GENEVA/LONDON: The UN’s human rights chief on Thursday expressed concern about pressure on private companies to stop providing financial or internet services for whistleblower site Wikileaks.
"I’m concerned about reports of pressure exerted on private companies, including banks, credit card companies, to close down credit lines for donations to WikiLeaks as well as to stop hosting the website or its mother sites," said Navi Pillay, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
"They could be interpreted as an attempt to censor the publication of information, thus potentially violating WikiLeaks’ right to freedom of expression," she said at a press conference.
"If WikiLeaks has committed any recognizable illegal acts then this should be handled through the legal system and not through pressure and intimidation including on third parties," she said.
Meanwhile, hackers stepped up their cyber war in support of WikiLeaks on Thursday as the embattled whistleblowers released memos showing that the United States views China as a "pernicious" competitor in Africa.
The Swedish government’s website was forced offline after a group calling itself "Anonymous" vowed to intensify its "war of data" against Mastercard, Visa and other groups which have blocked funding to WikiLeaks.
Organizers of the group said thousands of volunteers had joined the defense of WikiLeaks and its founder Julian Assange, who is in jail in London on an extradition request from Sweden over sex crimes allegations.
"This is a war of data, we are trying to keep the internet open and free for everyone, just the way the internet has been and always was," said a spokesman for Anonymous, a man with a British accent calling himself "Coldblood".
"Some of the main targets involve Amazon, Mastercard, Visa and PayPal," he told BBC radio.
In an online chat with AFP, organizers said they had started with only around 50 users taking part in the distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks that bombard websites to take them offline, but now had around 4,000.
"We recruit through the internet, that means, everywhere: imageboards, forums, Facebook, Twitter … you name it, we’re using it," they said.
Twitter and Facebook later removed accounts for the Anonymous group’s "Operation Payback" campaign on the grounds that it was targeting individuals.
As well as Mastercard, Visa and PayPal, hackers have also shut the website of the Swiss Post Office bank for severing ties to WikiLeaks and the website of the Swedish prosecutor’s office for pursuing Assange.
The latest apparent victim was the Swedish government, according to a report in the country’s top-selling daily newspaper.
Aftonbladet said the official government website, http://www.regeringen.se/, was offline for a few hours overnight to Thursday, publishing a screen shot which showed the server could not be reached.
The paper also reported that WikiLeaks supporters had created a website bearing Swedish Justice Minister Beatrice Ask’s name which then redirected users to WikiLeaks own site.
Members of Anonymous also took aim on Wednesday at the websites of US conservative standard bearer Sarah Palin and US Senator Joe Lieberman, who called for US companies to withdraw technical support for WikiLeaks.
Palin has described Assange as "an anti-American operative with blood on his hands" and called for him to be hunted down like Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden.
Assange is currently in a south London prison. He handed himself into police on Tuesday after Sweden issued a European arrest warrant and he was then refused bail.
His lawyers, who plan to visit him later Thursday, said Assange remains in "very good spirits". They said they will discuss a possible bid to win his release on bail ahead of a December 14 hearing on extradition to Sweden.
"My colleague Mark Stephens spoke to him yesterday and he was in very good spirits. He (Assange) was confident that we will be able to clear his name and that we will be able to beat this," lawyer Jennifer Robinson told AFP.
His supporters have vowed the arrest will not halt the flow of secrets, with the latest revelations causing more embarrassment for Washington.
The most explosive came in an assessment by Johnnie Carson, the US assistant secretary of state for African affairs, who illustrated the tensions caused by China’s increasing involvement in resource-rich Africa.
"China is a very aggressive and pernicious economic competitor with no morals. China is not in Africa for altruistic reasons," Carson said in a February meeting with oil executives in Nigeria.
"China is in Africa for China primarily," he said, according to a confidential cable written by the US consul-general in Lagos.
Carson said another reason was to "secure votes in the United Nations from African countries" to forward China’s own aims, and also to limit diplomatic support for its rival Taiwan.
Other cables showed Washington put intense pressure on Berlin to not enforce arrest warrants against CIA agents involved in the 2003 abduction of a German citizen mistakenly believed to be a terrorist.
And senior Australian politicians insisted Sports Minister Mark Abib was not a "spy" for Washington after WikiLeaks cables reportedly revealed he was a "protected" source for the US.
