WikiLeaks founder warned of smear campaign

The founder of WikiLeaks, accused of molestation in Sweden, said Australian intelligence had warned him of plans to discredit the whistle-blower website as it prepares to release more secret US files on the war in Afghanistan.
Swedish authorities issued an arrest warrant for Australian Julian Assange on suspicion of rape but dropped the charge abruptly on Saturday. Police are still investigating an accusation of molestation in a separate case.
“We were warned on the 11th by Australian intelligence that we would expect this sort of thing. They had some concerns that we would have something like that,” Assange told Al Jazeera television in an interview.
“Now, we have no direct evidence at this stage that this is an intelligence operation, or has been influenced by an intelligence operation, but certainly the surrounding context is disturbing.”

Assange was warned to expect a smear campaign to derail WikiLeaks’ plan to release more Afghan war material.





WikiLeaks last month published more than 70,000 secret military files on Afghanistan in what US officials have called one of the biggest security breaches in US military history.

The Pentagon was not immediately available for comment.

Assange told Al Jazeera the accusations against him were not credible and he expected all charges in Sweden to be dropped today. His lawyers were trying to arrange a meeting with the Swedish prosecutor’s office, he said.

“They found the other claim not to be credible, and they are investigating this one. I assume they will also find it to not be credible,” he said.

Assange has been spending an increasing amount of time in Sweden, which has some of the world’s toughest laws protecting journalists’ sources. WikiLeaks keeps many of its web servers there.

He was in Sweden last weekend to defend his intent to publish more files, including some 15,000 detailing the war in Afghanistan. Local media say he is still in the country, staying with a friend.

Assange said the allegations would not stop WikiLeaks’ work.

“Within the next two to four weeks,” he said, when asked about the release of other Pentagon files held back last month. “There’s very significant material in there.”

Assange recently signed a contract with the Swedish tabloid Aftonbladet, which could help give him protection as a journalist under Swedish law.

The Swedish Prosecution Authority said on its website yesterday that the investigation into the allegation of molestation would continue this week but provided no further details.

It said Chief Prosecutor Eva Finne dropped the rape charge because “the basis for the decision which Eva Finne took on Saturday was more comprehensive than what the duty prosecutor had access to on Friday night.”

WikiLeaks promotes the leaking of information to fight government and corporate corruption. Earlier this year, it leaked a classified video showing a 2007 helicopter attack that killed a dozen people in Iraq, including two Reuters journalists

Pentagon's warning to defiant WikiLeaks over new release of secret Afghan documents

'Irresponsible': Julian Assange, whose WikiLeaks website is preparing to release a further 15,000 sensitive files on the U.S. campaign in Afghanistan

The next leak of secret Afghan war documents being planned by the WikiLeaks website will be even more damaging than thousands already published, the Pentagon has warned.

The U.S. military believes it has identified the additional 15,000 classified files that WikiLeaks has vowed to release, said Pentagon press secretary Geoff Morrell.

He would not identify the documents but stressed their exposure would be even more damaging to U.S. security and the war effort than the initial release of 76,000 war files.





Danger: Military chiefs warn Coalition troops, such as these British soldiers patrol in Kabul, could be at risk because of the leaks

Last month, WikiLeaks was accused of endangering the lives of soldiers and informants in the field after it published online the majority of an archive of 90,000 classified US military reports covering the war in Afghanistan from 2004 to 2010.

The extraordinary disclosure, which prompted a witch-hunt to find the insider who leaked the files, was claimed by some to expose human rights abuses across the Nato-led campaign.

The Pentagon demanded that WikiLeaks refrain from publishing any more secret data.

But WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, speaking via videolink to London's Frontline Club, said he had no intention of withholding the sensitive documents in his possession.

He gave no specific time frame for their release, but said his organisation was about halfway through those 15,000 or so secret files previously held back from publication.

'We're about 7,000 reports in,' he said, adding that he would definitely publish them.

There was no indication as to whether he would give the documents to The New York Times, The Guardian, and Der Spiegel - as he did before - or simply publish them on his website.

Assange is under pressure from U.S. authorities who have thrown the resources of the military and the FBI into investigating the source of his scoop.
The Pentagon has a task force of about 100 people reading the leaked documents to assess the damage done and working, for instance, to alert Afghans who might be identified by name and now could be in danger.

Other governments have also reportedly been urged to look into Assange and his international network of activists, but it is not clear how aggressive the U.S. has been in pursuing Assange.

Reporters Without Borders tonight criticised the planned leak of more documents, saying WikiLeaks was showing 'incredible irresponsibility'.

The international media watchdog said that while the whistleblower group had often played a useful role, revealing the identity of Afghan informants 'is highly dangerous'.

Assange acknowledged that some of the criticisms levelled at his group were legitimate.

But he also said many were parroting the Pentagon's attacks instead of focusing on the content of the reports themselves.

U.S. lawmaker caught looking at porn on Senate floor

Busted: Senator Mike Bennett looks at his computer screen - on which there is an image of topless women - while on the Senate floor during the debate of an abortion bill

'I was bored': Mike Bennett (file photo) claimed the image was in an email that he unwittingly opened from a colleague

In his flimsy defence, he was bored.

Unfortunately for Florida Senator Mike Bennett, that's just not a good enough reason to be looking at pictures of topless women while on the Senate floor.

Especially not while using his state-issued computer.

And especially not while a colleague is arguing that the law currently being debated is 'disrespectful towards women'.



Even if you do get caught in such a situation, you really shouldn't threaten the reporter who ran the story - trust us, it is just going to make matters worse.
But all these factors have collided in a perfect storm of scandal for the Republican lawmaker.

