An Open Letter

OPEN LETTER

TO:
THOSE INCITING MURDER UPON JULIAN ASSANGE AND/OR MEMBERS OF HIS FAMILY.
We, among many law abiding citizens of the world deplore and condemn, as applicable, your utterances and writings calling for the extra judicial ie unlawful: kidnapping/assassination/murder/physical harm of Julian Assange, his supporters, Wikileaks workers or members of Assange's family.
We remind you of the laws in your country and others against incitement, inter alia:
Common law:

In English criminal law, incitement was an anticipatory common law offence and was the act of persuading, encouraging, instigating, pressuring, or threatening so as to cause another to commit a crime....The inciter must intend the others to engage in the behaviour constituting the offence, including any consequences which may result, and must know or believe (or possibly suspect) that those others will have the relevant mens rea."

Codified Incitement Law:

(1) Australian Commonwealth
11.4 Incitement
(1) A person who urges the commission of an offence is guilty of the offence of incitement.
(2) For the person to be guilty, the person must intend that the offence incited be committed.

(2) Canada
464. Except where otherwise expressly provided by law, the following provisions apply in respect of persons who counsel other persons to commit offences, namely,(a) every one who counsels another person to commit an indictable offence is, if the offence is not committed, guilty of an indictable offence and liable to the same punishment to which a person who attempts to commit that offence is liable; and

(3) United Kingdom
(1)A person commits an offence if—
(a)he does an act capable of encouraging or assisting the commission of an offence; and
(b)he intends to encourage or assist its commission.

(4)USA
There is no automatic 1st Amendment protection per
Brandenburg v. Ohio, 395 U.S. 444 (1969):
Freedoms of speech and press do not permit a State to forbid advocacy of the use of force or of law violation except where such advocacy is directed to inciting or producing imminent lawless action and is likely to incite or produce such action

We remind you that while such prima facie incitement by way of utterances and writings may go unpunished in your country, they will not necessarily go unpunished in others, and especially so should you have the courage of your convictions to repeat them in those other jurisdictions.

We ask you respectfully, to contemplate this writing of Mahatma Ghandi:
An error does not become truth by reason of multiplied propagation, nor does truth become error because nobody sees it. Truth stands, even if there be no public support. It is self sustained.

And that truth is that Julian Assange is no terrorist; he is not a war defined "belligerent" acting against the United States; he cannot ever be a "traitor"to the USA since by definition he is not a citizen of the United States.

And lastly as Ron Paul put it so well:
In a society where truth becomes treason, however, we are in big trouble. The truth is that our foreign spying, meddling and outright military intervention in the post-World War 2 era has made us less secure, not more, and we have lost countless lives and spent trillions of dollars for our trouble. Too often it’s the official government lies that have given us endless and illegal wars resulting in hundreds of thousands of deaths and casualties.


Yours Faithfully
Peter H Kemp
The Wikileaks Central Crew
And I believe, so many others all over the world.

Source: WL Central

        
        
        
    

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Crime warning for web protestors

Online protests could become prime targets for internet fraudsters, according to computer security experts.

The frequency of web demonstrations has risen in recent weeks, including a series of strikes in support of controversial website Wikileaks.
As more people join such protests, some believe cybercriminals will hijack popular causes for their own ends.
"It's really dangerous for people to go into this," said Feike Hacquerbord, a senior analyst at Trend Micro.
The problem is that most of the people trying to defend Wikileaks don't realise they might get into bed with criminals," he added.

Hijacking programs 

He is among those concerned that the methods used by some online campaigners leave them open to abuse - even potentially fooling mass protests into attacking the wrong target.
The worries stem from the methods used by Anonymous, the loose online collective behind the recent string of Wikileaks protests.
Their virtual demonstrations, which have so far targeted services including PayPal and Mastercard, involve a series of co-ordinated strikes known as "denial of service" attacks.

Pro-Wikileaks protetesters were defending the right
to publish 250,000 diplomatic cables

Internet scammers will notoriously hijack things on the web without an authoritative source” - Joseph Bonneau University of Cambridge

These harness a large number of computers and point them all toward a target website at the same time. If the traffic is significant enough, it can be enough to overload the victim's servers and bring down the service.

Although such attacks are illegal in many countries - including the UK - that has not prevented the tactic being used with varying results.
But it is also a method that could be exploited by criminals, allowing them to hijack protests for their own financial gain, rather than the political objectives of the demonstrators.
A particular issue could be the fact that many protesters use ready-made programs to launch their attacks.
This means they could be rewritten by fraudsters in a way that fools demonstrators into thinking they are joining a larger protest while actually sending the attack traffic to the target of cybercriminals
"I'm not sure if will happen more often in the future," said Hacquebord. "But I'm certainly concerned that there are a lot of people who can really do harm."

