Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is the victim of a campaign of harassment and intimidation driven by the Obama administration.

Assange has turned himself into British authorities today and has been denied bail on the grounds he has no permanent address. The authorities did not accept the validity of the Australian address that he gave. He will remain in custody until December 14.

Assange says he does not consent to extradition to Sweden where he is wanted on 'sex charges.'

While the impression has been given that Assange is wanted for alleged rape, the reality is that he is wanted for supposedly violating an obscure Swedish law for having sex without a condom.

One of Assange's lawyers has accused Swedish prosecutors of 'making it up as they go along', and said that Sweden's justice system is destined to become the laughingstock of the world'for pursuing the case against Assange.

Another one of his lawyers has commented: 'I feel as if I'm in a surreal Swedish movie being threatened by bizarre trolls. The prosecutor has not asked to see Julian, never asked to interview him, and he hasn't been charged with anything. He's been told he's wanted for questioning, but he doesn't know the nature of the allegations against him.'

Meanwhile with less than one percent of the US State Department cables released, more businesses are pulling the plug on Wikileaks.

After Amazon and PayPal cut off the site, both Mastercard and Visa have now moved suspend service to WikiLeaks.

Responding to the news, freelance data journalist James Ball commmented on Twitter: "For freedom of speech, there's Wikileaks. For everything else, there's Mastercard. And Visa. And, um, Paypal And Amazon."

Wikileaks finds itself caught in a pincer movement driven by powerful government and corporate forces.

But, despite all this, Wikileaks remains online.

Julian Assange is threatening to drop 'a thermonuclear device' into cyberspace. This is reported to be a 1.4 GB encrypted file which has been downloaded by tens of thousands of supporters. The 256 digit code believed to unlock the file will be released only on Assange's instructions.

Various media reports says the file includes secret documents on British Petroleum, the US-run Guantanamo Bay detention facility and the Obama administration's dealings with Wall Street.

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