Hunt WikiLeaks chief down like Osama bin Laden: Sarah Palin demands Assange is treated like Al Qaeda terrorist



U.S. launches criminal investigation into Assange

Australia looks into whether he has broken local laws



39-year-old is already facing rape inquiries in Sweden

Sarah Palin has demanded that WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange is hunted down like Osama bin Laden.

In an extraordinary outburst on Facebook, the former Alaska governor attacked the White House for 'incompetent handling of this whole fiasco.'

'First and foremost, what steps were taken to stop Wikileaks director Julian Assange from distributing this highly sensitive classified material especially after he had already published material not once but twice in the previous months?.' she wrote.

Attack: Republican Sarah Palin (left) has claimed WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange should be treated like a terrorist



'Assange is not a "journalist," any more than the "editor" of al Qaeda's new English-language magazine Inspire is a "journalist."



'He is an anti-American operative with blood on his hands.



'His past posting of classified documents revealed the identity of more than 100 Afghan sources to the Taliban.



'Why was he not pursued with the same urgency we pursue al Qaeda and Taliban leaders?'

Palin claimed that the administration's inability to hunt down Assange showed a lack of effort.

It emerged today that the U.S. has opened a criminal investigation into whether the 39-year-old could be charged under its Espionage Act for releasing secret diplomatic documents.

And he is facing a separate criminal inquiry in his native Australia where police are investigating whether the latest leak has broken any local laws.

Mr Assange, who is believed to be in London, is already facing a criminal investigation in Sweden where two women have accused him of rape.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder today said the American government is in the midst of an 'active, ongoing criminal investigation' into WikiLeaks.

The latest disclosures, involving classified and sensitive State Department documents, jeopardised the security of the nation, its diplomats, intelligence assets and relationships with foreign governments, General Holder said.

On the warpath: U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said the latest WikiLeaks disclosures jeopardised the security of the nation, its diplomats, intelligence assets and relationships with foreign governments

Speaking to the Washington Post, General Holder did not confirm whether Mr Assange would be charged for violations of the Espionage Act, nor whether such an indictment was imminent.



But former CIA general council Jeffrey H Smith told the newspaper: 'I'm confident that the Justice Department is figuring out how to prosecute him.'



Mr Assange was last night warned that he could face criminal charges if he ever returns to Australia.

Australian attorney general Robert McClelland said police are investigating whether the latest leak of secret U.S. documents had broken any Australian laws.

There have also been claims that the U.S. is putting pressure on Australia to cancel Mr Assange's Australian passport., but this was flatly denied by Mr McClelland.

A range of options were under consideration by Australian government agencies in response to the latest disclosure of classified U.S. material, he said.

Mr McClelland told reporters there were 'potentially a number of criminal laws' that could have been breached.

Australia's Defence Minister Stephen Smith said later that a cross-government committee was studying the documents to see what damage could have been done by their release.

Mr Smith said: 'We need to take it... step by step, but our starting and end point is essentially protecting Australia's national interest.

'This is an act which again one has no option but to absolutely condemn it. It potentially puts national security interests and it puts the safety and welfare of individuals at stake.'

Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard last week condemned the planned leaks as reckless and potentially harmful to national security interests.

Senior U.S. politicians, meanwhile, have launched a series of scathing attacks against Wikileaks, even demanding for the website to be treated as a terrorist organisation.

Controversy: The WikiLeaks disclosures have made headlines around the world

Peter King, a Republican congressman and incoming chairman of the House homeland security committee, called on Washington to pursue aggressively Wikileaks and Mr Assange for violating the Espionage Act.



Senator Joe Lieberman, chairman of the Senate homeland security committee, said those responsible for the 'outrageous, reckless and despicable' leaks 'are going to have blood on their hands'.

He urged the U.S. to do everything it could to shut down the whistle-blowing website.



According to Peter Hoekstra, the senior Republican on the House intelligence committee, the documents contained a 'whole number of time bombs' and he described the likely breakdown in trust between the US and other countries as a 'catastrophic issue'.

Mr Assange is already facing a criminal investigation in Sweden where two women have accused him of rape.

He strongly denies the charges, which stem from his encounters with two women during a visit to Sweden in August.

Court documents filed by a Swedish prosecutor show Mr Assange is suspected of raping and sexually molesting a woman in the town of Enkoping, central Sweden.

He is suspected of sexual molestation and unlawful coercion of the second woman in Stockholm.

The prosecutor's office began an investigation into allegations of rape against Mr Assange in September.

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The office now wants to detain him for questioning. If the request is granted, authorities could issue an international arrest warrant.

'The reason for my request is that we need to interrogate him. So far, we have not been able to meet him to carry out the interrogations,' said Marianne Ny, leading the case for the Prosecution Authority.

A police report shows that the women had met Mr Assange in connection with a seminar he gave in Stockholm on August 14. The women filed their complaints together six days later.

Investigators initially disagreed on how to deal with the case.

A Stockholm prosecutor started a rape investigation that was dropped by the city's chief prosecutor a day later. Ms Ny reopened it the following week.

He had been seeking to build a base in Sweden, where some his servers are located, because of its strict journalist protection laws.

Swedish immigration authorities denied Mr Assange a residence permit and earlier this month he said he may seek political asylum in Switzerland.

