USA President Obama announces Osama bin Laden dead

Reporting from Washington—
A CIA-led team killed Osama Bin Laden at a compound inside Pakistan Sunday and recovered his body, bringing a close to the world's highest-profile manhunt after a decade-long search, President Obama announced to the world Sunday night.

"Justice has been done," the President said solemnly in a hastily-arranged late night TV address from the East Room of the White House. Bin Laden, he said, "murdered thousands of innocent men, women and children" and his death was "the most significant achievement to date" in the U.S. war against the al Qaeda, terrorist network that bin Laden founded, led and inspired.

As described by the President and top administration officials, the successful effort to track down bin Laden centered on a man whom the officials described as a trusted courier for al Qaeda, a protégé of Khalid Sheik Muhammed, the operational mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks.

Obama said that after he entered the White House in 2009, he had ordered CIA director Leon Panetta to make the killing or capture of Bin Laden the "top priority of our war against al Qaeda." Then, in August, he was briefed on "a possible lead" to the elusive terrorist's hiding place. "It took many months to run this thread to ground," he said.

By Friday, a senior White House official said, the evidence had become sufficiently certain that Obama was able to give the go-ahead for the operation.

After years of rumors that the world's most-wanted man was hiding in the caves and rugged redoubts of the Pakistan- Afghanistan border region, the CIA ultimately found him hiding in what officials described as a comfortable mansion surrounded by a high wall in a small town near Islamabad, Pakistan's capital.

On Sunday, a "small team" of Americans raided the compound. After a firefight, the president said, they killed Bin Laden. No Americans were injured in the raid.

Other officials said DNA tests had confirmed Bin Laden's identity.

Obama praised the joint efforts of U.S. and Pakistani intelligence, and appealed to Muslims around the globe to support the U.S. action.

"Bin Laden was not a Muslim leader," he said. "He was a mass murderer of Muslims."

Vice President Biden and CIA director Leon Panetta had called members of Congress and leaders around the world earlier Sunday night to break the long-awaited news.

As the first word of Bin Laden's death leaked out, a jubilant and fast-growing crowd gathered outside the White House. The throng waved flags, chanted "USA! USA!," and sang the "Star Spangled Banner."

The news came months before the tenth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, which were orchestrated by Al Qaeda. More than 3,000 people were killed

The horrifying attacks set off a chain of events that led the United States into wars in Afghanistan, and then Iraq. As the nation girded for more attacks, America's entire intelligence system was overhauled to counter the threat of terrorist bombs or other attacks at home.

Al Qaeda also was blamed for the 1998 bombings of two U.S. embassies in Africa that killed 231 people and the 2000 attack on the USS Cole that killed 17 American sailors in Yemen, as well as countless other plots, some successful and some foiled. It has generated local organizations in hot spots from Iraq to Afghanistan.

Panetta, the CIA director, said as recently as last summer that the United States had not obtained reliable intelligence about bin Laden's location for almost a decade.

Bin Laden first drew attention in the 1980s, when he drew on his family's vast fortune to build hospitals, mosques and other facilities to help support Afghans then fighting Soviet troops in Afghanistan. The CIA considered him a financier, not a terrorist leader.

In 1991, Bin Laden bitterly opposed the introduction of U.S. troops onto bases in Saudi Arabia during the run-up to the first Persian Gulf War, which ousted Saddam Hussein's Iraqi troops from Kuwait.

His fiery sermons demonized the Saudi rulers, and infidel Westerners, and soon attracted like-minded extremists to Al Qaeda.

The CIA has been on bin Laden's trail since the mid-1990s, when it set up a separate intelligence unit to penetrate his organization and track his whereabouts.

After the embassy bombings in 1998, the Clinton administration undertook several intelligence and military operations aimed at killing him, including one in which cruise missile attacks were ordered against al Qaeda training camps in Afghanistan. All failed.