Net scammers
 The warnings come after spam-monitoring service Spamhaus was subjected to a distributed denial-of-service attack, with some of the traffic thought to have come from Anonymous protesters.
The episode began when Spamhaus blacklisted Wikileaks.info, an unofficial site that provided a list of other sites mirroring wikileaks content.
Spamhaus claimed the site the same internet space associated with a well-known gang of Russian cybercriminals and the site's host was a well known source of spam.
Following protests from Wikileaks.info, Spamhaus removed the site from its blacklist.
However during the wrangles, Spamhaus was subject to a DDoS attack, which it originally blamed on members of Anonymous.
The organisation's analysis now suggests the flood of data came largely from the cybercriminals associated with the spamming, with only small amounts of traffic from the Anonymous group.
"A lot of the guys doing this are 14 year-old nerds," said Jon Reid of the organisation. "They've found this new hammer and they're out smashing things."
Some experts have suggested that the impact of the Wikileaks protest itself has been overplayed.
In a blog posting last week, Craig Labovitz - the chief scientist at US-based Arbor Networks - called the strikes "unremarkable" .
But even he admitted that the nature of the attacks could escalate as they become more sophisticated and powerful.
"Internet scammers will notoriously hijack things on the web without an authoritative source," added Joseph Bonneau, a security researcher at the University of Cambridge.
"So it's not a total shock that this would happen."

Source: BBC

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Assange's accusers are WikiLeaks fans says women's Swedish lawyer Claes Borgstrom

THE two Swedish women accusing Julian Assange of sex crimes are not pawns of the CIA nor do they hunger for revenge or money - they just seek justice for a violation of their "sexual integrity," their lawyer says.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is on bail on an English country estate / AFP Source: AFP

Claes Borgstrom, a self-professed feminist who used to be Sweden's ombudsman for gender equality, told The Associated Press he finds it "very upsetting" that Assange, his lawyers and some supporters are suggesting the case is a smear campaign against WikiLeaks, the secret-spilling website Assange founded.


"He's been spreading false rumours that he knows are untrue. It's reckless against these two women," Mr Borgstrom said. "They, too, are supporters of WikiLeaks. They support its work."


Assange denies the allegations of sexual misconduct, which his lawyers say stem from a dispute over "consensual but unprotected sex." He has not been charged.

The lawyer said Assange had every right to reject the women's sex claims but says Assange is, in essence, accusing them of breaking the law by suggesting they are driven by ulterior motives.


"There is no truth to this whatsoever," he added.


British newspaper The Times recently quoted Assange as saying there is "very suggestive evidence" the two women were motivated by revenge, money and police pressure.


When the investigation started after the August incidents, Assange said he had been warned about "dirty tricks" from the Pentagon, though he later said he wasn't pointing fingers at anyone.


At the time, WikiLeaks had deeply angered US officials by publishing tens of thousands of secret US military documents on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, memos that the US said could have put the lives of informants at risk.


The silver-haired Australian met both women in connection with a lecture on August 14 in Stockholm.


One, a 31-year-old, was involved in organising the event for Sweden's left-wing Social Democratic Party and offered to host Assange at her apartment. The other, a few years younger, was in the audience.


Assange had sex with both within a week, police documents show. The women realised that when the younger woman contacted the older one seeking to get in touch with Assange.
They went to police together, not to file criminal complaint, but to seek advice, Mr Borgstrom said.


A policewoman who heard their stories decided there was reason to suspect they were victims of sex crimes and handed over the case to a prosecutor.


Lawyer Gemma Lindfield, acting for Sweden in British courts, said one of the women accused Assange of pinning her down and refusing to use a condom.


The second says Assange had sex with her without a condom while she was asleep.


The case appears anything but clear-cut. A chief prosecutor in Stockholm dropped the rape complaint shortly after the case began, and it would most likely have ended there had it not been for Mr Borgstrom.


The 66-year-old lawyer successfully appealed the decision to a more senior prosecutor who relaunched the investigation.


Two-and-half months later, when Assange had already left Sweden, the senior prosecutor got court approval for a request to interrogate Assange on suspicion of rape, sexual molestation and unlawful coercion.


Assange is now out on bail in Britain, fighting his extradition to Sweden.


Asked whose initiative it was to appeal - his or the women's - Mr Borgstrom demurred, citing client confidentiality.


However, he said the women didn't even know it was possible to appeal a prosecutor's decision until he told them.


"I had read the police reports. I had seen my clients and heard their stories," Mr Borgstrom said. "In my opinion, it was rape and attempted rape or sexual molestation."


Mr Borgstrom was appointed Sweden's ombudsman for gender equality in 2000 by the Social Democratic government.


He left the post in 2007, a year after the Social Democrats were ousted, and now runs a law firm with former Justice Minister Thomas Bodstrom.


Even in gender-conscious Sweden, Mr Borgstrom has raised eyebrows for speaking out so strongly against the male norms he says still pervade Swedish society.


He has said all men bear a collective responsibility for the fact that some men abuse women. In 2006, he even proposed that Sweden withdraw from soccer's World Cup because of an expected surge in the sex trade in host nation Germany, where prostitution is legal.


"What happens during the World Cup is that women are imported - in the full sense of the word - to meet the demands from the men going there to buy sex," he told Swedish TV at the time.


His proposal was rejected by the Swedish soccer federation and Sweden took part in the tournament as planned.


Mr Borgstrom has previously described his passion for women's rights and equality as bordering on an obsession.


