http://www.politico.com/blogs/under-the-radar/2012/02/report-wikileaks-founder-julian-assange-indicted-in-115779.html
Report: WikiLeaks' founder Julian Assange indicted in U.S. By JOSH GERSTEIN | 2/28/12 9:22 AM EST A top official at the private research service Stratfor told colleagues via e-mail last year that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was the subject of a sealed indictment by the U.S. Government, the Sydney Morning Herald reported Tuesday. The claim that Assange faces charges in the United States came in e-mails apparently stolen from Stratfor by the hackers' group Anonymous and relayed to news organizations by Assange's pro-transparency organization WikiLeaks. "We have a sealed indictment on Assange," Stratfor vice president for intelligence Fred Burton said in a January 26, 2011, e-mail, according to the Australian newspaper. The Herald said Burton's note carried notations such as "please protect" and "not for pub[lication]" suggesting the source of the information was a US government official. A Justice Department spokeswoman and an attorney for Assange did not immediately respond to e-mails from POLITICO seeking comment on the report. The fact that U.S. prosecutors have been interested in making a case against Assange has been clear for some time, especially after a grand jury was convened in Alexandria, Va. to call witnessess who might have information about how WikiLeaks gathered U.S. government secrets. Assange's lawyers have been preparing for just such a possibility since late 2010. It's possible for a grand jury in the U.S. to return an indictment and for prosecutors to ask that it be put under seal, especially if the defendant cannot immediately be arrested or won't voluntarily appear in court. However, there are reasons to doubt that a sealed indictment exists. For one thing, military prosecutors suggested in court filings in December that Assange faced no charges in the U.S. at that time. The statements came in response to motions from Assange and WikiLeaks asking that his lawyers be guaranteed access to both open and closed proceedings in the case against Army Pfc. Bradley Manning, who faces a court martial for allegedly providing hundreds of thousands of secret military reports and diplomatic cables to WikiLeaks. In addition, the grand jury seems to have been most active in the middle of last year, which makes an indictment that would have been returned six months or so earlier unlikely but not impossible. The prospect of a U.S. indictment of Assange has caused concern among press advocates and others who believe it could set a precedent for similar prosecutions of more traditional journalists. However, U.S. officials have insisted that Assange's tactics are markedly different from those of the mainstream press. In addition, evidence emerged last year that Assange entertained a request from Manning for help breaking password locks on Army computer systems. That kind of help, if it occurred, might support the U.S. government's suggestions that Assange's tactics went beyond those of typical journalists. It's possible Stratfor's Burton caught wind of a draft indictment of Assange, rather than a sealed one. The existence of a sealed indictment would mean that the Justice Department decided to proceed with a prosecution of Assange. A draft indictment would be far less momentous, simply signaling that the prosecutors involved were trying to game out what an indictment might look like. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| Order the Adobe Coldfusion Anthology now! http://www.amazon.com/Adobe-Coldfusion-Anthology/dp/1430272155/?tag=houseoffusion Archive: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/message.cfm/messageid:347595 Subscription: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/subscribe.cfm Unsubscribe: http://www.houseoffusion.com/groups/cf-community/unsubscribe.cfm