Sunshine State News reporter Lance Wright spotted video footage of the senator looking at the image of topless women on Thursday.

The footage shows the senator tilting his screen forward before closing down the image, tilting his screen back again.

Just to add to the poignancy of the moment, in the background Senator Dan Gelber's voice can be heard debating a controversial abortion bill.

'I'm against this bill,' Mr Gelber can be heard saying, 'because it disrespects too many women in the state of Florida.'

Indeed.

Later, Mr Bennett is also filmed watching what appears to be YouTube footage of a dog.
When approached by the reporter, Mr Bennett said he was sent the pornographic image in an email from a woman 'who happens to be a former court administrator'.

'I was just sitting there, bored as they were debating the abortion bill,' Mr Bennett said.

'I opened it up and said holy s***! What's on my screen? and clicked away from it right away,' he told the Sunshine State News.

A Senate spokesman said Mr Bennett had thought the email was relating to the abortion bill.

It is unclear if he thought the video of the dog was also in relation to the bill.

He refused to show the Sunshine State News the original email on his computer after consulting with the Senate's top lawyer.

And when asked if he would ever watch porn on the Senate floor, he replied: 'You'd have to be insane to do that. It all goes through a server. I don't think anybody would be doing that.'

In an email to the Sunshine State News he wrote: 'Last Friday, I took a moment to check my personal email account during a quiet minute on the Senate floor. I received several emails from a former city colleague and life-long friend.

'I had no prior knowledge as to what the emails would contain and when the contents of one was discovered to be less than appropriate, it was promptly closed.

'I cannot control what individuals may send me and am disappointed that at a time when there are major issues impacting Florida, an insignificant issue such as this receives any attention.'

Sunshine State News columnist Nancy Smith wrote in response: 'I would like to have asked, if the ultrasound issue under discussion on the Senate floor during the bikini-babe download wasn't a significant enough issue to receive his attention, what was?'

When the Sunshine State News published the story, Mr Bennett was reportedly furious.

'He telephoned [reporter] Lane Wright in a rage, promising to make sure he never works in the Capitol again,' Ms Smith wrote.

Mr Bennett is due to announce that he will be running for Congress in two weeks.

Debbie Rowe Denies 'Selling' Jackson Kids, Says 'Hell No' to Taking Custody

Debbie Rowe tries to fend off photographers over the weekend in Palmdale, Calif. At right, Michael Jackson's children at the Staples Center tribute last week.

Michael Jackson brothers and family carrying his coffen- Staples Centre.


Micheal Chidrens - , Paris , prince and blanket



Fans giving tribute to Michael Jackson - King oF Pop


Michael Jackson's ex-wife Debbie Rowe said "hell no" when discussing whether she wanted custody of her two kids, according to a series of bombshell e-mails made public this afternoon.

Rebecca White, a close friend to the woman, revealed to the syndicated TV show "Extra" several email exchanges and text messages she received from Rowe regarding the custody of Jackson's kids — Michael Jr. 12, and Paris, 11 — just days after the King of Pop's death.

"My lawyer is telling me I have to take some responsibility about the welfare of the children," Rowe wrote in a July 5 email to White. "Do I want the kids? Hell no. Does it look good for me to ask for them? Absolutely. I don't want to look like the woman who gave away her kids and just forgot about them."

"In one text message [Rowe], says, 'Just wait until [July] the 14th. Everything will be done after the 14th.' There's definitely going to be a secret deal. There's definitely going to be a settlement that's going to come out of this," said White.

The Post reported exclusively today that Rowe had cut a sickening $4 million deal to dump the kids. Rowe squeezed the money from her former mother-in-law, 79-year-old Katherine Jackson, in exchange for giving up her custodial rights, sources said.

A report in the New York Post that Rowe had agreed to "sell" her two kids for $4 million, meanwhile, was blasted as "unequivocally false" by Rowe's lawyer.

"No determination has been reached concerning custody or visitation, and Ms. Rowe has not accepted - and will not accept - any additional financial consideration," beyond the spousal support deal she signed with Michael Jackson, lawyer Eric George said, demanding a retraction.

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Jackson family order new autopsy, anger mounts

REbbi jackson one of the sister of Michael jackson.









The family of Michael Jackson ordered a second autopsy of the tragic pop icon yesterday as associates told of mounting anger over “unanswered questions” surrounding the superstar’s death.

Los Angeles police yesterday conducted a second interview with doctor Conrad Murray, the only person with him when he collapsed. A spokeswoman for the cardiologist said he “clarified some inconsistencies” over the death.

“Investigators say the doctor is in no way a suspect and remains a witness to this tragedy.” Frustrated by the lack of hard information, the family requested a second autopsy on Jackson’s body which was being kept at an undisclosed location, officials and local media reports said.


Late yesterday, The Los Angeles Times reported the autopsy had been completed but there was no word on the findings.
“We don’t like what’s going on,” family patriarch Joe Jackson told People magazine. The Jacksons later issued a statement to fans describing the death as

“one of the darkest moments of our lives.” The Los Angeles Coroner’s office said Friday a preliminary autopsy on Jackson was inconclusive and a final cause of death would not be known until exhaustive toxicology tests are completed in “six to eight weeks.” According to The Times, which cites Pennsylvania forensic pathologist Cyril Wecht, the coroner’s office probably kept Jackson’s brain even after his body had been released to the family in order to conduct a neuropathology test.

This test could reveal whether the singer’s brain had been damaged by drug abuse and whether he had suffered overdoses in the past, the paper said.

Joe Jackson separately told Fox News that Michael Jackson’s three children — whom the pop star fiercely protected — were in “fantastic” spirits at the musical clan’s compound