Biodun@bbcnews.com

17 December 2010 Last updated at 07:55 ET

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Julian Assange spoke to Newsnight's Kirsty Wark after being released on bail

Wikileaks Revelations

by Emily Straton and Biodun Iginla. Emily reported from London

___________________________________

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has said the United States is conducting an "aggressive" and "illegal" investigation into him and his site.

Mr Assange is free on bail while awaiting extradition proceedings to Sweden over sex allegations.

The 39-year-old said: "A lot of face has been lost by some people and some people have careers to make by pursuing a famous case."

Mr Assange denies the Swedish allegations, made by two women.

He is living in the house of supporter Vaughan Smith, near Bungay in Suffolk.

Mr Assange said he suspected an espionage indictment was being prepared in the US and he condemned the secrecy which surrounded his case.

The Australian added that Wikileaks is a "robust" organisation which will continue to publish information. He said it had so far published only 2,000 out of the 250,000 cables.

He said: "During my time in solitary confinement in the basement of a Victorian prison, my colleagues were publishing material" He highlighted allegations published on Friday about India torturing people in Kashmir.

'Continuing vendetta'

Ata hearing at the High Court in London on Thursday, Mr Justice Ouseley ordered Mr Assange be bailed on payment of £240,000 in cash and sureties.

The judge imposed strict bail conditions including wearing an electronic tag, reporting to police every day and observing a curfew.

Bail sureties providers

Phillip Knightley - Australian journalist
Felix Dennis - publisher
Sir John Sulston - Nobel-winning scientist
Lord Matthew Evans - Labour peer
Prof Patricia David

Source: Mark Stephens, solicitor

Mr Assange must also reside at the manor home on the Norfolk-Suffolk border owned by Mr Smith, a Wikileaks-supporting journalist and owner of the Frontline Club in London.

Mr Assange's solicitor Mark Stephens said after the court appearance that the bail appeal was part of a "continuing vendetta by the Swedes".

Speaking to the BBC after his release, Mr Assange said there was a rumour from his lawyers in the US that there had been an indictment made against him there.

A spokeswoman from the US Department of Justice would only confirm there was "an ongoing investigation into the Wikileaks matter".

Mr Assange has received the backing of a number of high-profile supporters, including human rights campaigners Jemima Khan and Bianca Jagger and film director Ken Loach.

Sex allegations

Wikileaks has published hundreds of sensitive American diplomatic cables, details of which have appeared in the Guardian in the UK and several other newspapers around the world.

He has been criticised in the US, where former Republican vice-presidential candidate Sarah Palin has said he should be hunted down like the al-Qaeda leadership.

Mr Assange argues the allegations against him are politically motivated and designed to take attention away from the material appearing on Wikileaks.

He is accused of having unprotected sex with a woman, identified only as Miss A, when she insisted he use a condom.

Mr Assange is also accused of having unprotected sex with another woman, Miss W, while she was asleep.

A full extradition hearing should normally take place within 21 days of the arrest. Mr Assange was arrested on 7 December, so this should be by 28 December.

However, in such a high-profile case, it is possible that a full extradition hearing will not take place for several months.

At that hearing Mr Assange will be able to challenge the warrant and raise any defences to the extradition request.

STANLEY A. WEISS || UPI Outside View Commentator
WASHINGTON, Dec. 16 (UPI) -- As U.S. President Barack Obama battles Senate Republicans over ratification of the new U.S.-Russia START treaty, it's worth remembering that the phrase at the heart of this treaty -- "arms reduction" -- was born 23 years ago this week, in a high-profile summit between the United States and the Soviet Union in Washington. [ FULL STORY ]

HARLAN ULLMAN || UPI Outside View Commentator
WASHINGTON, Dec. 15 (UPI) -- Karl Marx proclaimed that a "specter was haunting Europe." But it took decades before the specter of socialism became a reality in the formation of the Soviet Union. Today, a "cyberspecter" haunts us. We better be alert to it because we don't have decades to wait. [ FULL STORY ]

BEIRUT, Lebanon, Dec. 15 (UPI) -- Hezbollah may try to assert its claims to power if it runs into political trouble in the aftermath of an assassination probe, a Lebanese lawmaker said. [ FULL STORY ]

by Xian Wan and Biodun Iginla, BBC News and The Economist

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