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Julian Assange

Posts Tagged ‘Julian Assange’

Pamela Anderson and Julian Assange’s leaky love affair

Former Playboy model and swimsuit-clad floatation aide Pamela Anderson is, reportedly, staying in with WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange. You wonder if being indoors at the Ecuadorean embassy in London since 2012 has dulled Assange’s taste buds and ambitions. The story goes that Assange knew Anderson was the girl for him when she delivered a vegan cheeseburger and Pret a Manger nibbles.

So are they dating? It’s hard to tell. No-one’s leaked any emails between them – Julian, one rule for you, eh… – so Pammy has been forced to speak to the Press. She told Grazia: “It’s very difficult to talk about when you’re under surveillance” – otherwise know as talking to a magazine. “He’s a great guy,” added Pam, speaking clearly into the hidden microphone. “I don’t want to say anything about whether there’s a romance. So, let’s say we’re just good friends.”

Julian’s been talking, too, telling Australian radio: “I mean, I like her, she’s great… I’m not going to go into the private details… She’s an attractive person with an attractive personality… She’s no idiot at all – she’s psychologically very savvy.”

What we want, of course, is for the love to bloom and marriage to erupt; for the couple to tie the knot and step out on to the balcony and toss something fragrant into the crowd, like a sex tape or one of Pammy’s half-eaten vegetarian baps.

Posted: 17th, February 2017 | In: Celebrities | Comment


Julian Assange: free to leave London in 2020 if he’s not roasted to death first

LONDON, ENGLAND - MARCH 16: Supporters hold placards during a vigil outside the Ecuadorean embassy on March 16, 2015 in London, England. Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has lived there since claiming refuge in 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden where he is wanted for questioning over sex assault allegations. Supporters are to hold a vigil today to mark the 1,000 days since Assange originally claimed asylum at the embassy.  (Photo by Carl Court/Getty Images)

Supporters hold placards during a vigil outside the Ecuadorean embassy on March 16, 2015 in London, England. Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has lived there since claiming refuge in 2012 to avoid extradition to Sweden where he is wanted for questioning over sex assault allegations. Supporters are to hold a vigil today to mark the 1,000 days since Assange originally claimed asylum at the embassy. (Photo by Carl Court/Getty Images)

 

Julian Assange still lives in London. The Wikipedia founder sought in connection with an alleged rape is living in swanky Knightsbridge, in the Ecuardorean Embassy.

The Times is no fan of Assange. It says his time in the one of the best parts of London is coming to an end. .

The Ecuadorean embassy in swish Hans Crescent, long-suffering host to the whistleblower for more than three years, is no penal colony. It has, however, been turned upside down by its grandstanding squatter.

Is he squatting? He’s surely an invited guest. London is no longer as interesting as it once was, a place where squatters could occupy the good parts. London’s smartest districts are now gilded in foreign cash, peopled by brash Russian oligarchs and their lickspittles. Squatter! If only.

Now the Ecuadoreans are wondering whether the latest shift in Mr Assange’s legal status — original sex abuse allegations, denied by him, are no longer chargeable after August 19 — will soon have him packing his bags. Or, as some fear, he could be digging in for the long, long haul.

The BBC adds:

Under Swedish law, charges cannot be laid without interviewing the suspect. Prosecutors had until 13 August to question Mr Assange about one accusation of sexual molestation and one of unlawful coercion, while the time limit on a further allegation of sexual molestation runs out on 18 August. The more serious allegation of rape is not due to expire until 2020.

An unnamed “diplomat” tells the paper:

“Day has been turned into night, night into day. It is virtually impossible to conduct a normal diplomatic relationship when you are also functioning as a one-man boutique hotel.”

What facilities are their at the hotel?

Mr Assange inhabits a back office in the ten-room Victorian apartment. There is a treadmill, donated by the film director Ken Loach, a sun lamp — the embassy has no garden and he cannot even enter the lobby of the block without risk of arrest — a computer, a kitchenette.

Ken Loach donated a treadmill. If only Brian Glover had lived to it.

His celebrity visitors — was it Yoko Ono? Dame Vivienne Westwood? The actress Maggie Gyllenhaal, perhaps, or Eric Cantona? — lobbied the ambassador. Julian needed his sleep. So a women’s toilet was converted into a bedroom, and the embassy shrank yet further.

