U.S. subpoenaed Twitter information linked to WikiLeaks

(CNN) -- U.S. officials have subpoenaed information on the social media website Twitter about Julian Assange and several other prominent people connected to WikiLeaks, an Icelandic lawmaker also named in the documents said Saturday.

A federal court has ordered Twitter to provide information for each account registered to Assange, U.S. Army Pfc. Bradley Manning, Rop Gonggrijp, a reported computer hacker from the Netherlands, and Birgitta Jonsdottir, a member of parliament in Iceland and a former volunteer with WikiLeaks, according to documents sent to CNN by Jonsdottir.

The order asks for subscriber names, user names, screen names, mailing addresses, residential addresses and connection records along with other information related to the accounts.

CNN could not independently verify the documents and attempts to reach the Justice Department were unsuccessful early Saturday.

Jonsdottir called the U.S. demand for private information "unacceptable."

"This shows how nervous the U.S. government is," she said. "I think this should be handled better. I have done nothing illegal."

Jonsdottir said she was notified by Twitter at 7:30 p.m. Friday informing her that Twitter would respond to the U.S. order unless it received notice that a motion had been filed to quash the legal process. Gonggrijp also posted the notification he received on his website.

"We are writing to inform you that Twitter has received legal process requesting information regarding your Twitter account @birgittaj. The legal process requires Twitter to produce documents related to your account," the notification said, according to Jonsdottir.

Twitter spokeswoman Carolyn Penner said she would not speak about the specifics of the WikiLeaks case.

"We're not going to comment on specific requests, but, to help users protect their rights, it's our policy to notify users about law enforcement and governmental requests for their information, unless we are prevented by law from doing so," she said. "We outline this policy in our law enforcement guidelines."

Jonsdottir posted a string of messages on Twitter on Saturday regarding the subpoena. One, posted just before 7 a.m., said: "Talked with the Icelandic minister of Justice -- he is now looking into the case of demands of DoJ wanting my twitter details."

WikiLeaks has published hundreds of thousands of pages of confidential U.S. military and diplomatic documents over the past eight months.

In late November, Attorney General Eric Holder said the Justice Department is conducting an "active, ongoing criminal investigation" into the WikiLeaks disclosure of secret U.S. diplomatic documents.

Manning is under arrest as the suspected leaker of the cables and other documents relating to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

WikiLeaks' editor Assange is currently free on $310,000 bail but wears an electronic tag while he is fighting extradition to Sweden where prosecutors want him for questioning in connection with sexual misconduct allegations.

Profiles written about the once-elusive Assange say he keeps a residence in Iceland, where WikiLeaks web servers are reportedly located. Iceland recently passed laws to protect anonymous speech like that promoted by WikiLeaks.

Jonsdottir said she was friends with Assange and did research work for WikiLeaks. Now, as a lawmaker, she said, it was her duty to report the U.S. government's request.



via: CNN.com