners within the NCP that the West is plotting against Sudan, he said. Rather, "we need to engage with them" to help solve the Darfur crisis. Both agreed that there is some anecdotal evidence of regime infighting about what is the best strategy: cooperation or escalation.

7. (C) Li expressed puzzlement at perceived British and French support for ICC Chief Prosecutor Luis Moreno-Ocampo. He stated that "whoever had a role in creating this problem will bear responsibility" if Sudan descends into chaos as a result of the ICC indictment, adding that such an outcome could have been easily forecast. He declared that destabilization of Sudan is in no one,s interest, adding that "to help Sudan is to help ourselves. I hope the British and French understand this philosophy." He observed that French companies have oil interests in Sudan as well as in Chad. CDA Fernandez agreed that an ICC indictment will

KHARTOUM 00001354 002 OF 002

present great challenges to achieving peace in Darfur, but commented that the decision to indict President Bashir was may bave been made by an overzealous prosecutor and is not the result of "high politics" or a conspiracy by the West. He noted President Bashir's sweeping claims to want to change the situation in Darfur for the better, "we want to see tangible results, not words or process."

U.S. Should Not Block Delaying ICC Action

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

8. (C) CDA Fernandez' meeting with Li followed a flurry of erroneous media reports that China is expected to "veto" the issuance of an arrest warrant for President Bashir. (Note: For example, the newspaper Akher Lahza ran a story with the headline "China Does Not Rule Out Veto To Invalidate Ocampo's Allegations," which noted that "President Bashir received a verbal message from his Chinese counterpart expressing a his country's support for Sudan regarding Ocampo's allegations," but that "Peking denied reaching the stage of using a veto to invalidate the ICC prosecutor's procedures because the case is still in its primary phase." Another daily, Al-Rae'd, ran a headline "Chinese veto awaits Ocampo." End Note.) Li acknowledged that these reports suggest a fundamental misunderstanding of role of Article 16 of the ICC Statute by the Sudanese public, and that it is a P-3 veto of a deferral of the ICC proceedings that GOS must worry about. He urged the USG to think of its and Chinese "mutual interests" in Africa when making a decision. "Stability is in the interests of all parties," he said. "It's what we should work for in the New World Order."

Comment

- - - -

9. (C) Li's concern that the issuance of an arrest warrant for President Bashir could have profound destabilizing effects are well founded. Combined with the end of the rainy season and renewal of rebel activity on both sides of the Chad-Sudan border, the ICC indictment could set off a chain reaction of violence and instability. China's encouragement of GOS internal mobilization and international engagement, including with the ICC, is both useful and helpful, but its unclear whether the NCP even has the capability, let alone the willpower, to take any action towards solving the crisis if it can decide what those steps should be.

FERNANDEZ























Allegations of fraud against Bernanke


Allegations of fraud against Bernanke concerning Merrill Lynch merger with Bank Of America

In a letter to Congress from New York State Attorney General Andrew Cuomo dated April 23, 2009, Bernanke was mentioned along with former Treasury SecretaryHenry Paulson in allegations of fraud concerning the acquisition of Merrill Lynch by Bank of America. The letter alleged that the extent of the losses at Merrill Lynch were not disclosed to Bank of America by Bernanke and Paulson. When Bank of America CEO Kenneth Lewis informed Paulson that Bank of America was exiting the merger by invoking the "Materially Adverse Change" clause Paulson immediately called Lewis to a meeting in Washington. At the meeting, which allegedly took place on December 21, 2008, Paulson told Lewis that he and the board would be replaced if they invoked the MAC clause and additionally not to reveal the extent of the losses to shareholders. Paulson stated to Cuomo's office that he was directed by Bernanke to threaten Lewis in this manner. Congressional hearings into these allegations were conducted on June 25, 2009, with Bernanke testifying that he did not bully Ken Lewis. Under intense questioning by members of Congress, Bernanke said, "I never said anything about firing the board and the management [of Bank of America]." In further testimony, Bernanke said the Fed did nothing illegal or unethical in its efforts to convince Bank of America not to end the merger. Lewis told the panel that authorities expressed "strong views" but said he would not characterize their stance as improper.

Nominated for Chairman of the United States Federal Reserve
In nominating Ben S. Bernanke to succeed Alan Greenspan as Fed chairman, President Bush selected an economist with stellar credentials and a good reputation in Congress and on Wall Street who has won widespread plaudits since being named. Ben S. Bernanke was sworn in on February 1, 2006, as Chairman and a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System. Dr. Bernanke also serves as Chairman of the Federal Open Market Committee, the System's principal monetary policymaking body. He was appointed as a member of the Board to a full 14-year term, which expires January 31, 2020, and to a four-year term as Chairman, which expires January 31, 2010.

Renominated for Fed Chief

On 25th Aug 2009, President Obama announced that he would nominate Ben Bernanke to a second term as chairman of the Federal Reserve. In a short statement in Martha's Vineyard, with Bernanke standing at his side, Obama said Bernanke's background, temperament, courage and creativity helped to prevent another Great Depression in 2008. "Ben approached a financial system on the verge of collapse with calm and wisdom, with bold action and out-of-the-box thinking that has helped put the brakes on our economic free fall", the President said.

Senate Banking Committee hearings on his nomination begin December 3, 2009.

.Economic Views of Ben Bernanke

He has given several lectures at the London School of Economics on monetary theory and policy and has written three textbooks on macroeconomics, and one on microeconomics. He was the Director of the Monetary Economics Program of the National Bureau of Economic Research and the editor of the American Economic Review. He is among the 50 most published economists in the world according toIDEAS/RePEc.

Bernanke is particularly interested in the economic and political causes of the Great Depression, on which he has written extensively. Before Bernanke's work, the dominant monetarist theory of the Great Depression was Milton Friedman's view that it had been largely caused by the Federal Reserve's having reduced themoney supply. In a speech on Milton Friedman's ninetieth birthday (November 8, 2002), Bernanke said, "Let me end my talk by abusing slightly my status as an official representative of the Federal Reserve. I would like to say to Milton and Anna [Schwartz, Friedman's coauthor]: Regarding the Great Depression. You're right, we did it. We're very sorry. But thanks to you, we won't do it again." Anna Schwartz however is highly critical of Bernanke and wrote an opinion piece on New York Times to advise President Obama against his reappointment to Chair of Federal Reserve. Bernanke focused less on the role of the federal reserve, and more on the role of private banks and financial institutions. Bernanke found that the financial disruptions of 1930-33 reduced the efficiency of the credit allocation process; and that the resulting higher cost and reduced availability of credit acted to depress aggregate demand, identifying an effect he called thefinancial accelerator. When faced with a mild downturn, banks are likely to significantly cut back lending and other risky ventures. This further hurts the economy, creating a vicious cycle and potentially turning a mild recession into a major depression. Economist Brad DeLong, who had previously advocated his own theory for the Great Depression, notes that the current financial crisis has increased the pertinence of Bernanke's theory. In 2002, when the word "deflation" began appearing in the business news, Bernanke gave a speech about deflation.[37] In that speech, he mentioned that the government in a fiat money system owns the physical means of creating money. Control of the means of production for money implies that the government can always avoid deflation by simply issuing more money. He said “The U.S. government has a technology, called a printing press (or today, its electronic equivalent), that allows it to produce as many U.S. dollars as it wishes at no cost.” (He referred to a statement made by Milton Friedman about using a "helicopter drop" of money into the economy to fight deflation.) Bernanke's critics have since referred to him as "Helicopter Ben" or to his "helicopter printing press." In a footnote to his speech, Bernanke noted that "people know that inflation erodes the real value of the government's debt and, therefore, that it is in the interest of the government to create some inflation." For example, while Greenspan publicly supported President Clinton's deficit reduction plan and the Bush tax cuts, Bernanke, when questioned about taxation policy, said that it was none of his business, his exclusive remit being monetary policy, and said that fiscal policy and wider society related issues were what politicians were for and got elected for. Indeed, in his undergraduate economics textbooks he somewhat distances himself from the rhetorical economic libertarianism of Greenspan. In 2005 Bernanke coined the term saving glut, the idea, which does not take into account time preference, that a worldwide oversupply of savings finances the current account deficits of the United States and keeps interest rates low. His first months as chairman of the Federal Reserve System were marked by difficulties communicating with the media. An advocate of more transparent Fed policy and clearer statements than Greenspan had made, he had to back away from his initial idea of stating clearer inflation goals as such statements tended to affect the stock market. Maria Bartiromo disclosed on CNBC their private conversation on Fed policy (in which Bernanke said investors had misinterpreted his comments as indicating that he was "dovish" on inflation), and he was criticized for making public statements about Fed direction. Texas representative Ron Paul, a member of the House Banking Committee who takes the view that the Federal Reserve System should be abolished,has criticized Bernanke for "continually lowering interest rates," which he avers to have caused drastic inflation and unnecessary growth of the money supply, leading to what Paul refers to as the "inflation tax." However, many economists have argued that failure to have lowered the Fed's target rate would have contributed far more significantly to recession, and urged Bernanke (and the rest of the Federal Open Market Committee) to lower the rate beyond what it had done. For example, Larry Summers, who currently serves as Director of the White House's National Economic Council under President Barack Obama, wrote in the Financial Times on November 26, 2007 — in a column in which he argued that recession was likely — that "....maintaining demand must be the over-arching macro-economic priority. That means the Federal Reserve System has to get ahead of the curve and recognize — as the market already has — that levels of the Federal Funds rate that were neutral when the financial system was working normally are quite contractionary today." David Leonhardt of The New York Times wrote, on January 30, 2008, that "Dr. Bernanke's forecasts have been too sunny over the last six months. [On] the other hand, his forecast was a lot better than Wall Street's in mid-2006. Back then, he resisted calls for further interest rate increases because he thought the economy might be weakening. He was dead-on right about that—and the situation would be even worse now if he had listened to his critics then."



10 years as President of the World Bank, James D. Wolfensohn
focused the spotlight back on the institution's true purpose — fighting ...poverty eradication
http://www.worldbank.org/features/2005/jdw_0605.htm
JAMES D. WOLFENSOHN 1995-2005
undefined
undefined A Decade of Dedication to Poverty Eradication
Final Press Briefing: JDW—A Personal Assessment

http://www.globalpolicy.org/component/content/article/209/43533.html
World Bank president James Wolfensohn is a man of charm, talent and managerial skill. When he speaks in public, he conveys an impression of sincerity and commitment. He has convinced many people that the World Bank under his leadership will finally tackle poverty and environmental degradation and work for a better world.


The test of his sincerity lies in the actual performance of the Bank. Since he has now been at the helm for quite some time, there is a substantial record to examine. In fact, the Bank continues to lend large sums for oil exploration, road building, big dams and the like. So it remains environmentally unfriendly and it is hard not to conclude that its President's environmental commitment is largely rhetorical. The Bank also has recently promoted harsh "structural adjustment programs," pension privatization measures and other attacks on the poor. By all measures, income inequality worldwide continues to widen. So it would appear that Mr. Wolfensohn's "commitment" to reduce poverty is not very deep either. In March 1997, The Nation magazine published an article that reported that the Bank's lavish remodeling -- at a cost of $314 million -- includes gold leaf ceilings and rare woods of the sort that are to be found only in the most elegant business offices. Though this work began before Wolfensohn took over the helm of the Bank, he does not appear to have introduced more modest plans in the meantime, even while wringing millions in interest charges from the world's poorest countries. To understand Wolfensohn, it helps to know something about him besides his engaging smile, his shock of unruly white hair, and his carefully-cultivated image as a committed social reformer. In fact, he is better understood as one of the world's richest men and sharpest financial operatives. About his personal fortune, the New York Times of September 14, 1997 said: "He enjoys the trapping of great wealth, like a private jet and a lavish vacation home in Jackson Hole, Wyoming." Wolfensohn was born in Sydney, Australia. In 1959, he took at Master in Business Administration degree from Harvard Business School. He then he rose very rapidly in the financial world and developed a reputation as smart and ruthless. He held high posts in brokerage and investment firms in Australia from 1959 to 1967, when he moved to London as a top officer of the Henry Schroder investment banking group. Concern for the poor does not seem to have been on his list in those years. In 1970 he became head of Schroder's operation in New York, a post he held through 1976. He then became an executive partner in Salomon Brothers, the hard-charging bond and investment house. At Salomon he played a key role in the bailout of the Chrysler Corporation by the United States government. His Chrysler play brought him into the world of official policy in Washington, where he caught the eye of World Bank President Robert McNamara. Rumored to be on the short list as McNamara's successor, Wolfensohn speedily arranged to become a U.S. citizen so as best to qualify for the post. When the Bank passed him up, he left Salomon in 1981 to set up his own firm -- James D. Wolfensohn Inc. The new firm was a key player in the hot mergers and acquisitions game on Wall Street during the 1980's (the firm has since been bought by Banker's Trust). Wolfensohn built up his own portfolio along the way and by the end of the decade, he was a millionaire many times over and a close compatriot of the Rockefeller clan. To his credit, Wolfensohn is more than just a money shark. He plays the violin and is a cultured person who appreciates the arts. He has served on the board of directors of a number of public charities, like the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts and the Rockefeller Foundation. He has also sat on the board of a number of private corporations, like communications giant CBS. And he belongs to the ultimate insider institutions like the Bilderberg and the Council on Foreign Relations. Let us not judge Wolfensohn unfairly, but let us not close our eyes to who he is and how his career and his millions have shaped him. If he is a Wolf in sheep's clothing, would that really be so surprising, for a President of the World Bank?


Above some of the most powerful an dinfluential members of the Bilderberg Group, The Trilateral Commision, the Council On Foreign Relations and/or the Freemasons which David Icke

states are all interconnected organisations with the Bilderberg Group being thre most powerful group where it's memebers meet every years and the resolutions at their meetings then, one way or another, end up being put inot policies for all the major world governments...what David Icke argues and shows threw the onformation in his books is that the memebers of these pwoerful organisations and group are really a secret world government the control who ends up as the leader or most countries and what economic, social and monetary policies theit governments put in place...David Icke goes on the argue that this type of powerful world shadow government and group of secret societies manipulating how the world is run and whp will run it, is in effect a continuation of an unboken chain that has been going on since 2,000 BC.

 

 

 
USA Presidents Ronald Regan Geoge Bush Senior who was a founding senior member of the Bilderberg Group, The Trilaterial Commission, the Council on Foreign Relations and a Freemason

David Rockerfeller a founding senior member of the Bilderberg Group, The Trilaterial Commission, the Council on Foreign Relations and a Freemason



 Above some of the most powerful and influential members of the Bilderberg Group, The Trilateral Commision, the Council On Foreign Relations and/or the Freemasons which David Icke states are all interconencted organisations with the Bilderberg Group being thre most powerful group where it's memebers meet every years and the resolutions at their meetings then, one way or another, end up being put inot policies for all the major world governments...what David Icke argues and shows threw the onformation in his books is that the memebers of these pwoerful organisations and group are really a secret world government the control who ends up as the leader or most countries and what economic, social and monetary policies theit governments put in place...David Icke goes on the argue that this type of powerful world shadow government and group of secret societies manipulating how the world is run and whp will run it, is in effect a continuation of an unboken chain that has been going on since 2,000 BC.



Author Daniel Pipes in his book Conspiricies investigates Secret Societies like
the Freemasons, The Trilateral Commission, The Council o
n Foreigh Relations and the Bilderberg Group


Author David Icke investigates Secret Societies like the Fremans, The Trilateral Commission, The Council on Foreigh Relations and the Bilderberg Group







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Bernanke meeting with United States President Barack Obama.
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With his predecessor, Alan Greenspan, looking on, Chairman Ben Bernanke addresses President George W. Bush and others after being sworn in to the Federal Reserve post. Also on stage with the President are Mrs. Anna Bernanke and Roger W. Ferguson, Jr., Vice Chairman of the Federal Reserve.

Ben Shalom Bernanke caught on camera arriving at a Bilderberg Meeting.
Ben Shalom Bernanke (pronounced /b?r'nænki/ b?r-NAN-kee; born December 13, 1953) is an Americaneconomist, and the current Chairman of the United States Federal Reserve. Bernanke, a Republican who was appointed by President George W. Bush in October 2005 and who had briefly served as chairman of President Bush’s Council of Economic Advisers, succeeded Alan Greenspan on February 1, 2006. He was nominated for a second term by President Barack Obama in 2009 as the Chairman of the Federal Reserve Born in Augusta, Georgia, Bernanke was raised in a ranch-style house on East Jefferson Street in DillonSouth Carolina. His father Philip was a pharmacist and part-time theater manager, and his mother Edna was an elementary schoolteacher, although she gave it up once Ben was born.  He is the eldest of three children, having a brother and sister. His younger brother, Seth, is a lawyer in Charlotte, North Carolina, and his younger sister, Sharon, is a longtime administrator at Berklee College of Music in Boston. The Bernankes were one of the few Jewish families in the area, attending a local synagogue called Ohav Shalom;  as a child, Bernanke learned Hebrew from his maternal grandfather Harold Friedman, who was a professional hazzan, shochet, and Hebrew teacher. His father and uncle co-owned and managed a drugstore that they bought from his paternal grandfather, Jonas Bernanke. Jonas was born in BoryslavAustria–Hungary (today part of Ukraine), on January 23, 1891, and immigrated to the United States from Przemysl, Poland (part of Austria–Hungary until 1919). He arrived atEllis Island, age 30, Thursday, June 30, 1921, with his wife Pauline, age 25. On the ship’s manifest, Jonas’ occupation is listed as “clerk” and Pauline’s as “doctor med." They moved to Dillon, South Carolina, from New York in the 1940s. Bernanke’s mother often worked in the family drugstore, having given up her job as a school teacher when her son was born, and Bernanke also assisted from time to time. As a teenager in the 1960s in the small town of Dillon, S.C., Bernanke used to help roll the Torah scrolls in his localsynagogue. Although he keeps his beliefs private, his friend Mark Gertler, chairman of New York University’s economics department, commented in 2005 that, "it is really embedded in who he (Bernanke) is".On the other hand, the Bernanke family was concerned that Ben would "lose his Jewish identity" if he went to Harvard. Fellow Dillon nativeKenneth Manning, an African-American who would eventually become a professor of the History of Sciences at M.I.T, helped assuage the family that "there were Jews in Boston." Once at Harvard, Manning took Bernanke to a Rosh Hashanah services in Brookline his freshman year. Unfortunately, Manning found the services more meaningful than Bernanke.Bernanke was educated at East Elementary, J. V. Martin Junior High, and Dillon High School, where he was class valedictorian and played saxophone in the marching band. Bernanke achieved a near-perfect SAT score of 1590 out of 1600. He was also an All-State saxophonist, playing in the school’s marching band.Bernanke spent his undergraduate years at Harvard University where he lived in Winthrop House and graduated with a B.A. in economics summa cum laude in 1975. He received his Ph.D. in economics from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in 1979. His thesis was named "Long-term commitments, dynamic optimization, and the business cycle" and his thesis adviser was Stanley Fischer. He also taught himself calculus in high school. Bernanke worked construction on a new hospital and waited tables at a restaurant at nearby South of the Border, a roadside attraction in his hometown of Dillon, before leaving for college. During the summer, he attended Camp Ramah located in New England. To support himself throughout college, he worked during the summers at South of the Border. Bernanke taught at the Stanford Graduate School of Business from 1979 until 1985, was a visiting professor at New York University and went on to become a tenured professor at Princeton University in the Department of Economics. He chaired that department from 1996 until September 2002, when he went on public service leave. He resigned his position at Princeton July 1, 2005. Dr. Bernanke served as a member of the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System from 2002 to 2005, and was Chairman of the President's Council of Economic Advisers, from June 2005 to January 2006. On February 1, 2006, he was appointed as a member of the Board for a fourteen-year term and to a four-year term as Chairman.[23] In one of his first speeches, entitled “Deflation: Making Sure It Doesn’t Happen Here,” he outlined what has been referred to as the Bernanke Doctrine. In view of his current position as Fed chair, Bernanke also sits on the newly established Financial Stability Oversight Board that oversees the Troubled Asset Relief Program.