We learn that the embassy now uses keycards, because the doors cannot be left unlocked at night.

Mr Assange holds dinner parties sometimes but the guests bring the food and drink.

Assange never leaves – not even when someone shouts ‘FIRE!”:

There was even speculation in Ecuador that the British authorities might be trying to smoke out Mr Assange when the fire alarm sounded recently, sending all of the inhabitants of the building to the street in accordance with the evacuation plan. Only Mr Assange and one of the guards stayed behind, prepared to risk a roasting rather than arrest.

Assange of Arc never did materialise. The divine would-be martyr lived.

The President of Ecuador rarely calls nowadays, however, and has other things on his mind. Today President Correa faces a day of national protests and the prospect of a general strike. He is, say his critics in Quito, having to fight for his political survival. That does not augur well for the “guest” whose checkout time is fast approaching.

Balls. He’s there for the long haul.

Posted: 13th, August 2015 | In: Reviews | Comment


Julian Assange Runs From The Light

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JULIAN Assange is leaving the Ecuadorian Embassy, London. Why? A lack of sunlight is noted. A lack of light has dogged Assange ever since he responded to the allegations of rape by going into hiding.

“I am leaving the embassy soon – but perhaps not for the reasons the Murdoch press and Sky News are saying at the moment. Being detained in various ways in this country without charge for four years and in this embassy for two years which has no outside area, therefore no sunlight … it is an environment in which any healthy person would find themselves soon enough with certain difficulties.”

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Posted: 18th, August 2014 | In: Reviews | Comment


I Was Julian Assange’s Ghost Writer: The Fantastic Story Of ‘Swedish Whores, Pentagon Bores And Being Hitler

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ANDREW  O’Hagan’s wonderful essay on ghost writing Julian Assange’s autobiography is better than any book on the Wikileak’s puiblisher.

Highlights from it are:

Assange didn’t want to write the book himself but didn’t want the book’s ghostwriter to be anybody who already knew a lot about him. I told Jamie that I’d seen Assange at the Frontline Club the year before, when the first WikiLeaks stories emerged, and that he was really interesting but odd, maybe even a bit autistic. Jamie agreed, but said it was an amazing story. ‘He wants a kind of manifesto, a book that will reflect this great big generational shift.’

At 5.30 the next day Jamie arrived at my flat with his editorial colleague Nick Davies. (Mental health warning: there are two Nick Davies in this story. This one worked for Canongate; the second is a well-known reporter for the Guardian.) They had just come back on the train from Norfolk. Jamie said that Assange had poked his eye with a log or something, so had sat through three hours of discussion with his eyes closed.

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Posted: 22nd, February 2014 | In: Books, Reviews | Comment


Julian Assange nearly makes Benedict Cumberbatch quit film, says leaked email

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NOT a man known for attracting attention to himself, Julian Assange apparently refused to meet Benedict Cumberbatch while he was preparing to play the WikiLeaks founder for a film… and amusingly, it is a leaked email that has revealed this news.

In the letter, sent in January, Assange described Cumberbatch’s film, The Fifth Estate, as “toxic” and “distorted“, adding that the actor should “reconsider your involvement in this enterprise”.

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Posted: 10th, October 2013 | In: Celebrities, Film | Comment


Who did vote for Julian Assange in the Australian elections?

A placard showing WikiLeaks leader Julian Assange is set up as voters line up to fill in their ballots at a polling booth at Bondi Beach in Sydney, Saturday, Sept. 7, 2013. Australians are voting in a national election that pits a ruling party marred by infighting and a much-maligned carbon tax against a conservative opposition led by a man who has never been particularly popular and has long been polarizing. (AP Photo/Rick Rycroft)

SO. Who did vote for Julian Assange in Australian elections?

As we were told:

The WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, would stand a good chance of securing a Senate seat, most likely at the expense of the Greens, a new poll has found …

The UMR poll found 25 per cent of those polled would be likely to vote for Mr Assange if he ran.

He ran:

Assange stood on the Victorian Senate ticket, where his party attracted 25,667 of the primary vote, representing 1.19 per cent of the overall tally.

Who voted for him? And why?

Posted: 11th, September 2013 | In: Politicians | Comment (1)


Julian Assange explains why he’s standing for the Australian Senate

Julian Assange Oxford Union address

JULIAN Assange remins in the Ecuadorean Embassy, London. He’s been speaking with Russia Today:

RT: You are making a bid for the Australian Senate. Why?

