Assange arrest leads to cyber retaliation
The Swedish prosecution authority, whose arrest order for Assange over accusations of sexual offences led a British court to remand the 39-year-old WikiLeaks website founder in custody, said it had reported the online attack to police.
“Of course, it’s easy to think it has a connection with WikiLeaks but we can’t confirm that,” prosecution authority web editor Fredrik Berg said.
Assange supporters also went for the corporate website of credit card firm MasterCard in apparent retaliation for its blocking of donations to the WikiLeaks website.
“We are glad to tell you that www.mastercard.com is down and it’s confirmed!” said an entry on the Twitter feed of a group calling itself AnonOps, which says it fights against censorship and “copywrong”.
“MasterCard is experiencing heavy traffic on its external corporate website — MasterCard.com — but this remains accessible,” MasterCard said in a statement, adding consumer card transactions were not affected.
Assange is in jail and will appear for a hearing on December 14.
The website founder, who has lived periodically in Sweden, was accused this year of sexual misconduct by two female Swedish WikiLeaks volunteers. The pair’s lawyer said their claims were not a politically motivated plot against Assange.
“It has nothing to do with WikiLeaks or the CIA,” said lawyer Claes Borgstrom, whose website also came under cyber attack, according to officials.
Assange has angered US authorities and triggered headlines worldwide by publishing the secret cables.
Australian Foreign Minister Kevin Rudd said the people who originally leaked the documents, not Assange, were legally liable and the leaks raised questions over the “adequacy” of US security.
“Mr Assange is not himself responsible for the unauthorised release of 250,000 documents from the US diplomatic communications network.
“The Americans are responsible for that,” Rudd, who had been described in one leaked US cable as a “control freak”, said.
WikiLeaks vowed it would continue making public details of the confidential US cables. Only a fraction of them have been published so far.
Assange has become the public face of WikiLeaks, hailed by supporters including campaigning Australian journalist John Pilger and British film maker Ken Loach as a defender of free speech, but he is now battling to clear his name.
Meanwhile, Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi threatened to cut trade with Britain and warned of “enormous repercussions” if the Lockerbie bomber died in jail, Britain’s Guardian newspaper said yesterday, citing US diplomatic cables obtained by WikiLeaks.
Abdel Basset al-Megrahi, jailed for life for his part in blowing up Pan Am Flight 103 over Scotland in 1988, was freed by Scottish authorities in August 2009 on compassionate grounds, as he had prostate cancer and was thought to have just months to live.
The release fuelled anger in the United States, because 189 of the 270 victims were American, and the fact he remains alive today has stirred suspicion over the reason for his release.
“The Libyans have told HMG (Her Majesty’s Government) flat out that there will be ‘enormous repercussions’ for the UK-Libya bilateral relationship if al-Megrahi’s early release is not handled properly,” US diplomat Richard LeBaron wrote in a cable to Washington in October 2008.
Libya “convinced UK embassy officers that the consequences if Megrahi were to die in prison ... would be harsh, immediate and not easily remedied,” the US ambassador to Libya was quoted as saying in another cable in January 2009.
Libyan officials had implied the welfare of British diplomats and citizens in Libya would be at risk. “The regime remains essentially thuggish in its approach,” said Gene Cretz.
Britain has always conceded that its interests would be damaged if al-Megrahi died in a Scottish prison.
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