Al Qaeda's ranks have been badly depleted in recent years and Bin Laden's death deprives the organization of its most charismatic and important leader. It leaves Ayman al Zawahri, an Egyptian physician and Islamist ideologue, as the putative leader.

Analysts said the result is likely to accelerate the fracturing of militant groups loosely associated with al Qaeda, especially in the Middle East, that have taken their inspiration from bin Laden's call for attacks on the U.S. and its allies for the more than a decade.

It was Bin Laden's fervent call for attacks on the U.S.--which he referred to as the "far enemy"--and al Qaeda's ability to recruit and train operatives from its sanctuary in Afghanistan that led to some of the world's deadliest terrorist attacks.

Though the U.S. had made plans to hold and interrogate bin Laden if he was captured, most U.S. officials assumed that he would never be taken alive.

"You're talking about a hypothetical that will never occur," said Attorney General Eric H. Holder when asked in early 2010 if bin Laden would enjoy constitutional protections. "The reality is that we will be reading Miranda rights to the corpse of Osama bin Laden. He will never appear in an American courtroom."

bob.drogin@latimes.com; ken.dilanian@latimes.com; david.cloud@latimes.com

WikiLeaks Cables on Egypt

Diplomatic cables sent from American diplomats in Cairo — 2,752 are in the collection obtained by the antisecrecy group WikiLeaks – provide crucial background on the people and institutions in Egypt's government during the current struggle for the country's future. They also show American officials' close ties to the government of President Hosni Mubarak, despite occasional discomfort with his autocratic rule.

During a 2009 visit from Sen. Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak offered an analysis of Iraq that reflected both his fear of Iran and his doubts about democracy, according to a previously unpublished cable.

"Senator McConnell asked if the United States had made it easier for Iran by removing Saddam," the cable reported. "'Yes, removing Saddam from power was the biggest mistake ever committed,'" Mr. Mubarak replied.

The Egyptian leader said the Iraqi people "are are tough and bloody, and they need a very tough leader. They will not be submissive to a democratic leader."

Other cables offer revealing portraits of Omar Suleiman, the longtime intelligence chief, now promoted to vice president and overseeing talks with opposition figures, and Field Marshal Mohamed Tantawi, the defense minister. Cables make clear how the Mubarak regime has long used the putative threat of Islamic radicalism from the Muslim Brotherhood, the largest opposition group, to warn the United States not to push too hard for democracy in Egypt. And the cables shed light on Egypt's role in countering Hamas in Gaza and helping to manage Israeli-Palestinian negotiations.

Banking whistleblower hands over offshore secrets to WikiLeaks - video

In a news conference at London's Frontline club, Swiss banker Rudolf Elmer gives what he says are details tax evasion by the rich and famous to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, before flying home to stand trial over his actions

Watch Video

WikiLeaks get new data from Swiss tax whistleblower

A former Swiss private banker who was one of the first whistleblowers to use WikiLeaks by publishing internal bank documents on the site has pledged to hand over new data on offshore bank account holders on Monday, a newspaper said.
Rudolf Elmer, who was fired from Julius Baer in 2002 and who goes on trial in Switzerland on Wednesday for breaching bank secrecy, will hand over more data to WikiLeaks at a news conference in London, Der Sonntag reported on Sunday.
Elmer told the Swiss paper he would hand over two compact discs containing the names and account details of around 2,000 bank clients -- including prominent business people, artists and around 40 politicians -- who have parked their money offshore.
"The documents show that they hide behind banking secrecy, probably to avoid tax," Elmer told the newspaper.
He said he understood the data would likely not immediately show up on WikiLeaks while it went through a vetting process, however.
He said the data involved multimillionaires, international companies and hedge funds from several countries including the United States, Germany and Britain.
The data came from at least three financial institutions, including Julius Baer, he told the paper, and covered the period from 1990 to 2009, with many of the documents leaked to him from other whistleblowers.
Neither Julius Baer nor Elmer, who was the bank's former chief operating officer in the Cayman Islands, were immediately available for comment.
After coming under heavy global pressure over the bank secrecy that allows foreigners to hide their assets from the taxman in Switzerland, Berne has agreed to do more to cooperate with other cash-strapped countries hunting tax evaders.
Switzerland agreed last year to transfer the details of around 4,450 clients who UBS AG helped dodge taxes to the US government after it agreed to drop charges against the banking giant.
A former UBS banker-turned-whistleblower, who officials acknowledge was instrumental in the US case against UBS, is now in jail on charges he helped a US billionaire hide USD 200 million in assets.
Julius Baer has denied Elmer's allegations that it helped rich clients evade taxes and says he launched a campaign to seek to discredit the bank and some of its clients after he was dismissed. It also accuses Elmer of threatening individuals and altering documents.
Elmer, who has not been detained and can travel freely, first went to the US Internal Revenue Service in 2007 with data on eight clients. He has also testified in a case in Germany related to an investment called Moonstone Trust.
He helped win global publicity for WikiLeaks when he first used it to publish information in 2007.