 

Search Wikinews Wikinews has related news:Fed chairman Bernanke says US recession 'may last into 2010'

 

Bernanke’s future as Federal Reserve chairman became uncertain on November 21, 2008, when it was announced thatPresident-elect Barack Obama would name Tim Geithner as Treasury Secretary over Lawrence Summers, leading to speculation that Obama was positioning Summers as Bernanke's successor. Summers was picked to run the National Economic Council. Two Obama advisers said that Summers would be the leading candidate to become the next Federal Reserve chairman should President Obama choose not to reappoint Bernanke when his term ends January 31, 2010. White House sources announced on August 24, 2009 that President Obama would nominate Bernanke for another term in 2010. During Bernanke's first term as Chairman, he oversaw the Federal Reserve's largest increase of power since the bank's creation in 1913.




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Latest Leaks and Censored Media





Mayor turned to drug baron - WikiLeaks Cables


A US diplomatic cable says the mayor of Jamaica's biggest city acknowledged forging an alliance of convenience with an alleged drug baron to reduce crime in a sprawling patchwork of gritty slums.

The September 2009 cable says that Kingston Mayor Desmond McKenzie told a US Embassy officer that his administration collaborated for years with Christopher 'Dudus' Coke to fight crime, particularly in the powerful slum leader's stronghold of West Kingston, the home constituency of Prime Minister Bruce Golding.

McKenzie, an influential figure in the ruling Jamaica Labour Party, warned of a doomsday scenario if Washington continued to push for the extradition of Coke, according to the memo, which apparently was written by Isiah L. Parnell, the embassy's deputy chief of mission.

It was released by WikiLeaks and published by the British newspaper The Guardian on Wednesday.

Coke was the alleged crime 'don' of Tivoli Gardens, providing services and a lawless, violent sort of order in the slums.

McKenzie 'predicted that there would be 'severe repercussions' and 'collateral damage' if Coke were arrested, and that this would 'risk destroying everything the government was trying to do on the economy and crime,'' the leaked US communique said.

In fact, at least 76 people died in battles between drug gangs and authorities after Prime Minister Bruce Golding finally agreed to extradite Coke after fighting the US request for nine months - even to the point of hiring a US lobbyist to oppose it.

The diplomatic cable was written in August 2009, days after the US first asked Jamaica to extradite Coke to face federal drug and weapons-trafficking charges in New York.

The US indictment accused Coke of leading the 'Shower Posse' - a gang with agents in Jamaica and the United States that was named for its tendency to spray victims with bullets.

Jamaica has a long history of politicians forging alliances with gangsters in vote-rich ghettoes.

The political parties built the gangs: Dons received government contracts, and in exchange delivered the votes of their people.

Slum dwellers were caught in the middle.

Still, the image of a powerful Jamaican mayor working for years on crime-fighting strategies with a man portrayed by the US Justice Department as one of the world's most dangerous drug kingpins is stark, especially since Kingston is a city with one of the highest homicide rates in the Western Hemisphere.

McKenzie's main office line at the Kingston and St Andrew Corporation went unanswered on Wednesday.

The government's information minister, Daryl Vaz, did not immediately provide comment about the WikiLeaks cable.

Washington's extradition request for Coke immediately became a problem for the Jamaican government because the reputed gang leader was widely known for loyalty to the governing party.

The US cable says that Coke was reputedly close to leading figures within Golding's Jamaica Labour Party, including McKenzie.

In the cable, McKenzie apparently warned the US embassy officer that his 'contacts in the communities' had told him personally that they 'would not take this (Coke's extradition) lying down'.

The leaked cable said that McKenzie's fears of repercussions were not groundless.

'He is easily the highest profile figure whose extradition has been requested in many years, and his long-standing ties to the JLP have put McKenzie, Golding, and other leading party figures in an extremely awkward position,' said the cable.

It also stated that 'Coke's gang provides social and welfare services and turns out the JLP vote in elections, while his business interests profit from lucrative government contracts'.


Assange signs $A1.5m book deal


Sunday, December 26, 2010

WikiLeaks chief Julian Assange has said in an interview he had signed deals for his autobiography worth more than one million pounds(($A1.57 million).

Assange told Britain's Sunday Times newspaper that the money would help him defend himself against allegations of sexual assault made by two women in Sweden.

'I don't want to write this book, but I have to,' he said on Sunday. 'I have already spent 200,000 pounds for legal costs and I need to defend myself and to keep WikiLeaks afloat.'

The Australian said he would receive the equivalent of $A800,000 from Alfred A. Knopf, his American publisher, and a British deal with Canongate is worth about $A500,000.

Money from other markets and serialisation is expected to raise the total to 1.1 million pounds, he said.

The latest project of Assange's whistleblower website is the gradual release of tens of thousands of US diplomatic cables.

Since this latest project began Assange, who is on bail in Britain fighting a bid by Sweden to extradite him over the sex assault claims, has faced problems financing WikiLeaks.

Credit-card companies Visa and MasterCard and the internet payment firm PayPal have blocked donations to WikiLeaks, prompting Assange to label them 'instruments of US foreign policy'.

The Bank of America, the largest US bank, has also halted all transactions to WikiLeaks.

Washington has been infuriated by WikiLeaks as the site slowly releases the cache of about 250,000 secret US State Department cables. The US is believed to be considering how to indict Assange over the the huge leak.

Assange has been staying at a friend's country mansion in eastern England since his release from jail on December 16 on strict bail conditions that include reporting to police daily and wearing an electronic tag.

A court in London is due to hold a full hearing on the Swedish extradition request starting February 7.

Norwegian paper says it has all cables

Friday, December 24, 2010

The Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten says it has obtained all 250,000 secret US diplomatic documents that WikiLeaks is in the process of releasing.

Managing editor Ole Erik Almlid says Aftenposten has no restrictions on how to use the material and will publish articles about documents it finds relevant.

He says Aftenposten will also post parts of some original documents on its website. The diplomatic cables show the behind-the-scenes conduct of Washington's diplomats.

Almlid declined to say on Thursday how the paper obtained the documents but said it didn't pay for them.

The documents are also being published by other media, including The New York Times, France's Le Monde, Britain's Guardian newspaper and the German magazine Der Spiegel.




Assange issues warning to journalists

Thursday, December 23, 2010

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange says a US government effort to prosecute him should serve as a warning to journalists in the United States.

Assange, in an interview with the MSNBC television network on Wedensday, said there has been a 'quite deliberate attempt to split off our organisation from the First Amendment protections that are afforded to all publishers'.

The Australian-born WikiLeaks founder said he considers himself a journalist and 'we all have to stick together to resist this sort of reinterpretation of the First Amendment', which guarantees the right to free speech.

'We have seen these statements, that The New York Times is, you know, also being looked at in terms of whether they have engaged in what they call 'conspiracy to commit espionage',' he said.

'If they want to push the line that when a newspaperman talks to someone in the government about looking for things relating to potential abuses, that that is a conspiracy to commit espionage, then that's going to take out all the good government journalism that occurs in the United States,' he said.

Assange added that if the 'Washington authorities target us and destroy us' other journalists should be worried because 'they're going to be next.'

Assange rejected US Vice President Joe Biden's description of him as a 'high-tech terrorist' and condemned calls for his assassination.

'The definition of terrorism is a group that uses violence or the threat of violence for political ends,' he said.

'Now, no one in our four-year publishing history, covering over 120 countries, has ever been physically harmed as a result of what we have done.

'Whoever the terrorists are here, it's not us,' Assange said.

'But we see constant threats from people ... calling for my assassination, calling for the illegal kidnapping of my staff.

'What sort of message does that send about the rule of law in the United States?' he said.

'I mean, if we are to have a civil society, you cannot have senior people making calls on national TV to go around the judiciary and illegally murder people -- that is incitement to commit murder.'

Assange also described Bradley Manning, the US army soldier suspected of providing WikiLeaks with secret US military and diplomatic documents, as a 'political prisoner'.

'He has been a political prisoner without trial in the United States for some six or seven months,' Assange said, adding that he did not know if the material he received was from Manning since it is submitted anonymously.

'We recently heard calls to try and set up a plea deal with Bradley Manning to testify against me, personally, to say that we engaged in some kind of conspiracy to commit espionage,' he said, dismissing the charge as 'absolute nonsense.'

Assange says he could be killed in jail

Friday, December 24, 2010

WikiLeaks chief Julian Assange says there is a 'high chance' he would be killed in a US jail if he were to be extradited from Britain on espionage charges.

The Australian is on bail in Britain fighting a bid by Sweden to extradite him over sex assault claims, but Washington is believed to be considering how to indict him over the leaking of thousands of US diplomatic cables.

Assange told The Guardian it would be 'politically impossible' for Britain to send him across the Atlantic, adding that the government of Prime Minister David Cameron would want to show it had not been 'co-opted' by Washington.

'Legally the UK has the right to not extradite for political crimes. Espionage is the classic case of political crimes. It is at the discretion of the UK government as to whether to apply to that exception,' he said.

He said US authorities were 'trying to strike a plea deal' with Bradley Manning, the US army soldier suspected of providing WikiLeaks with the cables.

Assange added that if the United States succeeded in getting him extradited from Britain or Sweden, then there was a 'high chance' of him being killed 'Jack Ruby-style' in an American prison.

Ruby, a nightclub owner, shot dead Lee Harvey Oswald at a police station in Dallas, Texas days after Oswald was arrested for the assassination of US President John F Kennedy in 1963.

Ruby's alleged links to organised crime sparked conspiracy theories about his involvement in an overall plot surrounding the assassination of Kennedy.

Assange has previously said that he and other WikiLeaks staff have received death threats since the website began to release a cache of about 250,000 secret US State Department cables in November.

The 39-year-old has been staying at a friend's country mansion in eastern England since his release from jail last week on strict bail conditions that include reporting to police daily and wearing an electronic tag.

A court in London is due to hold a full hearing on the Swedish extradition request starting February 7.


Sweden reflects on Anna Lindh's death


Published: 11 Sep 08 10:52 CET | Double click on a word to get a translation

On the fifth anniversary of the assassination of foreign minister Anna Lindh, Sweden is reflecting more on the legacy of her work in politics than the tragic circumstances surrounding her death.

Lindh’s name lives on in a number of foundations, research programmes, and awards.

“She’s very much alive in the party; at the same time there’s been a very long period of mourning,” Social Democratic Party Secretary Marita Ulvskog told the TT news agency.

“But we’re beginning to reach a point where what she said and did is being utilized.”

On the Social Democrats’ website it is possible to order the 'Palme-package', created in memory of assassinated Prime Minister Olof Palme. For the last year a Lindh-package has also been available.

The Lindh-package offers membership in the party, a book, a picture of Anna Lindh, a report from the annual Anna Lindh seminars, a newsletter, and the party’s international programme.

It’s meant to provide a portrait of the person and her career, tracking her development from the Social Democratic youth organization (SSU) in Enköping to the position of Deputy Mayor of Stockholm and high level ministerial posts. She was also regarded as an insprirational figure for younger politicians.

Neither Ulvskog nor the party's press secretary could say however whether there had been much demand for the package named after the woman who had been tipped to take over as party leader after Göran Persson.

Her memory is also carried on by the Anna Lindh Memorial Fund, which awards annual prizes for remarkable contributions to human rights. The Fund has also helped compile an archive of speeches and articles penned by the former foreign minister.

To coincide with the anniversary of her death, the Fund has organized a seminar focusing on the 2001 Macedonia crisis, where Lindh is considered to have played an important role in hindering the outbreak of a new Balkan War.

The politician's legacy is also evident in Alexandria in Egypt, where the Anna Lindh Foundation is based.

The foundation was set up after her death and has little to do with Lindh other than in name, according to retired ambassador Lars Bjarme.

"But the foundation works with something in which she was very interested: a dialogue between Europe and countries in the Middle East," he said.

TT/The Local (news@thelocal.se/08 656 6518)

http://www.thelocal.se/29724/20101020/

Anna Lindh's care to be reviewed: agency

Published: 20 Oct 10 13:48 CET | Double click on a word to get a translation
Updated: 20 Oct 10 17:30 CET

Sweden's National Board of Health and Welfare (Socialstyrelsen) will review the care former foreign minister Anna Lindh received after she was stabbed in central Stockholm in September 2003.

"The National Board of Health and Welfare will probe the care of former foreign minister Anna Lindh," the board said in a statement.

It pointed out that it did not normally re-examine cases older than two years, but that it would make an exception due to the huge public interest in the case.

"The case is of great public interest and has to do with how care worked in a situation where the foreign minister was the victim of an attack," board general director Lars-Erik Holm said in the statement.

"I have turned to the other general directors of corresponding authorities in the Nordic countries to get their help in appointing experts," he added.

Stockholm's Karolinska University Hospital last month requested that the board analyse Lindh's treatment, saying it wanted an independent review after commercial broadcast TV4 charged in a news programme that she may have been saved with better care.

Hospital spokesman Klas Österman insisted at the time, "We have not seen any signs, then or now, to indicate that we made any mistakes."

Lindh was stabbed repeatedly in the arms, chest and abdomen by a man with a history of psychiatric problems as she shopped at the upmarket NK department store in Stockholm without a bodyguard on September 10th, 2003. She died of massive internal bleeding some 13 hours later in the early hours of September 11th.

The board's decision comes three days after the broadcast of TV4's "Cold Facts" (Kalla Fakta) programme on Lindh's treatment.

The half-hour show featured a detailed presentation of the treatment she received from the moment she arrived at the hospital, through an eight-hour operation during which she received up to 50 litres of blood, until she was pronounced dead at 5.29am on September 11th.

An unnamed Swedish expert, whose face was blurred onscreen, said the hospital could have used better methods to stop the minister's bleeding from the abdomen, notably by using the so-called "damage control" operation method.

The programme also interviewed Dr. Donald Trunkey, an expert trauma surgeon at Oregon's Health and Science University, who described the rush to operate Lindh without first slowing the bleeding "futile."

"In the United States, if somebody did that in my hospital, I would call [such an eight-hour operation] foolhardy. I mean, you are not going to win," he said, adding the lengthy operation may have worsend her condition.

"I would have classified her as a preventable death," he said.

Eva Franchell, who was shopping with Lindh when she was attacked, said she was pleased an investigation would be launched.

"It opens up old wounds, of course, but I feel the rumours that have been spread around have been very unpleasant. That is why I think it is good that this can all be ended," she told the TT news agency.

Lindh's killer Mijailo Mijailovic, now 32, is serving a life sentence for the murder.

The killing of the 46-year-old mother of two young boys sent a shock wave around Sweden, bringing back painful memories of the still-unsolved 1986 assassination of prime minister Olof Palme.

TT/AFP/The Local (news@thelocal.se)

http://www.thelocal.se/29318/20100929/

http://www.thelocal.se/29318/20100929/

Hospital demands probe of Anna Lindh's care

Published: 29 Sep 10 12:39 CET | Double click on a word to get a translation

Karolinska University Hospital has requested an inquiry into the care it gave former foreign minister Anna Lindh after her fatal stabbing in September 2003.

The hospital wants Sweden's National Board of Health and Welfare (Socialstyrelsen) to review the treatment Lindh received at the hospital after she was stabbed in a Stockholm department store.

Lindh died on the operating table at Karolinska's facilities in Solna, north of Stockolm.

The hospital has reviewed charts detailing Lindh's treatment and doesn't believe that any mistakes were made, but nevertheless has requested that the health board conduct an independent investigation.

The reason behind the request is a forthcoming television broadcast produced by Sweden's TV4 which, according to Karolinska, asserts that Lindh didn't receive proper care at the hospital.

"Because the episode has such great national and historic significance, it's important to prevent the spread of rumours surrounding this matter. We believe it's appropriate that the National Board of Health and Welfare carry out an investigation into the care of Anna Lindh," wrote Karolinska University Hospital in its petition, which arrived on Wednesday at the agency's regional oversight division in Stockholm.

Lindh was attacked and stabbed while shopping in the upscale NK department store in central Stockholm around 4pm local time on September 10th, 2003.

She remained conscious following the attack, with initial reports indicating she had been cut in the arm and that she wasn't seriously injured.

She was taken to Karolinska, where she was placed on an operating table so doctors could attend to her wounds.

Lindh died at 5.29am the following morning following massive blood loss caused by internal bleeding.

The knife had sliced through a number of important blood vessels in her mid-section, including the portal vein and the aorta. Lindh's liver had also been damaged.

Two weeks later, on September 24th, 24-year-old Mijailo Mijailovic was arrested for the stabbing. The Supreme Court sentenced him to life in prison for Lindh's murder on December 2nd, 2004.

Among the evidence cited during the trial were images from surveillance cameras in NK, as well as his DNA.

Karolinska Chief Medical Officer Stefan Engqvist said that the information, which the hospital attributes to the TV4 investigative news programme Kalla Fakta, is hard to address publicly, in part because he doesn't really know what the criticism is based on and in part because the hospital doesn't release information from Lindh's file.

"Our position becomes a bit awkward in this situation. We have tough regulations about confidentiality and laws on secrecy that we can't break," he told the TT news agency.

He said that Sweden's emergency trauma care has evolved since 2003, but that according to procedures commonly used at the time, the hospital reacted in the best possible way in the operating room and that everyone involved did everything they could to save the foreign minister's life.

