[LINK] Wikileak founder's passport cancelled

[Kim Holburn]

http://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/14102229287
> Australian gov cancels, uncancels WikiLeaks editor's passport, drops  
> blacklist case http://bit.ly/aJ1ysM

I don't think it's been cancelled.  They would have taken it and kept  
it in that case.

On 2010/May/17, at 9:40 AM, Jan Whitaker wrote:

> [I don't understand. Does this mean he's a political prisoner in
> Australia? How can a country cancel a passport without charges? Do we
> know if he now has a new passport? Was this just a beat-up by  
> Fairfax?]
>
> http://www.theage.com.au/technology/technology-news/australian-wikileak-founders-passport-confiscated-20100516-v6dw.html
>
> Julian Assange, the Australian founder of the whistleblower website
> Wikileaks, says he had his passport taken away from him at Melbourne
> Airport and was later told by customs officials that it was about to
> be cancelled.
>
> Last year Wikileaks published a confidential Australian blacklist of
> websites to be banned under the government's proposed internet filter.
>
> The Age has been told that Assange's passport is classified
> ''normal'' on the immigration database, meaning the Wikileaks
> director can travel freely on it.
>
> Assange told The Age his passport was taken from him by customs
> officials at Melbourne Airport when he entered the country last week
> after he was told ''it was looking worn''.
>
> When the passport was returned to him after about 15 minutes, he says
> he was told by authorities that it was going to be or was cancelled.
>
> Passports are routinely taken from travellers for short periods by
> immigration officials if they are damaged.
>
> Wikileaks has risen to prominence for posting leaked footage of US
> forces laughing at the dead bodies of 12 people they had just killed
> in Iraq in 2007.
>
> It was in the Australian spotlight last year after publishing a
> confidential blacklist of websites that forms the basis of the
> government's proposed internet filter.
>
> The list as published by Wikileaks then blocked links to YouTube
> clips, sites on euthanasia, fringe religions, and traditional
> pornography - as well as the websites of a tour operator and a  
> dentist.
>
> The government says the intention is to block extreme sites depicting
> such things as child pornography, bestiality and rape.
>
> The Australian Communications and Media Authority has also asked the
> Australian Federal Police to investigate the leaking and publishing
> of the Australian internet blacklist.
>
> But a spokeswoman for the AFP said yesterday the federal police had
> dropped the case earlier this year because it was ''not in our  
> jurisdiction''.
>
> Assange said half an hour after his passport was returned to him, he
> was approached by an Australian Federal Police officer who searched
> one of his bags and asked him about his criminal record relating to
> computer hacking offences in 1991.
>
> Assange's allegations about his passport were first made on SBS
> current affairs program Dateline, which aired a story on the  
> Wikileaks founder.
>
>
>
> Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
> jwhit at janwhitaker.com
> blog: http://janwhitaker.com/jansblog/
> business: http://www.janwhitaker.com
>
> Our truest response to the irrationality of the world is to paint or
> sing or write, for only in such response do we find truth.
> ~Madeline L'Engle, writer
>
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-- 
Kim Holburn
IT Network & Security Consultant
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