Source: [URL]http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/12/06/australia.wikileaks/index.html?hpt=T2[/URL]
[quote]
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange would be allowed to return to his Australian homeland, and has the same protections any other Australian citizen would, the nation's attorney general said Monday.
Attorney General Robert McClelland's comments came in response to Assange's assertion last week that McClelland and Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard "have made it clear that not only is my return impossible, but that they are actively working to assist the United States government in its attacks on myself and our people.
"This brings into question what does it mean to be an Australian citizen -- does that mean anything at all?" Assange said Friday in written answers to readers' questions posted on the website of the British newspaper The Guardian.
"Mr. Assange, like every Australian citizen, has rights, and nothing is stopping him from coming home to Australia," McClelland said, according to his spokesman. Assange "is entitled to the same rights as any other Australian citizen. This includes the right to return to Australia and also to receive consular assistance while he is overseas if that is requested."
However, McClelland also said WikiLeaks' publishing of leaked documents is "irresponsible," according to the spokesman.
WikiLeaks, which facilitates the anonymous leaking of secret information, began posting the first of what it says are more than 250,000 U.S. State Department documents last week. Since then, the site has been hit with denial-of-service attacks, been kicked off servers in the United States and France, and lost a major revenue source on Friday when U.S.-based PayPal cut off its account.
Assange, 39, is wanted by Swedish authorities on unrelated allegations of sex crimes, including rape. He has denied the allegations, but his whereabouts have been undisclosed since WikiLeaks began publishing the documents last week. Investigators have focused much of their effort on finding Assange in Britain, where U.S. investigative activity is being conducted by the Defense Department, a senior law enforcement official said Friday.
Despite Assange's denial of the sex allegations, "Australian citizens may be required to respond to allegations of breaching the laws of another country and they are entitled to due process in doing so," McClelland said. He said the arrest warrant against Assange "is a matter for Swedish law enforcement authorities."
On Sunday, WikiLeaks appealed to supporters worldwide to mirror its website, saying the site "is under heavy attack. In order to make it impossible to ever fully remove WikiLeaks from the Internet, we need your help."
In a tweet sent on the microblogging site Twitter Sunday night, WikiLeaks said it had 355 mirror sites, but a link in the tweet listed 208 mirror sites.
Supporters rallied Sunday by offering their sites or posting links to other mirrors.
"All the censoring of WikiLeaks is more alarming than the actual content of the leaks," one supporter wrote in a widely distributed comment. "It only further justifies WL's actions."[/quote]Anyone else smell a trap?
Edit: Fuck my lack-of-caffeine induced typing errors.
wow this is painfully obvious
[QUOTE=ravioolz;26524913]wow this is painfully obvious[/QUOTE]
If he goes back, it's his own fault when he gets arrested.
The moment he steps off the plane they've got him
Can't shake the feeling that it's a trap, though then again, I say the same of anything that has the possibility of it.
Don't do it Julian! It's a trap!
I now start to doubt the apparent benevolence behind Senor Ecuador's invitation, as well...
Not the first time the Attorney General and the Government have disagreed on a major issue, the last time it happened, the Government was dismissed, and a Caretaker Government installed, (The Constitutional Crisis 1975)
Why would it be a trap? I thought he was already heading to Sweden for the "rape" charges. If they publicly arrest him, the whole world would see Australia as a dick, don't know what good they would get out of it.
[QUOTE=Nyaos;26524992]don't know what good they would get out of it.[/QUOTE]
We'd collectively go further up the US's asshole. Some would debate that's a good thing
Assange is stuck in a real life movie thriller.
[QUOTE=Brage Nyman;26525043]Assange is stuck in a real life movie thriller.[/QUOTE]
Yep, all we need is some exploding cars, bullet dodging, and insane martial arts battles, and we'll have a Bourne movie.
[QUOTE=faze;26524890]
Edit: Fuck my lack of caffeine [B]e[/B]nduced typing errors.[/QUOTE]
:v:
[QUOTE=lexus04;26525127]:v:[/QUOTE]
Yeah I fixed the punctuation as well, forgot hyphens where they should be.
Time to make more coffee...
it's induced man :v:
a country that censors everything will allow the biggest whistleblower to go there as a safe-haven... right.
If he does actually get arrested this whole situation will be very interesting to watch.
I can't wait until Assange's life becomes a film.
[editline]6th December 2010[/editline]
It'd be better than that Facebook crap anyway.
Assange would be safest in Switzerland.
christ id rather take my chances in best korea
Why would anyone want to go to Australia, other than to get controlled by the government?
[QUOTE=Flapadar;26525937]Why would anyone want to go to Australia, other than to get controlled by the government?[/QUOTE]
Australia has kangaroos.
If they say they won't touch him, then they do isn't that entrapment? Because that's illegal.
[QUOTE=Boeing787;26526017]If they say they won't touch him, then they do isn't that entrapment? Because that's illegal.[/QUOTE]
There are ways around it.
[QUOTE=Boeing787;26526017]If they say they won't touch him, then they do isn't that entrapment? Because that's illegal.[/QUOTE]
I thought that was only entrapment when committing a crime, not after the fact
[quote]All this censoring of Wikileaks is more alarming than the leaks themselves. It only further justifies WL's actions.[/quote]
This right here, gentlemen. This right here.
[QUOTE=Boeing787;26526017]If they say they won't touch him, then they do isn't that entrapment? Because that's illegal.[/QUOTE]
Contrapment.
a trap is something you're lured into
they are making it obvious that he wouldn't be given sanctuary for his crimes in australia. no western country does that except in special cases.
therefore it's not a trap. they just had to respond to his claims that he can't go back to australia. he made it seem as if australia didn't want him. now they're clarifying that they have nothing against him themselves.
[editline]6th December 2010[/editline]
"special cases" are ones where the person's human rights wouldn't be respected if he was handed over to some other country and he can go nowhere else. for example I doubt Australia would hand him over to the USA if he faced death penalty there.
An aged Neil Patrick Harris better play Assange should these current events ever induce a film.
if they jail him i will pay him out.
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