"We've gone through all the documentation ourselves and haven't found anything wrong and nothing that would warrant a report according to Lex Maria," said Engqvist, referencing Sweden's Lex Maria laws, the informal name used to refer to regulations governing the reporting of injuries or incidents in the Swedish health care system.

"But we would also gladly have an independent investigation and for that we turn to the National Board of health and Welfare. We want to avoid the spreading of rumours."

TT/The Local (news@thelocal.se/08 656 6518)

http://www.thelocal.se/28404/20100816/

Security beefed up for Sahlin due to threats

Published: 16 Aug 10 15:53 CET | Double click on a word to get a translation

security" class="nodec">Security for Social Democratic leader Mona Sahlin has been tightened due to serious threats against her just over a month before elections, Swedish media reported on Monday.

According to the tabloid Expressen, security for the prime ministerial candidate has gradually increased after a "barrage of threatening emails and letters to Mona Sahlin's office in parliament."

"The threat level has changed," an unnamed police source told the paper.

When contacted by AFP, a spokesman for the Swedish security police, which handles security for high-profile politicians, refused to comment on the
information.

On Sunday, when Sahlin held a large campaign rally in Stockholm ahead of the upcoming September 19th election, four bodyguards wearing bulletproof vests were at her side the entire time, according to Expressen.

The 53-year-old career politician has received numerous threats in the past, the paper added. After a scandal dubbed the Toblerone Affair over her use of a party credit card to buy chocolate and other items in 1995, Sahlin was for a time forced to work in a bulletproof room.

In 2004, during a visit to the central Swedish town of Norrköping, a man walked up to her and asked if she was Mona Sahlin before punching her.

Sweden has been traumatised by two political assassinations in recent
decades. Prime Minister Olof Palme was shot on a Stockholm street in 1986, while foreign minister Anna Lindh was stabbed to death in an upscale department store in the heart of the capital in 2003.

Like Sahlin, both Palme and Lindh were Social Democrats. Neither of them had bodyguards with them at the time they were killed.

AFP/The Local (news@thelocal.se)

http://www.thelocal.se/30974/20101221/

US 'pressured' Sweden on Afghanistan

US 'pressured' Sweden on Afghanistan

Published: 21 Dec 10 10:53 CET | Double click on a word to get a translation

Sweden was pressured by the United States to increase its commitment in Afghanistan, documents released by WikiLeaks reveal.

The documents were sent from the US embassy in Stockholm, according to a report in the Dagens Nyheter (DN) daily.

The information was dated July 2009 and details that September was considered to be the best month to exercise pressure as the Swedish foreign and defence ministries would then be busy with bills to be submitted to parliament.

The documents detail the opinion that once the parliamentary bills were submitted it would be more difficult to influence the Swedish force in Afghanistan.

A further plan was for the Swedish defence minister Sten Tolgfors to be flattered and thanked for Sweden's growing commitment in Afghanistan during a meeting in Washington on July 20th 2009.

Furthermore the documents show that a senior official at the Sweden defence ministry has forwarded advice on how the United States could influence Sweden's power-brokers to deploy more resources to Afghanistan.

The official told DN that he discussed the matter at the US embassy in Stockholm.

In the months following the attempts to influence Sweden's Afghanistan commitment, the country has dramatically increased its expenditure.

The Swedish share of the cost for the International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) will amount to more than 1.5 billion kronor ($220 million) in 2010, an increase of almost 50 percent on 2009.

Sweden first deployed troops in Afghanistan in the beginning of 2002 and now has around 500 troops based near the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif.

In December the parliament passed a government bill to extend the military mission in the war-torn country until the end of 2011, allowing for the deployment of up to 855 people.

The bill required a compromise between the governing minority centre-right Alliance and the opposition Social Democrats and Greens, and came barely a week after a suicide bomber cited Sweden's troop presence in Afghanistan in a message sent shortly before he blew himself up near a crowded pedestrian street in central Stockholm.

TT/The Local/pvs (news@thelocal.se)

http://www.thelocal.se/30970/20101220/

Sweden's Alliance parties gain majority in new poll

Sweden's Alliance parties gain majority in new poll

Published: 20 Dec 10 16:23 CET | Double click on a word to get a translation

A new poll has revealed that if an election were held now, the ruling Alliance would gain a majority in Sweden's parliament, the Riksdag, while support for Sweden's Social Democratic Party continues to slide.

The latest opinion survey conducted by United Minds and Cints in collaboration with newspaper Aftonbladet shows that both the ruling Moderates and Liberal Party have increased their levels of support.

Separately, support for the Centre and Christian Democratic Parties has fallen below the levels they registered for the general election on September 19th. However, the Christian Democrats, the smallest party in the Riksdag, would clear the 4 percent threshhold to remain in parliament.

Meanwhile, the Social Democrats continue to lose support from voters.

"If it were close to an election, it would be more problematic, but I think people understand that there is not an election now and that much can happen," United Minds' opinion director Carl Melin told Aftonbladet.

While support for the Social Democrats and Left Party continue to fall, the Green Party continues to gain more support. Support for the far-right Sweden Democrats also outpaces the party's election result in the fall.

The Moderates currently have 31.7 percent support, up 0.7 percentage points from November. The Liberal Party stands at 7.5 percent, 0.5 percentage points ahead of last month.

However, the Centre Party and Christian Democrats are at 5.5 percent and 4.8 respectively, down 0.8 and 0.1 percentage points respectively.

Together, the Alliance has 49.5 percent, up 0.3 percentage points from November, compared with 42.2 percent for the Red-Green parties, whose support fell 1.2 percentage points.

Among then, support for the Social Democrats slipped 1.5 percentage points to 27.6 percent and 0.6 percentage points to 5.2 percent for the Left Party.

However, backing for the Green Party grew 0.9 percentage points in December to 9.4 percent from the previous month. Support for the Sweden Democrats also rose 0.9 percentage points to 6.9 percent this month.

Support for other parties increased 0.1 percentage points to 1.4 percent.

United Minds interviewed 1,148 respondents over the age of 18 from November 23rd to Sunday, asking them, "How would you vote if there were a Riksdag election today?"

Vivian Tse (news@thelocal.se)

http://www.thelocal.se/30880/20101216/

http://www.thelocal.se/30880/20101216/

Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt on a Kabul street

Sweden votes to extend Afghanistan mission

Published: 16 Dec 10 08:27 CET | Double click on a word to get a translation

Swedish lawmakers in the country's parliament, the Riksdag, voted on Wednesday to extend the country's military mission in Afghanistan until the end of 2011.

"Sweden will make an armed force of up to 855 people available to the international security force in Afghanistan until the end of 2011," they said in a statement, adding that the troop level would likely remain at the present level of 500 soldiers.

The vote came a month after Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, whose centre-right coalition came up two seats short of a house majority in general elections in September, secured a deal with the opposition Social Democrats and the Greens.

The Social Democrats and Greens, in a since-dissolved coalition with the formerly communist Left Party, had campaigned ahead of the elections on demanding a withdrawal of Swedish troops from Afghanistan.

However, the two left-wing parties shifted their position after the far-right Sweden Democrats were voted into parliament for the first time and handed the role of kingmaker.

The two parties agreed to a broad proposal, aiming to pull all Swedish combat troops out of Afghanistan between 2012 and 2014, while maintaining a largely civilian support presence after that.

The far-right Sweden Democrats and the Left Party, which have both want Swedish forces brought home sooner, opposed the motion to extend the mandate next year, but it passed easily nonetheless, with 290 votes in favour, 20 opposed and 19 abstaining.

Sweden is officially neutral and not a member of NATO and the question of how long its troops should take part in the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan is a sensitive one.

In October, the Scandinavian country lost its fifth soldier since it first deployed troops in Afghanistan near the northern Afghan city of Mazar-i-Sharif, at the beginning of 2002.

The parliament vote also came less than a week after a suicide bomber railed against Sweden's troop presence in Afghanistan in a message sent shortly before he blew himself up near a crowded pedestrian street in central Stockholm, narrowly missing wreaking carnage among Christmas shoppers.

AFP/The Local (news@thelocal.se)







http://www.thelocal.se/tag/Anna_Lindh

Anna_lindh

The following articles have been tagged with "Anna_lindh":

Swedish diplomat: new WikiLeaks 'regrettable'

Politics: 29 Nov 10
Over 800 secret American documents about relations with Sweden have been released by WikiLeaks, according to Swedish media reports. READ »

Sweden knew of US surveillance: report

National: 19 Nov 10
Sweden’s former Social Democratic government was informed in 2002 about a surveillance programme run by the US embassy in Stockholm, secret documents reveal. READ »

Anna Lindh's care to be reviewed: agency

National: 20 Oct 10
Sweden's National Board of Health and Welfare will review the care former foreign minister Anna Lindh received after she was stabbed in central Stockholm in September 2003. READ »

Hospital demands probe of Anna Lindh's care

National: 29 Sep 10
Karolinska University Hospital has requested an inquiry into the care it gave former foreign minister Anna Lindh after her fatal stabbing in September 2003. READ »

Sahlin and Reinfeldt enter final sprint for lasting political glory

Politics: 18 Sep 10
With polls set to open in 24 hours rivals Fredrik Reinfeldt and Mona Sahlin are both looking for an electoral victory to cement their leadership status after long political comebacks. READ »

Security beefed up for Sahlin due to threats

Politics: 16 Aug 10
Security for Social Democratic leader Mona Sahlin has been tightened due to serious threats against her just over a month before elections, Swedish media reported on Monday. READ »

Obama meeting will be Svanberg's toughest test

National: 14 Jun 10
BP’s problems are proving to be the toughest test yet in the career of Swedish business’s golden boy Carl-Henric Svanberg, writes James Savage. READ »

Anna Lindh memorial inaugurated in Stockholm

Politics: 5 May 10
A memorial square to Anna Lindh, the former Swedish foreign minister murdered in 2003, was inaugurated in Stockholm on Tuesday near where she made her final public appearance. READ »

Anna Lindh widower Bo Holmberg dies

Politics: 12 Feb 10
Bo Holmberg, the husband of assassinated Swedish foreign minister Anna Lindh, has died aged 67. READ »

Reinfeldt seeks answers on Russian dumping

National: 5 Feb 10
Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt has asked for an explanation from the previous Social Democrat government over Russia's release of toxic waste into Swedish waters in the Baltic Sea. READ »

Newspaper cleared of defaming ex-Lindh murder suspect

Society: 4 Feb 10
Southern Swedish newspaper Sydsvenskan has been cleared of libel charges after being sued by the initial suspect in the murder of Swedish foreign minister Anna Lindh in 2002. READ »

Russian nuclear waste dumped off Sweden

National: 4 Feb 10
The Russian military is suspected of having dumped chemical weapons and radioactive waste off the Swedish island of Gotland in the beginning of the 1990s. READ »

Lindh murder suspect sues newspaper for defamation

National: 3 Feb 10
A libel case involving Swedish newspaper Sydsvenskan and the initial suspect in the murder of Swedish foreign minister Anna Lindh in 2002 opened in a Malmö court on Wednesday. READ »

Swine flu named year's top Swedish news story

National: 30 Dec 09
Swine flu beat out both the June death of Michael Jackson and the Stockholm helicopter heist in September as the top Swedish news story of 2009, according to a new study. READ »

Almedalen — Swedish openness galore

Analysis & Opinion: 7 Jul 09
Anyone who doubts that Sweden is a country characterised by openness and informality should visit Visby during the first week of July, writes Olle Wästberg, Director-General of the Swedish Institute. READ »

Call for probe into Sweden-CIA terror links

Politics: 8 May 09
Two prominent Left Party politicians are calling for Sweden to set up an independent truth commission to look into how Sweden cooperated with the United States during the war on terror. READ »

Bodström reported over CIA terror deportations

National: 19 Jan 09
Former justice minister Thomas Bodström and former prime minister Göran Persson have been reported to the Riksdag's constitutional committee after new details emerged over the expulsion of two terror suspects from Sweden to Egypt in 2001. READ »

Sweden pressured in 2001 terror case: report

National: 19 Jan 09
Fresh details have surfaced about the deportation of two terror suspects from Sweden to Egypt in December 2001, including allegations of US pressure and the role of former foreign minister Anna Lindh, following the release a new book on Monday. READ »

Ex-policeman: Lindh murder investigation 'full of mistakes'

National: 10 Nov 08
The investigation into the assassination of Foreign Minister Anna Lindh in 2003 was just as poorly handled in the first 24 hours as the Olof Palme investigation in 1986, according to a former police chief. READ »

'Meat mountain' ex-minister slams Swedish security service

Politics: 22 Oct 08
Sweden's former Finance Minister Pär Nuder has criticized the country's security service over its failure to protect assassinated Foreign Minister Anna Lindh. READ »

Sweden reflects on Anna Lindh's death

Politics: 11 Sep 08
On the fifth anniversary of the assassination of foreign minister Anna Lindh, Sweden is reflecting more on the legacy of her work in politics than the tragic circumstances surrounding her death. READ »

Getting away with murder? Papers debate Rödeby verdict

Analysis & Opinion: 9 May 08
James Savage looks how Sweden's papers reacted to a controversial acquittal in the case of a man who shot a teenage boy dead in southern Sweden last year. READ »

China, Reinfeldt, and the Olympics: a real mouthful

Analysis & Opinion: 15 Apr 08
Social democratic newspaper editor Eric Sundström hopes Fredrik Reinfeldt at least says something about human rights and the Olympics during the Prime Minister’s visit to China. READ »

Karolinska Hospital slammed for lax patient secrecy

Society: 18 Nov 07
Poor security procedures at one of Sweden's top teaching hospitals have led to insufficient control over who accesses patients' medical records. READ »

Persson reflects on election defeat in new book

Politics: 23 Oct 07
Göran Persson has written a book about his ten years as Sweden's prime minister. In it, he explains how he could have won the election if he had only ignored the advice of his finance minister. READ »

Knife man entered employment ministry

National: 29 Sep 07
A man carrying a large hunting knife succeeded in entering the Ministry for Employment before being arrested later in central Stockholm, it has been revealed. READ »

Expressen fights former Lindh murder suspect over libel claim

National: 27 Jul 07
Swedish tabloid Expressen is to continue fighting a lawsuit brought against them by the man first suspected of murdering foreign minister Anna Lindh in 2003. "What they did must be a world record for slander," says the man's lawyer. READ »

Mijailovic wants to stay in Sweden

National: 14 May 07
Mijailo Mijailovic, the man who murdered Swedish foreign minister Anna Lindh, has decided to give up on the idea of a transfer to a Serbian prison. "He's in a catch 22 situation," says his lawyer. READ »

Mijailovic must stay in Swedish jail

National: 6 Feb 07
Mijailo Mijailovic, the man who murdered Swedish foreign minister Anna Lindh, has had his application to serve his sentence in his parents' homeland of Serbia refused by authorities in Stockholm. READ »

Borg in plane controversy

Politics: 2 Feb 07
Anders Borg has come in for criticism for requesting the government plane to land at the airport nearest his home. "Common practice," says his press secretary. READ »

Lindh killer faces uncertain future

National: 20 Jan 07
Mijailo Mijailovic wants to serve his sentence for the murder of Anna Lindh in Serbia. But Swedish authorities will not permit a transfer until Serbia decides on the length of his sentence. READ »

Freivalds makes millions from apartment

Politics: 13 Jan 07
It was the apartment that caused her resignation as justice minister, after she bought it in contravention of government policy. But Laila Freivalds can comfort herself with a profit of 5 million kronor. READ »

'Sahlin will lead Social Democrats'

Analysis & Opinion: 4 Jan 07
Sweden's Social Democrats are looking for a new leader and Mona Sahlin seems to be the front runner. The Local asked political expert Stig-Björn Ljunggren to help us size up the contenders. READ »

Freivalds cashes in on controversial flat

National: 3 Jan 07
Laila Freivalds was forced to step down as justice minister in 2000 when her property dealings ran counter to government policy. Now its payback time. READ »

Tougher rules for criminal psychiatric patients

Society: 3 Jan 07
People convicted of crimes and sentenced to psychiatric care could face tougher restrictions when released, says Sweden's justice minister Beatrice Ask, who wants to make sure patients are followed up. READ »

Mijailovic accused of beating fellow prisoner

National: 1 Nov 06
Anna Lindh's killer Mijailo Mijailovic has admitted beating a sleeping fellow prisoner over the head with a metal object ripped from a radiator. But, he claims, he did so because he feared for his life. READ »

Lindh killer 'should not go to Serbia'

Politics: 29 Sep 06
A senior Liberal has called for Mijailo Mijailovic, who killed Swedish foreign minister Anna Lindh, to be denied his wish to serve out his sentence in Serbia. READ »

Israeli officials "dance a jig" over Alliance win

National: 22 Sep 06
Sweden's change of government is reported to have caused delight in the Israeli government, which saw the Social Democrats as extra-critical of the Jewish state. But a Green MP says things won't change much. READ »

Ministers pay tribute to murdered Lindh

Politics: 11 Sep 06
Three years after Sweden's foreign minister Anna Lindh was murdered in a Stockholm department store, ministers pay their tributes at her grave. READ »

Harvard launches Anna Lindh professor

Politics: 30 Aug 06
Harvard University has created a new professorship in memory of Anna Lindh, Sweden's murdered foreign minister. The post will be dedicated to global leadership and public policy, the university says. READ »

Lindh killer could serve sentence in Serbia

National: 22 Aug 06
Serbia has indicated that the man who murdered Swedish foreign minister Anna Lindh in 2003 could serve his prison sentence in a Serbian jail. Now it's up to the Swedish governement. READ »

Lindh killer charged with assault

National: 3 Aug 06
The man who murdered Swedish foreign minister Anna Lindh in 2003 has been charged with assaulting a patient at a psychiatric asylum. READ »

Shots fired in NK

National: 29 Jun 06
Two men have been arrested after shots were fired during the attempted robbery of a jewellery department at the NK store in Stockholm on Thursday. Police say that no injuries have been reported. READ »

King reaches 60 secure on his throne

Lifestyle: 27 Apr 06
This weekend will see King Carl XVI Gustaf feted by foreign royalty, parliamentarians and thousands of his people. As he celebrates his 60th birthday, Sweden's king can satisfy himself with approval ratings that would make a politician green with envy. READ »

Analysis: Why Freivalds had to go

Analysis & Opinion: 21 Mar 06
After a year of unrelenting criticism over her handling of the tsunami disaster and latterly of the Muhammad cartoons, Persson had little choice but to accept Laila Freivalds' resignation. READ »

Olof Palme: the controversy lives on

Lifestyle: 27 Feb 06
It is twenty years since Sweden was shaken by the murder of one of its most controversial politicians. But what impact does the radical, campaigning prime minister Olof Palme have on modern Sweden? READ »

Schyman receives death threats

Politics: 14 Feb 06
A note on the door of a cinema where leading feminist Gudrun Schyman was giving a lecture raises fears for her safety. "I see it as a death threat," says Schyman. READ »

"Brawl" leads to SD youth chief arrest

Politics: 29 Jan 06
The head of the Social Democrats' youth movement, Anna Sjödin, is accused of assualting a doorman in a bar in Stockholm. She was held overnight by police before being released. READ »

Bodström gets bodyguards after threat

National: 28 Jan 06
Thomas Bodström and his family have been given round-the-clock security after "informants in the underworld" told police there was a threat against Sweden's justice minister, it has been reported. READ »

Patient secrecy to be ignored for security police

Society: 19 Oct 05
Details about psychiatric patients are even kept from the prying eyes of Sweden's security police, Säpo. But not for long, perhaps - Säpo needs more power to combat the threat to ministers and royalty, says the government. READ »

Back to prison for Lindh killer

National: 8 Oct 05
Mijailo Mijailovic, who last year was found guilty of murdering Sweden's former foreign minister Anna Lindh, is to be transferred out of psychiatric care and back into Stockholm's maximum security prison, Kumla. READ »

Lindh killer attacks fellow patient

National: 21 Sep 05
Mijailo Mijailovic, who murdered Sweden's former foreign minister Anna Lindh in 2003, has brutally attacked another inmate at the secure psychiatric clinic in Sundsvall where he is being treated. READ »

Mijailovic transferred to asylum

National: 11 Sep 05
SEE ALSO: SIX PEOPLE WERE ARRESTED FOR LINDH MURDER
Mijailo Mijailovic, who killed Swedish foreign minister Anna Lindh exactly 2 years ago, has been moved to a psychiatric unit. A doctor decided he was unwell and needed help, the asylum says. READ »

Six people were arrested for Lindh murder

Smörgåsbord: 9 Sep 05
The man in charge of the investigation into Anna Lindh's killing says that six men were arrested over the murder. Until now, only two arrests had been revealed to the public. READ »

Stockholm Syndrome: Rush hour madness

Analysis & Opinion: 8 Sep 05
Our Stockholm Syndrome correspondent has a close call on one of the city's blue buses and finds out that Swedes on public transport have a more immediate fear than terrorism. READ »

Foreign prisoners reject Swedish hospitality

Society: 12 Aug 05
Swedish prisons may be considered plush by many, but an increasing number of prisoners with foreign backgrounds are trying to get moved abroad. Going back to the Netherlands is popular among people convicted of drugs offences. READ »

La Suède: le meilleur pays au monde?

