The man who played with fire

FOUR years ago, a sometime hacker, based in Melbourne and now gone semi-legit, started a blog to share a few ideas and think out loud about some things. Nothing remarkable about that except the name - IQ.org - a pretty prime piece of real estate, grabbed early in the internet/web/blog explosion.
Like many blogs by people working in IT, it sought to understand political and social realities through mathematical reasoning. Power, it announced, was a conspiracy - even those organisations understood to be open and legit players relied on the essence of conspiracy, which is an imbalance between information inside and outside the group. The more you reduce that imbalance towards zero, the less powerful the conspiracy becomes, even if it has weapons and wealth at its disposal. When information is evenly shared, the conspiracy, by its very nature, ceases to exist.

If this rather clumsily written paper, ''Conspiracy as Governance'', is being read with more interest than most blog posts, it's because the author is one Julian Assange, founder of WikiLeaks, and its now visible, if not legendary, public face.
The Assange myth (ex-hacker, lives in airports, appears computer-generated himself) has now been the subject of innumerable articles, but with WikiLeaks about to launch a massive new cache concerning the Iraq war - a cache rumoured to be as large as 200,000 documents - and major US news networks drawn in to release the most newsworthy items, it was never likely that interest would diminish, especially among the US security apparatus.
Then, stunningly, a month ago, Assange was accused of rape and harassment in Sweden, with the investigation of the rape charges dropped and then revived in the space of a week. The extraordinary coincidence of the charges, coming at a time when Assange was seeking a Swedish residency permit in order to take full protection from the country's journalist shield laws, led many to wonder if the conspiracy was biting back.
This was amplified by the nature of the charges, which can be uniquely damaging to character and reputation, while also quelling full discussion of their veracity or otherwise. With the Iraq war document drop, and a final decision by the Swedish prosecutor's office imminent, it's pretty certain that Assange, the cast of characters around him and his compelling vision of political action will be hitting the news again, very soon.
The public facts of the matter are by now reasonably known: on August 20, two women went to the Klara police station in Stockholm to make complaints against Assange for rape and the particularly Swedish crime of ''ofredande'', best translated as ''infringement'' or ''misconduct''. Ofredande covers a wide range of things, from berating someone in the street, to stalking, to various misconduct between friends or more-than-friends. The subsequently leaked police report detailed that both women made allegations about unsafe sex and an alleged refusal by Assange to take an STI test.
The police opened parallel files on the same incidents, one for rape, the other for misconduct, and a junior fill-in prosecutor issued warrants on both charges. These were then leaked to the Expressen newspaper, making world news headlines on the Friday evening. The news caught the eye of holidaying chief prosecutor Eva Finne, who had the case notes couriered to her and dismissed the rape charge immediately, leaving the misconduct charges standing.
To add to the confusion, one of the complainants told Aftonbladet newspaper that she never wanted Assange charged with rape in the first place, and that ''this was about a guy who has a few problem attitudes to women''.
It is now that things get very strange, because the complainant reveals herself to be Anna Ardin, the political officer/press secretary for the ''the Brotherhood'', a Christian group within the Social Democrats, the party that has dominated Swedish politics and government for a century.
Once rather conservative, the Brotherhood has become a focus for leftish, third-worldish type Christians, and it was Ardin who had organised a series of speaking engagements for Assange. Assange had stayed at Ardin's flat for a week, in the middle of which he had had a dalliance with the second complainant, who had been taking photographs at one of his speaking appearances.
