Wikileaks' Julian Assange to fight Swedish allegations (legal moves against him "political stunt")

[Turborama]

Source: BBC

December 05 2010 Last updated at 13:12 GMT

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange will fight attempts to take him to Sweden to face rape allegations, his lawyer said.

Mark Stephens told the BBC that legal moves against his client seem(ed) to be a "political stunt" by a state that allowed US rendition flights.

He warned Wikileaks could release more secrets in a bid to protect itself.

=snip=

Mr Stephens warned that the organisation held further secret material which it regarded as a "thermo-nuclear device" to be released if it needs to protect itself.

Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11921080

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Short clip of the interview at the link.

[Poll_Blind]

1. This is the wildest cyberpunk novel I've ever read.

:popcorn:

PB

[Turborama]

2. I was never into cyberpunk until people have started linking this to it

Time for some catching up, methinks. Got any recommendations?

[JackInGreen]

5. Here

Anything by William Gibson, to start.
Try Neuromancer and Count Zero, then Virtual Light, also the short story compilation 'Burning Chrome'.

[Turborama]

9. Thanks for the tips

I'll check them out on the online book store that shall not be named.

[Hissyspit]

13. Gibson coined the term "cyberspace."

[gateley]

11. Thanks - I'm interested, too! nt

[gateley]

12. I loved Snow Crash -- does that qualify?

[Poll_Blind]

6. I dunno if much of it is being written anymore. Especially now that so...

...many elements of it have become part of our daily lives.

Multinational corporations, private armies, high-technology augmenting our daily lives, scandalous powergrabs while the world bumps and grinds to a techno beat. IMO, Cyberpunk wasn't so much a genre as an eerily-close prediction of a speculative future seen only dimly in the late 80's and early 90's. A sort of merging of the dystopian reality of Blade Runner with the glittering high-tech which was just becoming available at the time.

If you search online I'm sure you can find better recommendations than I could give- save one: True Names by Vernor Vinge. You can apparently read the whole short story here. This story was written in...1981. As the Wiki entry for the story explains, this was a seminal work in the cyberpunk genre. Vinge predicted a cyberspace in 1981 which you'll find familiar, though some elements of it still have yet to be realized.

But like all speculative fiction, they can't predict everything.

Who would have imagined in a cyberpunk world of orbital cannons and nanobot armies that in the winter of 2010 a new weapon would eclipse them all? A bomb not constructed out of steel and explosives, or a nuclear bomb with a radioactive fissile core- but a weightless massless weapon whose explosive core only contained information, jacketed inside a cryptographic shell and delivered to hundreds of thousands of people who would keep it safe and unlock it- and start the unstoppable chain reaction- spreading at the speed of communication- should the threat become to0 great.

If the password is known, from Alberta to Zimbabwe the shell of cryptography will fall exposing humans to the information. Information is radiation and it will excite and perturb the humans exposed to it, just like little uranium atoms. They will communicate with each other and the chain reaction will grow.

The bomb itself does no damage, merely introduces thoughts into the heads of those exposed. They are still free to accept or reject the information.

PB

[Turborama]

8. As a long time fan of Philip K Dick that does sound like an interesting read, thanks for the links

Your synopsis of what's happening now encapsulates it perfectly. I think it's OP worthy, actually.

[Hissyspit]

14. Gibson has a new novel out, "Zero History"

[kpete]

3. Wikileaks' Julian Assange to fight Swedish allegations

Source: BBC

Wikileaks' Julian Assange to fight Swedish allegations
Julian Assange, file pic Mr Assange has dismissed allegations against him as a smear campaign


Wikileaks founder Julian Assange will fight attempts to take him to Sweden to face rape allegations, his lawyer said.

Mark Stephens told the BBC that legal moves against his client seem(ed) to be a "political stunt" by a state that allowed US rendition flights.

..................

He said he and his Swedish legal adviser had been trying to contact prosecutors since August and his client had tried to meet prosecutors to "restore his good name".

"He's only wanted for interview, why not have that interview by consent, rather than this show trial?" he added.


Read more: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-11921080

[Boudica the Lyoness]

4. Good for him!

I had hoped that Obama was to be the hero..but now Julian Assange is looking more like the hero for me.

[defendandprotect]

7. k/r

[Catherina]

10. Rec'd n/t