Business & Money: 29 May 05
Un nouveau sondage international effectué auprès de personnes originaires de 10 pays montre que si elles avaient le choix, c’est en Suède qu’elles préféreraient vivre et travailler! Pourtant la Suède n’est pas épargnée par les troubles de toutes natures et comme partout s’ensuit une recherche des personnes responsables... READ »

Comment: Swedish Television cheapens the feminism debate

Lifestyle: 27 May 05
SVT's controversial TV programme on 'extreme feminism' has provoked a week of fierce media debate, with the chairwoman of ROKS, the national women's refuge organisation, portrayed as a man-hating loon. But how much of that was down to selective editing? READ »

Egypt deportations: Säpo blames Lindh

National: 24 May 05
A government committee set up to investigate the controversial deportation of two Egyptians accused of terrorist offences is told by Säpo, Sweden's security police, that Anna Lindh gave them the go-ahead to use American help. READ »

Knifeman stabs three on Stockholm underground

National: 24 May 05
Three people are injured as a man, thought to be suffering from psychological problems, runs amok on a rush hour underground train. READ »

Nuder accused of SSU membership fraud

Politics: 20 Apr 05
Now it's Pär Nuder's turn in the firing line, as a paper reveals that the finance minister cooked the books to boost public subsidies to the young Social Democrats in the 1980s. Nuder, reported to be Göran Persson's favoured successor, boosted his career by inflating member figures, it is alleged. READ »

Life sentence for 1989 double murderer

National: 6 Apr 05
Against the media's expectations and the experts' recommendations, Ulf Olsson is sentenced to life imprisonment for the rape and murder of 10 year old Helén Nilsson and 26 year old Jannica Ekblad in 1989. READ »

Security police demand new stalker law

National: 15 Mar 05
The threat to famous people in Sweden posed by stalkers is worse than previously thought. That is the conclusion of a survey carried out by Säpo, the security police, and now they have proposed tougher laws to deal with the problem. READ »

Psychiatric care: Milton slams government

Science & Technology: 14 Mar 05
In the last two years the number of people murdered by mental health patients has become an embarrassment to Sweden. Now, the man appointed by the government to overhaul the system tells The Local that the main obstacle to progress is the politicians themselves. READ »

Reinfeldt most popular party leader

Politics: 20 Feb 05
Of all the main party leaders, the Swedish public has the greatest confidence in the Moderates' Fredrik Reinfeldt. But prime minister Göran Persson is less popular now than at any time since September 2000. READ »

Increased security for Swedish foreign minister

Politics: 27 Jan 05
Laila Freivalds gets round-the-clock protection from the security police as, following the government's handling of the tsunami catastrophe, she remains the focus of public fury - and a Magnus Uggla song. READ »

Persson: Lindh didn?t know about CIA

Politics: 23 Dec 04
Anna Lindh had no idea about plans for American authorities to deport two Egyptians from Sweden, says the prime minister. READ »

Lindh "authorised Egyptians' deportation"

Politics: 14 Dec 04
A police officer tells a hearing that former foreign minister Anna Lindh approved an operation for the CIA to deport two Egyptians back to their homeland. The pair are alleged to have been tortured on their return. READ »

Swedish Supreme Court jails Mijailovic for life

National: 2 Dec 04
It's the end of the legal line for the man who killed foreign minister Anna Lindh in September 2003, as Sweden's top court reverses the Appeal Court's decision and puts Mijailo Mijailovic in prison for life. READ »

Anna Lindh murder: the definitive guide

National: 12 Nov 04
This page has moved. The collection of articles about the aftermath of the murder of Anna Lindh is now here. READ »

Swedish army to ditch 1,000 officers

National: 11 Nov 04
As the army announces that 1,000 officers are to lose their jobs, the security police begin to recruit 50 new bodyguards. A military background and officer training might look pretty good on an applicant’s CV. READ »

Mijailovic "could walk free"

National: 11 Nov 04
"Mijailo Mijailovic was psychologically ill when he killed Anna Lindh, therefore he can't be sentenced to prison. But now he's better, so he can't be given secure psychiatric treatment either." Hmmm. READ »

Open up mental health system to avert crisis

Science & Technology: 11 Nov 04
In the week that the Supreme Court reviews the sentence on Anna Lindh's killer, Lysanne Sizoo points out where the Swedish mental health system is breaking down - and offers a creative solution. READ »

Police hunt Linköping double killer

National: 20 Oct 04
Linköping is shocked - and afraid - as police hunt the man who killed an eight year old boy and a 56 year old woman on a street in the centre of town on Tuesday morning. READ »

Knifeman gatecrashes Moderate party

Politics: 19 Oct 04
Keen to pick up supporters wherever they can, it seems the Moderates will let anyone into their party - even if he's armed with a huge hunting knife. Security? What security? READ »

Mijailovic changes lawyer for appeal

National: 14 Oct 04
A bad week for Sweden's 'celebrity lawyer' Peter Althin - ditched by Anna Lindh's murderer for not visiting enough and upbraided by the Lawyers Association for a conflict of interest in representing three of the Hall Prison escapees. READ »

"Suicidal" Mijailovic gives up Swedish passport

National: 21 Sep 04
Anna Lindh's murderer is no longer a Swedish citizen, it emerges after he is taken to hospital suffering from psychiatric problems. And now a move to Serbia could be on the cards, just as another notorious killer considers coming to Sweden. READ »

Supreme Court reopens Lindh murder case

National: 15 Sep 04
First he was sentenced to life imprisonment, then to psychiatric care. Now Mijailo Mijailovic could be facing life again for killing Anna Lindh in Stockholm last year. READ »

All's fair in love and Swedish politics

Politics: 6 Aug 04
A new pair of scandals for the government this week. One black sheep returns to the ministerial fold after her business fails and Bosse Ringholm forgets to collect some taxes - from the football club where he is the chairman. READ »

Guantanamo Swede seeks damages

National: 23 Jul 04
Mehdi Ghezali speaks out against his American captors and the Swedish government, defends his actions in 2001 - and wants some cash. READ »

Treason under the sun?

National: 23 Jul 04
The royal family's holiday on Öland was disturbed by intruders, said Expressen. No it wasn't, said the palace spokeswoman. Either way, the family has upped the security this year. READ »

Lindh killer escapes jail

National: 9 Jul 04
Mijail Mijailovic is judged by the appeal court to be "seriously disturbed" and will be held in a secure psychiatric hospital instead of prison. READ »

Lindh killer mentally disturbed

National: 2 Jul 04
Doctors agree that Mijail Mijailovic is mentally disturbed - but the appeal court must decide if that means a secure hospital instead of prison. READ »

Knutby - from tragedy to comedy

National: 24 Jun 04
The trial is taking a four week break but you can't keep a good story down. The mystery buyer of the pastor's house is revealed and his mistress strikes gold while the congregation finally starts singing from the same hymn sheet. READ »

Police caught in child porn bust

National: 28 May 04
Paedophilia, corruption, weapons and drugs smuggling - you just can't trust the police these days. READ »

Knutby goes public

National: 14 May 04
After weeks of leaks surely everything that could be said about Knutby has been said? You ain't seen nothin' yet. READ »

Feminists crash May Day parties

Politics: 7 May 04
Police floored rioters, but will proposals for an all-female political party hit the established parties where it hurts? READ »

Minister assaulted

Politics: 23 Apr 04
A female politician, no security, an unknown assailant - we've been here before. READ »

Mijailovic appeals against life sentence

National: 16 Apr 04
Anna Lindh's murderer wants the verdict reduced to manslaughter while her family is seeking increased compensation. READ »



USA WikiLeaks Embassy Cables _From The Guardian

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/the-us-embassy-cables


Anna Nicole Smith US embassy cables

How Anna Nicole charmed Bahamas

Island was intoxicated by antics of former model, whose death revitalised media and led to government scrutiny

Julian Assange defends decision not to face questioning in Sweden

julian assange close up WikiLeaks founder says he is not obliged to return to be questioned over sexual assault allegations



US embassy in London

The key points at a glance

There are no fewer than 251,287 cables from more than 250 US embassies around the world, obtained by WikiLeaks. We present a day-by-day guide to the revelations from the US embassy cables both from the Guardian and its international media partners in the story

All the Guardian's embassy cables stories


Assange reported to have sold memoirs

Julian Assange

WikiLeaks founder expected to publish book in March, through UK publishers Canongate


Wikileaks page Audio (39min 01sec)


Latest news

Latest on the Julian Assange case

Key points: day by day

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You ask, we search

About the cables

Latest on the Julian Assange case

Key points: day by day

Latest comment

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About the cables

Datablog






Sweden reflects on Anna Lindh's death


Published: 11 Sep 08 10:52 CET | Double click on a word to get a translation

On the fifth anniversary of the assassination of foreign minister Anna Lindh, Sweden is reflecting more on the legacy of her work in politics than the tragic circumstances surrounding her death.

Lindh’s name lives on in a number of foundations, research programmes, and awards.

“She’s very much alive in the party; at the same time there’s been a very long period of mourning,” Social Democratic Party Secretary Marita Ulvskog told the TT news agency.

“But we’re beginning to reach a point where what she said and did is being utilized.”

On the Social Democrats’ website it is possible to order the 'Palme-package', created in memory of assassinated Prime Minister Olof Palme. For the last year a Lindh-package has also been available.

The Lindh-package offers membership in the party, a book, a picture of Anna Lindh, a report from the annual Anna Lindh seminars, a newsletter, and the party’s international programme.

It’s meant to provide a portrait of the person and her career, tracking her development from the Social Democratic youth organization (SSU) in Enköping to the position of Deputy Mayor of Stockholm and high level ministerial posts. She was also regarded as an insprirational figure for younger politicians.

Neither Ulvskog nor the party's press secretary could say however whether there had been much demand for the package named after the woman who had been tipped to take over as party leader after Göran Persson.

Her memory is also carried on by the Anna Lindh Memorial Fund, which awards annual prizes for remarkable contributions to human rights. The Fund has also helped compile an archive of speeches and articles penned by the former foreign minister.

To coincide with the anniversary of her death, the Fund has organized a seminar focusing on the 2001 Macedonia crisis, where Lindh is considered to have played an important role in hindering the outbreak of a new Balkan War.

The politician's legacy is also evident in Alexandria in Egypt, where the Anna Lindh Foundation is based.

The foundation was set up after her death and has little to do with Lindh other than in name, according to retired ambassador Lars Bjarme.

"But the foundation works with something in which she was very interested: a dialogue between Europe and countries in the Middle East," he said.

TT/The Local (news@thelocal.se/08 656 6518)

http://www.thelocal.se/29724/20101020/

Anna Lindh's care to be reviewed: agency

Published: 20 Oct 10 13:48 CET | Double click on a word to get a translation
Updated: 20 Oct 10 17:30 CET

Sweden's National Board of Health and Welfare (Socialstyrelsen) will review the care former foreign minister Anna Lindh received after she was stabbed in central Stockholm in September 2003.

"The National Board of Health and Welfare will probe the care of former foreign minister Anna Lindh," the board said in a statement.

It pointed out that it did not normally re-examine cases older than two years, but that it would make an exception due to the huge public interest in the case.

"The case is of great public interest and has to do with how care worked in a situation where the foreign minister was the victim of an attack," board general director Lars-Erik Holm said in the statement.

"I have turned to the other general directors of corresponding authorities in the Nordic countries to get their help in appointing experts," he added.

Stockholm's Karolinska University Hospital last month requested that the board analyse Lindh's treatment, saying it wanted an independent review after commercial broadcast TV4 charged in a news programme that she may have been saved with better care.

Hospital spokesman Klas Österman insisted at the time, "We have not seen any signs, then or now, to indicate that we made any mistakes."

Lindh was stabbed repeatedly in the arms, chest and abdomen by a man with a history of psychiatric problems as she shopped at the upmarket NK department store in Stockholm without a bodyguard on September 10th, 2003. She died of massive internal bleeding some 13 hours later in the early hours of September 11th.

The board's decision comes three days after the broadcast of TV4's "Cold Facts" (Kalla Fakta) programme on Lindh's treatment.

The half-hour show featured a detailed presentation of the treatment she received from the moment she arrived at the hospital, through an eight-hour operation during which she received up to 50 litres of blood, until she was pronounced dead at 5.29am on September 11th.

An unnamed Swedish expert, whose face was blurred onscreen, said the hospital could have used better methods to stop the minister's bleeding from the abdomen, notably by using the so-called "damage control" operation method.

The programme also interviewed Dr. Donald Trunkey, an expert trauma surgeon at Oregon's Health and Science University, who described the rush to operate Lindh without first slowing the bleeding "futile."

"In the United States, if somebody did that in my hospital, I would call [such an eight-hour operation] foolhardy. I mean, you are not going to win," he said, adding the lengthy operation may have worsend her condition.

"I would have classified her as a preventable death," he said.

Eva Franchell, who was shopping with Lindh when she was attacked, said she was pleased an investigation would be launched.

"It opens up old wounds, of course, but I feel the rumours that have been spread around have been very unpleasant. That is why I think it is good that this can all be ended," she told the TT news agency.

Lindh's killer Mijailo Mijailovic, now 32, is serving a life sentence for the murder.

The killing of the 46-year-old mother of two young boys sent a shock wave around Sweden, bringing back painful memories of the still-unsolved 1986 assassination of prime minister Olof Palme.

TT/AFP/The Local (news@thelocal.se)

http://www.thelocal.se/29318/20100929/

http://www.thelocal.se/29318/20100929/

Hospital demands probe of Anna Lindh's care

Published: 29 Sep 10 12:39 CET | Double click on a word to get a translation

Karolinska University Hospital has requested an inquiry into the care it gave former foreign minister Anna Lindh after her fatal stabbing in September 2003.

The hospital wants Sweden's National Board of Health and Welfare (Socialstyrelsen) to review the treatment Lindh received at the hospital after she was stabbed in a Stockholm department store.

Lindh died on the operating table at Karolinska's facilities in Solna, north of Stockolm.

The hospital has reviewed charts detailing Lindh's treatment and doesn't believe that any mistakes were made, but nevertheless has requested that the health board conduct an independent investigation.

The reason behind the request is a forthcoming television broadcast produced by Sweden's TV4 which, according to Karolinska, asserts that Lindh didn't receive proper care at the hospital.

"Because the episode has such great national and historic significance, it's important to prevent the spread of rumours surrounding this matter. We believe it's appropriate that the National Board of Health and Welfare carry out an investigation into the care of Anna Lindh," wrote Karolinska University Hospital in its petition, which arrived on Wednesday at the agency's regional oversight division in Stockholm.

Lindh was attacked and stabbed while shopping in the upscale NK department store in central Stockholm around 4pm local time on September 10th, 2003.

She remained conscious following the attack, with initial reports indicating she had been cut in the arm and that she wasn't seriously injured.

She was taken to Karolinska, where she was placed on an operating table so doctors could attend to her wounds.

Lindh died at 5.29am the following morning following massive blood loss caused by internal bleeding.

The knife had sliced through a number of important blood vessels in her mid-section, including the portal vein and the aorta. Lindh's liver had also been damaged.

Two weeks later, on September 24th, 24-year-old Mijailo Mijailovic was arrested for the stabbing. The Supreme Court sentenced him to life in prison for Lindh's murder on December 2nd, 2004.

Among the evidence cited during the trial were images from surveillance cameras in NK, as well as his DNA.

Karolinska Chief Medical Officer Stefan Engqvist said that the information, which the hospital attributes to the TV4 investigative news programme Kalla Fakta, is hard to address publicly, in part because he doesn't really know what the criticism is based on and in part because the hospital doesn't release information from Lindh's file.

"Our position becomes a bit awkward in this situation. We have tough regulations about confidentiality and laws on secrecy that we can't break," he told the TT news agency.

He said that Sweden's emergency trauma care has evolved since 2003, but that according to procedures commonly used at the time, the hospital reacted in the best possible way in the operating room and that everyone involved did everything they could to save the foreign minister's life.

"We've gone through all the documentation ourselves and haven't found anything wrong and nothing that would warrant a report according to Lex Maria," said Engqvist, referencing Sweden's Lex Maria laws, the informal name used to refer to regulations governing the reporting of injuries or incidents in the Swedish health care system.

