Recently in Extradition Category


The Julian Assange extradition to Sweden appeal is to be read out / published / streamed live by Sky News on Wednesday morning:

Wednesday 30 May 2012
9:15am
Courtroom 1

http://www.supremecourt.gov.uk/current-cases/CCCaseDetails/case_2011_0264.html

"Whether a European Arrest Warrant ("EAW") issued by a public prosecutor is a valid Part 1 EAW issued by a "judicial authority" for the purpose and within the meaning of sections 2 and 66 of the Extradition Act 2003. "

The Assangistas do not appear to have noticed how the choice of Supreme Court Justices to hear this case, appears to be stacked against Julian Assange,
if you assume that they are not ignorant of the WikiLeaks media hype and allow this to influence them to some extent in this European Arrest Warrant case.

Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers

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"Lord Phillips is the first President of The Supreme Court, having been Senior Law Lord from 1 October 2008. He was previously the Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales."

As the President of the Supreme Court, he could decide to make the lead opiion, on the important legal point of the use or abuse of European Arrest Warrants, a system which must be reformed.

Or he could leave it to Lord Brown's last judicial opinion before retirement.

Lord Brown of Eaton-under-Heywood

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Techically he has retired from the Supreme Court on his 75th birthday on the 9th of April, but the Supreme Court has discretion to appoint recently retired Justices and he had not yet retired when the case was being considered from January onwards.

He produced the lead opinion in the Law Lords (who were re-branded as the Supreme Court) in their rejection of the Appeal by Gary McKinnon extradition to the USA case. Assange is correct to fear that he may be extradited to the USA to face simuilar computer hacking of US military computer charges or worse.

http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/ld200708/ldjudgmt/jd080730/mckinn-1.htm

He even managed to sneak in some damaging nonsense implying that the as yet unproven allegations against Gary McKinnon regarding the New Jersey naval base, were somehow akin to creating a danger to navigation i.e. like a Cornish Wrecker or someone who moves marker buoys etc.

"the equivalent domestic offences include an offence under section 12 of the Aviation and Maritime Security Act 1990 for which the maximum sentence is life imprisonment."

even though the US authorities have never alleged this and any Naval Captain should be
court martialled if he relies on unencrypted internet emails, rather than lookputs, radio, radar, sonar, charts, Global Positioning Satellite systems etc. for navigation or the safety of his ship.

Lord Phillips of Worth Matravers was content to agree with Lord Brown over the Gary McKinnon appeal rejection, so he is likely to do so again, if Lord Brownis given the job of writing the lead opinion.

The Assangista conspiracy theorists do not seem to have realised that "Lord Brown also served as President of the Security Service Tribunal from 1989 to 2000, President of the Intelligence Services Tribunal from 1995 to 2000, Intelligence Services Commissioner from 2000 to 2006"

As a Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000 (RIPA) Commissioner, his bland, uninformative Annual (censored) Reports to the Prime Minister are notable for their utter lack of any criticism of the British Intelligence Agencies whatsoever.

He utterly failed to convince anyone that the role of Intelligence Services Commissioner provided a method of "security cleared" protection for the general public against any bureaucratic excesses or malpractice by GCHQ, MI5 the Security Service or MI6 / SIS the Secret Intelligence Service

Lord Brown will be completely familiar with the "special intelligence relationship" i.e. "bend over backwards to the USA" attitude

It will be utterly astonishing if Lord Brown finds in favour of Julian Assange.

Lord Kerr of Tonaghmore

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Lord Kerr is a former Crown Prosecutor and then Chief Justice of Northern Ireland i.e. he and his family have been / still are under the threat of assasination and worse by terrorists,
Several of his colleagues will have been threatened or killed during "The Troubles".

He is likely to be very familiar with the need to protect the identities and lives of Covert Human Intelligence Sources.

He is extremely unlikely to be sympathetic to Assange's recklessness / malice in publishing the unredacted names of people mentioned in the WikiLeaks US Diplomatic Cables and the Afghan and Iraq war diaries and even the personal details of the
hated and derided, but still legal British National Party members, some of whom were then harassed.