News that Ardin was a complainant rocked the student/youth political milieu, because one of her prior roles had been as gender equality officer in the student union at Uppsala University, Sweden's Oxford. Several months ago, Ardin had also published on her blog a 10-step guide to taking revenge on ex-lovers, one of which was to ''get them in trouble with the law''.
The misconduct Assange was charged with is a misdemeanour, and it appeared that the rape charge had been dissolved. But that week, Ardin and SW (the other complainant) hired leading lawyer Claes Borgstrom to represent them, and Borgstrom petitioned a yet higher prosecutor. Borgstrom is not merely a high-profile brief; he has recently been the Social Democratic party's spokesman on gender equality. The prosecutor he approached was Marianne Ny, head of a special unit on ''crime development'' based in Gothenburg, a unit explicitly tasked with exploring and extending sex crime laws in areas of social behaviour.
On September 1, Ny announced she was re-opening the investigation into the charge of rape. Aftonbladet journalists who asked Borgstrom what the allegation was based on were told there was more evidence than had been revealed in the widely leaked police reports, but he would not disclose what it was.
Assange noted that he was yet to be confronted with any explicit charges of rape and that ''the whole process has gone on without my input''. He hired Sweden's most celebrated lawyer, Leif Silbersky, and then changed representation when it became clear that Silbersky's other case (defending a brace of men charged with a helicopter-based robbery of a bullion warehouse) was taking all his time. Some people think Sweden's boring. God knows why.
With the rape case re-opened, amid great confusion, it was inevitable that Ardin's politics and background would come under scrutiny.
The milieu of hackerdom is not without its conspiracy enthusiasts, who pointed to her stint in the Washington DC branch of the Swedish foreign service, that she had been deported from Cuba for working with the US-backed dissident group The Women in White, and that her close cousin Mattias Ardin is a lieutenant-colonel in Afghanistan.
Others focused on the role of Expressen newspaper, which had been leaked the report of the initial rape charges, in contravention of Swedish law, and then leaked the contents of a later police interview with Assange.
Expressen is right-wing, and has long been opposed to Sweden's policy of armed neutrality, advocating closer ties with the US. According to journalist Israel Shamir, the US threatened to cease sharing intelligence with SEPO, the Swedish secret service, should Assange get residency and be protected under its media shield laws - laws that would specifically frustrate any attempt to extradite Assange to the US.
Others who have tangled with secret services were in no doubt that something was afoot. Craig Murray, former British ambassador to Uzbekistan who had been sacked for criticising the US-UK alliance with the highly repressive country, said that ''Julian Assange has been getting the bog-standard 'kompromat''', the old KGB term for sexual compromise. Murray himself had been falsely accused of trading visas for sex. Others were more sceptical, with Mattias Svensson, editor of alternative magazine Neo, saying of arguments about US involvement: ''My instinct is that they're ridiculous''.
One of the country's leading legal commentators, Marten Schultz, argued that the chaotic progress of the case was because of an asymmetry in the Swedish legal system that allows police and prosecutors to leak information and thus damage reputations, while defence lawyers are legally prevented from doing so.
Everyone connected agrees that it's a mess and an embarrassment, and most will say that Assange's rights have been infringed, with leading international lawyer Geoffrey Robertson arguing that the Australian government should ''carpet'' the Swedish ambassador for Assange's treatment, and that Assange should make a case in the European Court of Human Rights.
Will the imminent document drop return attention from the Strindbergian drama of Assange and the two women to the two major wars that have been WikiLeaks' major focus? Even if the rape investigation peters out, it's unlikely.