The young soldier accused of leaking the secret documents that brought WikiLeaks

WASHINGTON — Julian Assange, the flamboyant founder of WikiLeaks, is living on a supporter’s 600-acre estate outside London, where he has negotiated $1.7 million in book deals and regularly issues defiant statements about the antisecrecy group’s plans.

Meanwhile, the young soldier accused of leaking the secret documents that brought WikiLeaks and Mr. Assange to fame and notoriety is locked in a tiny cell at the Quantico Marine Corps Base in Virginia. The soldier, Pfc. Bradley Manning, who turned 23 last month in the military prison, is accused of the biggest leak of classified documents in American history. He awaits trial on charges that could put him in prison for 52 years, according to the Army.

Even as members of Congress denounce both men’s actions as criminal, the Justice Department is still looking for a charge it can press against Mr. Assange, demanding from Twitter the account records, credit card numbers and bank account information of several of his associates. Legal experts say there are many obstacles to a prosecution of the WikiLeaks founder, but one approach under consideration is to link the two men in a conspiracy to disclose classified material.

Accusations from supporters that Private Manning is being mistreated, perhaps to pressure him to testify against Mr. Assange, have rallied many on the political left to his defense. The assertions have even drawn the attention of the United Nations’ special rapporteur on torture, Juan E. Mendez, who said he had submitted a formal inquiry about the soldier’s treatment to the State Department.

Private Manning’s cause has been taken up by the nation’s best-known leaker of classified secrets, Daniel Ellsberg, who gave the Pentagon Papers to the press in 1971. He denounces Private Manning’s seven months in custody and media coverage that has emphasized the soldier’s sexual orientation (he is gay) and personal troubles. Mr. Ellsberg, 79, calls him a courageous patriot.

“I identify with him very much,” Mr. Ellsberg said. “He sees the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, I’d say correctly, as I saw Vietnam — as hopeless ventures that are wrong and involve a great deal of atrocities.”

The military rejects accusations that Private Manning has been mistreated. “Poppycock,” said Col. T. V. Johnson, a Quantico spokesman. He insisted that the conditions of confinement were dictated by brig rules for a pretrial detainee like Private Manning. The soldier has been designated for “maximum custody” — applied because his escape would pose a national security risk — and placed on “prevention-of-injury watch,” restrictions imposed so that he does not injure himself.

That status is based on the judgment of military medical experts and the observations of brig guards, Colonel Johnson said. Guards check Private Manning every five minutes but allow him to sleep without interruption from 10 p.m. to 5 a.m., when only dim night lights are on, unless they need to wake him to be certain he is breathing.

Colonel Johnson denied that Private Manning was in solitary confinement, as has been widely claimed, saying that he could talk with guards and with prisoners in nearby cells, though he could not see them. He leaves his 6-by-12-foot cell for a daily hour of exercise, and for showers, phone calls, meetings with his lawyer and weekend visits by friends and relatives, the colonel said.

