Julian Assange, WikiLeaks Founder, Investigated By Australian Police

CANBERRA, Australia — Police were investigating whether any Australian law was broken by the latest leaking of confidential documents by online whistle-blower WikiLeaks, the attorney-general said Monday.

Robert McClelland said he was not aware of a request from the United States to cancel WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's Australian passport. A range of options were under consideration by Australian government agencies in response to the latest disclosure of classified U.S. material, he said.

McClelland told reporters there are "potentially a number of criminal laws" that could have been breached.

Defense Minister Stephen Smith said later that a cross-government committee was studying the documents to ascertain what damage could be done by their release.

"We need to take it ... step by step, but our starting and endpoint is essentially protecting Australia's national interest," Smith said in an interview on Sky News television. "This is an act which again one has no option but to absolutely condemn it. It potentially puts national security interests and it puts the safety and welfare of individuals at stake."

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard last week condemned the planned leaks as reckless and potentially harmful to national security interests.

Smith said the U.S. ambassador had told the Australian government and relevant ministers about the leaks ahead of their release.

Comments

[FACTISFACT]

02:23 PM on 11/30/2010

I normally do not comment on fake made up stories but I had to.

Because of the fact that through such false publicity or made up stories now to divert the attention of the world community from the intended desire to reveal facts of Iraq war massacre of innocent human lives. Wikileaks left the scope to ventilate the unrevealed truth promised to reveal by Assang is a big question?

Is it because revelation of that could entangle the ex US President , ex Prime Minister of UK and their accomplices I could project what people at the top of the sovereign countries how they are conducting themselves to butcher humankind instead of looking after their welfare.. I would sum up their behavioral pattern is worse than any ferocious animal least to mention of rationality.

Wikileaks is clever but there is no reason to think all people as fools not to understand why is all these done. To all these fake exercise, the beneficiary of all the credit is Israel's alone.

[Durango]

01:44 PM on 11/30/2010

I think this brings up a very interesting Constitutional issue. (That we DON'T want decided by the Roberts Court.

Does a non citizen working through an internet site outside the boundaries and jurisdiction of the United States have First Amendment Rights?

This is NOT like the Guantanamo detainees, who were obviously on the territory and jurisdiction of the USA.

But if Assange were arrested by the USA and tried in American courts could he assert the First Amendment as a defense?

I think the answer may very well be: NO.

[hulagirrrl]

03:13 PM on 11/30/2010

I read that they are trying to make Assange into a fugitive terrorist. So, if he will get the "terror" status, then who knows what they can do? I just hope that the world keeps watching.

[marignymitch]

01:42 PM on 11/30/2010

Beware. The national security state is not amused. Their mistakes must be kept under wrap.

[Rock Brasiliano]

11:59 AM on 11/30/2010

You have to ask yourself whether this indiscriminate dumping of documents will make the world a better place. The result will more, not less secrecy, more institutional paranoia.

[Gracie fr]

11:29 AM on 11/30/2010

...Julian Assange may be brave or reckless or naive. Whatever he may be, there will certainly be a concerted effort to dicredit the man by any means possible.

[Countess]

10:17 AM on 11/30/2010

The CIA and the overseas empire club are out to get this man and they have the means to do it.

[Rock Brasiliano]

12:02 PM on 11/30/2010

Actually it's those feminists in Stockholm (the ones who pressed the rape charges) who are the avenging angels.

[Durango]

01:45 PM on 11/30/2010

You realize of course, that if the CIA had anything near the power you assume they have:

None of this would ever have happened.

[AZreb]

08:35 AM on 11/30/2010

The tentacles of the CIA are long - this is the "transparency" we were promised by this administration but are getting through Wikileaks. Seems like there is a new push to get Assange befor he blows the whistle on the financial institutions that destroyed the economy.

[GraphicMatt]

11:00 AM on 11/30/2010

Perhaps that is where he should have started...I'd rather he had done that than leaking State Department cables.

[siafu]

12:09 PM on 11/30/2010

They can only leak what they actually have. Their source was privy to these cables, but not everything we would like to see.

[Durango]

01:47 PM on 11/30/2010

Where exactly do you see the CIA in this?

The cables were State Department.

And any influence with the Australian Government would come from normal channels, ie: State Department, the Embassy and Ambassador and the FBI etc,etc.

Why would the CIA be involved?

Nothing secret about anything in this story.

[Whinger]

03:56 AM on 11/30/2010

Sounds like the lynch mod is gathering on the street corner, the kangaroo court is in session!

[JHKH]

12:07 AM on 11/30/2010

Persecution? Are they going to stitch Assange up on fabricated charges? I will be very skeptical of any criminal indictments given the prominence of WikiLeaks and that governments must be desperate to stop these revelations.

[asheiko]

11:34 PM on 11/29/2010

Seriously. Now we are going to have to worry about Governments around the Western world violating our fundamental rights to free speech? How can the USA and other countries think they can prosecute Assange for anything? He isn't an American citizen and, frankly, I think it's our right to know what goes on behind closed doors of the government. Its pretty obvious to me that these countries involved have things to hid and the reason is not for the public safety it's only to save their behinds. I love how everytime you read a quote from some government official they say that it " It potentially puts national security interests and it puts the safety and welfare of individuals at stake" Potentially? Well the Wars in Iraq and Afghanistan MOST DEFINITELY put the safety and welfare of individuals at stake, oh I mean in life or death. Ridiculous what is happening around the world in respect to freedoms. Americans are going to just let these freedoms slip by and not even blink at eye.

[mcdaidusa]

09:46 AM on 11/30/2010

x2

[johnrandall]

10:30 AM on 11/30/2010

x3 Good on ya. F&F

[hollace]

10:51 PM on 11/29/2010

If the police don't know then how could the onus be on Assange to know. ?

[Stirner]

06:12 PM on 11/29/2010

It could be a very big mistake to make Assange into a martyr by accusing him of some "crime" and then putting him in prison. It won't work in Australia. South Africa tried it, India tried it, the Soviets tried it, the Czar tried it -- no, it won't work.

[SusanElizabeth1949]

05:41 PM on 11/29/2010

If he has committed a crime, the Australian Government will cancel his passport and ask InterPol for help arresting him. Without a passport it is difficult to go 'ghost', and the longer he stays in one country the easier it will be to find him.

[Edward Standley]

04:50 PM on 11/29/2010

I'm just really really curious about what "insurance" he has stashed. Also curious about who he has told just what that "insurance" is.

[eric14]

05:40 PM on 11/29/2010

Write that movie.

[vkmo]

04:35 PM on 11/29/2010

Somebody should leak the document on where Wiki Leaks founder Julian Assange, who is also an accused rapist, is staying so he can be grabbed and brought back. Wiki leaks can cause tragic loss of lives, careers and do damage to US foreign policy. The founder JA and his crew deserves to be hung publicly.

[eric14]

05:42 PM on 11/29/2010

That would guarantee Wikileaks causing deaths which is what you seek to avoid. Oh, I get it, Wikileaks folk are different. That's called DEHUMANIZATION.

[PHILLIP A SMITH]

05:43 PM on 11/29/2010

You mean arrested by the local authorities and extradited to the Swedish authorities who are the only juristiction that have any pending charges against him - dont you?