Julian Assange

A former CIA officer was arrested Thursday on charges of illegally disclosing classified material and obstructing justice after authorities said he assisted a newspaper reporter and book author with information about highly classified covert operations. Jeffrey A. Sterling, who was terminated by the CIA after nearly nine years and who then sued alleging racial discrimination, was arrested in St. Louis after a federal grand jury indictment was unsealed in Alexandria, Va., charging him with 10 counts, including the "unlawful disclosure of national defense information.

According to a classified and unusually salacious Swedish police report obtained by the Guardian newspaper, WikiLeaks mastermind Julian Assange went to dinner in August with a woman identified only as "Ms. A. " When they returned to her Stockholm apartment, he began stroking her leg. Then, although she says she thought things were moving too quickly and uncomfortably, he was pulling off her clothes and snapping her jewelry. According to her complaint, he pinned her arms and legs to stop her from reaching for a condom.

After nine days in jail, Julian Assange was released on bail Thursday by a British judge who ruled that the controversial WikiLeaks founder could fight extradition to Sweden over sex-crimes allegations from the confines of a friend's country estate. Assange was released Thursday evening after paying nearly $375,000 in cash up front in bail and giving other financial assurances. In a sign of how politically charged the case is, the courthouse in downtown London stayed open late so the 39-year-old Australian could complete the required paperwork and emerge a free man. "It's great to smell [the]

After nine days in jail, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange was granted bail Thursday in a politically charged case concerning alleged sex crimes in Sweden. A high-court judge in London upheld an earlier decision to allow Assange to remain free while he fights extradition to Sweden, where authorities want to question him over allegations of molestation, unlawful coercion and rape stemming from encounters he had with two women in August. Assange, 39, can now swap what his lawyer calls the "Dickensian conditions" of a south London jail for the tony comforts of a country mansion owned by a friend, where the high-court judge agreed that he could stay while out on bail.

When Julian Assange talks about transparency and our right to know about our government, he has at least a fighting chance of winning over a skeptical public. He stakes out a difficult but righteous position: that the media deserve special latitude to expose government secrets. But when the WikiLeaks leader and his acolytes threaten perceived enemies, fail to condemn cyber attacks, and take on messianic airs, they surrender the high ground and hurt the cause of freedom of information they so vehemently champion.

Rafix was set to attack. The target was Visa.com. The weapon: a battery of personal computers ready to jam the site with millions of simultaneous log-in requests. "FIRE at WILL, gentlemen!" Rafix wrote in an online message. "Enjoy the epic battle of glory!" Within seconds of the battle cry, the attackers crippled the website of the world's largest credit card company. Unable to weather the massive surge in traffic, Visa's site remained out of commission for most of the day. Visa came under fire for its decision to suspend processing donations to WikiLeaks, the controversial website that has been publishing confidential U.S. government documents.

U.S. officials reportedly are hoping to capitalize on the arrest of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in London this week by having him extradited to this country for criminal prosecution. Based on what is known about WikiLeaks' release of hundreds of thousands of confidential documents, that would be a mistake. Assange was jailed in Britain on Tuesday in connection with charges of sexual assault filed against him in Sweden. U.S. officials, meanwhile, are clearly eager to prosecute him for the leaks, if not under the 1917 Espionage Act then for other criminal charges, including receiving stolen property.

Julian Assange, the founder of the controversial WikiLeaks website, was arrested here Tuesday and ordered to remain in custody until a hearing next week on his possible extradition to Sweden, where he is wanted for questioning over allegations that he sexually assaulted two women. The jailing of Assange came as governments and businesses around the world continued their efforts to halt the ability of WikiLeaks to function. A Visa Europe spokesman said Tuesday that the firm was suspending its business with WikiLeaks, following in the footsteps of Amazon.

A worldwide dispute over WikiLeaks' release of classified information raged online Wednesday like a tale from a comic book: The Jester battled a hacker network calling itself Anonymous that claimed responsibility for taking down the websites of several major corporations. Anonymous took credit for disabling the main websites for MasterCard and Visa, among several attacks launched against companies that in recent days announced they would no longer handle donations to WikiLeaks. Cyber attacks also were reported against an attorney representing two Swedish women who have accused WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange of sexual assault, as well as on PostFinance, the financial arm of the Swiss postal system that closed Assange's account after accusing him of providing false information.