The prisoner can read and watch television and correspond with people on an approved list. He is not permitted to speak to the media.

“Pfc. Manning is being treated just like every other detainee in the brig,” said an internal military review concluded on Dec. 27 and read to a reporter by Colonel Johnson. “His treatment is firm, fair and respectful.”

The soldier’s lawyer, David E. Coombs, declined to comment for this article, and two people who have visited him at Quantico — Private Manning’s aunt, Debra Van Alstyne, and a friend who is an M.I.T. graduate student, David M. House — did not respond to queries.

In an interview with MSNBC last month, Mr. House said of his friend that he had “noticed a remarkable decline in his psychological state and his physical well-being.” He said that Private Manning appeared “very weak from a lack of exercise” and that “psychologically, he has difficulty keeping up with some conversational topics.”

In an account on Mr. Coombs’s Web site of his client’s “typical day,” he detailed the restrictions on the soldier but called the guards’ conduct “professional.”

“At no time have they tried to bully, harass or embarrass Pfc. Manning,” he wrote.

Asked why the case appears to be moving so slowly, an Army spokeswoman, Shaunteh Kelly, said that the defense had requested a delay in July and that a “706 board,” or mental health evaluation, was not complete.

She added in an e-mail that “Cases involving computers and classified information are very complex and require methodical investigation,” and that all lawyers, members of the 706 board and military investigators needed to get proper clearances.

Mr. Assange, with his provocative statements, his recognizable shock of white hair and the accusations of sexual misconduct he faces in Sweden, has become WikiLeaks’s public face. But while he began WikiLeaks in 2006, overseeing a steady trickle of revelations, the site drew broad attention for the first time only when it began to release the material that Private Manning is accused of downloading from his computer in Iraq, where he was a low-level intelligence analyst.

The material includes a video showing two American helicopters shooting at people in Baghdad in 2007, two of them Reuters journalists who were killed; thousands of field reports on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan; and 251,287 cables sent between American embassies and the State Department.

If Private Manning was indeed the source of the documents, as he suggested in online chat logs made public by Wired magazine, it is he who is largely responsible for making WikiLeaks a household name and the target of fury from the Pentagon, the State Department and members of Congress of both parties.

He is the only person charged in the WikiLeaks case so far. And despite his supporters’ suspicions that he will be pressured to testify against Mr. Assange, the Army spokeswoman, Ms. Kelly, said that to date, Private Manning had not spoken with civilian investigators or prosecutors.

Mr. Assange has often spoken highly of the soldier, to whose defense fund WikiLeaks has donated more than $100,000. In an article in the British magazine New Statesman on Thursday that called Private Manning “the world’s pre-eminent prisoner of conscience,” Mr. Assange said he believed the Justice Department’s goal was to force the soldier to confess “that he somehow conspired with me to harm the security of the United States.”

“Cracking Bradley Manning is the first step,” Mr. Assange said.

What WikiLeaks reveals about the changing map of global power

Andrew Hammond is a Director at ReputationInc. The opinions expressed are his own-

The WikiLeaks release last month of around a quarter of a million classified U.S. State Department documents has, by critics, been variously characterised as the “September 11 of world diplomacy” (Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini); an “attack on the international community” (U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton); and a threat to “democratic sovereignty and authority” (French Government Spokesman Francois Baroin).

Debate will long continue, across the world, about the rights and wrongs of WikiLeaks’ actions. Nevertheless, there can be no doubt that the episode has, highly regrettably, caused not inconsiderable damage to the United States.

Underlying many of these issues is the fundamental question of what the Wikileaks affair reveals about the changing map of influence and power in a world that continues to be transformed by the information revolution and economic globalisation. To date, these forces have generally reinforced U.S. pre-eminence for several reasons, including the country’s relative technological edge over much of the rest of the world (which will decrease over time); the fact that its dominant culture and ideas are very close to prevailing global norms; and its multiple channels of communication which help to frame global issues.

