WikiLeaks boss 'could be arrested in hours' after new warrant is issued

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 6:02 PM on 6th December 2010

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• Insulin plant in Denmark, anti-snake venom factory in Australia and undersea cable from Cornwall to New York included on secret list
• Senate minority leader: 'WikiLeaks boss is a high-tech terrorist'
• 'Mirror sites' spring up online to prevent censorship of information

Scotland Yard has received the paperwork required to arrest WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, sources said tonight.
A fresh European Arrest Warrant has been issued by the authorities in Sweden where he is wanted for questioning over claims of sexual assault.

Mark Stephens, who represents the 39-year-old Australian former computer hacker, said he would fight any move to extradite his client.

But the move means there is no longer any legal impediment to holding Mr Assange and making him appear before City of Westminster Magistrates' Court.

The latest revelations from Wikileaks whistleblower Julian Assange (left) feature a list of possible terror targets across the globe - and has been slammed by Mitch McConnell, the Senate Minority Leader

The found of whistelblowing website WikiLeaks was today branded a 'high-tech terrorist' as fury grew over the latest batch of revelations.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell claimed Julian Assange had done 'huge damage' to America and called for the authorities to take action.

It came as WikiLeaks published a classified cable which detailed hundreds of critical sites whose loss would most damage American interests.

Among those listed in the UK are satellite sites, BAE Systems plants and cable locations. But security experts condemned the revelations, saying they were a gift to terrorist organisations.

Sir Malcolm Rifkind, a former defence and foreign secretary and chairman of the Commons Intelligence and Security Committee, insisted: ‘This is further evidence they have been generally irresponsible, bordering on criminal.

'This is the kind of information terrorists are interested in knowing.’

VITAL SITES FOR THE US

  IN UK

• Telecommunications hub in Hereford
• Three facilities run by BAE systems
• Undersea cable stretching from Cornwall to New York

ALSO...

• Anti-snake venom factory in Australia
• Cobalt mine in the Congo
• Insulin plant in Denmark

Last year, U.S. embassies were ordered to update a list of critical infrastructure and key resources in their host countries whose loss would ‘critically impact the public health, economic security and/or national and homeland security of the United States’, according to the leaked cable.

It also provides details of areas where the U.S. is reliant for raw materials or specialised goods.

British sites identified in the cable include a telecommunications hub in Hereford, three facilities run by BAE Systems and one end of an undersea cable that stretches from Cornwall to New York.
Although this information is already in the public domain, Sir Malcolm said it was dangerous to have them listed as being critical to the U.S.

Other sites identified are a cobalt mine in Congo, an anti-snake venom factory in Australia and an insulin plant in Denmark.
WikiLeaks claim the document is further evidence the U.S. administration was keeping sensitive information on countries without their knowledge.

Important to U.S. security: Three BAE systems sites were in confidential documents published on WikiLeaks (file picture)

A Downing Street spokesman said this morning: 'We unequivocally condemn the unauthorised release of classified information.
'The leaks and their publication are damaging to national security in the United States, Britain and elsewhere.

'It is vital that governments are able to operate on the basis of confidentiality of information.'

 

The leaks list three UK sites owned by BAE systems.

A spokeswoman for BAE said: 'BAE Systems recognises its role as a custodian of key industrial and military assets.

'We would be concerned at any activity which compromises this.'

Attack: The latest revelations ahve also been attacked by Sir Malcolm Rifkind

The latest revelations come as the lawyer for the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange vowed to fight moves to extradite his client from the UK to Sweden.

Swedish authorities are seeking to question Mr Assange regarding sex allegations, which his lawyer Mark Stephens has denounced as a 'political stunt'.

Mr Stephens said Mr Assange would 'certainly' fight deportation on the grounds that it could lead to him being handed over to the US, where senior politicians have called for him to be executed.

He said that the WikiLeaks site - which was last week forced to move to a Swiss host after being dumped by US internet companies - had come under siege from 'a huge number of cyber-attacks'.
The organisation held further secret material which it regarded as a 'thermo-nuclear device' to be released if it needs to protect itself, he said.

Mr Assange, who is staying in Britain, has come under growing pressure from politicians in the US and around the world after his WikiLeaks site started publishing excerpts from a cache of 250,000 secret American diplomatic cables last week.

Former vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin has described him as 'an anti-American operative with blood on his hands' and called for him to be hunted down like a Taliban leader, while another senior Republican Mike Huckabee has said that 'anything less than execution is too kind a penalty' for what he has done.

Swedish prosecutors have sent an international arrest warrant to the Metropolitan Police, seeking his extradition for questioning on allegations - which he strongly denies - of rape, sexual molestation and unlawful coercion.

International police agency Interpol has issued a Red Notice urging people to contact police with information about his whereabouts.

Swedish authorities are seeking to question Mr Assange regarding sex allegations, which his lawyer Mark Stephens (pictured on the Andrew Marr show) has denounced as a 'political stunt'

But Mr Stephens said that Sweden's chief prosecutor had told Mr Assange in September that there was no case for him to answer, following complaints against him by two women, but the investigation was revived following the intervention of a Swedish politician.

He said that Swedish prosecutors knew where Mr Assange was and urged them to call him to discuss the case.

Mr Stephens told BBC1's Andrew Marr Show: 'It is quite bizarre, because the chief prosecutor in Sweden dropped the entire case against him, saying there was absolutely nothing for him to find back in September, and then a few weeks later on - after the intervention of a Swedish politician - a new prosecutor, not in Stockholm where Julian and these women had been, but in Gothenburg, began a new case which has resulted in these warrants and the Interpol Red Notice being put out.

'It does seem to be a political stunt.'

Supporters of the website and anti-censorship campaigners have created a number of 'mirror sites' in case WikiLeaks is pulled by internet service providers.

They hope to keep the information online through sheer weight of numbers.


Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1336043/WikiLeaks-reveal-list-terror-targets-Sir-Malcolm-Rifkind-slams-irresponsible-Julian-Assange.html#ixzz17MW17pST