Assange vows website will stay strong

 
0 CommentsPrint E-mail Global Times, December 20, 2010
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WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has lashed out at his critics, stating that the site will remain strong despite taking another blow to its fund-raising capability and the publication of new allegations against him.

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The Australian began his third full day under "mansion arrest," at Ellingham Hall, owned by his friend Vaughan Smith, while Assange continues to fight extradition to Sweden.

As conditions for his bail, he must also report daily to a nearby police station and wear an electronic tag.

Assange on Saturday denounced Bank of America, the largest US bank, for becoming the latest institution to halt financial transactions for WikiLeaks, after MasterCard, PayPal, Visa Europe and others.

The bank said its decision was "based upon our reasonable belief that WikiLeaks may be engaged in activities that are, among other things, inconsistent with our internal policies for processing payments."

"It's a new type of business McCarthyism in the US to deprive this organization of the funds that it needs to survive, to deprive me personally of the funds that my lawyers need to protect me against extradition to the US or to Sweden," Assange told AFP Sunday.

Assange faced new challenges Sunday as several British newspapers published lurid new details of the allegations of sexual assault against two women. The 39-year-old denies the charges.

The Guardian newspaper, which has cooperated with WikiLeaks on the publication of the US documents, and the Daily Mail Sunday both reported that the two women with whom he had sex in Sweden had gone to police after he refused to take an HIV test.

Assange has lashed out at Swedish authorities, accusing them of leaking details about the case that he and his lawyers have not had access to.

The former computer hacker also reiterated that there were threats against his life and those of the website's staff, but he vowed that WikiLeaks would continue publishing cables.

"We are a robust organization. During my time in solitary confinement we continued to publish every day, and it's not going to change," he said.

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