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Smoke pours from a building in the centre of Oslo Photo: EPA
WikiLeaks slammed over publishing dossier including Belgian pedophile killer Marc Dutroux
0 comentarii Publicat de Mr. Miaghy la 12:35
Australian-born WikiLeaks chief Julian Assange in London in July. Source: AFP
WIKILEAKS is at the centre of a new row after publishing uncensored police files from the investigation into a child killer.
The files include lurid evidence and wild accusations against one of Belgium's leading politicians.
A senior prosecutor vowed to try to block the 1235-page dossier, much of which is drawn from interviews with rent boys and with Marc Dutroux, a pedophile who was jailed for life in 2004 for killing four girls and a former associate.
It is the latest controversy to engulf the whistleblowing website, whose founder, Julian Assange, is being investigated in Sweden on suspicion of molesting a 30-year-old woman who helped to organise his lecture tour. Mr Assange denies any wrongdoing.
Last month WikiLeaks was widely condemned for publishing uncensored secret reports on the Afghan war, some of which named informants now said to be at risk of reprisals.
The Dutroux case left a deep scar on the Belgian psyche because it exposed a hidden world of child sex abuse but also triggered unproven conspiracy theories of a pedophile network reaching into the highest levels of society.
A leading Belgian politician was cleared of any suspicion of pedophilia or connection with Dutroux in 1996 after being named during the investigation. The dossier published by WikiLeaks revives those allegations against the politician, adding to the sense of outrage in Belgium.
"There is some true, some false, some very disparate information here, involving some people who have done nothing wrong, who have simply been mentioned in an investigation and are thus exposed to public contempt, whereas all this material should have remained classified," said Cedric Visart de Bocarme, the prosecutor general of Liege.
"There is some wild stuff in these documents. Some witnesses are prejudiced and would say anything to try to blacken their neighbour, to make themselves seem white than white."
Mr de Bocarme said that he was trying to find a way to block access in Belgium to the document on the WikiLeaks website but would not say how this might be possible. He rejected any suggestion that publication might be defended as in the public interest.
"This is a false defence in my view because WikiLeaks is giving information which is false and which invades private life," he said. "It is scandalous to use the explanation of transparency because inquiries of this kind should remain confidential."
Dutroux murdered two girls and, while he was in custody for three months concerning a car theft, another two starved to death locked in his cellar. Police had searched the house but failed to find Julie Lejeune and Melissa Russo, both aged eight.
Jean-Denis Lejeune, Julie's father, said that "exposing in full view" the contents of the investigations was "pure voyeurism". The dossier was originally posted on WikiLeaks in April last year but has only now come to the attention of Belgian authorities.
Kristinn Hrafnsson, a spokesman for WikiLeaks, said that he was surprised that the material had caused a stir now. "It comes at a time when there is a lot of controversy around WikiLeaks - it is very interesting," he said. "It is a bit of an old story."
Asked whether WikiLeaks would consider removing or redacting identities in the files, he said: "That has not been discussed."
WikiLeaks files show Norway unprepared for terror attack
0 comentarii Publicat de Mr. Miaghy la 11:44
Norway’s intelligence service had previously been criticised for its failure to keep track of suspected terror cells and the country was felt to be complacent about the prospect of a terror attack, secret cables from the WikiLeaks files reveal.
A memo written in 2009, describes the country’s security service as “in over its head” and adds “it simply cannot keep up.”
Separate cables state that the country felt “immune” from terrorism and that groups such as Al Qaeda were “not a direct threat”.
One memo describes how US authorities had to “press” their Norwegian counterparts to take terrorism seriously and says there was a feeling “that terrorism happens elsewhere, not in peaceful Norway.”
Talking about an attempt by the Police Security Service (PST) to track one particular suspected Al Qaeda terror cell, a cable written by the US Ambassador to Norway, Barry White, describes investigators as “committed, competent and co-operative, generally”.
But he goes on to describe how they refused the help of the UK authorities to put surveillance on a potential suspect and adds: “Not only will they not put their own resources on him…but they also just turned down the visiting UK intel service’s offer of two twelve-person surveillance teams.”
The cable goes on to say the UK and US intelligence services analysed coded conversation between terror suspects and decided it warranted surveillance.
But, says the cable, “PST instead found a way to interpret the same translated coded conversation in a rosier, less threatening light, an interpretation which makes little sense to the US or UK.”
The memo also reveals how, despite apparently having surveillance on the suspect, the PST lost track of bomb-making equipment which was being stored in an apartment after it was apparently removed without investigators noticing.
The PST then failed to track one suspect for 14 days because the investigator assigned to him was called away on another job.
The memo concludes: “The PST is in over its head…it simply cannot keep up.”
A second memo, written in 2007, is titled “Pakistani Norwegians ripe for radicalisation?”
It warns of the potential of Pakistani-Norwegian youths being radicalised and describes Norway as a “country that continues to feel immune from terrorism”.
The same memo adds: “The official police (PST) threat evaluation…states that international terror organisations are not a direct threat against Norway.
A memo written in 2008 shows how the US felt that Norway was not awake to the possibility of a potential terrorist attack. The cable reads: “We repeatedly press Norwegian authorities to take terrorism seriously.
“We will seek to build on this momentum to fight the still-prevalent feeling that terrorism happens elsewhere, not in peaceful Norway.”
And a cable written just last year adds: “The PST still viewed Denmark as more of a target than Norway, for reasons very specific to the cartoon controversy.”
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