Hyde
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Interpol warrant for WikiLeaks chief as chaos spreads
Updated at: 0801 PST, Wednesday, December 01, 2010
WASHINGTON: Interpol on Wednesday issued a global arrest warrant for the shadowy founder of WikiLeaks, as the chaos from its massive dump of secret US cables spread from governments to financial markets.
The United States suspended the military's access to some sensitive US diplomatic correspondence in a bid to stop new leaks, as the leaders of France and Pakistan were the latest to be stung by cables obtained by the website.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, a 39-year-old Australian computer hacker, is wanted in Sweden for questioning over the alleged rape and molestation of two women. Assange has denied the charges.
Interpol, which is based in Lyon, France, said early Wednesday local time that it had alerted all member states to arrest Assange if he is spotted. He spends much of his time in Britain and Sweden.
Assange is said to lead a spy-like life of rarely sleeping in the same place twice. Ecuador's left-leaning government initially offered Assange residency, but President Rafael Correa backtracked Tuesday.
Assange told a magazine that the bank leak would "give a true and representative insight into how banks behave at the executive level in a way that will stimulate investigations and reforms, I presume."
In another interview conducted from an undisclosed location over Internet phone, Assange told a magazine that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton should resign over a cable that appeared to show the United States ordered diplomats to spy on foreign officials, particularly at the United Nations.
State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said that Clinton did not draft the document and that her name was affixed systematically to many cables out of Washington.
Crowley said the State Department had temporarily suspended the Pentagon's access to some of its correspondence, halting a trend to greater information sharing within the US government launched after the September 11, 2001 attacks.