ANC youth league challenges Zuma’s leadership

At a conference this week, Mr. Zuma’s opponents forced the party to consider the possible nationalization of South Africa’s mining industry – a highly controversial plan that Mr. Zuma has failed to dispel over the past year.
While he survived the conference with his leadership intact, there is growing speculation that Mr. Zuma will be pushed aside before the next election in 2014. He is widely perceived as weak and indecisive, and he has been criticized for scandals involving his multiple sexual partners and the business dealings of his family.
The fierce debate over nationalization, which led to unruly verbal battles at the party conference this week, is symbolic of the deep ideological splits in the African National Congress, the party that has ruled South Africa since the collapse of apartheid in 1994.
In the years since the resignation of Nelson Mandela as president in 1999, the party has been nearly torn apart by factional infighting over leadership and policy. Mr. Mandela’s successor, Thabo Mbeki, sacked Mr. Zuma as deputy president during a corruption scandal in 2005, but two years later Mr. Zuma got his revenge, defeating Mr. Mbeki in a contest for the ANC leadership.
He was elected President last year, yet was soon consumed by internal feuding among factions of the ruling party and its alliance partners in the trade union movement and the Communist Party.
His biggest challenger is the ANC’s youth league, headed by the populist firebrand Julius Malema, who has been pushing hard for nationalization of the mining industry. Three years ago, the youth league played a crucial role in Mr. Zuma’s victory over Mr. Mbeki, but this year it has clashed repeatedly with the President, implicitly criticizing his polygamous lifestyle and demanding “generational mix” in the ANC’s leadership – coded language for getting its young members into the party’s top positions.
At the party conference in Durban this week, youth league members heckled and shouted and finally forced the party to put nationalization onto its agenda, despite Mr. Zuma’s efforts to sidestep the issue. The party announced on Friday that its national executive will investigate the idea of nationalizing the mining sector, with a decision to be made by 2012, despite warnings that nationalization would frighten away investors, damage the economy and cost an estimated $280-billion – more than double the annual state budget.
Nationalization has now become “an issue to be processed by the whole organization” and is no longer just a youth league issue, Mr. Zuma acknowledged on Friday. His concession was greeted by loud cheers from party delegates.
Since taking power in 1994, the ANC has generally adopted a pro-business stance, but the continuing high rate of unemployment has fuelled demands for greater state intervention in the economy. By putting nationalization onto its formal agenda, the ANC is trying to placate those demands, but it ensures that the nationalization issue will continue to divide the party for years to come.
Mr. Zuma acknowledged the factional feuding in the party and the ruling alliance, warning his critics that there would be “consequences” if they “cross the line” by disrupting meetings or intimidating their rivals. “We have agreed that an alliance that is seen to be besieged with tension, squabbling and conflict does not inspire public confidence,” he said in his closing speech to the conference.
In another controversial move, the ANC decided to ask South Africa’s parliament to hold a public inquiry into the possibility of setting up a tribunal to hear complaints about the media. The idea has sparked widespread fears that the government is trying to muzzle the media, but Mr. Zuma alleviated some of the concerns by suggesting that the tribunal would be “independent of commercial and party political interests.”

Most favorites win in busy, colorful European Champions League action

Soccer's European Champions League is up and running again, and that means coaches suddenly have rediscovered the art of the memorable quotation.

On Wednesday, it was Domingos Paciencia, the coach of Portugal's Braga, who emerged as the clear winner in that regard with his post-match comments after Braga had been thrashed, 6-0, by Arsenal in London.

"We made so many mistakes," Paciencia said. "It's very hard to play the game as badly as we have done tonight . . . even finishing at halftime would have been a bad experience.

"We could not have played any worse. . . . It was a night to forget."

Arsenal led, 3-0, after 45 minutes en route to an emphatic victory at the Emirates Stadium. Spain's Cesc Fabregas and Mexico's Carlos Vela each scored a pair of goals.

"You don't need replays tonight to see that we can be very creative and very fast," said Arsenal Coach Arsene Wenger.

The team has never won the Champions League, the closest it has come being the runner-up spot behind Barcelona in 2006, but Wenger lives in hope.

"We haven't won it," he said, and "as long as we haven't, people will question us. You win it with quality; it's as simple as that."

Chelsea, a runner-up in 2008 but also never a winner, believes it has sufficient quality this season. On Wednesday, Coach Carlo Ancelotti's squad routed Zilina, 4-1, on the road in Slovakia, with Nicolas Anelka grabbing two first-half goals.

"We had chances, but the disparity was there," said Zilina Coach Pavel Hapal. "It was about players' speed, combination, strength. This was the reason" for the loss.

London will stage the Champions League final in May, so Arsenal and Chelsea, plus a third London club, Tottenham Hotspur, have added incentive to make it that far.

Meanwhile, nine-time champion Real Madrid began its campaign in less than convincing fashion, defeating Ajax Amsterdam, 2-0, in Madrid, where an own goal off a Xabi Alonso corner kick and a strike by Gonzalo Higuain were enough.

Jose Mourinho, who coached Inter Milan to the trophy last season before jumping ship and joining Real, was visibly angry on the sideline at all the squandered scoring chances, but was calm once the victory had been secured.

"I would be worried . . . if [goalkeeper Iker] Casillas had been the best player on the pitch," he said, "but he has hardly touched the ball in the last three matches.

"The goal will come. The best thing to do is nothing. Let them play. It's their natural habitat. One day a team will pay for it."