"But we would also gladly have an independent investigation and for that we turn to the National Board of health and Welfare. We want to avoid the spreading of rumours."

TT/The Local (news@thelocal.se/08 656 6518)

http://www.thelocal.se/28404/20100816/

Security beefed up for Sahlin due to threats

Published: 16 Aug 10 15:53 CET | Double click on a word to get a translation

security" class="nodec">Security for Social Democratic leader Mona Sahlin has been tightened due to serious threats against her just over a month before elections, Swedish media reported on Monday.

According to the tabloid Expressen, security for the prime ministerial candidate has gradually increased after a "barrage of threatening emails and letters to Mona Sahlin's office in parliament."

"The threat level has changed," an unnamed police source told the paper.

When contacted by AFP, a spokesman for the Swedish security police, which handles security for high-profile politicians, refused to comment on the
information.

On Sunday, when Sahlin held a large campaign rally in Stockholm ahead of the upcoming September 19th election, four bodyguards wearing bulletproof vests were at her side the entire time, according to Expressen.

The 53-year-old career politician has received numerous threats in the past, the paper added. After a scandal dubbed the Toblerone Affair over her use of a party credit card to buy chocolate and other items in 1995, Sahlin was for a time forced to work in a bulletproof room.

In 2004, during a visit to the central Swedish town of Norrköping, a man walked up to her and asked if she was Mona Sahlin before punching her.

Sweden has been traumatised by two political assassinations in recent
decades. Prime Minister Olof Palme was shot on a Stockholm street in 1986, while foreign minister Anna Lindh was stabbed to death in an upscale department store in the heart of the capital in 2003.

Like Sahlin, both Palme and Lindh were Social Democrats. Neither of them had bodyguards with them at the time they were killed.

AFP/The Local (news@thelocal.se)

http://www.thelocal.se/30974/20101221/

US 'pressured' Sweden on Afghanistan

US 'pressured' Sweden on Afghanistan

Published: 21 Dec 10 10:53 CET | Double click on a word to get a translation

Sweden was pressured by the United States to increase its commitment in Afghanistan, documents released by WikiLeaks reveal.

The documents were sent from the US embassy in Stockholm, according to a report in the Dagens Nyheter (DN) daily.

The information was dated July 2009 and details that September was considered to be the best month to exercise pressure as the Swedish foreign and defence ministries would then be busy with bills to be submitted to parliament.

The documents detail the opinion that once the parliamentary bills were submitted it would be more difficult to influence the Swedish force in Afghanistan.

A further plan was for the Swedish defence minister Sten Tolgfors to be flattered and thanked for Sweden's growing commitment in Afghanistan during a meeting in Washington on July 20th 2009.

Furthermore the documents show that a senior official at the Sweden defence ministry has forwarded advice on how the United States could influence Sweden's power-brokers to deploy more resources to Afghanistan.

The official told DN that he discussed the matter at the US embassy in Stockholm.

In the months following the attempts to influence Sweden's Afghanistan commitment, the country has dramatically increased its expenditure.

The Swedish share of the cost for the International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) will amount to more than 1.5 billion kronor ($220 million) in 2010, an increase of almost 50 percent on 2009.

Sweden first deployed troops in Afghanistan in the beginning of 2002 and now has around 500 troops based near the northern city of Mazar-i-Sharif.

In December the parliament passed a government bill to extend the military mission in the war-torn country until the end of 2011, allowing for the deployment of up to 855 people.

The bill required a compromise between the governing minority centre-right Alliance and the opposition Social Democrats and Greens, and came barely a week after a suicide bomber cited Sweden's troop presence in Afghanistan in a message sent shortly before he blew himself up near a crowded pedestrian street in central Stockholm.

TT/The Local/pvs (news@thelocal.se)

http://www.thelocal.se/30970/20101220/

Sweden's Alliance parties gain majority in new poll

Sweden's Alliance parties gain majority in new poll

Published: 20 Dec 10 16:23 CET | Double click on a word to get a translation

A new poll has revealed that if an election were held now, the ruling Alliance would gain a majority in Sweden's parliament, the Riksdag, while support for Sweden's Social Democratic Party continues to slide.

The latest opinion survey conducted by United Minds and Cints in collaboration with newspaper Aftonbladet shows that both the ruling Moderates and Liberal Party have increased their levels of support.

Separately, support for the Centre and Christian Democratic Parties has fallen below the levels they registered for the general election on September 19th. However, the Christian Democrats, the smallest party in the Riksdag, would clear the 4 percent threshhold to remain in parliament.

Meanwhile, the Social Democrats continue to lose support from voters.

"If it were close to an election, it would be more problematic, but I think people understand that there is not an election now and that much can happen," United Minds' opinion director Carl Melin told Aftonbladet.

While support for the Social Democrats and Left Party continue to fall, the Green Party continues to gain more support. Support for the far-right Sweden Democrats also outpaces the party's election result in the fall.

The Moderates currently have 31.7 percent support, up 0.7 percentage points from November. The Liberal Party stands at 7.5 percent, 0.5 percentage points ahead of last month.

However, the Centre Party and Christian Democrats are at 5.5 percent and 4.8 respectively, down 0.8 and 0.1 percentage points respectively.

Together, the Alliance has 49.5 percent, up 0.3 percentage points from November, compared with 42.2 percent for the Red-Green parties, whose support fell 1.2 percentage points.

Among then, support for the Social Democrats slipped 1.5 percentage points to 27.6 percent and 0.6 percentage points to 5.2 percent for the Left Party.

However, backing for the Green Party grew 0.9 percentage points in December to 9.4 percent from the previous month. Support for the Sweden Democrats also rose 0.9 percentage points to 6.9 percent this month.

Support for other parties increased 0.1 percentage points to 1.4 percent.

United Minds interviewed 1,148 respondents over the age of 18 from November 23rd to Sunday, asking them, "How would you vote if there were a Riksdag election today?"

Vivian Tse (news@thelocal.se)

http://www.thelocal.se/30880/20101216/

http://www.thelocal.se/30880/20101216/

Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt on a Kabul street

Sweden votes to extend Afghanistan mission

Published: 16 Dec 10 08:27 CET | Double click on a word to get a translation

Swedish lawmakers in the country's parliament, the Riksdag, voted on Wednesday to extend the country's military mission in Afghanistan until the end of 2011.

"Sweden will make an armed force of up to 855 people available to the international security force in Afghanistan until the end of 2011," they said in a statement, adding that the troop level would likely remain at the present level of 500 soldiers.

The vote came a month after Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt, whose centre-right coalition came up two seats short of a house majority in general elections in September, secured a deal with the opposition Social Democrats and the Greens.

The Social Democrats and Greens, in a since-dissolved coalition with the formerly communist Left Party, had campaigned ahead of the elections on demanding a withdrawal of Swedish troops from Afghanistan.

However, the two left-wing parties shifted their position after the far-right Sweden Democrats were voted into parliament for the first time and handed the role of kingmaker.

The two parties agreed to a broad proposal, aiming to pull all Swedish combat troops out of Afghanistan between 2012 and 2014, while maintaining a largely civilian support presence after that.

The far-right Sweden Democrats and the Left Party, which have both want Swedish forces brought home sooner, opposed the motion to extend the mandate next year, but it passed easily nonetheless, with 290 votes in favour, 20 opposed and 19 abstaining.

Sweden is officially neutral and not a member of NATO and the question of how long its troops should take part in the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) in Afghanistan is a sensitive one.

In October, the Scandinavian country lost its fifth soldier since it first deployed troops in Afghanistan near the northern Afghan city of Mazar-i-Sharif, at the beginning of 2002.

The parliament vote also came less than a week after a suicide bomber railed against Sweden's troop presence in Afghanistan in a message sent shortly before he blew himself up near a crowded pedestrian street in central Stockholm, narrowly missing wreaking carnage among Christmas shoppers.

AFP/The Local (news@thelocal.se)







http://www.thelocal.se/tag/Anna_Lindh

Anna_lindh

The following articles have been tagged with "Anna_lindh":

Swedish diplomat: new WikiLeaks 'regrettable'

Politics: 29 Nov 10
Over 800 secret American documents about relations with Sweden have been released by WikiLeaks, according to Swedish media reports. READ »

Sweden knew of US surveillance: report

National: 19 Nov 10
Sweden’s former Social Democratic government was informed in 2002 about a surveillance programme run by the US embassy in Stockholm, secret documents reveal. READ »

Anna Lindh's care to be reviewed: agency

National: 20 Oct 10
Sweden's National Board of Health and Welfare will review the care former foreign minister Anna Lindh received after she was stabbed in central Stockholm in September 2003. READ »

Hospital demands probe of Anna Lindh's care

National: 29 Sep 10
Karolinska University Hospital has requested an inquiry into the care it gave former foreign minister Anna Lindh after her fatal stabbing in September 2003. READ »

Sahlin and Reinfeldt enter final sprint for lasting political glory

Politics: 18 Sep 10
With polls set to open in 24 hours rivals Fredrik Reinfeldt and Mona Sahlin are both looking for an electoral victory to cement their leadership status after long political comebacks. READ »

Security beefed up for Sahlin due to threats

Politics: 16 Aug 10
Security for Social Democratic leader Mona Sahlin has been tightened due to serious threats against her just over a month before elections, Swedish media reported on Monday. READ »

Obama meeting will be Svanberg's toughest test

National: 14 Jun 10
BP’s problems are proving to be the toughest test yet in the career of Swedish business’s golden boy Carl-Henric Svanberg, writes James Savage. READ »

Anna Lindh memorial inaugurated in Stockholm

Politics: 5 May 10
A memorial square to Anna Lindh, the former Swedish foreign minister murdered in 2003, was inaugurated in Stockholm on Tuesday near where she made her final public appearance. READ »

Anna Lindh widower Bo Holmberg dies

Politics: 12 Feb 10
Bo Holmberg, the husband of assassinated Swedish foreign minister Anna Lindh, has died aged 67. READ »

Reinfeldt seeks answers on Russian dumping

National: 5 Feb 10
Swedish Prime Minister Fredrik Reinfeldt has asked for an explanation from the previous Social Democrat government over Russia's release of toxic waste into Swedish waters in the Baltic Sea. READ »

Newspaper cleared of defaming ex-Lindh murder suspect

Society: 4 Feb 10
Southern Swedish newspaper Sydsvenskan has been cleared of libel charges after being sued by the initial suspect in the murder of Swedish foreign minister Anna Lindh in 2002. READ »

Russian nuclear waste dumped off Sweden

National: 4 Feb 10
The Russian military is suspected of having dumped chemical weapons and radioactive waste off the Swedish island of Gotland in the beginning of the 1990s. READ »

Lindh murder suspect sues newspaper for defamation

National: 3 Feb 10
A libel case involving Swedish newspaper Sydsvenskan and the initial suspect in the murder of Swedish foreign minister Anna Lindh in 2002 opened in a Malmö court on Wednesday. READ »

Swine flu named year's top Swedish news story

National: 30 Dec 09
Swine flu beat out both the June death of Michael Jackson and the Stockholm helicopter heist in September as the top Swedish news story of 2009, according to a new study. READ »

Almedalen — Swedish openness galore

Analysis & Opinion: 7 Jul 09
Anyone who doubts that Sweden is a country characterised by openness and informality should visit Visby during the first week of July, writes Olle Wästberg, Director-General of the Swedish Institute. READ »

Call for probe into Sweden-CIA terror links

Politics: 8 May 09
Two prominent Left Party politicians are calling for Sweden to set up an independent truth commission to look into how Sweden cooperated with the United States during the war on terror. READ »

Bodström reported over CIA terror deportations

National: 19 Jan 09
Former justice minister Thomas Bodström and former prime minister Göran Persson have been reported to the Riksdag's constitutional committee after new details emerged over the expulsion of two terror suspects from Sweden to Egypt in 2001. READ »

Sweden pressured in 2001 terror case: report

National: 19 Jan 09
Fresh details have surfaced about the deportation of two terror suspects from Sweden to Egypt in December 2001, including allegations of US pressure and the role of former foreign minister Anna Lindh, following the release a new book on Monday. READ »

Ex-policeman: Lindh murder investigation 'full of mistakes'

National: 10 Nov 08
The investigation into the assassination of Foreign Minister Anna Lindh in 2003 was just as poorly handled in the first 24 hours as the Olof Palme investigation in 1986, according to a former police chief. READ »

'Meat mountain' ex-minister slams Swedish security service

Politics: 22 Oct 08
Sweden's former Finance Minister Pär Nuder has criticized the country's security service over its failure to protect assassinated Foreign Minister Anna Lindh. READ »

Sweden reflects on Anna Lindh's death

Politics: 11 Sep 08
On the fifth anniversary of the assassination of foreign minister Anna Lindh, Sweden is reflecting more on the legacy of her work in politics than the tragic circumstances surrounding her death. READ »

Getting away with murder? Papers debate Rödeby verdict

Analysis & Opinion: 9 May 08
James Savage looks how Sweden's papers reacted to a controversial acquittal in the case of a man who shot a teenage boy dead in southern Sweden last year. READ »

China, Reinfeldt, and the Olympics: a real mouthful

Analysis & Opinion: 15 Apr 08
Social democratic newspaper editor Eric Sundström hopes Fredrik Reinfeldt at least says something about human rights and the Olympics during the Prime Minister’s visit to China. READ »

Karolinska Hospital slammed for lax patient secrecy

Society: 18 Nov 07
Poor security procedures at one of Sweden's top teaching hospitals have led to insufficient control over who accesses patients' medical records. READ »

Persson reflects on election defeat in new book

Politics: 23 Oct 07
Göran Persson has written a book about his ten years as Sweden's prime minister. In it, he explains how he could have won the election if he had only ignored the advice of his finance minister. READ »

Knife man entered employment ministry

National: 29 Sep 07
A man carrying a large hunting knife succeeded in entering the Ministry for Employment before being arrested later in central Stockholm, it has been revealed. READ »

Expressen fights former Lindh murder suspect over libel claim

National: 27 Jul 07
Swedish tabloid Expressen is to continue fighting a lawsuit brought against them by the man first suspected of murdering foreign minister Anna Lindh in 2003. "What they did must be a world record for slander," says the man's lawyer. READ »

Mijailovic wants to stay in Sweden

National: 14 May 07
Mijailo Mijailovic, the man who murdered Swedish foreign minister Anna Lindh, has decided to give up on the idea of a transfer to a Serbian prison. "He's in a catch 22 situation," says his lawyer. READ »

Mijailovic must stay in Swedish jail

National: 6 Feb 07
Mijailo Mijailovic, the man who murdered Swedish foreign minister Anna Lindh, has had his application to serve his sentence in his parents' homeland of Serbia refused by authorities in Stockholm. READ »

Borg in plane controversy

Politics: 2 Feb 07
Anders Borg has come in for criticism for requesting the government plane to land at the airport nearest his home. "Common practice," says his press secretary. READ »

Lindh killer faces uncertain future

National: 20 Jan 07
Mijailo Mijailovic wants to serve his sentence for the murder of Anna Lindh in Serbia. But Swedish authorities will not permit a transfer until Serbia decides on the length of his sentence. READ »

Freivalds makes millions from apartment

Politics: 13 Jan 07
It was the apartment that caused her resignation as justice minister, after she bought it in contravention of government policy. But Laila Freivalds can comfort herself with a profit of 5 million kronor. READ »

'Sahlin will lead Social Democrats'

Analysis & Opinion: 4 Jan 07
Sweden's Social Democrats are looking for a new leader and Mona Sahlin seems to be the front runner. The Local asked political expert Stig-Björn Ljunggren to help us size up the contenders. READ »

Freivalds cashes in on controversial flat

National: 3 Jan 07
Laila Freivalds was forced to step down as justice minister in 2000 when her property dealings ran counter to government policy. Now its payback time. READ »

Tougher rules for criminal psychiatric patients

Society: 3 Jan 07
People convicted of crimes and sentenced to psychiatric care could face tougher restrictions when released, says Sweden's justice minister Beatrice Ask, who wants to make sure patients are followed up. READ »

Mijailovic accused of beating fellow prisoner

National: 1 Nov 06
Anna Lindh's killer Mijailo Mijailovic has admitted beating a sleeping fellow prisoner over the head with a metal object ripped from a radiator. But, he claims, he did so because he feared for his life. READ »

Lindh killer 'should not go to Serbia'

Politics: 29 Sep 06
A senior Liberal has called for Mijailo Mijailovic, who killed Swedish foreign minister Anna Lindh, to be denied his wish to serve out his sentence in Serbia. READ »

Israeli officials "dance a jig" over Alliance win

National: 22 Sep 06
Sweden's change of government is reported to have caused delight in the Israeli government, which saw the Social Democrats as extra-critical of the Jewish state. But a Green MP says things won't change much. READ »

Ministers pay tribute to murdered Lindh

Politics: 11 Sep 06
Three years after Sweden's foreign minister Anna Lindh was murdered in a Stockholm department store, ministers pay their tributes at her grave. READ »

Harvard launches Anna Lindh professor

Politics: 30 Aug 06
Harvard University has created a new professorship in memory of Anna Lindh, Sweden's murdered foreign minister. The post will be dedicated to global leadership and public policy, the university says. READ »

Lindh killer could serve sentence in Serbia

National: 22 Aug 06
Serbia has indicated that the man who murdered Swedish foreign minister Anna Lindh in 2003 could serve his prison sentence in a Serbian jail. Now it's up to the Swedish governement. READ »

Lindh killer charged with assault

National: 3 Aug 06
The man who murdered Swedish foreign minister Anna Lindh in 2003 has been charged with assaulting a patient at a psychiatric asylum. READ »

Shots fired in NK

National: 29 Jun 06
Two men have been arrested after shots were fired during the attempted robbery of a jewellery department at the NK store in Stockholm on Thursday. Police say that no injuries have been reported. READ »

King reaches 60 secure on his throne

Lifestyle: 27 Apr 06
This weekend will see King Carl XVI Gustaf feted by foreign royalty, parliamentarians and thousands of his people. As he celebrates his 60th birthday, Sweden's king can satisfy himself with approval ratings that would make a politician green with envy. READ »

Analysis: Why Freivalds had to go

Analysis & Opinion: 21 Mar 06
After a year of unrelenting criticism over her handling of the tsunami disaster and latterly of the Muhammad cartoons, Persson had little choice but to accept Laila Freivalds' resignation. READ »

Olof Palme: the controversy lives on

Lifestyle: 27 Feb 06
It is twenty years since Sweden was shaken by the murder of one of its most controversial politicians. But what impact does the radical, campaigning prime minister Olof Palme have on modern Sweden? READ »

Schyman receives death threats

Politics: 14 Feb 06
A note on the door of a cinema where leading feminist Gudrun Schyman was giving a lecture raises fears for her safety. "I see it as a death threat," says Schyman. READ »

"Brawl" leads to SD youth chief arrest

Politics: 29 Jan 06
The head of the Social Democrats' youth movement, Anna Sjödin, is accused of assualting a doorman in a bar in Stockholm. She was held overnight by police before being released. READ »

Bodström gets bodyguards after threat

National: 28 Jan 06
Thomas Bodström and his family have been given round-the-clock security after "informants in the underworld" told police there was a threat against Sweden's justice minister, it has been reported. READ »

Patient secrecy to be ignored for security police

Society: 19 Oct 05
Details about psychiatric patients are even kept from the prying eyes of Sweden's security police, Säpo. But not for long, perhaps - Säpo needs more power to combat the threat to ministers and royalty, says the government. READ »

Back to prison for Lindh killer

National: 8 Oct 05
Mijailo Mijailovic, who last year was found guilty of murdering Sweden's former foreign minister Anna Lindh, is to be transferred out of psychiatric care and back into Stockholm's maximum security prison, Kumla. READ »

Lindh killer attacks fellow patient

National: 21 Sep 05
Mijailo Mijailovic, who murdered Sweden's former foreign minister Anna Lindh in 2003, has brutally attacked another inmate at the secure psychiatric clinic in Sundsvall where he is being treated. READ »

Mijailovic transferred to asylum

National: 11 Sep 05
SEE ALSO: SIX PEOPLE WERE ARRESTED FOR LINDH MURDER
Mijailo Mijailovic, who killed Swedish foreign minister Anna Lindh exactly 2 years ago, has been moved to a psychiatric unit. A doctor decided he was unwell and needed help, the asylum says. READ »

Six people were arrested for Lindh murder

Smörgåsbord: 9 Sep 05
The man in charge of the investigation into Anna Lindh's killing says that six men were arrested over the murder. Until now, only two arrests had been revealed to the public. READ »

Stockholm Syndrome: Rush hour madness

Analysis & Opinion: 8 Sep 05
Our Stockholm Syndrome correspondent has a close call on one of the city's blue buses and finds out that Swedes on public transport have a more immediate fear than terrorism. READ »

Foreign prisoners reject Swedish hospitality

Society: 12 Aug 05
Swedish prisons may be considered plush by many, but an increasing number of prisoners with foreign backgrounds are trying to get moved abroad. Going back to the Netherlands is popular among people convicted of drugs offences. READ »

La Suède: le meilleur pays au monde?