Lord Wilson of Culworth

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A recent appointee to the Supreme Court, he "was a judge of the Family Division of the High Court. From 2005 until May 2011" presumably he will be familiar with "he said / she said" domestic arguments and alleged sexual offences between initially consenting adults.

At a guess he will be the most sympathetic to Assange's "rape trial by media", but he is unlikely to dissent from the lead opinion of his more senior colleagues.

The only thing worse for Julian Assange than a rejection of his Supreme Court Appeal, in which case he will be sent off to Sweden forthwith (assuming that the European Court of Human Rights does not allow an appeal), would be for the Supreme Court to allow his Appeal.

If Julian Assange is not to be extradited to Sweden on the dusbious "invetigation without charge" European Arrest Warrant, then he will be far more likely to be arrested and held in the United Kingdom, if the United States authorities unseal their Grand Jury Indictment of him in relation to the Bradley Manning military case, which appears to have provided WIkiLeakS/org with so much material.

Extradition from the UK to the USA requires no prima facie case, just like the European Arrest Warrant and so it is much more likely to happen from the UK than from Sweden.

About this blog

This blog here at WikiLeak.org (no "S") discusses the ethical and technical issues raised by the WikiLeakS.org project, which is trying to be a resource for whistleblower leaks, by providing "untraceable mass document leaking and analysis".

These are bold and controversial aims and claims, with both pros and cons, especially for something which crosses international boundaries and legal jurisdictions.

This blog is not part of the WikiLeakS.org project, and there really are no copies of leaked documents or files being mirrored here.

Email Contact

Please feel free to email us your views about this website or news about the issues it tries to comment on:

email: blog@WikiLeak[dot]org

Before you send an email to this address, remember that this blog is independent of the WikiLeakS.org project.

If you have confidential information that you want to share with us, please make use of our PGP public encryption key or an email account based overseas e.g. Hushmail

LeakDirectory.org

Now that the WikiLeakS.org project is defunct, so far as new whistleblower are concerned, what are the alternatives ?

The LeakDirectory.org wiki page lists links and anonymity analyses of some of the many post-wikileaks projects.

There are also links to better funded "official" whistlblowing crime or national security reporting tip off websites or mainstream media websites. These should, in theory, be even better at protecting the anonymity and security of their informants, than wikileaks, but that is not always so.

New whistleblower website operators or new potential whistleblowers should carefully evaluate the best techniques (or common mistakes) from around the world and make their personal risk assessments accordingly.

Hints and Tips for Whistleblowers and Political Dissidents

The WikiLeakS.org Submissions web page provides some methods for sending them leaked documents, with varying degrees of anonymity and security. Anybody planning to do this for real, should also read some of the other guides and advice to political activists and dissidents:

Please take the appropriate precautions if you are planning to blow the whistle on shadowy and powerful people in Government or commerce, and their dubious policies. The mainstream media and bloggers also need to take simple precautions to help preserve the anonymity of their sources e.g. see Spy Blog's Hints and Tips for Whistleblowers - or use this easier to remember link: http://ht4w.co.uk

BlogSafer - wiki with multilingual guides to anonymous blogging

Digital Security & Privacy for Human Rights Defenders manual, by Irish NGO Frontline Defenders.

Everyone’s Guide to By-Passing Internet Censorship for Citizens Worldwide (.pdf - 31 pages), by the Citizenlab at the University of Toronto.

Handbook for Bloggers and Cyber-Dissidents - March 2008 version - (2.2 Mb - 80 pages .pdf) by Reporters Without Borders

Reporters Guide to Covering the Beijing Olympics by Human Rights Watch.

A Practical Security Handbook for Activists and Campaigns (v 2.6) (.doc - 62 pages), by experienced UK direct action political activists

Anonymous Blogging with Wordpress & Tor - useful step by step guide with software configuration screenshots by Ethan Zuckerman at Global Voices Advocacy. (updated March 10th 2009 with the latest Tor / Vidalia bundle details)

WikiLeakS Links

The WikiLeakS.org Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page.

