Interpol has issued an arrest notice for Julian Paul Assange, the founder of Wikileaks, in the wake of the latest batch of leaks of thousands of US diplomatic secrets.

The international police organisation has issued what is called a Red Notice for the arrest of the Wikileaks' founder in connection with a sex crime investigation in Sweden.

Red alert
A Red Notice is a request for the provisional arrest of a fugitive, prior to a possible extradition to the nation that issued the warrant.

Assange is wanted in connection with an on-going investigation in Stockholm into rape, coercion and molestation accusations.

Interpol sends these notices to its 188 member countries, including Britain, where Assange is rumoured to be living right now.

Sex crime accusations
You can see the extract of Assange's arrest notice on Interpol's website, which states he is wanted for "sex crimes" by the International Public Prosecution Office in Gothenburg, Sweden.
Assange has filed an appeal to the Swedish Supreme Court, claiming that the sex crime complaints are the result of a US "smear campaign" targeting Wikileaks.

Assange's lawyer said of the sex crime charges: "All of these offers [to co-operate with local authorities when Assange was in Sweden] have been flatly refused by a prosecutor who is abusing her powers by insisting that he return to Sweden at his own expense to be subjected to another media circus that she will orchestrate.

"Pursuing a warrant in this circumstance is entirely unnecessary and disproportionate."
The US government is looking at ways of arresting Assange and Wikileaks on criminal charges according to The Washington Post.

Read more: http://www.techradar.com/news/internet/ ... z16sCfbRU4

If he's innocent, I hope he wipes the floor with them, given a chance

I do feel that this and the current stream of leaks he’s publishing are too coinciding a little too nicely. Time will tell.

I'm not even gonna stay moderate on this.

The machine is moving to take this guy out using every (legal) tool at their disposal. If he wasn't so high profile, I wouldn't be surprised if they 86d him.

Innit though.
They're not even subtle any more. Although he's clearly known that he's not exactly Mr Popularity for some time. Poor guy.

It totally is. That's the alarming thing. The lack of subtlety here is astounding. They will do anything to shut him up, short (so far) of professionally wasting him. Just goes to show who's really running tings and it ain't us, the people.

is that sex crimes thing true? Im seeing a pattern where the people that know and spill too much all have sex crimes stitched? onto them? so that people are more likely to not belive anything as hes an apparent "criminal" and as people are so "bought" and gullible it works

Yep, he is cruising for 2 to the head...

Centre mass Everybody knows the double tap is for centre mass! If you're gonna shoot somebody in the head, one should suffice!

And Bratty, yeah, sex crimes do seem to be the go to smear for troublemakers. I suppose the assumption is that we, the masses, will be inclined to turn on the accused.

Well I won't. I'm in full support of the guy.

We don’t know - but the timing of the allegations leads one to believe that they are likely to be fabricated in order to sow seeds of doubt of the work he’s been doing in Wikileaks.

I am sure that there are certain movements in the shadows to silence him permanently. No doubt someone has uttered the modern equivalent of “will someone rid me of this meddlesome priest” and two knights, fresh from the crusades, are off on a mission. It starts to have rather uncomfortable historical parallels if you think of it that way.

Nothing as subtle. Sarah Palin has said he "should be taken out", and at least Republican senator has suggested he should be assassinated.

Exactly. They don't like it and they're coming for him.

As a huge fan of the West Wing, I'm delighted to discover that although he's not Press Secretary, the US Assistant Secretary of State is call PJ Crowley. How delightfully similar

For those of you interested enough to read, here's a fascinating daily press briefing transcript from yesterday where the reporters seem to be giving him a hard time over Wikileaks:

http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/dpb/2010/12/152291.htm

Quite a lot of absolute bollocks in there. This included:



So they want an aggressive media, but when they get one, they reclassify it and attempt to ignore it, whilst simultaneously starting a smear campaign and manhunt for its founder.

America, [LIFTED] yeah!

What does the Serious Organised Crime Agency have to do with what is essentially a civil case brought by Swedish prosecutors?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11911162

Well it's over a potential rape charge, so I would have thought that came into the criminal rather than civil category. My understanding from reading a couple of articles is that SOCA deal with all international arrest warrants that involve someone in the UK.

Should stress that I give no validity to this, just explaining my understanding of how things 'stand'.

After I posted I noticed the same linked article explained SOCA deals with such international warrants.

Still, to me, the whole thing stinks like a week old kipper.