The team with the second-most European titles is AC Milan, and it got its Champions League run off to a promising start with a 2-0 win over Auxerre as Zlatan Ibrahimovic, recently acquired on loan from Barcelona, scored both goals.

"It's difficult to swallow," said Auxerre Coach Jean Fernandez, whose in-awe players were spotted taking photographs of the San Siro stadium before the kickoff. "We knew before the match that Milan had the better players."

Bayern Munich, last season's runner-up, made a winning start in Germany, where goals in the final quarter-hour by Thomas Mueller and Miroslav Klose earned Coach Louis van Gaal's team a 2-0 victory over AS Roma.

Afterward, Van Gaal all but apologized for the lackluster display.

"That is our game," he said. "The fans need to realize that it takes time for us to make the opponents tired. It's not always fantastic, just passing the ball around, but that's how you beat a defensive team."

In the day's only real upset, France's Olympique Marseille gave up an own goal and was beaten, 1-0, at home by Spartak Moscow after wasting numerous clear-cut chances.

"When you dominate and you can't score, you're never safe," said Marseille Coach Didier Deschamps.

Also on Wednesday, Romania's CFR Cluj defeated FC Basel of Switzerland, 2-1, in Romania and Shakhtar Donetsk of Ukraine edged Partizan Belgrade of Serbia, 1-0, in Ukraine.

Bees Roux's card user gets R2,000 bail

THE 29-year-old Mamelodi man arrested in connection with the theft and subsequent R8,000 shopping spree on two credit cards belonging to Blue Bulls player and murder accused Jacobus "Bees" Roux has been released on R2,000 bail.
Vusumuzi Ntloko, who appeared in the Pretoria magistrate's court, is facing 12 counts of fraud for the transactions made on the credit cards and one of theft for unlawful possession of the cards.
Ntloko allegedly picked up the cards at the scene where Sergeant Johannes Mogale, 38, was allegedly beaten to death by Roux, 28, on August 27.
Mogale and two colleagues had allegedly pulled over Roux for drunken driving. Mogale is said to have offered to drive Roux home but moments later he lay dead on the corner of Richard and Schoeman streets in the city centre.
By the time Ntloko was arrested at his workplace in Silverlakes, East of Pretoria, on September 3, he had already blown R8,000 on fried chicken, alcohol and electrical appliances.
Ntloko had been remanded in custody following his first appearance last week because the state feared that he might temper with material evidence at Makro where he is employed.
Chief prosecutor Matric Luphondo did not oppose bail yesterday because "the state had already secured evidence such as transaction records at Ntloko's workplace" where he allegedly spent R3,798 on electrical appliances.
Luphondo added that police were still searching for two more suspects and a vehicle used to transport purchased goods.
"The state does not oppose bail but we are in disagreement with the amount. The state proposes an amount of R2,000 considering the seriousness of the charges while the defence wants the accused to be released on R1,000.
"The state has a strong case against the case based on the CCTV footage in which the accused is caught on camera transacting on the cards," he said.
Ntloko's lawyer Eric Pitso said his client could not afford R2,000 because he has been suspended from work and his father was a pensioner.
Concurring with the state, Magistrate JC Kruger said: "Looking at the charges, I noted that out of 12 transactions made on the card six were for liquor. The state also has a strong case. The amount set by the state is reasonable."

Kruger postponed the matter to October 15 for further investigation. Luphondo asked to be excused from the case as it will coincide with Roux's matter, in which he is also the prosecutor.

No deal made to halt Quran burning, Muslim leader says

A Florida Muslim leader is disputing claims by the Rev. Terry Jones that he brokered a deal to get the Islamic center project near New York's ground zero moved if the pastor called off his Quran burning event.




Imam Muhammad Musri said Jones may have hatched the story about the Islamic center moving to "give himself a reason to call this off."



Jones "was trying to save face," Musri said Thursday night on CNN's "AC360."



Musri said he did not tell Jones that the Islamic center project would be moved away from ground zero.



'He's accusing me of lying to him, which I did not. I was very explicit with him." said Musri, who is with the Islamic Society of Central Florida.

Video: Fla. Imam was shocked by pastor's speech

Video: Uncertainty surrounds NY mosque move

Video: Pastor cancels Quran burning

RELATED TOPICS



* Terry Jones

* Islam

* First Amendment Rights



The disagreement between the two religious figures is the latest twist in the saga about the proposed Quran burning event.



