A screen shot of the newly restored WikiLeaks.org site
(WEB HOST INDUSTRY REVIEW) — WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange says his organization is facing a “very aggressive” and secretive illegal investigation by US officials following last month’s release of 250,000 sensitive US diplomatic cables.
Assange was released from a UK jail cell Thursday after being granted bail, following 10 days of imprisonment.
He is staying at a friend’s country house in Suffolk, where he is preparing his legal defense against extradition to Sweden to face allegations of sexual assault.
He told reporters Friday that “certain people who are alleged to be affiliated to [WikiLeaks] have been detained, followed around, had their computers seized and so on”.
Assange added that he is “80 percent likely” that the US authorities are working on having him extradited to the States to face charges of espionage.
He said he is worried about the possibility of being extradited to the US, revealing that many senior American political figures, including senators, have been calling for his “execution, the kidnapping of [his] staff, the execution of the young soldier Bradley Manning”.
He also criticized the methods of the Swedish authorities in attempting to extradite him to Sweden, and said that the practice “needs scrutiny”.
Meanwhile, US Attorney General Eric Holder said last week that it would be extremely difficult for prosecutors to charge the hackers who have attacked the websites of companies and governments which it views as acting against WikiLeaks, including Mastercard, Visa, PayPal, PostFinance and Moneybookers.
Holder said he was “looking into” the process of going after the group of hackers, which call themselves Anonymous.
However, he said that authorities will have to locate the hackers and bring them to the United States.
To track these hackers down, US prosectors would need to obtain subpoenas for many ISP’s, then attain a search warrant to scour the hard drives.
So far, two Dutch teenagers have been arrested in connection to the DDoS attacks by Dutch authorities, while other hackers around the world are believed to be involved.
