"You call about Assange? This is an open line, we must be careful '
The
jousting around Julian Assange is risky: Dutch people from the Wikileaks network may also be afraid of the American investigation services. "This is a wasp's nest."
Who in the Netherlands belongs to the Julian Assange network? Among others, Arjen Kamphuis, various sources say today in unison.
The cyber expert from Amsterdam sometimes visited Assange at the embassy; the two already knew each other before the exile of the Australian hacker in the British capital. "It is not that he really did projects for Wikileaks," a friend of Kamphuis told this site earlier. "Arjen just has a large network."
Kamphuis is
still missing without a trace . After his disappearance, there was fierce speculation in the media about the relationship between Wikileaks and Kamphuis, to the frustration of his intimates. A friend even blamed the whistleblower platform for making a
'show' of its disappearance.
Disclosures
Wikileaks has been famous for ten years and is notorious for leaking millions of confidential documents, including war crimes in Iraq, highly sensitive diplomatic
correspondence ('cables') and espionage and
hacking by the CIA . The revelations caused the US time and time again to be deeply embarrassed, and so Wikileaks founder Assange turned out to be a state enemy.
The Dutch network of the Wikileaks founder seems limited. Hacker and XS4ALL co-founder Rop Gonggrijp was
closely involved in the early days of Wikileaks, but is now hard to reach. Another Dutch privacy activist once met the Australian hacker, but would rather not talk about it: "I am being phoned, but I am not going to do it."
Some fear of 'Washington' can play a role in this. Because now that the American government has requested extradition of Assange because of
hacking and conspiracy, the question is whether Assanges acquaintances and Wikileaks stakeholders should also fear legal action.
"This is really a wasp's nest," one source says. ,, It is geopolitical, there are major interests at stake, various governments are involved. Who knows, they might try to lay the entire network down. By the way, we now call with an open line, we have to be careful. "
Knoops: "political motive?"
The extradition of Assange to the United States seems to be able to continue. The British do not extradite suspects if they then risk the death penalty, but the American indictment (conspiracy and computer breach) against the Australian gives him up to five years in prison, the US Department of Justice said this afternoon.
Professor of International Law Geert-Jan Knoops points out when asked that Assanges lawyer can argue that the extradition request is 'politically motivated'."Then his defense may be that his persecution may have been motivated by political reasons, so the question is whether a fair trial will await him in the US.This is an important task for his defense. "
Cookies op AD.nl | AD.nl