5 October 2010

The Swedish Prosecution Authority continues its online bullying of Julian Assange, now 4 weeks since it posted unsubstantiated allegations against him. The AU Attorney General obsequiously joins SE in the US-led warmaking apologia to divert attention from their complicity in causing harm to innocents.

Wikileaks Bullied by AU Attorney General

[McClelland is the Attorney General of Australia.]

From: "Gleeson, Daniel" <Daniel.Gleeson[at]ag.gov.au>
To: "jya[at]pipeline.com" <jya[at]pipeline.com>
Date: Tue, 5 Oct 2010 19:26:58 +1100
Subject: Your Enquiry [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]

QUESTION: Wikileaks, we saw a very large dump of information in relation to the war in Afghanistan, the suggestions are in a week or two we are going to see a similarly large amount of information dealing with Iraq. Obviously this touches on Australia’s role in those countries, what is your view on what has happened, what Wikileaks is doing and has the Australian government had any role in trying to prevent the release of any of this information?

McCLELLAND: Anything that potentially risks the safety of serving forces or more than that, people who are providing tremendously valuable and courageous service to Australian forces in the intelligence space – I mean some stuff that I see is just quite remarkable, what these people are prepared to do for our country, anything that puts those people who are serving their country and protecting our security at risk is entirely reprehensible. Whether it is done for notoriety, whether it is done for commercial interest. People have to exercise responsibility. In terms of the response, if these acts amount to an offence, the people involved will almost certainly be prosecuted. Now, where the location of that offence is, is often difficult in the electronic environment, but basically it is likely to be the country in which they are based, that will take law enforcement action, and these are the things that we certainly talk to our international counterparts about the potential to enforce. But it shouldn’t come down to an issue of law enforcement, people should exercise responsibility, and appreciate that people are placing their personal safety at risk in the interests of defending their nations and promoting international security and they should respect the courage that those people have and shouldn’t risk that from the comforts of an office working in an online environment.

QUESTION: Have we shared any information with other intelligence agencies, other international partners, about Julian Assange?

McCLELLAND: It’s not the sort of thing that I would comment on, but again, we do cooperate with respect to a number of matters internationally.

__________

To: attorney[at]ag.gov.au
From: "jya[at]pipeline.com" <jya[at]pipeline.com>
Date: 29 Sep 2010 07:02 PM
Subject: Inquiry on Wikileaks Statement by the Attorney General

I have seen the news report today in The Canberra Times quoting the
Attorney General on prosecuting Wikileaks, excerpt below. Could you
provide a more complete version of the statement?

My website Cryptome.org publishes news on Wikileaks and similar
organizations.

Thank you very much,

John Young
Cryptome.org
251 WEst 89th Street
New York, NY 10024
Tel: US 212-873-8700

The Canberra Times, 30 September 2010

WikiLeaks founder warned of action

BY NINO BUCCI

30 Sep, 2010 07:59 AM

Australia may pressure Sweden to prosecute Julian Assange or others linked to his whistleblower website WikiLeaks if planned releases of military documents outlining the Iraq and Afghanistan wars pose a risk to serving forces.

Attorney-General Robert McClelland warned Mr Assange, who is an Australian citizen but runs his rogue website from Sweden, that he could not ''from the comforts of his office'' release sensitive information that endangered people on the front line.