Brits Arrest Assange; U.S. Politicians Seek to Hang Him

WikiLeaks founder and chief spokesman Julian Assange turned himself in to British authorities today on a warrant connected to an ongoing sex crimes investigation in Sweden.

While the mainstream media deemed his arrest as some sort of an end to an "international manhunt," the development has nothing to do with WikliLeaks' release of tens of thousands of classified military and U.S. State Department documents, nor was Assange "apprehended." His lawyers reportedly negotiated the terms under which the Australian-born Assange would turn himself in, and is likely to be released on bail after he appears before the City of Westminster magistrates court midday, London time.

Assange faces charges of rape, sexual coercion and molestation, though he has not been charged yet and the rape charge had been initially dropped after an earlier investigation back in August. The case stems from two reportedly consensual encounters he had with two different women in Sweden. (One of Assange's lawyers recently argued the case would make "make Sweden and its justice system the laughing stock of the world.")

Assange has repeatedly said the charges were a set-up and a smear campaign juiced by the the U.S government in retaliation for his work in publishing reams of classified U.S. military files last summer.

The Swedish prosecutor in the case appealed to Interpol to put out a "red notice" for his arrest last week as she said Assange refused to come in for a second line of questioning. Assange's lawyers had said they had been cooperative all along, but see the whole thing as an elaborate witch hunt.

WikiLeaks said Tuesday that Assange's arrest would not stop the release of the rest of the estimated 250,000 State Department cables it has in its possession. According to reports, only 1 percent of the trove has been published so far.

Meanwhile, if he's not brought down on sex charges, U.S. politicians appear intent on bringing Assange down somehow -- even if they have to create new laws to do it.

Appearing on Meet the Press Sunday, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) said that Assange was a "hi-tech terrorist who has done enormous damage to our country ... he needs to be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law." Though he didn't say, McConnell was likely talking about the 1917 Espionage Act, which has been mentioned widely as a key law under which the U.S. government might go after Assange and WikiLeaks for helping to publish tens of thousands of classified documents that were passed along to them. The "leaker" in this case is likely Army Pvt. Bradley Manning, an intelligence analyst who is now sitting in an Army brig awaiting a military trial.

Not everyone is convinced that the 1917 law would cover WikiLeaks' activities -- but McConnell has a solution to that. "If that's a problem we need the change the law," he said. His colleague, Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-CT),  is already ahead of him, having introduced the "Shield Act" with fellow Sens. Scott Brown (R-MA) and John Ensign (R-NV). The Shield Act would tweak the Espionage Act to cover "human intelligence activities of the United States or any foreign government," plus documents "concerning the identity of a classified source or informant of an element of the intelligence community of the United States.’’

“The reckless behavior of Wikileaks has compromised our national security and threatened the safety of our troops overseas, and this bipartisan legislation gives the Department of Justice a tool to prevent something like this from happening again,” Brown said. “While I strongly support government transparency, certain information must be kept classified in order to protect innocent American lives during this time of war and global terrorism."

Experts say if passed, the Shield Act could not retroactively apply to the recent WikiLeaks' document dump. However, Lieberman is taking a two-pronged approach, last week pressuring both Amazon and Tableau Public to dump WikiLeaks from their servers. Civil libertarian and former constitutional lawyer Glenn Greenwald said Lieberman was no different than "Chinese dictators" who block their citizens from potentially damaging and controversial information:

Meanwhile, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder says his office is already looking into WikiLeaks from a criminal standpoint, revealing Monday that he "has authorized just last week a number of things to be done so that we can get to the bottom of this and hold people accountable." Not to be outdone, perennial presidential hopeful and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich told FOX News Sunday that Assange was an "enemy combatant."

What seems clear is the current climate in Washington does not bode well for ongoing efforts to protect federal whistleblowers, particularly former National Security Agency analyst Tom Drake, who is being prosecuted under the Espionage Act for allegedly sharing information with a reporter about the Bush administration's secret surveillance program targeting Americans (see the petition). Activists are still pushing for the Whistleblower Enhancement Protection Act to shield federal employees like Drake who have gone out on a limb to expose government waste, neglect, fraud and lawbreaking (see the petition). Their best hope is to pass something in the last days of the so-called lame duck session, but their arguments may get drowned out by the drumbeat to make the laws tougher not only on those who leak classified information, but those who dare publish it.

Photo Credit: Biatch0r