However, as the WikiLeaks’s releases underline, this emerging environment has simultaneously raised new challenges not just for the United States, but for all countries. For instance, with technological advances leading to vast increases in information, international publics have generally become more sensitive to “spin” and propaganda. Here, governments must not just compete for credibility vis a vis their foreign counterparts, but also with new actors such as Al-Jazeera and indeed WikiLeaks.

Information that appears to be spin or propaganda, or indeed sensitive leaks that are damaging, can undermine the credibility of a country and/or its government. For instance, pre-war intelligence controversies about Iraq damaged the reputation both of the United States and United Kingdom, and also of the Blair and Bush administrations.

In this current context, key dangers from the WikiLeaks episode for Washington (and certain of its allies) is potential backlash from some international publics, and also foreign elites proving more cautious in sharing information and cooperation going forwards. As Representative Peter Hoekstra, the ranking Republican on the House of Representatives Intelligence Committee has asserted, a “catastrophic issue here is a breakdown in trust”.

Taken overall, the WikiLeaks affair thus intensifies the already massive global public diplomacy and alliance-building challenge that President Barack Obama inherited from the Bush administration. While the Obama team has begun to make strides in the right direction, including on the strategic communications dimensions of the campaign against terrorism, its focus continues to be distracted by major political headaches such as this latest one.

Looking specifically at the campaign against terrorism, the scale of the public diplomacy task which Obama still faces is regularly highlighted in opinion polls. For instance, the 2010 Pew Global Attitudes Survey revealed that in Pakistan, Egypt and Turkey, just 17% of people have favourable perceptions of the United States. In the space of just twelve months, U.S. favourability in Egypt has dropped to 17% from 27%.

This public diplomacy problem, however, is not restricted to the Muslim world. Indeed, the 2010 Pew survey showed that in nine of 15 key countries public favourability towards the United States continues to lag behind that recorded at the end of the Clinton administration a decade ago.

It is important that the Obama team turns this climate of perception about the country around. This is because, in common with the Cold War, the challenges posed by the campaign against terror cannot be overcome by military might alone. In addition, the United States must redouble its efforts to win the battle for “hearts and minds”, especially in the Muslim world. This will help create an enabling (rather than disabling) environment facilitating both covert and overt cooperation and information sharing with U.S. officials.

It is true that some countries will continue to assist Washington because of factors such as self interest and/or fundamental agreement with U.S. strategy and policy. However, the degree to which other states do so, especially in critical theatres like the Middle East and Asia, will often depend heavily upon a mixture of the attractiveness amongst foreign publics, and the degree of trust within national elites, of the United States in general and the Obama administration in particular.

It would be a tragedy if these relationships become critically damaged by the WikiLeaks affair.

Against WikiLeaks Treasury Urged To Take Action

House Homeland Security Chairman Peter King, R-N.Y., Wednesday urged Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to place the whistleblower website WikiLeaks and its founder on a U.S. government list that would ban people and companies in the United States from conducting business with both.

WikiLeaks has come under fire by lawmakers and some Obama administration officials for releasing classified and other sensitive U.S. government documents, including most recently thousands of State Department diplomatic cables.

In a letter, King called on Geithner to place WikiLeaks and its founder Julian Assange on Treasury's Specially Designated National and Blocked Persons List, which is maintained by the department's Office of Foreign Asset Control. The list includes such groups and invidusals as terrorists and narcotics traffickers, according to the State Department.

"The U.S. government simply cannot continue its ineffective piecemeal approach of responding in the aftermath of WikiLeaks' damage," King wrote. "The administration must act to disrupt the WikiLeaks enterprise. The U.S. government should be making every effort to strangle the viability of Assange's organization."

King noted that U.S. firms such as Amazon.com, PayPal and Visa that had been doing business with WikiLeaks have since stopped. But he noted that Assange signed a book deal late last year with U.S. publishing company Alfred A. Knopf that will pay him about $1 million, which will help him keep WikiLeaks going. "Assange seems more emboldened than ever in WikiLeaks' continued viability," King added.

Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., along with Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Chairman Joe Lieberman, I-Conn., and Sen. Scott Brown, R-Mass., introduced legislation in the closing weeks of the last Congress that would amend the Espionage Act to make it illegal to publish the names of human intelligence informants to the U.S. military and intelligence community

How to Prevent the Next WikiLeaks Dump

When a U.S. Army intelligence analyst stole some 260,000 classified State Department diplomatic cables and gave them to WikiLeaks last year, he set off a digital-age collision. He also launched a debate about how to balance the values of a free and open society with our legitimate security needs.
We all support transparency, but these criminal leaks were not about open government. WikiLeaks's recklessness compromised our national security and could put the lives of our citizens, soldiers and allies at risk. Any claim that they were stolen and published on the Web in the name of "transparency" or "accountability" is belied by a cable WikiLeaks released that identifies sites around the world critical to U.S. national security, such as undersea communications cables, vaccine makers, and manufacturers of weapons parts. There is no justifiable reason for releasing this document: The intent can only have been to damage the United States and our allies.
Facilitating better information-sharing among federal law enforcement and civilian and military intelligence agencies was an important part of legislation enacted after the attacks of 9/11, including the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism Prevention Act of 2004, which we authored. Starting in 2006, the State Department made its cables available to military and intelligence agencies with the hope that the information could be used to detect and break up terrorist plots before they occurred.
The problem is that this information-sharing also made it possible for Army Pvt. Bradley Manning to access these cables—most of which had nothing to do with his intelligence duties in Iraq.
Clearly, we need to improve our network security. But a return to the pre-9/11 era, when agencies hoarded information, would compromise our national security. The 9/11 Commission found 10 specific incidences in which, had our law enforcement and intelligence agencies shared information, the attacks might have been prevented. Since the 9/11 Commission reforms have been implemented, we know that several major terrorist plots have been thwarted because federal intelligence and law enforcement agencies have successfully shared information with state and local law enforcement, as well as with our overseas allies.
The military's recent decision to completely ban the use of external storage devices like memory sticks and compact discs on sensitive computers is an appropriate temporary solution. But we must ensure that this measure doesn't hinder vital information-sharing in battlefield or crisis conditions.
All manner of technological and management controls should be explored to reduce the risk of unauthorized disclosures while enabling critical analysis of intelligence and other data. For instance, the 9/11 Commission Recommendations Act of 2007 required that military and civilian intelligence information-sharing systems install audit capabilities that would alert supervisors to suspicious download activity. Had this kind of security measure been in place, security officers might have detected the analyst's massive downloads before he was able to pass the cables on to WikiLeaks.
Relevant federal government agencies need to move quickly to develop and install these sorts of measures that are already working elsewhere in the intelligence community.
Another important step would be to move to "role-based" access to secure information. Instead of making all information available to everyone who has access to classified systems, a role-based system makes information available based on individuals' positions and the topics for which they are responsible. For example, State Department cables from a given embassy would be available to military officials who are deployed in that country or who work on issues related to that country, but not to the full population of cleared Department of Defense employees.
In sum, we must craft security solutions that balance the imperative to share sensitive information with the need to prevent disclosures that are harmful to national security.
Mr. Lieberman is an Independent Democratic senator from Connecticut. Ms. Collins is a Republican senator from Maine.

Lawmaker: U.S. subpoenaed Twitter information linked to WikiLeaks

(CNN) -- U.S. officials have subpoenaed information on the social media website Twitter about Julian Assange and several other prominent supporters of WikiLeaks, an Icelandic lawmaker named in documents said Saturday.

A federal court in Virginia has ordered Twitter to provide information for each account registered to Assange, U.S. Army Pfc. Bradley Manning, Rop Gonggrijp, a reported computer hacker from the Netherlands, and Birgitta Jonsdottir, a member of parliament in Iceland and a former volunteer with WikiLeaks, according to documents sent to CNN by Jonsdottir.