Business & Money: 29 May 05
Un nouveau sondage international effectué auprès de personnes originaires de 10 pays montre que si elles avaient le choix, c’est en Suède qu’elles préféreraient vivre et travailler! Pourtant la Suède n’est pas épargnée par les troubles de toutes natures et comme partout s’ensuit une recherche des personnes responsables... READ »

Comment: Swedish Television cheapens the feminism debate

Lifestyle: 27 May 05
SVT's controversial TV programme on 'extreme feminism' has provoked a week of fierce media debate, with the chairwoman of ROKS, the national women's refuge organisation, portrayed as a man-hating loon. But how much of that was down to selective editing? READ »

Egypt deportations: Säpo blames Lindh

National: 24 May 05
A government committee set up to investigate the controversial deportation of two Egyptians accused of terrorist offences is told by Säpo, Sweden's security police, that Anna Lindh gave them the go-ahead to use American help. READ »

Knifeman stabs three on Stockholm underground

National: 24 May 05
Three people are injured as a man, thought to be suffering from psychological problems, runs amok on a rush hour underground train. READ »

Nuder accused of SSU membership fraud

Politics: 20 Apr 05
Now it's Pär Nuder's turn in the firing line, as a paper reveals that the finance minister cooked the books to boost public subsidies to the young Social Democrats in the 1980s. Nuder, reported to be Göran Persson's favoured successor, boosted his career by inflating member figures, it is alleged. READ »

Life sentence for 1989 double murderer

National: 6 Apr 05
Against the media's expectations and the experts' recommendations, Ulf Olsson is sentenced to life imprisonment for the rape and murder of 10 year old Helén Nilsson and 26 year old Jannica Ekblad in 1989. READ »

Security police demand new stalker law

National: 15 Mar 05
The threat to famous people in Sweden posed by stalkers is worse than previously thought. That is the conclusion of a survey carried out by Säpo, the security police, and now they have proposed tougher laws to deal with the problem. READ »

Psychiatric care: Milton slams government

Science & Technology: 14 Mar 05
In the last two years the number of people murdered by mental health patients has become an embarrassment to Sweden. Now, the man appointed by the government to overhaul the system tells The Local that the main obstacle to progress is the politicians themselves. READ »

Reinfeldt most popular party leader

Politics: 20 Feb 05
Of all the main party leaders, the Swedish public has the greatest confidence in the Moderates' Fredrik Reinfeldt. But prime minister Göran Persson is less popular now than at any time since September 2000. READ »

Increased security for Swedish foreign minister

Politics: 27 Jan 05
Laila Freivalds gets round-the-clock protection from the security police as, following the government's handling of the tsunami catastrophe, she remains the focus of public fury - and a Magnus Uggla song. READ »

Persson: Lindh didn?t know about CIA

Politics: 23 Dec 04
Anna Lindh had no idea about plans for American authorities to deport two Egyptians from Sweden, says the prime minister. READ »

Lindh "authorised Egyptians' deportation"

Politics: 14 Dec 04
A police officer tells a hearing that former foreign minister Anna Lindh approved an operation for the CIA to deport two Egyptians back to their homeland. The pair are alleged to have been tortured on their return. READ »

Swedish Supreme Court jails Mijailovic for life

National: 2 Dec 04
It's the end of the legal line for the man who killed foreign minister Anna Lindh in September 2003, as Sweden's top court reverses the Appeal Court's decision and puts Mijailo Mijailovic in prison for life. READ »

Anna Lindh murder: the definitive guide

National: 12 Nov 04
This page has moved. The collection of articles about the aftermath of the murder of Anna Lindh is now here. READ »

Swedish army to ditch 1,000 officers

National: 11 Nov 04
As the army announces that 1,000 officers are to lose their jobs, the security police begin to recruit 50 new bodyguards. A military background and officer training might look pretty good on an applicant’s CV. READ »

Mijailovic "could walk free"

National: 11 Nov 04
"Mijailo Mijailovic was psychologically ill when he killed Anna Lindh, therefore he can't be sentenced to prison. But now he's better, so he can't be given secure psychiatric treatment either." Hmmm. READ »

Open up mental health system to avert crisis

Science & Technology: 11 Nov 04
In the week that the Supreme Court reviews the sentence on Anna Lindh's killer, Lysanne Sizoo points out where the Swedish mental health system is breaking down - and offers a creative solution. READ »

Police hunt Linköping double killer

National: 20 Oct 04
Linköping is shocked - and afraid - as police hunt the man who killed an eight year old boy and a 56 year old woman on a street in the centre of town on Tuesday morning. READ »

Knifeman gatecrashes Moderate party

Politics: 19 Oct 04
Keen to pick up supporters wherever they can, it seems the Moderates will let anyone into their party - even if he's armed with a huge hunting knife. Security? What security? READ »

Mijailovic changes lawyer for appeal

National: 14 Oct 04
A bad week for Sweden's 'celebrity lawyer' Peter Althin - ditched by Anna Lindh's murderer for not visiting enough and upbraided by the Lawyers Association for a conflict of interest in representing three of the Hall Prison escapees. READ »

"Suicidal" Mijailovic gives up Swedish passport

National: 21 Sep 04
Anna Lindh's murderer is no longer a Swedish citizen, it emerges after he is taken to hospital suffering from psychiatric problems. And now a move to Serbia could be on the cards, just as another notorious killer considers coming to Sweden. READ »

Supreme Court reopens Lindh murder case

National: 15 Sep 04
First he was sentenced to life imprisonment, then to psychiatric care. Now Mijailo Mijailovic could be facing life again for killing Anna Lindh in Stockholm last year. READ »

All's fair in love and Swedish politics

Politics: 6 Aug 04
A new pair of scandals for the government this week. One black sheep returns to the ministerial fold after her business fails and Bosse Ringholm forgets to collect some taxes - from the football club where he is the chairman. READ »

Guantanamo Swede seeks damages

National: 23 Jul 04
Mehdi Ghezali speaks out against his American captors and the Swedish government, defends his actions in 2001 - and wants some cash. READ »

Treason under the sun?

National: 23 Jul 04
The royal family's holiday on Öland was disturbed by intruders, said Expressen. No it wasn't, said the palace spokeswoman. Either way, the family has upped the security this year. READ »

Lindh killer escapes jail

National: 9 Jul 04
Mijail Mijailovic is judged by the appeal court to be "seriously disturbed" and will be held in a secure psychiatric hospital instead of prison. READ »

Lindh killer mentally disturbed

National: 2 Jul 04
Doctors agree that Mijail Mijailovic is mentally disturbed - but the appeal court must decide if that means a secure hospital instead of prison. READ »

Knutby - from tragedy to comedy

National: 24 Jun 04
The trial is taking a four week break but you can't keep a good story down. The mystery buyer of the pastor's house is revealed and his mistress strikes gold while the congregation finally starts singing from the same hymn sheet. READ »

Police caught in child porn bust

National: 28 May 04
Paedophilia, corruption, weapons and drugs smuggling - you just can't trust the police these days. READ »

Knutby goes public

National: 14 May 04
After weeks of leaks surely everything that could be said about Knutby has been said? You ain't seen nothin' yet. READ »

Feminists crash May Day parties

Politics: 7 May 04
Police floored rioters, but will proposals for an all-female political party hit the established parties where it hurts? READ »

Minister assaulted

Politics: 23 Apr 04
A female politician, no security, an unknown assailant - we've been here before. READ »

Mijailovic appeals against life sentence

National: 16 Apr 04
Anna Lindh's murderer wants the verdict reduced to manslaughter while her family is seeking increased compensation. READ »





WIKILEAKS founder Julian Assange's lawyer says he has seen police documents that prove the whistleblower is innocent of rape claims.

Bjrn Hurtig, who is representing Assange in Sweden, said the documents, which form part of the official Swedish investigation, revealed two women had lied about being coerced into having sex with Mr Assange, 39. Assange is being held in Wandsworth prison, London, while fighting extradition to Sweden.

Assange met both women at a seminar in Stockholm last August. After having intercourse with each, at different times, he faced sex charges, which he strenuously denies, that were withdrawn and then reinstated.

 

In an interview from his Stockholm office, Mr Hurtig said: "From what I have read, it is clear that the women are lying and that they had an agenda when they went to the police, which had nothing to do with a crime having taken place.

 

"It was, I believe, more about jealousy and disappointment on their part ...

"If I am able to reveal what I know, everyone will realise this is all a charade," he said. MAIL ON SUNDAY


WikiLeaks cable shed light on Singaporeans' view of Anwar

 2010-12-12 16:19

KUALA LUMPUR, Sunday 12 December 2010 (Bernama) -- Singapore's intelligence services as well as its senior minister Lee Kuan Yew believe that opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim "did indeed commit the acts for which he is currently indicted."

This was revealed by WikiLeaks through a release of a US State Department cable issued in November 2008.

The cable was exclusively released to the Australian tabloid, The Sun-Herald, and was widely reported by other Australian newspapers today.

WikiLeaks is a website that publishes anonymous submissions and leaks of sensitive governmental, corporate, organisational, or religious documents, while attempting to preserve the anonymity and untraceability of its contributors.

The US State Department cable that dealt with Anwar's sodomy case, dated November 2008, and was released exclusively to The Sun-Herald by WikiLeaks, had stated:''The Australians said that Singapore's intelligence services and [Singaporean elder statesman] Lee Kuan Yew have told ONA in their exchanges that Opposition leader Anwar 'did indeed commit the acts for which he is currently indicted'.''

In the newspaper report, it said the document stated that the Singaporeans told ONA that they made this assessment on the basis of ''technical intelligence'', which was likely to relate to intercepted communications.

WIKILEAKS founder Julian Assange's lawyer says he has seen police documents that prove the whistleblower is innocent of rape claims.

MySinchew 2010.12.12

Martijn Gonlag


Second Dutch teenager arrested for WikiLeaks-related DDoS attacks



by Graham Cluley on December 12, 2010 | Comments (4)

FILED UNDER: FeaturedLaw & orderMalware

Police in the Netherlands have arrested a second teenager in relation to the pro-WikiLeaks distributed denial-of-service attacks seen earlier this week.

The arrest of the 19-year-old man follows Friday's attacks on websites belonging to Dutch Police and national prosecutor's office, which were themselves widely seen as retaliation against the apprehension the day before of a 16-year-old Dutch boy alleged to have participated in "Anonymous" pro-WikiLeaks attacks against a number of websites, including MasterCard and PayPal.

Prosecutors claim that the 19-year-old, from Hoogezand-Sappemeer, in the north east of the Netherlands, flooded the prosecutor's website with internet traffic:

"From behind his computer, the man used hacker software to flood the website of the prosecutor’s office with as much digital traffic as possible. Investigations by the National Police Services Agency showed that the man, who was active under the internet nickname Awinee, urged other internet users to participate in the attack."

However, it is reported that the DDoS attack software being used did not hide the IP address of the computer involved, making it easy for high-tech crime cops to identify where the attack was coming from.

That's a pretty silly mistake to make if you're going to attack the website of your country's national prosecutor.

Who is "Awinee"? Well, a quick search on Google found a gaming website of a guy who lives in Hoogezand-Sappemeer, is 19 years old, and uses the online nickname "Awinee", going by the real name of Martijn Gonlag:




Wikileaks Mirrors

Find all the current Wikileaks Mirrors and Links here. Helpful, if the main site - wikileaks.org - is down.



Important Wikileaks Links

Protests expected outside court for WikiLeaks Julian Assange


Protests expected outside court  for WikiLeaks Julian Assange

Tuesday 14 December 2010
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will ask to be granted bail when he appears before City of Westminster Magistrates' Court for a second time today.
The former computer hacker was remanded in custody last week, despite the offer of surety from a number of high-profile backers, including journalist John Pilger, director Ken Loach, and charity fundraiser Jemima Khan.

If Julian Assange is denied bail, he is expected to appeal at the High Court.

The Australian, 39, turned himself into police after an international warrant was issued accusing him of sex offences in Sweden. Charges are thought to include rape and molestation in one case, and molestation and unlawful coercion in a second. Assange has denied the allegations, which he has claimed stem from a dispute over "consensual but unprotected sex." He has vowed to fight extradition to Sweden.

According to Australian media reports, supporters of Assange and WikiLeaks are expected to protest outside the court.

Yesterday, around 15 supporters of the 'Justice for Assange' campaign gathered outside the Swedish Embassy in central London. They held banners saying "political prisoner" and "gagging the truth" and wore masks of Assange's face.
His court appearance comes as another cable released through the WikiLeaks site reveals the United States was concerned that the UK was struggling to cope with home-grown extremists in the year after the 7th July bombings in London.

In the cable, a diplomat noted that Tony Blair's embarked on a drive to isolate radicals from the mainstream Muslim community after the 2005 attacks.

The message from the US Embassy states: "Since 7/7, HMG [Her Majesty's Government] has invested considerable time and resources in engaging the British Muslim community. The current tensions demonstrate just how little progress has been made."

Another cable suggests British police helped 'develop' evidence against Madeleine McCann's parents as they were investigated by Portuguese authorities investigating the disappearance of their daughter.

Julian Assange
Enemy of the State Hero of the People
By Lucy Carne LONDON
SEEDS OF CHANGE: Julian Assange the boy and the thorn in the side of governments, and a rally by his Brisbane supporters this week
In front of an adoring crowd at the Frontline journalist’s club in London last month, Australia Julian Assange explained why he’s risking the wrath of the world’s most powerful governments.
In his face could still be seen traces of the sweet natured, sensitive little boy his Sunshine Coast-based mother has described and, smiling, the Queensland born 39 year old leaned into the microphone.
“They say I enjoy crushing bastards and. Yes, that’s part of my motivation,” Assange said.
“For some reason, the White House finds that offensive.”
Today, the founder if whistle blowing website WikiLeaks and the man on whom the world’s spotlight is focused, sits is a grey tracksuit in one of western Europe’s biggest prsions.
This week he was remanded in custody of rape, sexual assault and unlawful coercion stemming from alleged  non-consensual sex without a condom with two women in Sweden.
Assange’s imprisonment, after he handed himself in, was met with relief in the US, where authorities were angered by his website’s release of embarrassing diplomatic cables last week.
The man who kicked the hornets’ nest had been silences they thought.
“I hadn’t heard that but it sounds like good news to me,” US Defence Secretary Robert Gates said on being told of Assange’s arrest.
But while Assange grows restless behind bars – he has already complained about the “boring” daytime television and his request to be reunited with his own laptop has been denied – a global groundswell of support has grown.
The strongest act of revenge is coming from a group of ”hacktivists”  known as Anomymous, which temporariiy shut down the websites of US and Swedish corporations this week.
The group also froze the websites of credit-card companies Visa and Mastercard,n which had cancelled financial donations to WikiLeaks.
Post Finance – the Swiss bank that froze Assange’s private account – was disabled too, as was the Swedish prosecution office and the Swedish lawyers representing the two  women who claim  to have been sexually assaulted by Assange.
The Anonymous group’s spokesman, known only as Coldblood, told reports they had not met Assange and were not connected to his organization but felt the need to defend him.
“If we let WikiLeaks fall without a fight then government will think they can just take down any sites they wish or disagree with,” Coldblood said.
In Brisbane on Thursday, some 300 protestors took to the streets in anger at Assange’s imprisonment.
Protests in London were due to be held today.
More than 35,000 people have joined a Facebook group to support Assange, with calls for all members to donate to his legal fund, while around 28,000 Australians have signed a letter to US President BARACK Obama supporting him.
In an open letter published yesterday, prominent supports, including Australia documentary film maker John Pilger, Minty Python member Terry Jones, English actress Miriam Margolyes and author Iain Banks, call for his immediate release from jail
Assange’s unusually harsh imprisonment for allegedly ignoring two women’s  requests to use contraception has caused this sudden swell of skepticism and fury.
Many believe it is a flimsy excuse to keep Assange, who was placed on Interpol’s most wanted list, within reach of the US Justice Department so it can prosecute him under the Espionage Act.
Even while he is hailed by the public as a champion of transparency, to the governments of Australia and the US he remains a menace. To them he is not an innocent messenger but an anti-government terrorist who wants to harm the US and governments across the world.
Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard labeled WikiLeaks’s activities illegal but, despite calls for her to do so, has failed to outline any Australian law that Assange has broken.
Federal Attorney-General Robert McClelland also has stood by his condemnation of Assange, while arch-conservative US politician Sarah Palin called him an anti-American operative with blood on his hands.”
How did the tousled-haired boy in overalls grow up to become an Andy Warhol-esque hero of the people.
“Hr can seem – with his spectral white hair, pa8iled skin, cool eyes, and expansive forehead – like a rail thin being who has rocketed to Earth to deliver humanity some hidden truth,” The New Yorker wrote in June.
Born in Townsville in 1971, Assange has described his childhood as “pretty Tom Sawyer”’ filled with horseriding, building rafts and fishing.
I was, however, far from Idyllic. By the age od 14, his family had moved 37 times, living everywhere from Magnetic Island to Byron Bay. It set the scene for his future nomadic life.
The young boy was home schooled, sporadically educated by university professors and even taught himself in hours spent alone in council libraries.
But his life changed when his mother’s abusive boyfriend tried to gain custody of Assange’s half brother in order to submit him to religious sect The Family.
His mother and her young family “disappeared”, constantly moving, never leaving a trail.
But at the age of 16, in 1987, Assange got a computer and modem and his life was suddenly transformed.
He embraced the random problem-solving and solace if life as a computer hacker.
“We were bright sensitive kinds who didn’t fit the dominant subculture and fiercely castigated those who did as irredeemable boneheads,” he wrote of himself and a teenage friend.
He was arrested in the early 1990’sw for hacking into the computer system of a major Canadian telecommunications company, but avoided a prison sentence of up to 10 years.
A brief spell in hospital for depression soon followed, as well as time spent living rough in the Dandenong Ranges National Park in Victoria and a stint motorcycling across Vietnam.
While working towards a physics degree at the University of Melbourne in 2006, He founded WikiLeaks.
It was a site for anyone wishing to “reveal illegal or immoral behavior in their own governments and corporations” he wrote at the time of the site’s launch.
“ I am the one who9 takes that risk,” he said prophetically, explaining his role at WikiLeaks while addressing the Frontline club last monthly. “As a consequence, I also get a lot of undue credit. I also get all the criticism.”
His original WikiLeaks mandate was to9 “make the news, not be the news”.
But that seems to have backfired, with Assange now a household name around the world.
“Is is weird?” an audience member asked him of his new celebrity status.
“No,” Assange shrugged.” Actually, I find it quite boring.”
Lucy Marne is The Courier-Mail’s European correspondent

Dear Friend,

Sarah Palin wants Julian Assange hunted as a terrorist.1 She's among a swelling chorus of American politicians calling for the arrest - and even the death - of the Australian citizen who runs WikiLeaks. It's a shame that real terrorists, the kind we should be focusing our attention on, don't show up at British Police stations with their lawyers, as WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange did yesterday.

