WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange’s Senate run is in the spotlight Thursday after he announced seven WikiLeaks Party candidates for the upcoming Senate election in Australia. Assange, who has been trapped in the Ecuadorian embassy in London for over a year, is himself running for the Senate seat for the state of Victoria.
According to ABC News 24, the seven Australian Senate candidates include academics, ethicists, human rights activists, and journalists. The WikiLeaks Party said it will demand a more transparent asylum policy for Australian immigrants that will prevent them from being detained in Papua New Guinea for longer than 45 days.
That’s probably something Assange can sympathize with. Although he has been granted asylum in Ecuador, in practice he can’t leave their embassy in London. If he steps foot on British soil, the British authorities are committed to returning him to Sweden for questioning about sex allegations.
So there’s a problem. If Julian Assange wins the Senate seat , how can he serve?
According to the New York Times, Assange said that he can work long-distance thanks to his well-established WikiLeaks organization that allows him to have information from people on the ground on every continent.
But Australian political science professor John Wanna said, “He’s basically a nuisance candidate who may attract a bit of attention, because he’s not really about governing and sitting in Parliament. He’s not standing to do the work, he’s standing for the nuisance value.”
Either way, it appears that someone is not happy with Julian Assange’s announcement.
According to WikiLeaks, the party’s website was hit with a denial of service attack after Assange revealed the names of the candidates.
#WLParty website unavailable due to direct denial of service attack.
— The WikiLeaks Party (@WikiLeaksParty) July 25, 2013
Will ASIO investigate the foreign subversion of an Australian political party’s communications during an election? https://t.co/ZnbTZXikJX
— WikiLeaks (@wikileaks) July 25, 2013
Adam Bender for Computerworld said that a Twitter poster known as the Jester has already taken credit for the cyber attack on WikiLeaks.
And sure enough there seems to be a string of tweets from the Jester pretty much doing just that.
Hacked you say? I prefer to call it ‘surprise adoption’ – http://t.co/RS9C2TPvUN
— J?ST?R™ (@th3j35t3r) July 25, 2013
That was quick: WikiLeaks Party suffers denial of service attackThe Jester claims credit for taking down website. http://t.co/GfAME7mqH1
— J?ST?R™ (@th3j35t3r) July 25, 2013
I’m gonna highlight once again, my reasons for the latest shenanigans, before all the questions come in >> http://t.co/6NO78IMFPA
— J?ST?R™ (@th3j35t3r) July 25, 2013
There is much, much more, including a link the Jester posted of someone he says is Assange in a club in Iceland. If it was him, I guess he was pretty toasted at the time, but I’m not sure if getting your drink on disqualifies a man from a Senate seat.
Be that as it may, you get the idea. This hacker has little use for the thought of Julian Assange in the Senate.
[Julian Assange photo credit: New Media Days via photopin cc ]