Analysis: Hard case for U.S. against WikiLeaks's Assange

[bemildred]

(Reuters) - U.S. authorities could face insurmountable legal hurdles if they try to bring criminal charges against elusive WikiLeaks chief Julian Assange, even if he sets foot on U.S. soil.

The Justice Department is investigating a series of leaks of hundreds of thousands of classified U.S. documents that the whistleblower website has provided to news media and made public on its own website.

But three specialists in espionage law said prosecuting someone like Assange on those charges would require evidence the defendant was not only in contact with representatives of a foreign power but also intended to provide them with secrets.

No such evidence has surfaced, or has even been alleged, in the case of WikiLeaks or Assange, an Australian-born former computer hacker who has become an international celebrity.

http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6B00F020101201

[Angry Dragon]

1. Who needs evidence??

bush and cheney never worried about that small thing

[Jefferson23]

2. I'm glad to hear this but Reuters referring to him as a celebrity is unfortunate. n/t

[bemildred]

4. I think we are going to get a full-tilt bozo media circus out of this.

And it appears to me likely that that is what Mr Assange/Wikileaks set out to do by leaking these out one by one. He is poking the bull to make it madder. If you read his writings, you can see it, the stuff about making the system less able to think. He is trying to throw sand in the machinery.

I am somewhat annoyed about his pussy-chasing in Sweden, it is Clinton-esque.

[Jefferson23]

5. Agreed, he doesn't seem to be a man without a plan. n/t

[bemildred]

6. It's an interesting situation.

It has the possibilities of offering a good look under the hood about what is and is not possible in the way of finding people that are knowledgeable and don't want to be found. There is so much prattle spread around on that subject that it will be interesting to have a real-world test.

I think it's been at least a decade since I saw something similar (hacker caught at great expense of time and effort by an academic he pissed off, working with LEO), and things have changed a lot.

[flyarm]

3. well Reuters, that would only matter if our country was a country that followed Rule of Law..

we no longer do..we are a lawless country that tortures and renditions people and uses other countries to commit some of our crimes..kinda like hitler did ..ya know............we go to war for baseless lies..and murder and kill innocent women and children and grandparents..especially children..after all Rueters..the Day before the illegal war of lies in Iraq..well over 50% of the citizens of Iraq were under the age of 15..how many of those kids do you think we murdered? Hell wwe put little children into Gitmo..

come on ..now you think we will follow laws???????????