Here in Australia, Prime Minister Gillard pre-emptively judged Mr. Assange "illegal," even as the Attorney General confirmed that no Australian nor international crime by WikiLeaks has been identified.2

The death penalty? Judgment before trial? This isn't the kind of justice system we have in Australia. If our Government won't stand up for the rights of Australian citizens, let's do it ourselves.

We're printing ads in The Washington Times and The New York Times with the statement our Government should have made, signed by as many Australians as possible. Will you add your name to the signatories, and invite your friends to join too?

http://www.getup.org.au/campaign/Wikileaks

The statement:Dear President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder:

We, as Australians, condemn calls for violence, including assassination, against Australian citizen and WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, or for him to be labeled a terrorist, enemy combatant or be treated outside the ordinary course of justice in any way.

As Thomas Jefferson said, "information is the currency of democracy."3 Publishing leaked information in collaboration with major news outlets, as Wikileaks and Mr. Assange have done, is not a terrorist act.

Australia and the United States are the strongest of allies. Our soldiers serve side by side and we've experienced, and condemned, the consequences of terrorism together. To label WikiLeaks a terrorist organisation is an insult to those Australians and Americans who have lost their lives to acts of terrorism and to terrorist forces.

If WikiLeaks or their staff have broken international or national laws, let that case be heard in a just and fair court of law. At the moment, no such charges have been brought.

We are writing as Australians to say what our Government should have said: that all Australian citizens deserve to be free from persecution, threats of violence and detention without charge, especially from our friend and ally, the United States.

We call upon you to stand up for our shared democratic principles of the presumption of innocence and freedom of information.We're printing this statement in The Washington Times and The New York Times early next week - and the more Australians sign, the more powerful the message will be. Please add your name by clicking below, and forward this message to friends and family:

http://www.getup.org.au/campaign/WikiLeaks

What has started with WikiLeaks being branded as terrorists won't end there.

In fact, just yesterday U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman, Chair of the Senate's Homeland Security Committee, said thatThe New York Times should also be investigated under the U.S. Espionage Act for publishing a number of the diplomatic cables leaked to WikiLeaks.4 We can help stop such plans in their tracks, by showing how they are affecting the image of the US in the eyes of their staunchest friends and allies.

Click here to sign the statement before it's published in The New York Times and Washington Times.

Thanks for being part of this,
The GetUp team

---

1 Beckford, M., 'Sarah Palin: hunt WikiLeaks founder like al-Qaeda and Taliban leaders', The Telegraph, 30 November 2010.

2 Oakes, L., 'Oakes: Gillard gushes over US leaks', Perth Now, 4 December 2010.

3 The quote is widely attributed to Jefferson, but some now dispute whether he actually said it. We know, at least, that he said "knowledge is power," even if Francis Bacon did say it first.

4 Savage, C., 'U.S. prosecuters study WikiLeaks prosecution', The New York Times, 7 December 2010.



Julian Assange from Jail to Masion






Former Guantanamo Bay detainee David Hicks. Photo: Jacky Ghossein

 \

Assange gets bail but still locked up (01:12)
British judge grants bail to WikiLeaks founder under strict monitoring conditions, but he remains in jail as Sweden appeals the ruling.

Assange will never receive a fair trial: Hicks
Cameron Atfield
December 15, 2010

Hicks answers the tough questions
Former terrorism suspect David Hicks has come out in support of jailed freedom-of-speech campaigner Julian Assange, saying he feared for Mr Assange's safety should he end up in American hands.
Mr Assange, the founder of the WikiLeaks website, has been returned to London's notorious Wandsworth prison despite winning bail from a British Court.
He will be held there for another 48 hours while Swedish prosecutors, who want to extradite him to Sweden to face allegations of sex crimes, mount a High Court appeal against the decision.
Supporters of Mr Assange, including his lawyer, have claimed the charges are politically motivated after the release of thousands of secret diplomatic cables, causing embarrassment for several governments.
Yesterday, Mr Hicks told Fairfax Radio he was concerned about what might happen to Mr Assange if he was extradited to the United States.
"He will never receive a fair trial," he said.
"We have already established that it's a political decision rather than a legal one. It's important that our governments are held to account for any war crimes they may be involved in and that is why the work of WikiLeaks is so important."
Mr Hicks spent six years at Guantanamo Bay, the US-run prison camp in Cuba, before he returned home to Australia to serve nine months at Adelaide's Yatala jail.
He was convicted by a US military commission of "providing material support for terrorism".
Mr Hicks said he believed future WikiLeaks releases could contain information about his incarceration.
"I will watch with interest in more leaks released because I have heard that they might contain information about my treatment in Guantanamo and the political interference in my case," he said.
"I just hope the Australian government doesn't abandon him like they did to me."
WikiLeaks: Julian Assange sex assault court case branded a 'show trial'
The Swedish authorities are turning the sexual assault case against Julian Assange, the WikiLeaks founder, into a "show trial", his lawyers claimed.

Mark Stephens attacked the decision by the Swedish authorities to appeal against a judge's ruling to grant the 39 year-old Australian bail.
He said their decision was now a "'persecution" rather than a prosecution and was politically motivated.
He accused the authorities of stopping at nothing to have the Wikileaks founder behind bars, a claim they denied.

 

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is refused bail
15 Dec 2010
WikiLeaks: summary of the latest disclosures
15 Dec 2010
Julian Assange: is 'Wikileaker' on a crusade or an ego trip?
15 Dec 2010
Julian Assange: Jemima Khan comes to aid of Wikileaks founder in Swedish extradition fight
15 Dec 2010
Julian Assange: 'don't shoot the messenger'
15 Dec 2010

Julian Assange: 'don't shoot the messenger'
Governments around the world must not "shoot the messenger" by attacking disclosures by WikiLeaks, Julian Assange said on Tuesday.
Julian Assange says his whistle-blowing website deserves protection and has not cost a single life despite the claims of critics

The former computer hacker said his whistle-blowing website deserves protection and has not cost a single life despite the claims of critics.
Writing for The Australian newspaper, Mr Assange quoted its founder, Rupert Murdoch, as once saying the truth will inevitably win over secrecy.
He said: "Nearly a century later, WikiLeaks is also fearlessly publishing facts that need to be made public."
Mr Assange said WikiLeaks has coined "scientific journalism" that allows readers to study the original evidence for themselves.
He added: "Democratic societies need a strong media and WikiLeaks is part of that media. The media helps keep government honest.
"WikiLeaks has revealed some hard truths about the Iraq and Afghan wars, and broken stories about corporate corruption."
The campaigner denied he is anti-war, but said Governments must tell the truth about their reasons for fighting.
He claimed the United States, supported by its "acolytes", has attacked WikiLeaks instead of other media groups because it is "young and small".
Branding the website "underdogs", he accused Australia Prime Minister Julia Gillard of "disgraceful pandering" to the Americans.
He said: "The Gillard government is trying to shoot the messenger because it doesn't want the truth revealed, including information about its own diplomatic and political dealings."
Mr Assange highlighted some of the most high-profile revelations made by his website over the last week.
He added: "The swirling storm around WikiLeaks today reinforces the need to defend the right of all media to reveal the truth."

In news
  
The WikiLeaks bunker
  
WikiLeaks: 10 greatest scoops
  
WikiLeaks: do they have a right to privacy?
  
The key WikiLeaks revelations
  
Why law is powerless to stop WikiLeaks

 

WikiLeaks 'will continue releasing documents'
15 Dec 2010

 
Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is driven into Westminster Magistrates Court in London Photo: Stefan Rousseau/PA
WikiLeaks 'will continue releasing documents'
WikiLeaks has pledged to continue releasing confidential documents after Julian Assange, the website's founder and chief, arrived at court for an extradition hearing.
Wednesday 15 December 2010

Richard Edwards and Nick Collins 2:53PM GMT 07 Dec 2010
Mr Assange handed himself over to police in central London on Tuesday morning after a warrant was issued for his arrest on rape charges.
But ahead of his first court appearance a spokesman for the website insisted the arrest would not prevent the planned release of further cables on Tuesday evening.
The spokesman wrote on Twitter: "Today's actions against our editor-in-chief Julian Assange won't affect our operations: we will release more cables tonight as normal."

The 39-year-old Australian was due to appear before a district judge at City of Westminster Magistrates' Court on Tuesday afternoon, where his lawyers were expected to fight extradition proceedings.
A Metropolitan Police spokesman said: "Officers from the Metropolitan Police Extradition Unit have this morning arrested Julian Assange on behalf of the Swedish authorities on suspicion of rape.
"Assange is due to appear at City of Westminster Magistrates' Court today."
Supporters of Assange were told to protest against censorship outside the Horseferry Road court house on several websites.
His arrest came after an Australian newspaper published an editorial written by Assange, in which he urged governments around the world not to "shoot the messenger".
He wrote: "Democratic societies need a strong media and WikiLeaks is part of that media. The media helps keep government honest."
He accused the Australian government and prime minister Julia Gillard of "disgraceful pandering" to the Americans, adding: "The Gillard government is trying to shoot the messenger because it doesn't want the truth revealed, including information about its own diplomatic and political dealings."
Mr Assange has not been seen publicly for 31 days, since an appearance in Geneva, and was believed to have been in hiding in the south-east of England as the latest tranche of WikiLeaks material was released.
A European Arrest Warrant was issued by the Swedish last month but could not be acted upon because it did not contain sufficient information for the British authorities. A spokesman for Marianne Ny, the Swedish prosecutor, said the extra details were sent last week.
Police processed the warrant yesterday and arrangements were made with Mark Stephens, Mr Assange’s British lawyer, for the Wikileaks founder to attend a central London police station.
Mr Stephens said his client was keen to discover what allegations he was facing so he could clear his name.
"It's about time we got to the end of the day and we got some truth, justice and rule of law," he said.
"Julian Assange has been the one in hot pursuit to vindicate himself to clear his good name.
"He has been trying to meet with her (the Swedish prosecutor) to find out what the allegations are he has to face and also the evidence against him, which he still hasn't seen."
The 39-year-old Australian has been under intense pressure since the release of thousands of secret documents in recent weeks.
Kristinn Hrafnsson, spokesman for WikiLeaks, said Mr Assange had been forced to keep a low profile after several threats on his life.
Sweden’s Supreme Court upheld a court order to detain Mr Assange for questioning on suspicion of “rape, sexual molestation and unlawful coercion” after he appealed against two lower court rulings. He denies the allegations.
His details were also added to Interpol’s most wanted website, alerting police forces around the world.
Mr Stephens said he would fight any bid to extradite his client. He added that Mr Assange “has been trying to meet with the Swedish prosecutor since August this year”.
Mr Assange’s troubles deepened when his Swiss bank account was shut down after it was found he had given a false address. Postfinance, the financial arm of Swiss Post, said: “The Australian citizen provided false information regarding his place of residence during the account opening process.”
Mr Assange had allegedly told Postfinance he lived in Geneva but could offer no proof that he was a Swiss resident.
News of his potential arrest came as WikiLeaks was criticised for publishing details of hundreds of sites around the world that could be targeted in terrorist attacks.
Among the British sites listed are a transatlantic undersea cable landing in Cornwall; naval and motoring engineering firm MacTaggart Scott, based in the small Scottish town of Loanhead; and BAE Systems sites, including one in Preston, Lancashire.
The revelations prompted Sir Peter Ricketts, David Cameron’s national security adviser, to order a review of computer security across all government departments.
Julian Assange: Jemima Khan comes to aid of Wikileaks founder in Swedish extradition fight
Jemima Khan appeared in court to lend her support to Wikileaks founder Julian Assange as he was put behind bars over sexual allegations originating from Sweden.
By Andrew Hough, and Caroline Gammell  07 Dec 2010

Khan, the socialite and charity worker, offered to provide a £20,000 surety to prevent the 39-year-old Australian from being remanded in custody in Britain over the claims.
Swedish officials want him extradited to answer questions over the alleged rape of one woman and molestation of another while he was in Stockholm this summer.
Mr Assange, who was also supported in court by film director Ken Loach and four others, has repeatedly denied the claims.

The 36-year-old former wife of Imran Khan said she would pay “whatever sum was required” to ensure he was granted bail.
However, a district judge at City of Westminster Magistrates’ Court decided he was too much of risk as it emerged that there was no record him ever arriving in Britain.
During Tuesday's hearing he was accompanied by officials from the Australian High Commission after asking for consular assistance.
Outside court, Khan said: “I am not here to make any kind of judgement on the Julian Assange as an individual as I do not know him and I have never met him.
“I am here because I believe in the principle of the human right to freedom of information and our right to be told the truth.”
Mr Assange’s supporters believe his arrest is a political stunt to detract from the revelations being made on a daily basis on the Wikileaks website.
Geoffrey Robertson QC, a prominent Australian human rights barrister who was a defending lawyer at the Brighton Bombing trial in the mid 1980s, has reportedly agreed to act for Mr Assange in future hearings.
The former computer hacker claims he had received several death threats since the secret documents were published and that someone had called for the kidnap of his 20-year-old son in Australia.

Julian Assange in British prison on rape charge
08 Dec 2010
Julian Assange: Extradition case involving Wikileaks founder could last many months
08 Dec 2010
Julian Assange: question of consent
08 Dec 2010
Julian Assange: 'don't shoot the messenger'
07 Dec 2010
The Scarlet Pimpernel of cyberspace
07 Dec 2010
US Attorney General taking 'significant' action
07 Dec 2010

 

Julian Assange: is 'Wikileaker' on a crusade or an ego trip?
Julian Assange, the man who published the Afghan war files on his Wikileaks website, is unlikely to be chastened by Admiral Mike Mullen’s claims that he might now have “blood on his hands”.
Julian Assange outside court in Melbourne in 1995, where he was later convicted of hacking offences.

Julian Assange, pictured in London this week, relies on donations and the hospitality of wellwishers as he travels the globe.

WikiLeaks: summary of the latest disclosures
The latest round of WikiLeaks releases disclose more detail about the US's relationships with allies and foes across the globe. Here is a round-up of today’s headlines.

Britain
Prince Andrew criticised a variety of governments, including those of Britain and America, as corrupt, stupid and backward in a conversation with a US diplomat.
In his wave of “almost neuralgic patriotism”, the Duke also made the bizarre claim that British geography teachers are the best in the world.

Families of British servicemen killed in Sangin, Afghanistan have reacted furiously after it was claimed WikiLeaks would disclose dismissive remarks by US commanders on British efforts to secure the town.
The Welsh family of Bradley Manning, the US soldier suspected of handing the classified documents to WikiLeaks, have flown to America but been prevented from visiting him in prison.
The internet has been rife with speculation about which former Labour minister was labelled “a bit of a hound dog” with women by an American official.
David Cameron was seen as “lightweight” by Barack Obama after the first meeting between the two leaders, leaked files will show.
Prince Charles does not command the same respect as the Queen, according to a senior Commonwealth official.
International
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president, dismissed claims that Arab countries had asked the US to attack his country as a deliberate attempt by the US to destabilise the Middle East.
Released Guantánamo Bay prisoners should have electronic tagging devices implanted so that they can be followed by security officials, the King of Saudi Arabia suggested to a White House official.
Silvio Berlusconi responded to leaked claims by American diplomats that he has a penchant for “wild parties” by claiming he only throws parties in a “proper, dignified and elegant way”.
One of the more unlikely stories to surface from the leaked documents was that of a 77-year-old American dentist who fled Iran on horseback after the 1979 Islamic Revolution.
American officials suspect that North Korea has been secretly aiding Iran in its attempts to build nuclear weapons under the auspices of the Chinese government.
Colonel Gaddafi was believed to be very close to a “voluptuous” Ukrainian nurse who followed him everywhere he went, a US cable claimed.
An exile from Iran was living in London when he was targeted in an assassination plot by an Iranian agent, who was later arrested in America.
Hillary Clinton asked US diplomats in Argentina about the mental health of President Cristina Kirchner and questioned whether she was using medication to help her “calm down”.
The White House has told federal agencies to tighten security around the US military computer network following the leaking of classified information.
China would support a unified Korea controlled from Seoul because it believes the North is behaving like a “spoiled child”, documents show.
Sarah Palin has accused Barack Obama of taking insufficient action to prevent the release of the latest batch of WikiLeaks files.
The Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Khamenei, could die within months from terminal cancer, an Iranian informant told American officials.
Angela Merkel is the only leader “man” enough to lead the European Union, according to American cables.
The United Nations has angrily hit back at American “interference” after learning that Hillary Clinton ordered what amounted to an espionage campaign on its senior officials.
Julian Assange
The WikiLeaks founder is in hiding after an international warrant was issued for his arrest on rape allegations.
Assange’s next target will be the banking sector, with one American bank in particular to suffer from his next revelations, which he compared to the Enron scandal.
Assange has accused Barack Obama of attempting to smother the freedom of the press.
A criminal investigation is underway into how the latest batch of documents was made public, and Barack Obama could take legal action against Mr Assange.

