Charges would sidestep First Amendment issues

(NEWSER) - Federal prosecutors searching for criminal charges to lodge against Julian Assange are trying to build a conspiracy case against him. Officials are trying to determine whether the WikiLeaks founder encouraged accused leaker Bradley Manning to provide the site with classified files, the New York Times reports. Prosecutors are examining chat logs in which Manning claimed to have directly communicated with Assange. More»

Naomi Wolf: The nation is lax on sex crimes, until now

(NEWSER) - Naomi Wolf finds it a wee bit fishy that Sweden does a lousy job at pursuing rape cases—unless your name happens to be Julian Assange. She dispels the "bizarre fantasy" that Sweden is a "progressively post-feminist paradise" quick to go after men who cross the line. Far from it. Sweden has a higher rate of rapes than the US and a lower rate of prosecution, she writes at the Huffington Post . More»

Glenn Greenwald takes a long look at 'inhumane' detention

(NEWSER) - With so much attention focused on Julian Assange, it’s easy to forget about the plight of accused leaker Bradley Manning—who has now been imprisoned for seven months without being convicted of any crime. In an extensive Salon piece , Glenn Greenwald lays out the case for why he believes that Manning’s solitary confinement constitutes “cruel and inhumane treatment and, by the standards of many nations, even torture.” Greenwald talks to people familiar with the conditions, including an official at the brig where Manning is being held, and cites numerous studies and expert opinions to come to his conclusions about torture. More»

Personnel denied access to New York Times , other sites

(NEWSER) - The Air Force has blocked more than 25 websites from its computer system, effectively barring its personnel from using work computers to view the New York Times and other news sites that published documents released by WikiLeaks. Users who attempt to access these sites see a message reading "Access Denied: Internet usage is logged and monitored" and are warned that people trying to access unauthorized sites may be punished the Wall Street Journal reports. More»

Microblogging site has come a long way

(NEWSER) - Twitter is celebrating the end of the year by crowning 2010’s “most powerful tweets.” What constitutes a powerful tweet? Well, here’s the list, with context in italics.

1. AnnCurry @ usairforce find a way to let Doctors without Borders planes land in Haiti: http://bit.ly/8hYZOK THE most effective at this. (Reporter Ann Curry’s tweet is said to have convinced the US Air Force to give a Doctors Without Borders plane clearance to land in Haiti following the quake.)
2. Whitehouse Welcome to @ twitter President Medvedev! RT @ KremlinRussia_E : Hello everyone! I'm on Twitter, and this is my first tweet. (When Dmitry Medvedev joined Twitter, the White House was quick to congratulate him. Later, Obama said that " the Twitters " could replace the red phones.)
3. Leigh Fazzina I've had a serious injury and NEED Help! Can somone please call Winding Trails in Farmington, CT tell them I'm stuck bike crash in woods. (Fazzina, a triathalete, had no cell reception when she crashed in the forest, but saved her own life with this tweet.)