The order asks for subscriber names, user names, screen names, mailing addresses, residential addresses and connection records along with other information related to the accounts.

CNN could not independently verify the documents. Justice Department spokesman Charles Miller would not comment on the matter.

Jonsdottir, who met Assange a year ago and worked with WikiLeaks until last summer, called the U.S. demand for private information "unacceptable" and said she is consulting with lawyers in the United States on how to respond.

She said she had no idea why her Twitter account was of interest.

"I hope they don't think I am so naive that I would be doing any sort of messaging through the Twitter board of any significance or (that would be) incriminating," she said.

"This shows how nervous the U.S. government is," she said. "I think this should be handled better. I have done nothing illegal."

Jonsdottir said the Twitter legal team sent her an e-mail at 7:30 p.m. Friday informing her that the company would respond to the U.S. order in 10 days unless it received notice that a motion had been filed to quash the legal process. Gonggrijp also posted the notification he received on his website.

"We are writing to inform you that Twitter has received legal process requesting information regarding your Twitter account @birgittaj. The legal process requires Twitter to produce documents related to your account," the notification said, according to Jonsdottir.

Twitter spokeswoman Carolyn Penner said she would not speak about the specifics of the WikiLeaks case.

"We're not going to comment on specific requests, but, to help users protect their rights, it's our policy to notify users about law enforcement and governmental requests for their information, unless we are prevented by law from doing so," she said. "We outline this policy in our law enforcement guidelines."

The court documents provided by Jonsdottir show that the original order for Twitter to supply the information was given on December 14 and sealed. Judge Theresa C. Buchanan unsealed it January 5, authorizing Twitter to disclose the order to its subscribers and customers.

Jonsdottir posted a string of messages on Twitter on Saturday regarding the subpoena. One, posted just before 7 a.m., said: "Talked with the Icelandic minister of Justice -- he is now looking into the case of demands of DoJ wanting my twitter details."

Jonsdottir was once a spokeswoman for Wikileaks and worked on the website's release of a classified video last April that showed a U.S. Apache helicopter firing at and killing civilians -- including two Reuters news service journalists -- on the ground in Iraq.

WikiLeaks said the video "clearly shows the unprovoked slaying of a wounded Reuters employee and his rescuers." Public airing of the video forced the Pentagon to defend the actions of its troops in a report that concluded the Apache crew had no way of knowing the journalists were among suspected insurgents on the street.

Recently WikiLeaks has been publishing hundreds of thousands of pages of confidential U.S. military and diplomatic documents.

In late November, Attorney General Eric Holder said the Justice Department is conducting an "active, ongoing criminal investigation" into the WikiLeaks disclosure of secret U.S. diplomatic documents.

Manning is under arrest for leaking the Apache helicopter video and is the suspected leaker of the cables and other documents relating to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

"If he did indeed leak it, I consider it to be a citizen responsibility," Jonsdottir said, adding that she is concerned about Manning's condition in solitary confinement.

WikiLeaks' editor Assange is currently free on $310,000 bail but wears an electronic tag while he is fighting extradition to Sweden where prosecutors want him for questioning in connection with sexual misconduct allegations.

Profiles written about the once-elusive Assange say he keeps a residence in Iceland, where WikiLeaks web servers are reportedly located. Jonsdottir recently sponsored legislation that helped strengthen Icelandic laws to protect anonymous speech like that promoted by WikiLeaks.

Jonsdottir said Washington was looking for ways to have Assange extradited to the United States. She said she has been invited to speak at a conference on freedom of information in Florida in June but is fearful of being treated like a terrorist.

America, she said, has always prided itself on being a nation of individual freedoms. But the reaction to WikiLeaks has called that into question, she said.

WikiLeaks treat incitement seriously or expect more Gabrielle Gifford killing sprees

Wikileaks today offered sympathy and condolences to the victims of the Tucson shooting together with best wishes for the recovery of U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords. Giffords, a democrat from Arizona's 8th district, was the target of a shooting spree at a Jan 8 political event in which six others were killed.