Kazakh defence minister 'was openly drunk'
01 Dec 2010
WikiLeaks: Best quotes from Duke of York's Kyrgyzstan breakfast with US ambassador
30 Nov 2010
WikiLeaks: bereaved families' fury at US 'insult' over Afghanistan
30 Nov 2010
WikiLeaks: British and US governments stupid, says Prince Andrew
30 Nov 2010
WikiLeaks: Criminal investigation underway into leak of classified diplomatic documents
30 Nov 2010
WikiLeaks: Hillary Clinton states WikiLeaks release is "an attack"
30 Nov 2010



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Julian Assange's alleged dating profile surfaces

December 14, 2010

Julian Assange allegedly used dating website OkCupid, his supposed profile now becoming fodder for media scrutiny around the world.

Intrepid internet users tracked down the disused profile that existed around 2006, revealing insightful information into Assange's personality, if it is to be believed that the information was written by Assange himself.

The WikiLeaks founder reportedly describes himself on the website: "Passionate, and often pig headed activist intellectual seeks siren for love affair, children and occasional criminal conspiracy,"

Prefacing his profile with a "warning", Assange explains: "Want a regular down to earth guy? Keep moving. I am not the droid you are looking for. Save us both while you still can"

When asserting what he likes in a woman, Assange's alleged profile states a woman should be "spirited, erotic, non-conformist. Non-conformity is not the adoption of some pre-existing alternative subculture. I seek innate perceptiveness and spunk"

"I like women from countries that have sustained political turmoil. Western culture seems to forge women who are valueless and inane. OK. Not only women!" he continues.

When describing what he is doing with his life, the profile states "Directing a consuming, dangerous human rights project", not without giving reference to his background in mathematics, neuroscience and philosophy.

According to the profile, Assange would have last used it on New Year's Eve December 2006. It states that he has never used drugs and only drinks socially, and that he spends a lot of time thinking about "Changing the world through passion, inspiration and trickery."

Ellingham Hall near Bungay, Suffolk

Pheasant dinners, port and brisk walks may be just days away for Julian Assange, whose bail address is to be Ellingham Hall. Photograph: Alban Donohoe

Julian Assange offered bail haven at former soldier's Suffolk manor


guardian.co.uk, Tuesday 14 December 2010

Maverick libertarian Vaughan Smith rescued WikiLeaks founder from jail - but then came appeal


His supporters include teenage hackers, freedom of speech activists and a motley group of celebrities. But it was the maverick British establishment that rode to the rescue of Julian Assange, offering to whisk him from dull confinement in Wandsworth jail to a large and comfy manor house in Suffolk.

For once, Assange was not the star at the afternoon bail hearing at Westminster magistrates' court. Dressed in a white shirt and blue suit, he watched the proceedings impassively. Instead the hero was Vaughan Smith, a former army officer, journalist adventurer and rightwing libertarian. For much of the past five months, until his arrest last week, Assange has been living at Smith's Frontline Club in Paddington, west London.

Standing to address district judge Howard Riddle, Geoffrey Robertson QC announced that "Captain Smith" was now ready to put Assange up at his rambling country home, Ellingham Hall, near Bungay in Suffolk – that is, should he be granted bail. The WikiLeaks saga has so far been short of jokes. But Robertson had one ready-made.

It would not be so much "house arrest as manor arrest", he quipped. Not only that, but it was inconceivable Assange would attempt to escape "since darkness descends rather early in that part of Britain". Additionally, Assange was willing to give up his Australian passport and wear an electronic tag. Finally, he wasn't likely to get very far given that "media exposure" had made him "well-known around the world", Robertson said with understatement.

Last week Assange was refused bail after he unwisely gave an Australian postal address as his place of residence. This time his legal team would allow no such mistake.

Robertson, Assange's new barrister, asked Smith to give his own assessment of WikiLeaks' controversial founder, in the light of Sweden's attempts to have him extradited on sex allegations.

"He is a very honourable person, hugely clever, self-deprecatory and warm. Not the kind of things you read about," Smith said loyally. But the clincher came when Robertson asked Smith to explain what precisely Assange's new rustic home would look like. After establishing that Smith was a former Guards officer and one-time captain of the British army's shooting team, the QC asked for details of Smith's family home and organic farm. "It has 10 bedrooms and 600 acres," Smith replied. Better still, there was even a police station. "It's a short distance on a bicycle. I can cycle it in about 15 minutes," Smith explained. "It's about a mile. Perhaps a little bit more." Smith added helpfully: "It's an environment where he would be surrounded. We have members of staff. My parents live in proximity as well. My father was a Queen's Messenger and a colonel in the Grenadier Guards."

On the second floor of the court several celebrity supporters had gathered outside next to the coffee machine and green metal benches – John Pilger, Jemima Khan, Ken Loach, Bianca Jagger, and others. But it turned out they weren't really needed – though their money was. Outside on the pavement, a polyglot scrum of journalists waited impatiently for news.

Judging from his appearance, Assange appeared to be surviving his ordeal in Wandsworth prison pretty well. From inside a glass box for the defendant, he confirmed his identity and address. He also gave a cheery thumbs-up to his team.

Robertson, however, made clear that Assange was having a miserable time of it. His conditions inside Wandsworth were nothing short of living hell, he suggested. "He can't read any newspapers other than the Daily Express. This is the kind of Victorian situation he finds himself in," Robertson lamented. He went on: "Time magazine sent him a magazine with his picture on the cover but all the person would allow him to have was the envelope!"

To no one's great surprise, the judge announced that "bail was going to be granted under certain conditions". These turned out to be not overly onerous: an electronic tag, an afternoon and night curfew and a requirement to report to Bungay police station between 6-8pm every evening. Oh, and £200,000 in cash.

Assange's lawyers asked if it might be possible to hand cheques into the court instead? The magistrate was unimpressed, insisting in these financially troubled times it had to be money up front.

Outside, the tweeted news of Assange's bail brought a loud cheer from the 150 or so people who had gathered opposite the court to cheer on their hero and share their banners and placards with the world.

One read: "Sex crimes! My arse!" Another, "That's just what we need – another innocent man in jail", and a third: "Sweden: muppets of the US." Despite the indignant slogans, the judge's verdict plainly delighted the protesters. Three young activists were so thrilled, in fact, that they broke into an impromptu chorus of We Wish You a Merry Christmas.

Soon afterwards, however, there was confusion as news filtered through that the Swedish prosecutor was to appeal against the bail decision, meaning that Assange has to remain for the time being in jail. But his lawyers appear confident he will be out in time for Christmas.

Pheasant dinners, port and brisk walks around the estate may be only a matter of days away.

If he wins his next bail hearing in the high court, Julian Assange's new home will be a historic rural estate on the borders of Norfolk and Suffolk. For more than three centuries Ellingham Hall, a sprawling and elegant Georgian manor house near the village of Bungay, has belonged to the Smith family.

Its owner today is Vaughan Smith, a friend of Assange, and a strong supporter. Smith has previously given the WikiLeaks founder a home at his Frontline club in Paddington, west London, which includes several flats.

Surrounded by 600 acres of woods and fields, the estate is the perfect retreat. It has 10 bedrooms, a large dining room with a convivial circular table, and portraits of Smith's ancestors hanging on the walls. There is a housekeeper who cooks meals. There is also a well-stocked cellar with wine and port – the decent Quinta Do Infantado.

The estate is usually home to Smith's wife and their two children.

Speaking to the Guardian before today's bail hearing, Smith made clear that Assange and his team will be expected to pay for food and accommodation. Other paying guests have included games sports enthusiasts – the hall boasts a pheasant shoot, with pheasants wandering freely over the grounds. The local Norfolk hunt sometimes clatters through the gardens.

"It's a Georgian house from the 18th century. It's been in my family as Smith for the past 225 years, but before that it belonged to the Johnsons, whom the Smiths married into.

"Some of the buildings are even older. On the walls are paintings of the people who bred me," Smith said. "My grandfather liked shooting and I'm partial to it myself."

The estate is exceptionally isolated. The nearest train station is Diss. From there it is a £27 ride in a taxi. It takes half an hour by car from the hall into Norwich, the nearest city.

The remoteness of the location is likely to afford Assange some privacy, since it is impossible to reach the manor house without trespassing on Smith's land.

According to friends, Assange shows little interest in food, and is invariably late for meals. But Ellingham Hall is also home to a large ecologically conscious organic farm. Smith looks after it himself together with two employees; the organic produce is served at his restaurant at the Frontline Club.






Wikileaks Mirrors

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Important Wikileaks Links

"Could become as important a journalistic tool as the Freedom of Information Act." - Time Magazine

WikiLeaks is a non-profit media organization dedicated to bringing important news and information to the public. We provide an innovative,

secure and anonymous way for independent sources around the world to leak information to our journalists. We publish material of ethical, political and historical significance while keeping the identity of our sources anonymous, thus providing a universal way for the revealing of suppressed and censored injustices.

WikiLeaks relies on its supporters in order to stay strong. Please keep us at the forefront of anti-censorship and support us today.

You can also read more about WikiLeaks, our mission and objectives.


Cablegate: 250,000 US Embassy Diplomatic Cables

2010-11-28

On Sunday 28th Novembre 2010, Wikileaks began publishing 251,287 leaked United States embassy cables, the largest set of confidential documents ever to be released into the public domain. The documents will give people around the world an unprecedented insight into the US Government's foreign activities.

All released leaks archived

2010-11-28

Due to recent attacks on our infrastructure, we've decided to make sure everyone can reach our content. As part of this process we're releasing archived copy of all files we ever released - that's almost 20,000 files. The archive linked here contains a torrent generated for each file and each directory.

War Diary: Iraq War Logs

2010-10-22

The 391,832 reports ('The Iraq War Logs'), document the war and occupation in Iraq, from 1st January 2004 to 31st December 2009 (except for the months of May 2004 and March 2009) as told by soldiers in the United States Army. Each is a 'SIGACT' or Significant Action in the war. They detail events as seen and heard by the US military troops on the ground in Iraq and are the first real glimpse into the secret history of the war that the United States government has been privy to throughout.

War Diary: Afghanistan War Logs

2010-07-25

From here, you can browse through all of the documents that have been released, organized by type, category, date, number of casualties, and many other properties. From any document page, clicking on the green underlined text will open a popup that links to other documents that contain those phrases, making it possible to see important search terms and connections that you might not otherwise notice.

Video: Collateral Murder

2010-04-05

WikiLeaks has released a classified US military video depicting the indiscriminate slaying of over a dozen people in the Iraqi suburb of New Baghdad -- including two Reuters news staff. Reuters has been trying to obtain the video through the Freedom of Information Act, without success since the time of the attack. The video, shot from an Apache helicopter gun-sight, clearly shows the unprovoked slaying of a wounded Reuters employee and his rescuers. Two young children involved in the rescue were also seriously wounded.

Spamhaus' False Allegations Against wikileaks.info

Published 15-Dec-2010, 8:00 AM GMT

On Tuesday, 14-Dec-2010 Spamhaus has issued a statement wherein it labels wikileaks.info as "unsafe", as they consider our hosting company as a malware facilitator:

http://www.spamhaus.org/news.lasso?article=665

We find it very disturbing that Spamhaus labels a site as dangerous without even checking if there is any malware on it. We monitor the wikileaks.info site and we can guarantee that there is no malware on it. We do not know who else is hosted with Heihachi Ltd and it is none of our business. They provide reliable hosting to us. That's it.

While we are in favour of "Blacklists", be it for mail servers or web sites, they have to be compiled with care. Just listing whole IP blocks as "bad" may be quick and easy for the blacklist editors, but will harm hosters and web site users.

Wikileaks has been pulled from big hosters like Amazon. That's why we are using a "bulletproof" hoster that does not just kick a site when it gets a letter from government or a big company. Our hoster is giving home to many political sites like castor-schottern.org and should not be blocked just because they might have hosted some malware sites.

Fortunately, more responsible blacklists, like stopbadware.org (which protects the Firefox browser, for example), don't list us. We do hope that Spamhaus hasn't issued this statement due to political pressure.

Wikileaks.info will always be safe and clean. Promised:

Google Safe Browsing Check for wikileaks.info

Update (15-Dec-2010 17:00 PM GMT): Spamhaus has updated their statement to say that they don't blacklist us.

The wikileaks.info Team


http://213.251.145.96/iraq/diarydig/

WarLogs.Wikileaks.org is a website which provides an easy way to search through the Iraq and Afghan War Logs, which were made public by Wikileaks on 22nd October 2010. The documents are a set of over 391,000 reports which

cover the war in Iraq from 2004 to 2009 and Afghanistan from 2004 to 2009.

From here, you can browse through all of the documents that have been released, organized by type, category, date, number of casualties, and many other properties. From any document page, clicking on the green underlined text will open

a popup that links to other documents that contain those phrases, making it possible to see important search terms and connections that you might not otherwise notice.

Our hope is that this tool will be helpful to reporters and researchers who are interested in learning more about the US's war in Afghanistan and making sense of this important database. If you wish to support this work, we encourage

you to make a donation to wikileaks.

Source code for this website is freely available on github – we welcome any contributions, improvements or suggestions.

On to the documents.

  • CACHE FOUND/CLEARED Other 2003-12-31 18:00:00
    AFG: Cache Found/Cleared, RC EAST, 0 casualties

    KAF-1BDE -S3 REPORTS: GERONIMO 11 SALUTE AS FOLLOWS: S - 1 CAVE, A CACHE, L - 42 SWB758 778, U UNK, T 0641, E - 1X UXO, 2000RDS 7.62MM....

  • IZ RUNS TCP BY /%%% IN ZONE %%%: NO INJURIES 2003-12-31 18:00:00
    iraq: Accident, MND-BAGHDAD, 0 casualties

    WHILE CONDUCTING A JOINT CHECKPOINT /%%% MP CO FIRED ON A VEHICLE WHEN THE DRIVER FAILED TO OBEY THE POSTED WARNINGS AND COMMANDS OF THE IPS WHO WERE MANNING THE CHECKPOINT. THE VEHICLE, A %%% SEDAN ...

  • CACHE FOUND/CLEARED Other 2003-12-31 18:00:00
    AFG: Cache Found/Cleared, RC EAST, 0 casualties

    USSF FINDS CACHE IN VILLAGE OF WALU TANGAY: USSF CONDUCTED A MEET AND GREET IN THE VILLAGE OF WALU TANGAY. USSF MEMBERS WERE APPROACHED BY A LOCAL BOY WHO SPOKE OF A CACHE IN A CAVE ON A NEARBY HILL....

  • PROPAGANDA Other 2003-12-31 18:00:00
    AFG: Propaganda, RC SOUTH, 0 casualties

    (M) NIGHT LETTERS DISTRIBUTED AROUND HAZARJUFT: THE FOLLOWING IS A TRANSLATED VERSION OF ONE LETTER: ISLAMIC IMARATS OF AFGHANISTAN. FOR THE BRAVE WARLORDS OF AFGHANISTAN, SALAM ALAIKOOM. AS YOU KNO...

  • DIRECT FIRE Other 2003-12-31 18:00:00
    AFG: Direct Fire, RC EAST, 3 casualties

    KAF-1BDE -S3 REPORTS: SUMMIT 09 B CO ELEMENT SALUTE REPORT AS FOLLOWS: S- 3-4 PAX, A- SMALL ARMS FIRE, L-IVO 42 SWB 3910 1617, U-UNK, T-0415Z, E-AK-47. 0448Z ENEMY ELEMENTS BROKEN CONTACT. 0442Z AIR Q...

  • DIRECT FIRE Other 2003-12-31 18:00:00
    AFG: Direct Fire, RC EAST, 8 casualties

    KAF-1BDE -S3: SUMMIT 6 REPORTS TIC SALUTE TO FOLLOW: S-18X ACM, A- SMALL ARMS FIRES, L-WB340120, T-1256Z. 1319Z: BDA UPDATE: REPORTING INDICATES POSSIBLY 8X SUSPECTED

  • ACM''S WERE KIA....

  • A /%%% and local car have been involved in a RTA. No any CAS were reported. 2003-12-31 18:10:00
    iraq: Accident, MND-SE, 0 casualties

    A /%%% and local car have been involved in a RTA. No any CAS were reported. Imported MND-SE Report Event ID:%%% Number of Rounds: Number of Blinds: Number inside the Wire: : : %%%: ...

  • /%%% INVOLVED IN TRAFFIC ACCIDENT: NO INJURIES 2003-12-31 18:10:00
    iraq: Accident, MND-SE, 0 casualties

    DURING A ROUTINE PATROL A /%%% GOT INTO %%% TO A CIVILIAN CAR. NO ANY CAS WERE REPORTED....

  • SAF ATTACK ON CAMP %%% GUARD TOWER IN BAGHDAD (ZONE %%%) - NO BDA 2003-12-31 18:20:00
    iraq: Direct Fire, MND-BAGHDAD, 0 casualties

    RED SEDAN WITH A WHITE TOP WAS DRIVING NORTHWEST ON ROUTE %%%, AND ENGAGED ONE OF THE TOWER GUARDS AT CAMP %%% WITH SMALL ARMS FIRE. THERE WERE NO INJURIES TO US PERSONNEL OR DAMAGE TO ANY EQUIPMENT....

  • %%% CONDUCTS RAID VIC BALAD: %%% DETAINED 2003-12-31 20:00:00
    iraq: Raid, MND-N, 0 casualties

    %%% REPORTS THAT %%% CONDUCTED A RAID ON 2X %%% VIC %%% AND %%% (SOUTH OF BALAD) AT 0200C. THE INTENDED TARGETS WERE SUSPECTED IED ATTACKERS. %%%

  • OBSERVED 4X IZ RUNNING FROM THE OBJ AND CAPTURED THE...








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