Julian Assange: In order to promote our values within Australia. We face a very interesting situation, as an organization and me personally, with the Australian government, in response to pressure by the United States, starting to investigate our organization. It formed what it called a whole of government task force against WikiLeaks. Whole of government involved in the internal security service ASIO, the external security service ASIS, the department of defense, the Australian federal police equivalent of the FBI and the attorney general’s office. Publically announced that the Australian government would try and work out how to cancel my passport. It is an extremely rare procedure, last done to an Australian journalist in the ’60s-’70s – Wilfred Burchett. What was WikiLeaks’ connection to Australia? Was WikiLeaks publishing Australian secrets? No. Was WikiLeaks having its publishing service in Australia? No!

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Posted: 13th, May 2013 | In: Reviews | Comment


Inigo Gilmore interviews Julian Assange with a megaphone

CHANNEL 4 news sent Inigo Gilmore to interview Julian Assange at the Ecuarodean Embassy in London. He , like us, wants to know what’s going on. Does anyone know? Can someone somewhere write a cable so that WikiLeaks and Assange can find out?

Posted: 20th, December 2012 | In: Celebrities | Comment


Where do Julian Assange and the WikiLeaks millions go?

JULIAN Assange is still housed in the Ecuador embassy, London. The BBC reports:

In November, Mr Assange told journalists that a move by credit card companies to block the processing of donations to Wikileaks had cost the organisation more than £30m and had resulted in a 40% pay cut for staff.

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Posted: 20th, December 2012 | In: Money | Comment


Vivienne Westwood makes a showy visit to Julian Assange

DAME Vivienne Westwood has made a trip to the Embassy of Ecuador, London, to visit Wikileaks founder and current asylum seeker Julian Assange. She wore a T-shirt with the slogan “I am Julian Assange“. Whoah! Slow down. T-shirts can lie. Julian Assange is not a woman. Westwood also went equipped with a bottle of 2009 Chateau Liversan Haut Medoc.  The wine is 50% Merlot with 49% Cabernet Sauvignon and 1% Cabernet Franc. It’s £9 a bottle at Waitrose.

Other than advertising wine and Tees, it’s hard to work out why Westwood went…


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Posted: 24th, October 2012 | In: Celebrities | Comment


Lady Gaga meets Julian Assage

WHEN Lady Gaga met Julian Assange at the Ecuadorean embassy, London, she did not spend the night. They talked and they talked but Gaga did she fall asleep:

 

Posted: 9th, October 2012 | In: Celebrities | Comment


Private dancer Julian Assange doesn’t want you to see him making shapes

JULIAN Assange is not so transparant:

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s complaint about a More4 documentary he claimed was unfair and violated his privacy has not been upheld by Ofcom, the media regulator … The media regulator rejected Assange’s complaint that More4 had violated his privacy by showing footage of him dancing in a nightclub in Iceland.

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Posted: 11th, September 2012 | In: Reviews | Comment


Read the leaked police documents about the arrest of Julian Assange

WE know how Julian Assange will be arrested. The British police will not press the fire alarm at the Ecuadorean embassy in London nor will they lure the WikiLeaks founder out with scraps of conspiracy theory and girls. Thanks to a Metropolitan Police, we can read the plans.

The paper reads:  “Assange to be arrested in all circumstances … he comes out with diplomatic officials, in diplomatic bag, in diplomatic vehicle.

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Posted: 24th, August 2012 | In: Key Posts, Reviews | Comments (3)


George Galloway jumps on Julian Assange and rides him hard

OH. What joy. Isn’t it marvellous when someone you really don’t like puts their foot in it. Before we get to George Galloway and Julian Assange – what a team! – Robert Colvile calls to mind a saying:

 “Sit by the river long enough, and the bodies of your enemies will float by.”

No. Here’s Galloway, a leading light of the – get his – Respect Party  (oh, the irony) now representing Bradford in Parliament, telling us in his Goodnight With George Galloway podcast that Julian Assange is accused of nothing more than “bad sexual etiquette”. Galloway wasn’t in the room when Assange was with his alleged victims. But he paints a picture. Assange is wanted in Sweden to face allegations – which he denies – of sexual assault made by two women.