Tucson Sheriff Clarence Dupnik, leading the investigation into the Gifford shooting, said that "vitriolic rhetoric" intended to "inflame the public on a daily basis ... has [an] impact on people, especially who are unbalanced personalities to begin with." Dupnik also observed that officials and media personalities engaging in violent rhetoric "have to consider that they have some responsibility when incidents like this occur and may occur in the future."

WikiLeaks staff and contributors have also been the target of unprecedented violent rhetoric by US prominent media personalities, including Sarah Palin, who urged the US administration to “Hunt down the WikiLeaks chief like the Taliban”. Prominent US politician Mike Huckabee called for the execution of WikiLeaks spokesman Julian Assange on his Fox News program last November, and Fox News commentator Bob Beckel, referring to Assange, publicly called for people to "illegally shoot the son of a bitch." US radio personality Rush Limbaugh has called for pressure to "Give [Fox News President Roger] Ailes the order and [then] there is no Assange, I'll guarantee you, and there will be no fingerprints on it.", while the Washington Times columnist Jeffery T. Kuhner titled his column “Assassinate Assange” captioned with a picture Julian Assange overlayed with a gun site, blood spatters, and “WANTED DEAD or ALIVE” with the alive crossed out.

John Hawkins of Townhall.com has stated "If Julian Assange is shot in the head tomorrow or if his car is blown up when he turns the key, what message do you think that would send about releasing sensitive American data?"

Christian Whiton in a Fox News opinion piece called for violence against WikiLeaks publishers and editors, saying the US should "designate WikiLeaks and its officers as enemy combatants, paving the way for non-judicial actions against them."

WikiLeaks spokesman Julian Assange said: "No organisation anywhere in the world is a more devoted advocate of free speech than Wikileaks but when senior politicians and attention seeking media commentators call for specific individuals or groups of people to be killed they should be charged with incitement -- to murder. Those who call for an act of murder deserve as significant share of the guilt as those raising a gun to pull the trigger."

“WikiLeaks has many young staff, volunteers and supporters in the same geographic vicinity as these the broadcast or circulation of these incitements to kill. We have also seen mentally unstable people travel from the US and other counties to other locations. Consequently we have to engage in extreme security measures.”

“We call on US authorities and others to protect the rule of law by aggressively prosecuting these and similar incitements to kill. A civil nation of laws can not have prominent members of society constantly calling for the murder and assassination of other individuals or groups.”

WikiLeaks Losing $600k Per Week, Delaying Bank Doc Dump

The financial world was abuzz when rumors surfaced of a major document dump from WikiLeaks destined to embarrass one of America's banking giants.

Bank of America reportedly set up a crisis team to deal with the dump, and stocks fell on the rumors.

The financial system can take a breather, however, for now.

In an interview with two Swiss newspapers, Assange said WikiLeaks has been losing "600,000 francs," the equivalent of roughly $618,000, every week since they first began publishing diplomatic cables.

While external political pressures on WikiLeaks have not deterred their work, their financial troubles have certainly caused problems, Assange said.

CBS News Special Report: WikiLeaks

"We will not divulge (the banking documents we have) right away," Assange said. "We are too busy with the diplomatic cables and with our financial troubles."

Despite reports of a book deal worth more than $1 million, Assange said the money has not been realized yet, and that he will only truly see a financial windfall from his memoir if it sells well.

Assange does not divulge in the interview with Swiss papers exactly what is costing his website so much money.

WikiLeaks has, however, been the target of frequent cyberattacks, and it has also had several avenues for receiving funds, from PayPal to Mastercard, cut off.

Additionally, Assange himself has been dealing with a lengthy legal process in England involving sexual assault charges in Sweden.

The rate at which WikiLeaks has released U.S. diplomatic cables to the public has slowed dramatically in the last few weeks. Assange assured his Swiss interviewers, however, that things more or less function normally with his website, despite the financial difficulties.