WikiLeaks insiders urge Assange to step aside

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who is being investigated for sexual coercion and molestation in Sweden, has been urged to step aside by other organisers of the whistle-blowing website. They are concerned that his tarnished reputation is damaging to the site.

One WikiLeaks insider - Icelandic MP Birgitta Jonsdottir – has come out against her "friend" Assange, telling the Daily Beast she does not believe his claim that the Swedish case is part of a smear campaign against him, perhaps orchestrated by the US.

Swedish prosecutors reopened their investigation into Assange on Wednesday - an earlier rape charge was dismissed last month.
Jonsdottir says she has read the police files in the original Swedish and has "never seen this as a conspiracy".

There is no doubt that Assange is under intense pressure from the US. WikiLeaks has published a string of secret documents from around the world since its launch in 2006 but made its biggest enemies this year when it took on the Pentagon, releasing some 72,000 secret documents relating to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

And it is this work that Jonsdottir says is most important. She said:
"[Assange's] personal matters should have nothing to do with WikiLeaks. I have strongly urged him to focus on the legalities that He's dealing with and let some other people carry the torch."

She added: "I do consider myself to be Julian's friend. But good friends are the people who tell you if your face is dirty. There should not be one person speaking for WikiLeaks. There should be many people."

And the Daily Beast reported that another, anonymous WikiLeaks insider claims Assange has faced repeated requests to stand aside for weeks and said his insistence on "staying in charge of everything" was making a "mess for everyone". The site is gearing up to publish another 13,000 US military documents. ·