President Obama and Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Thursday urged Jones to call off the Saturday event, timed for the ninth anniversary of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.



Jones said he would call off the event but then seemed to be changing his mind later Thursday. During the afternoon, Jones said he canceled his plan to burn copies of the Quran, based on what he said were assurances that the Islamic center in New York would be moved.



Late Thursday, Jones said he would "rethink our position" after Musri said he had never given Jones that assurance.



Jones, leader of the Gainesville, Florida-based Dove World Outreach Center, also announced he will travel Saturday to New York to meet with the religious leader behind the planned center, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, about a new location.



But that, too, was questioned.



Rauf and Musri have both said no agreement on a meeting or relocation of the mosque had been reached.



Wayne Sapp, associate pastor of the small church, said that the Quran burning scheduled for Saturday was postponed until the proposed meeting in New York is confirmed. The church will wait 24 hours to confirm the meeting will take place before making any further decision about the Quran burning, Sapp said.



Jones' plan to burn Qurans had set off a firestorm of concern, including from U.S. military leaders who said the event would imperil the lives of troops abroad.



The pastor told reporters Thursday that he took a phone call from Gates, who "was very gracious and encouraged us not to continue." The call was later confirmed by CNN.



Also Thursday, real estate mogul Donald Trump offered to buy the lower Manhattan site where the Muslim group plans to build an Islamic community center. Trump offered 25 percent more than the current owners paid for it.



Trump made the offer in a letter to Hisham Elzanaty, an investor in the Islamic center site.



"I am making this offer as a resident of New York and citizen of the United States, not because I think the location is a spectacular one (because it is not), but because it will end a very serious, inflammatory, and highly divisive situation that is destined, in my opinion, to only get worse," he wrote.



Rauf had said Wednesday evening that "nothing is off the table" when asked whether he would consider moving the site.



"We are consulting, talking to various people about how to do this so that we negotiate the best and safest option."



The imam told CNN's Soledad O'Brien on "Larry King Live" that "had I known [the controversy] would happen, we certainly would never have done this."



Asked if he meant he would not have picked the location, Rauf said, "we would not have done something that would create more divisiveness."



Obama called the plan by Jones to burn the Qurans on Saturday a "recruitment bonanza for al Qaeda."



"You could have serious violence in places like Pakistan or Afghanistan" as a result of the burning, Obama said on ABC's "Good Morning America." "This could increase the recruitment of individuals who'd be willing to blow themselves up in American cities, or European cities."

BP to release results of investigation into oil spill disaster

BP on Wednesday is expected to release findings of an internal investigation into the Gulf oil disaster, the oil giant said.
The report comes nearly five months after an April 20 explosion aboard an oil rig left 11 men dead and spewed millions of barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico over an 87-day period.
A federal task report on Tuesday said scientists have found a decline in oxygen levels in the Gulf following the BP spill, but no "dead zones."
Levels of dissolved oxygen in deep water have dropped about 20 percent below their long-term average, according to data collected from up to 60 miles from the well at the center of the worst oil spill in U.S. history.
But much of that dip appears to be the result of microbes using oxygen to dissolve oil underwater, and the decline is not enough to be fatal to marine life, said Steve Murawski of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and the head of the Joint Analysis Group studying the spill's impact.
"Even the lowest observations in all of these was substantially above the threshold," Murawski said.
The samples were collected from 419 points at varying distances from the ruptured well at the heart of the disaster and at depths as far down as 4,800 feet, the group reported. The task force is made up of NOAA, the Environmental Protection Agency and the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.
The undersea gusher erupted in April, releasing an estimated 4.9 million barrels (205 million gallons) of crude before being temporarily capped in July. The volume of oil -- and the amount of chemical dispersants used to break it up -- have created concerns about the long-term health of the Gulf.
The spill also delivered an economic blow to the region, where fisheries and beach resorts are major employers.
Early findings from a mid-August survey led by the University of South Florida indicated oil had settled to the bottom of the Gulf farther east than previously suspected and at levels toxic to marine life.
At about the same time, a team from Georgia Sea Grant and the University of Georgia released a report that estimates that 70 to 79 percent of the oil that leaked from the well "has not been recovered and remains a threat to the ecosystem."
The latest study "does not discuss the broad ecosystem consequences of hydrocarbons released into the environment," NOAA said. But it concludes that the oil is continuing to break up and disperse underneath the surface, making the emergency of a major oxygen-poor dead zone unlikely.
In early August, the federal government estimated that three-quarters of the oil spilled had either evaporated or been dispersed, or had been skimmed or burned off the surface.
The well has been temporarily capped and operations are under way to permanently seal it.

