Technology Slice Blog

Julian Assange Book Deal - Assange has announced that he would use the profits for legal costs, the Guardian reported on Sunday. He is currently fighting an extradition request to Sweden after two women accused him of sexual misconduct, charges that he denies. An extradition hearing to Sweden is scheduled for February 6th to 7th, the report said. He told the Sunday Times that he was forced to enter the deals for an autobiography due to the financial difficulties he and the site have encountered. Julian Assange Book Deal "I don't want to write this book, but I have to. I have already spent £200,000 for legal costs and I need to defend myself and to keep WikiLeaks afloat," he told the Sunday Times. Assange has reportedly inked a $800,000 deal with American publisher Alfred A. Knopf, while a British deal with Canongate is reportedly worth £325,000. According to Assange, legal costs for the whistleblowing website and his own defence have reached £500,000. In addi...

Julian Assange Gets Bail - A London court granted Julian Assange bail Thursday and he walked out of jail a free man. For now. Assange is still under house arrest and faces an extradition hearing in Janurary. Our correspondent explains what's next for Assange and any U.S. charges against him. Julian Assange walked out of jail on Thursday, his first freedom in nine days. "Well it's great to smell the fresh air of London again," said Assange. Assange turned himself in on December 7 after an international warrant was issued for his arrest. Swedish authorities want to question him about allegations of rape. "I hope to continue my work and continue to protest my innocence in this matter and to reveal, as we get it, which we have not yet, the evidence from these allegations," he said. Assange is free after he posted more than $300,000 in cash. He must wear a monitoring device and check in with police daily. Julian Assange Gets Bail

Julian Assange Online Dating Profile - JULIAN Assange's weapon of choice - the internet - may have just been turned against him. A dating profile fitting the description of the notoriously private Wikileaks whistleblower surfaced today, revealing a man who confesses to being “87% slut” with an appetite for “spirited erotic non-conformist” women. The apparent insight into the Australian computer whiz’s preferences comes as Assange is preparing to face a high stakes extradition hearing over allegations of sexual assault against two Swedish women. Assange denies all claims. The profile, on OkCupid.com, is not under Assange’s name, and has not been confirmed as belonging to him, though photographs posted on the webpage bear an uncanny resemblance. Julian Assange Online Dating Profile The author of the page, going by the name of Harry Harrison, declares: “Passionate, and often pig headed activist intellectual seeks siren for love affair, children and occasional criminal consp...

President Lula Defends Julian Assange - Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has criticised the arrest of the Wikileaks founder Julian Assange as "an attack on freedom of expression". President Lula said the internet publication of secret US cables had "exposed a diplomacy that appeared untouchable". He also criticised other governments for failing to condemn the arrest. Mr Assange was detained in the UK on Tuesday over alleged sex offences in Sweden. "They have arrested him and I don't hear so much as a single protest for freedom of expression", President Lula said at a public event in Brasilia. President Lula Defends Julian Assange The Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin has also criticised Mr Assange's arrest, saying it contradicted the West's avowed democratic values. "Why is Mr Assange in prison?" Mr Putin asked at a press conference. "Is this democracy?" US authorities have made it clear the...

Julian Assange Arrested - WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange surrendered to London police on Tuesday as part of a Swedish sex-crimes investigation, the latest blow to an organization that faces legal, financial and technological challenges after releasing hundreds of secret U.S. diplomatic cables. Assange was due at Westminster Magistrate's Court later Tuesday. WikiLeaks' disclosure of key sites that the U.S. has deemed critical to national security marks an increasingly dangerous step by the online organization, whose actions are at the center of a broad criminal investigation, U.S. officials and some security analysts said Monday. The list of power suppliers, dams, chemical manufacturers, transportation systems and communication grids spans the globe from Africa to Mexico and is part of a cache of classified State Department documents released by WikiLeaks. "It is a map for terrorists, plain and simple," said Tom Kean, a co-chairman of the 9/11 Commission. ...

Julian Assange Questioned By British Police - Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, is expected to appear in a UK court tomorrow after his lawyers said he would meet police to discuss a European extradition warrant from Sweden relating to alleged sexual assaults. As the legal net continued to close around the whistleblowers' website and US attorney general, Eric Holder, said he had authorised "a number of things to be done" to combat the group, Assange appeared to be reconciling himself to a lengthy personal court battle to avoid extradition. Jennifer Robinson, a solicitor with Finers Stephens Innocent which represents the Australian freedom of information campaigner, told the Guardian: "We have a received an arrest warrant [related to claims in Sweden]. We are negotiating a meeting with police." Another lawyer representing Assange, Mark Stephens, added: "He has not been charged with anything. We are in the process of making arrangements to meet ...

Julian Assange Is A Wanted Man - Regardless of your view of the WikiLeaks data dumps, the latest tranche raises a new question: what exactly does Julian Assange want? The previous two releases of data on Afghanistan and Iraq fitted the profile of a man holding the US to account for the unexposed consequences of its actions in war. The indiscriminate release of more than 250,000 diplomatic cables interrupts that narrative. It has no target, and no theme. The cables themselves are a mixture of serious reports and needlessly catty gossip. Where is the public interest in reporting that Kim Jong-Il is looking "flabby"? Jon Stewart went as far as to posit that the cables had been penned by celebrity gossip-monger Perez Hilton. Suggestions, however, that Assange did this without clear purpose are foolish. The man is now on Interpol's most wanted list, under arrest notice for alleged sexual offences, and is facing official calls for extradition, with unofficial calls for m...

Julian Assange Under Attack - The chief Wikileaker who the U.S. promised today to prosecute said his Internet site was just beginning to unload its diplomatic secrets and said the documents will skewer "lying, corrupt and murderous leadership from Bahrain to Brazil." Julian Assange, the Australian who heads the secret-sharing Web site, told ABC News today he believes his safety and freedom are in danger. He responded to questions by email from a clandestine hideout. He was undaunted by vows from the U.S. and Australia to prosecute him and said the forthcoming diplomatic cables are aimed at "lying, corrupt and murderous leadership from Bahrain to Brazil." "We're only one thousandth of the way in and look at what has so far being revealed. There will be many more," he wrote defiantly. Assange also dismissed a warning today by Secretary of State HillaryClinton who said the dump of secret documents "puts peoples lives in danger," particu...