assangewatch.blogspot.com
A federal judge will be hearing arguments Tuesday on a court order handed down in December ordering Twitter to hand over the information it has on Icelandic parliamentarian Birgitta Jonsdottir, US computer researcher Jacob Appelbaum, and Dutch volunteer for WikiLeaks Rop Gonggrijp.
The court order was unsealed February 9 to allow Twitter to notify Jonsdottir, Appelbaum, and Gonggrijp and give them the opportunity to appeal the decision.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said in a statement Monday:
"This is an outrageous attack by the Obama administration on the privacy and free speech rights of Twitter's customers -- many of them American citizens.".He also said the order was:
"more shocking, at this time, (as) it amounts to an attack on the right to freedom of association, a freedom that the people of Tunisia and Egypt, for example, spurred on by the information released by WikiLeaks, have found so valuable."WikiLeaks said Twitter is being ordered to "disclose the names, dates and locations of all persons who have used its services to receive messages from WikiLeaks or Mr Assange".
WikiLeaks described the hearing as "the first round in the US government's legal battle against Julian Assange" and said that because both WikiLeaks and Assange felt The U.S. lacked jurisdiction "over expressive activities beyond its borders," they would not be taking part in the hearing.
Even if Assange had wanted to take part in the hearing he couldn't have as he has been under house arrest and staying at a friends home in London since December.
Geoffrey Robertson, Assange's lead council in London, brought in Professor Alan Dershowitz to help fight the U.S. governments request.
WikiLeaks applauded Twitter for resisting the subpoena and said other service providers like Facebook, Yahoo and Google may have received similar subpoenas and "may already have provided information to the government".
Assange said:
"We are all asking all service providers to explain whether they, too, have been served with a similar order, and whether, they have caved into it."WikiLeaks said The US government's bid:
"to obtain vast amounts of private information (could) jeopardize and chill First Amendment rights of association, of expression, of political assembly, of speech."Assange is waiting for the verdict in his extradition hearing, which should be Feb 24. The Swedish police have not charged Assange with anything, but want him extradited to face questions about accusations of rape and sexual molestation made against him by Sofia Wilen and Anna Ardin, which he denies.
I think that the most of the Swedish people think that Assange has been crossed the allowed boundaries of the law. He said that his box of rape after the trial shall be empty. I think that he has been lied a little bit and did something in the grey zone. His lie is necessary because Sweden has terrible laws about sexual assaults for man against woman. In Sweden it’s always a he which is arrested for rape , waited sometimes a long time in jail before he go to court. The he would not get a fair trial. Hearing of rape cases are behind closed doors and they believe the woman first and there is also a political influence. Sweden makes the law for rape very complicate. If the woman go to the police than they make the arrest warrant without risk for the woman. Sweden thinks that they are one of the best guys of Europe and have a modern state with modern laws. I think that’s wrong if I look how they handle crimes of sexual assaults. On this moment with Marianne Ny as prosecuter for rape cases I think that Sweden is a kind of Saoedi Arab with as victim men. If I look to the black pages in the history of sexual crime in Sweden against women I think the government must look good to her own history of the twentieth century before she makes such inhumane strong laws against men. Sweden has a terrible sexual crime history, because in the past she has been made it for some groups of the inhabitants impossible to get children. They sterilized in the twentieth century a lot of Swedish women. This group in the North of Sweden was unwanted and must be limited. So Sweden be careful if you make and use laws against sexual assaults and suppose that you make and use the laws better than in the beginning of this century. Normal people and governments are not without any crime. What the Swedish prosecuter do with the foreigner Assange is unfair. In my opnion a rape-process with prosecuter Marianne Ny and unsympathetic woman Anna Ardin is barbarian. After Anna Ardin thought that Assange damaged the condom it’s normal in that kind of situations that she directly try to stop the sex action and ask Assange to leave her flat. She did not. Witnesses also confirm that Anna Ardin behaved like nothing had happened after the alleged rape. The witnesses it also appears as if Anna Ardin was not having any issues with Assange until she found out that Sofia Wilen had had sex with Assang . The second case with Sofia Wilen is more complicate. If she is not infected than I think compassion with Assange after a letter of regret and a financial compensation of Assange is also better than a trial.
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