WikiLeakS Twitter feeds

The WikiLeakS.org website does not stay online all of the time, especially when there is a surge of traffic caused by mainstream media coverage of a particularly newsworthy leak.

Recently, they have been using their new Twitter feeds, to selectively publicise leaked documents to the media, and also to report on the status of routing or traffic congestion problems affecting the main website in Stockholm, Sweden.

N.B.the words "security" or "anonymity" and "Twitter" are mutually exclusive:

WikiLeakS.org Twitter feed via SSL encrypted session: https://twitter.com/wikileaks

WikiLeakS.org unencrypted Twitter feed http://twitter.com/wikileaks

Internet Censorship

OpenNet Initiative - researches and measures the extent of actual state level censorship of the internet. Features a blocked web URL checker and censorship map.

Temporary Autonomous Zone

Temporary Autonomous Zones (TAZ) by Hakim Bey (Peter Lambourn Wilson)

Cyberpunk author William Gibson

Campaign Button Links

Watching Them, Watching Us, UK Public CCTV Surveillance Regulation Campaign
UK Public CCTV Surveillance Regulation Campaign

NO2ID Campaign - cross party opposition to the NuLabour Compulsory Biometric ID Card
NO2ID Campaign - cross party opposition to the NuLabour Compulsory Biometric ID Card and National Identity Register centralised database.

Gary McKinnon is facing extradition to the USA under the controversial Extradition Act 2003, without any prima facie evidence or charges brought against him in a UK court. Try him here in the UK, under UK law.
Gary McKinnon is facing extradition to the USA under the controversial Extradition Act 2003, without any prima facie evidence or charges brought against him in a UK court. Try him here in the UK, under UK law.

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FreeFarid.com - Kafkaesque extradition of Farid Hilali under the European Arrest Warrant to Spain

Peaceful resistance to the curtailment of our rights to Free Assembly and Free Speech in the SOCPA Designated Area around Parliament Square and beyond

Parliament Protest blog - resistance to the Designated Area restricting peaceful demonstrations or lobbying in the vicinity of Parliament.

Petition to the European Commission and European Parliament against their vague Data Retention plans
Data Retention is No Solution Petition to the European Commission and European Parliament against their vague Data Retention plans.

Save Parliament: Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill (and other issues)
Save Parliament - Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill (and other issues)

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Open Rights Group

The Big Opt Out Campaign - opt out of having your NHS Care Record medical records and personal details stored insecurely on a massive national centralised database.

Tor - the onion routing network
Tor - the onion routing network - "Tor aims to defend against traffic analysis, a form of network surveillance that threatens personal anonymity and privacy, confidential business activities and relationships, and state security. Communications are bounced around a distributed network of servers called onion routers, protecting you from websites that build profiles of your interests, local eavesdroppers that read your data or learn what sites you visit, and even the onion routers themselves."

Tor - the onion routing network
Anonymous Blogging with Wordpress and Tor - useful Guide published by Global Voices Advocacy with step by step software configuration screenshots (updated March 10th 2009).

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Amnesty International's irrepressible.info campaign

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BlogSafer - wiki with multilingual guides to anonymous blogging

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NGO in a box - Security Edition privacy and security software tools

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Home Office Watch blog, "a single repository of all the shambolic errors and mistakes made by the British Home Office compiled from Parliamentary Questions, news reports, and tip-offs by the Liberal Democrat Home Affairs team."

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Reporters Without Borders - Reporters Sans Frontières - campaign for journalists 'and bloggers' freedom in repressive countries and war zones.

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Committee to Protect Bloggers - "devoted to the protection of bloggers worldwide with a focus on highlighting the plight of bloggers threatened and imprisoned by their government."

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Wikileaks.org - the controversial "uncensorable, anonymous whistleblowing" website based currently in Sweden.

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