BP, rig owner Transocean and well cement contractor Halliburton have blamed one another for the disaster.

Tropical Storm Hermine crosses into Texas

McALLEN, Texas — Tropical Storm Hermine rolled into south Texas early Tuesday, bringing heavy rains and strong winds to an area battered by Hurricane Alex earlier this summer.
Hermine made landfall in northeastern Mexico late Monday and crossed into Texas within hours, bringing with it winds of up to 65 mph (100 kph). It moved on a path similar to the one Hurricane Alex took in late June, and like that Category 1 storm, threatened to dump up to a foot of rain in some areas and cause flash flooding.
Hermine was no Alex in terms of strength. But Hermine wasn't taken lightly: Mexican emergency officials in Tamaulipas worked to evacuate 3,500 people around Matamoros, across the border from Brownsville, Texas, and schools on both sides of the border canceled classes Tuesday.
By early Tuesday, the center of the storm had crossed the Rio Grande River. The National Hurricane Center said the storm was about 10 miles (15 km) south-southwest of Harlingen, Texas, and 20 miles (30 km) northwest of Brownsville. It was moving north-northwest at 14 mph (22 kph).
A tropical storm warning was in effect from Rio San Fernando, Mexico, north to Port O'Connor, Texas.
Hours after Hermine made landfall, Coast Guard Ensign Scott Kimball said a fishing vessel had run aground at a jetty near South Padre Island. He did not have any more immediate details.
Neighborhoods lost power while Hermine's center moved over Brownsville, said Joseph Tomaselli, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service. Parts of the Rio Grande Valley still drying out from Alex braced for as much as eight inches of more rain.
"It doesn't take a lot of rainfall to cause any flooding down there whatsoever," Tomaselli said.
Hermine was expected to dump 4 to 8 inches of rain while moving north through Texas and weakening into a tropical depression. It's possible a few areas could see up to a foot of rain. Tomaselli said remnants of Hermine will be felt as far north as Oklahoma and Kansas in the coming days.
In Mexico, Hermine brought another unwelcome downpour after remnant rains from Alex killed at least 12 people in flooding.
Mexico's northeast cattle-ranching region is one of the most dangerous hotspots in the country's bloody turf war between two drug cartels. It is the same area where 72 migrants were killed two weeks ago in what it believed to be the country's worst drug gang massacre to date.
Mexican emergency officials urged those living in low-lying coastal areas to move to shelters. Classes in Matamoros and several other Mexican towns were canceled, and authorities began releasing water from some dams to make room for expected rains.
"We urge the general population to be on alert for possible floods and mudslides," said Salvador Trevino, director of civil defense for Tamaulipas, where Matamoros is located.
In inland Hidalgo state, authorities said heavy rains caused by the passing storm unleashed landslides that damaged 20 homes, left 120 people homeless and cut off small communities.
Unlike Alex, Hermine's approach to Texas brought far less anxiety. No evacuations had been ordered as of early Tuesday, and shelters throughout the flood-prone Rio Grande Valley were on standby but were still keeping their doors shut.
On South Padre Island, Hermine came too late to ruin another long weekend on the tourist hotspot. Alex plummeted Fourth of July hotel occupancies to about one-third of what the island normally sees, but most Labor Day weekend vacationers were already packing up for home by the time Hermine came into the picture.
"It really crept up on us," said Dan Quandt, executive director of the South Padre Island Convention and Visitors Bureau.
Tornado watches were in effect for 16 Texas counties early Tuesday.
Associated Press Writers Jorde Vargas in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, Emilio Lopez in Pachuca, Mexico, and Jamie Stengle in Dallas contributed to this report.