It also expressed annoyance with the 41-year-old Australian's recent meeting with pop diva Lady Gaga at the embassy.

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has lost another high-profile supporter as Anonymous, the hacking collective, said the whistleblowing site had been “ruined by egos”.
Anonymous, a loose group of internet “hacktivists”, has been one of WikiLeaks’ closest allies during the past two years, launching cyber attacks against the site’s opponents and, some claim, becoming a source of its material.

But leading Anonymous accounts on Twitter, which rallied behind WikiLeaks and Mr Assange despite his legal and financial woes, have now withdrawn their support, decrying the freedom-of-information project as a “One Man Julian Assange show”.
Calling the split “the end of an era”, Anonymous tweeted: “It was an awesome idea, ruined by egos.”

I worry enough about me commenting here and what it does or would do for my family if someone were to come after me for my views.....I think anyone would be concerned.

And he seems to be only in legal trouble at all over the rape allegations, not Wikileaks.

An investigative arm of the Pentagon has termed Wikileaks founder and editor-in-chief Julian Assange, currently holed up and claiming asylum in the Ecuadoran Embassy in London for fear he will be deported to Sweden and thence to the US, and his organization, both “enemies” of the United States.

The Age newspaper in Melbourne Australia is reporting that documents obtained through the US Freedom of Information Act from the Pentagon (PDF) disclose that an investigation by the Air Force Office of Special Investigations, a counter-intelligence unit, of a military cyber systems analyst based in Britain who had reportedly expressed support for Wikileaks and had attended a demonstration in support of Assange, refers to the analyst as having been “communicating with the enemy, D-104.” The D-104 classification refers to an article of the US Uniform Military Code of Military Justice which prohibits military personnel from “communicating, corresponding or holding intercourse with the enemy.”

Julian Assange to publish book about freedom and the future of the internet
WikiLeaks founder to be co-author of book entitled Cypherpunks, despite being confined to Ecuadorean embassy in London

Prominent defamation lawyer Stuart Littlemore, QC, has labelled attempts by WikiLeaks and Julian Assange to find ways of suing Prime Minister Julia Gillard for defamation as nothing more than a stunt.

Mr Littlemore and other legal experts say that defamation claims generally must be made within 12 months of the comments.

Mr Assange has hired lawyers to find a way of suing Prime Minister Julia Gillard for defamation over the claim that WikiLeaks acted illegally in releasing a quarter of a million US diplomatic cables.

In an interview from Ecuador's embassy in London, Assange said Ms Gillard's comment, made in late 2010, influenced MasterCard Australia to join an online financial blockade of the organisation.

''MasterCard Australia, in justifying why it has made a blockade preventing any Australian MasterCard holder from donating to WikiLeaks, used that statement by Julia Gillard as justification,'' he said.

Prime Minister Julia Gillard made an unwise decision to presume WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's guilt, which has prompted him to pursue a possible defamation case, Deputy Opposition Leader Julie Bishop says.

Ms Bishop says Mr Assange, who has reportedly hired Sydney lawyers to pursue a defamation case against Ms Gillard, is entitled to seek legal remedies if he believes he's been defamed.

Mr Assange has told left-leaning activist group GetUp! that Ms Gillard defamed WikiLeaks when she allegedly told a radio station in 2010 he had broken the law by releasing hundreds of thousands of US diplomatic cables, according to a statement released by the group on Monday.

Julian Assange's supporters have been ordered to forfeit £93,500 in bail money after the WikiLeaks founder sought political asylum in the Ecuadorean embassy in London.

A court ruled on Monday that the payments must be made within a month by nine friends and backers who in 2010 pledged £140,000 to guarantee Assange would abide by bail conditions during a failed legal challenge to extradition proceedings brought by authorities in Sweden, where he faces allegations of rape and sexual assault.

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Mr Ratner said that under US law it would most likely have been considered criminal for the US Air Force analyst to communicate classified material to journalists and publishers, but those journalists and publishers would not have been considered the enemy or prosecuted.

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Patino held a meeting with UK Foreign Secretary William Hague on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.

Summarizing the results of the talks, Patino said that he received written confirmation from London that it recognizes the validity of its 1880 extradition treaty with Ecuador. According to Patino, this agreement states that in cases like Assange’s, a person cannot be extradited to a third country.

During the talks Patino reminded his counterpart that the WikiLeaks boss is under Ecuador's jurisdiction, and asserted his country's determination to protect him.

Nevertheless, Britain has pledged to seek a diplomatic solution in order to find a way to extradite Assange.

Ecuador says it will host Assange in its London embassy indefinitely, but the decision to continue supporting the Wikileaks founder could have negative repercussions for the Andean nation.

Mr. Hague and Mr. Patino met today in New York to discuss the dispute, despite the British official’s skepticism regarding a quick solution.

“We agreed that we would continue to talk, and we will continue to talk about this issue with the government of Ecuador. But I see no sign of any breakthrough,” Hague told reporters at the UN.