“But even taken at its worst, if the allegations made by these two women were true, 100 per cent true, and even if a camera in the room captured them, they don’t constitute rape. At least not rape as anyone with any sense can possibly recognise it. And somebody has to say this.”

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Posted: 20th, August 2012 | In: Key Posts, Politicians | Comment (1)


Julian Assange: English law would prosecute a sleep rapist

JULIAN Assange stood on the balcony at Ecuador’s embassy in Knightsbridge, London, and told that United States what they “must do” for WikiLeaks. It’s a great website. But it’s not Julian Assange. What he did not address was what he should do. Officers in Sweden would like Assange to respond to the rape allegation against him. The law in England, where he was living under the terms of his now jumped bail, are clear. It’s not just inSweden where his alleged crimes would be of interest.

Felicity Gerry writes:

A successful prosecution for “sleep rape” requires the jury to be sure that the woman was in fact asleep not that she was conscious but simply does not clearly recollect what happened. It is on such issues that a defence barrister is entitled to cross question. The complainant will have to tell the jury what happened after she went to bed and deal with how obvious it would have been to the defendant that she was asleep.

The site Justice 4 Julia attests:

From the information provided in the original complaint and the EAW this would not constitute an offence under English law.

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Posted: 20th, August 2012 | In: Reviews | Comments (2)


The view from Julian Assange’s window – photos inside the Ecuadorean Embassy

WHAT did Julian Assange see from the balcony at the Ecuadorean Embassy, London? Here you go. One od thing: the balconies and windows in the are almost devoid of human life. Was Knightsbridge out?

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Posted: 20th, August 2012 | In: Reviews | Comment


Everything you wanted to know about Julian Assange in one front page

WHO is Julian Assange and why is he famous? The Independent explains it all one neat front page:

Posted: 19th, August 2012 | In: Reviews | Comment


How media turned Julian Assange into a blameless Saint – the best quotes

WHY is Julian Assange big news? Why does Julian Assange feel no need to talk to the Swedish authorities about an alleged rape? It’s because big news decided that they loved him. They loved him because he game them the leaked cables and good copy. They built him into a Messiah, the embodiment of truth and light:

Raffi Khatchadourian in the New Yorker:Under the studio lights, he can seem – with his spectral white hair, pallid skin, cool eyes and expansive forehead – like a rail-thin being who has rocketed to earth to deliver humanity some hidden truth”.

Nick Davies in the Guardian: “We are going to put you on the moral high ground, so high that you’ll need an oxygen mask. You’ll be up there with Nelson Mandela and Mother Theresa…They won’t be able to arrest you”

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Posted: 17th, August 2012 | In: Key Posts, Reviews | Comments (2)


Taxi for Julian Assange: Wikileaks’ Ronnie Biggs heads to South America

TAXI for Julian Assange. The man wanted in connection with alleged rape in Sweden has been granted political asylum by Ecuador. Assange is seeking to avoid extradition from Britain to Sweden, a country he used to love. Ecuador’s foreign minister Ricardo Patiño believes their is risk that Wikileaks founder Assange will be sent from Sweden to The United States. He says:

“Asylum is a fundamental human right. The Ecuadorean Government is defending its right to protect Assange and we have decided to grant him political asylum.”

A Swedish Foreign Ministry spokesman is unhappy with the Ecuadoreans:

“We want to tell them that it’s unacceptable that Ecuador is trying to stop the Swedish judicial process.”

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Posted: 16th, August 2012 | In: Key Posts, Reviews | Comment


Julian Assange writes his IQ.org sequel at the Ecuadoran embassy?

JULIAN Assange remains in the Ecuadoran embassy in London. The Telegraph‘s William Langley notes:

You have to hope he knows what he is doing. Ecuador exports five million tons of bananas a year, and gave the world the Panama hat, but a darkness dwells at its moist and spicy heart in the form of tinpot president Rafael Correa. Irony doesn’t quite capture the mordant weirdness of Assange seeking sanctuary in a country where the suppression of information is a flagship government policy.

Will the Wikileaks founder ever get out?

“We are an organization that does not promote leaking.”

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Posted: 26th, June 2012 | In: Reviews | Comment (1)


Madeleine McCann: 1,300 deaths, Julian Assange and the Met’s new chapter

MADELDEINE McCann: Kate McCann’s new Maddie chapter and Julian Assange likens himself to Kate and Gerry McCann:

The Sunday Express leads with news. That news is surmised in a front-page headline:

YARD: WE CAN SOLVE MADDIE MYSTERY

Can. Not will?

