Researcher detained at U.S. border, questioned about Wikileaks

LAS VEGAS -- A security researcher involved with the Wikileaks Web site was detained by U.S. agents at the border for three hours and questioned about the controversial whistleblower project as he entered the country on Thursday to attend a hacker conference, sources said on Saturday.

He was also approached by two FBI agents at the Defcon conference after his presentation on Saturday afternoon about the Tor Project.

Jacob Appelbaum, a Seattle-based programmer for the online privacy protection project called Tor, arrived at the Newark, New Jersey, airport from Holland flight Thursday morning when he was pulled aside by customs and border protection agents who told him he was randomly selected for a security search, according to the sources familiar with the matter who asked to remain anonymous.

Appelbaum, a U.S. citizen, was taken into a room, frisked and his bag was searched. Receipts from his bag were photocopied and his laptop was inspected but it's not clear in what manner, the sources said. Officials from the Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the U.S. Army then told him he was not under arrest but was being detained, the sources said. They asked questions about Wikileaks, asked for his opinions about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and asked where Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is, but he declined to comment without a lawyer present, according to the sources. He was not permitted to make a phone call, they said.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/wikileaks-editor-interrogated-by-us-border-police-2041235.html

"Talking to The Independent at DefCon at the weekend, he angrily rejected comments from the US joint chiefs of staff, Admiral Mike Mullen, who said of Wikileaks and its volunteers last week that "they might already have on their hands the blood of some young soldier or that of an Afghan family" because insurgents could use information in the documents to launch reprisals."

"When you have been waging war for 10 years, who are you to say that?" Mr Appelbaum said. "What are you thinking, writing these people's names down? And what are you doing in concrete terms to protect these people?" (snip)

"At DefCon, Mr Appelbaum refused to confirm or comment on his detention but defended Wikileaks' commitment to exposing information that governments around the world want suppressed. "All governments are on a continuum of tyranny," he said. "In the US, a cop with a gun can commit the most heinous crime and be given the benefit of the doubt. In the US, we don't have censorship but we do have collaborating news organisations."

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