The British government stressed to Ecuador today that it was under an obligation to extradite the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to Sweden, where he faces questioning over sex crimes allegations.

The foreign secretary, William Hague, held talks with Ecuador's foreign minister, Ricardo Patino, in New York, where ministers have gathered this week for a United Nations meeting.

Assange has been in Ecuador's London embassy since June as part of his bid to avoid extradition to Sweden. He fears being sent to the United States if he travels to Sweden, to face interrogation over the whistle-blowing website.

He has been granted political asylum by Ecuador but faces arrest if he leaves the embassy after breaking his UK bail conditions.

The Foreign Office said: "The foreign secretary said he wanted to see close and productive bilateral relations between the UK and Ecuador, including in the areas of trade and investment, higher education, and counter-narcotics co-operation.

"On the case of Mr Julian Assange, the foreign secretary told Minister Patino that the UK was under an obligation to extradite Mr Assange to Sweden.

"The concept of 'diplomatic asylum', while well-established in Latin America, did not feature in UK law.

"The foreign secretary described the extensive human rights safeguards in UK extradition law. He requested the government of Ecuador to study these provisions closely in considering the way ahead.

"Both ministers agreed that they were committed to the search for a diplomatic solution to Mr Assange's case. They were willing to meet again at this level in due course to continue these exchanges."

Patino held a meeting with UK Foreign Secretary William Hague on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly.

Summarizing the results of the talks, Patino said that he received written confirmation from London that it recognizes the validity of its 1880 extradition treaty with Ecuador. According to Patino, this agreement states that in cases like Assange’s, a person cannot be extradited to a third country.

During the talks Patino reminded his counterpart that the WikiLeaks boss is under Ecuador's jurisdiction, and asserted his country's determination to protect him.

Nevertheless, Britain has pledged to seek a diplomatic solution in order to find a way to extradite Assange.

Amnesty International said the Swedish authorities should issue assurances to the UK and to Assange that if he left Ecuador's embassy and agreed to go to Sweden to face sexual assault claims, he would not be extradited to the US in connection with WikiLeaks.

Nicola Duckworth, senior director for research at Amnesty International, said: "If the Swedish authorities are able to confirm publicly that Assange will not eventually find himself on a plane to the USA if he submits himself to the authority of the Swedish courts, then this will hopefully achieve two things.

"First, it will break the current impasse and, second, it will mean the women who have levelled accusations of sexual assault are not denied justice.

"It is vital that states show they are serious about dealing with allegations of sexual violence and that they respect both the rights of the women who made the complaints and the person accused."

THE US military has designated Julian Assange and WikiLeaks as enemies of the United States — the same legal category as the al-Qaeda terrorist network and the Taliban insurgency.

Declassified US Air Force counter-intelligence documents, released under US freedom-of-information laws, reveal that military personnel who contact WikiLeaks or WikiLeaks supporters may be at risk of being charged with "communicating with the enemy", a military crime that carries a maximum sentence of death.

Assange's US attorney, Michael Ratner, said the designation of WikiLeaks as an "enemy" had serious implications for the WikiLeaks publisher if he were to be extradited to the US, including possible military detention.

"It appears that Julian Assange and WikiLeaks are the 'enemy'. An enemy is dealt with under the laws of war, which could include killing, capturing, detaining without trial, etc."

An enemy of the state is a person accused of certain crimes against the state, such as treason. Describing individuals in this way is sometimes a manifestation of political repression. For example, an authoritarian regime may purport to maintain national security by describing social or political dissidents as "enemies of the state". In other cases, the individual in question may have legitimately endangered the country and/or its population. For example, a double agent selling military or intelligence secrets could undermine a nation's security, and could therefore be considered an enemy not of just a person or entity within a state, but the state itself and all entities therein.

Assange remains holed up in Ecuador's embassy in London. He was granted diplomatic asylum on the grounds that if extradited to Sweden to be questioned about sexual assault allegations, he would be at risk of further extradition to the US to face espionage or conspiracy charges arising from the leaking of hundreds of thousands of secret US military and diplomatic reports.

US Vice-President Joe Biden labelled Assange a "high-tech terrorist" in December 2010 and US congressional leaders have called for him to be charged with espionage.

Sarah Palin and Mike Huckabee - both once involved in presidential campaigns - have both urged that Assange be "hunted down".

Assange's US attorney, Michael Ratner, said the designation of WikiLeaks as an "enemy" had serious implications for the WikiLeaks publisher if he were to be extradited to the US, including possible military detention.

"It appears that Julian Assange and WikiLeaks are the 'enemy'. An enemy is dealt with under the laws of war, which could include killing, capturing, detaining without trial, etc."

The Australian government has repeatedly denied knowledge of any US intention to charge Assange or seek his extradition.

However, Australian diplomatic cables released to Fairfax Media under freedom-of-information laws over the past 18 months have confirmed the continuation of an "unprecedented" US Justice Department espionage investigation targeting Assange and WikiLeaks.