SCOTLAND Yard detectives are confident they can solve the mystery of Madeleine McCann’s disappearance.

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Posted: 8th, April 2012 | In: Key Posts, Madeleine McCann | Comment (1)


Julian Assange: a cartoon figure for The Simpsons

IT seems WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is intent on a television career. The Fox television network has announced his appearance as a guest character on the 500th episode of animated TV comedy The Simpsons. News of the upcoming cameo came just a week after Russia Today, a Kremlin-funded English-language channel, revealed that it had won exclusive first broadcast rights for a chatshow starring Assange.

Since he is under house arrest at Ellingham Hall in Norfolk, England, Assange recorded his Simpsons lines remotely. His Russia Today show, too, will be recorded at Ellingham Hall, where he awaits a UK supreme court hearing on his extradition to Sweden. In the 10-part chatshow, called The World Tomorrow, Assange will host “a series of in-depth conversations with key political players, thinkers and revolutionaries from around the world”.

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Posted: 31st, January 2012 | In: Reviews | Comment


The Cult of St Julian – now on TV

JULIAN Assange – hairstyle impressario, hacktivist, whistleblower-champion, house-arrestee – is foraying into the world of television talk shows. Starting in March, the WikiLeaks co-founder will host a series of 10 half-hour programmes in which he will converse with political activists and thinkers. The theme of the show is “the world tomorrow”.

A press release issued by WikiLeaks said the show will “draw together controversial voices from across the political spectrum – iconoclasts, visionaries and power insiders – each to offer a window on the world tomorrow and their ideas on how to secure a brighter future”.

In fact, the TV show looks like an attempt to revive the Cult of St Julian and to feed Assange’s apparently unbounded ego. The press release describes WikiLeaks as “the world’s boldest publisher” and Assange as a “pioneer for a more just world and a victim of political repression”.

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Posted: 24th, January 2012 | In: Reviews | Comment


Julian Assange Vs Paul McMullan: Privacy For Paedos And How Tony Blair Liked To Watch Us On CCTV

CAN Julian Assange be made to debate privacy with the NoTW’s former journalist Paul McMullan who told the Leveson Inquiry:

“In 21 years of invading people’s privacy, I’ve never actually come across anyone who’s been doing any good. Privacy is the space bad people need to do bad things. Privacy is for paedos. Fundamentally, nobody else needs it.”

Who do you think would win the debate?

Was McMullan right?  New Labour agreed with him. As Brendan O’Neill writes:

Under the New Labour government in particular, “privacy” became a dirty word. Indeed, the rallying cry of our Blairite rulers was “If you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear” – an alarmingly Stalinist turn of phrase that has always stuck in my craw. What they meant was that only shifty people, only those with something horrible to hide, would ever dare to complain about official intrusions into private life. So as New Labour coated Britain with CCTV cameras, tried desperately to introduce ID cards, and interfered relentlessly into family life and the realm of parenting, anyone who kicked up a fuss and said “what about privacy?” was accused of having something to hide.

And that’s the thing with the “toxic” NoTW. They operated in a climate sanctioned by Blair’s Government. As the CCTV cameras went up, spooks spied on people for the country’s biggest-read tabloids – the one that backed Blair. The paper had deep links to the police. As we are left asking – as we have asked ever since the hacking story broke – who trained the spooks to spy on Milly Dowler and those celebs?

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Posted: 2nd, December 2011 | In: Reviews | Comment


Katien Olsson On Julian Assange – The Anti-Swede

THE Expressen‘s Karin Olsson on Julian Assange. The paper doesn’t seem to like him:

His attempts to depict Sweden as a banana republic that would ship him on to the United States is another sign of how desperate Assange has become. You can blame Sweden for lots of things – filthy weather, overrated crime novels, IKEA furniture – but to claim this country is the CIA’s accomplice, with an extremist law on sex crimes, irritates even his most loyal fans, of whom there are still a few..

Assange-the-hero vanished somewhere in that antisemitic and antifeminist slime. Sweden’s relatively high measure of sexual equality and consciousness in gender questions is a matter of national pride. That a dodgy hacker from Australia started knocking it was not popular.

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Posted: 7th, November 2011 | In: Reviews | Comment (1)