"Now that I really have put on my 'gender goggles' I see everything through them," he was quoted as saying in 2004 by the tabloid Aftonbladet.


A 2009 study funded by the European Commission found Sweden had the highest rate of reported sex offences among 24 European countries - 47 per 100,000 citizens - though only 10 per cent led to convictions.


The high number of complaints doesn't necessarily mean rape is more common in Sweden but that victims are just more likely to step forward, Mr Borgstrom said.


"We have better knowledge than other countries in the field of gender equality," he said. "That also means women don't accept certain things in the same way they do in other countries."

Read More

Assange's accusers are WikiLeaks fans

THE two Swedish women accusing Julian Assange of sex crimes are not pawns of the CIA nor do they hunger for revenge or money - they just seek justice for a violation of their "sexual integrity," their lawyer says.

Claes Borgstrom, a self-professed feminist who used to be Sweden's ombudsman for gender equality, told The Associated Press he finds it "very upsetting" that Assange, his lawyers and some supporters are suggesting the case is a smear campaign against WikiLeaks, the secret-spilling website Assange founded.

"He's been spreading false rumours that he knows are untrue. It's reckless against these two women," mR Borgstrom said. "They, too, are supporters of WikiLeaks. They support its work."

Assange denies the allegations of sexual misconduct, which his lawyers say stem from a dispute over "consensual but unprotected sex." He has not been charged.

The lawyer said Assange had every right to reject the women's sex claims but says Assange is, in essence, accusing them of breaking the law by suggesting they are driven by ulterior motives.

"There is no truth to this whatsoever," he added.

British newspaper The Times recently quoted Assange as saying there is "very suggestive evidence" the two women were motivated by revenge, money and police pressure.

When the investigation started after the August incidents, Assange said he had been warned about "dirty tricks" from the Pentagon, though he later said he wasn't pointing fingers at anyone.

At the time, WikiLeaks had deeply angered US officials by publishing tens of thousands of secret US military documents on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, memos that the US said could have put the lives of informants at risk.

The silver-haired Australian met both women in connection with a lecture on August 14 in Stockholm.

One, a 31-year-old, was involved in organising the event for Sweden's left-wing Social Democratic Party and offered to host Assange at her apartment. The other, a few years younger, was in the audience.

Assange had sex with both within a week, police documents show. The women realised that when the younger woman contacted the older one seeking to get in touch with Assange. They went to police together, not to file criminal complaint, but to seek advice, Borgstrom said.

A policewoman who heard their stories decided there was reason to suspect they were victims of sex crimes and handed over the case to a prosecutor.

Lawyer Gemma Lindfield, acting for Sweden in British courts, said one of the women accused Assange of pinning her down and refusing to use a condom.
 The second says Assange had sex with her without a condom while she was asleep.

The case appears anything but clear-cut. A chief prosecutor in Stockholm dropped the rape complaint shortly after the case began, and it would most likely have ended there had it not been for Mr Borgstrom.

The 66-year-old lawyer successfully appealed the decision to a more senior prosecutor who relaunched the investigation.

Two-and-half months later, when Assange had already left Sweden, the senior prosecutor got court approval for a request to interrogate Assange on suspicion of rape, sexual molestation and unlawful coercion.

Assange is now out on bail in Britain, fighting his extradition to Sweden.

Asked whose initiative it was to appeal - his or the women's - Mr Borgstrom demurred, citing client confidentiality.

However, he said the women didn't even know it was possible to appeal a prosecutor's decision until he told them.

"I had read the police reports. I had seen my clients and heard their stories," Borgstrom said. "In my opinion, it was rape and attempted rape or sexual molestation."

Mr Borgstrom was appointed Sweden's ombudsman for gender equality in 2000 by the Social Democratic government.

He left the post in 2007, a year after the Social Democrats were ousted, and now runs a law firm with former Justice Minister Thomas Bodstrom.

Even in gender-conscious Sweden, Borgstrom has raised eyebrows for speaking out so strongly against the male norms he says still pervade Swedish society.

He has said all men bear a collective responsibility for the fact that some men abuse women. In 2006, he even proposed that Sweden withdraw from soccer's World Cup because of an expected surge in the sex trade in host nation Germany, where prostitution is legal.

"What happens during the World Cup is that women are imported - in the full sense of the word - to meet the demands from the men going there to buy sex," Borgstrom told Swedish TV at the time.

His proposal was rejected by the Swedish soccer federation and Sweden took part in the tournament as planned.

Mr Borgstrom has previously described his passion for women's rights and equality as bordering on an obsession.

"Now that I really have put on my 'gender goggles' I see everything through them," he was quoted as saying in 2004 by the tabloid Aftonbladet.

A 2009 study funded by the European Commission found Sweden had the highest rate of reported sex offences among 24 European countries - 47 per 100,000 citizens - though only 10 per cent led to convictions.

The high number of complaints doesn't necessarily mean rape is more common in Sweden but that victims are just more likely to step forward, Mr Borgstrom said.

"We have better knowledge than other countries in the field of gender equality," he said. "That also means women don't accept certain things in the same way they do in other countries."

Read More