Thread: 'Strange disappearance' of WikiLeaks consultant in Norway

WikiLeaks has raised concern after Arjen Kamphuis, an associate of founder Julian Assange, went missing in Norway. The cybersecurity expert was last seen in northern Norway on August 20.

The internet transparency entity WikiLeaks tweeted on Sunday about Arjen Kamphuis' "strange disappearance," saying he has been missing since August 20, when he left his hotel in the northern Norwegian town of Bodo.

WikiLeaks said that Kamphuis, an associate of founder Julian Assange, had a ticket for a flight departing on August 22 from Trondheim, which is over 700 kilometers (435 miles) south of Bodo.
"The train between the two takes (approximately) 10 hours," suggesting he disappeared either in Bodo, Trondheim or on the train, WikiLeaks said.

A website set up to gather information on the missing person says: "He is 47 years old, 1.78 meters tall and has a normal posture. He was usually dressed in black and carrying his black backpack. He is an avid hiker."

There have reportedly been two unconfirmed possible sightings, one in Alesund, Norway, and the other in Ribe, Denmark.

Norwegian police on the case

Norwegian police started looking into the disappearance on Sunday.
"We have started an investigation," police spokesman Tommy Bech told the French news agency AFP, adding that so far they had "no clue" where the Dutch citizen was.

The police "would not speculate about what may have happened to him," Bech said.

Norwegian police can't legally access his cellphone movement data until Kamphuis is officially reported missing in the Netherlands, according to the Norwegian Verdens Gang tabloid newspaper.

The Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs said it was aware of his disappearance after Kamphuis' friend and privacy activist Ancilla van de Leest tweeted about his disappearance.

https://www.dw.com/en/strange-disapp...way/a-45328433

Troll bashing?

Gitmo, another illegal CIA kidnapping by the US like NK is doing, how interesting

No worries...they'll throw him back soon enough.

Gotta be the Russians.......

Capture or rapture

Arjen Kamphuis: Belongings of missing WikiLeaks associate found in sea off Norway

The personal belongings of a WikiLeaks associate who has been missing for three weeks have been found at sea.

Arjen Kamphuis left his hotel in Bodoe, Norway, where he was on holiday, on 20 August and has not been seen since.

His belongings were found by a fisherman on 11 September, in an area east of the town.

Police and the Red Cross are now searching the area where the belongings were found with a rescue vessel.

Norwegian police said: "Due to the ongoing investigation the police do not at this time wish to release any information about which specific items that have been found."

Officers have no main theory about his disappearance, and have not determined whether he was the victim of a criminal act.

WikiLeaks tweeted on 2 September, to say the 47-year-old's disappearance was "strange".

Mr Kamphius, from the Netherlands, describes himself as a "free software advocate" and "IT security adviser" in his Twitter profile.

Dutch investigators have arrived in Bodoe to help with the search, Norwegian police said in a statement.

It added: "Kamphuis has still not been found and the case is open for different outcomes, but we still haven't found anything that indicates a crime has been committed."

Mr Kamphuis, who is shown in pictures with blond hair and a thin beard, had a ticket for a flight to Trondheim on 22 August.

A phone linked to him was switched on near Stavanger, a city 990 miles (1600km) from Bodoe, on 30 August, but police have not been able to confirm if he was using it.

A German SIM card was inserted when the phone was on.

Arjen Kamphuis: Belongings of missing WikiLeaks associate found in sea off Norway - Radio Exe

Licky weeks

Speculation over fate of missing Dutchman linked to WikiLeaks
Arjen Kamphuis’ effects found in the sea but his phones were turned on 1,000 miles away


On 20 August, Arjen Kamphuis, a leading Dutch cybersecurity expert, checked out of his hotel in Bodø, northern Norway. He had told friends that he planned to take the train to Trondheim, 10 hours away.

He never boarded the train. Nor, two days later at the supposed end of his holiday, did he catch his return flight to Amsterdam. An intensive search by Norwegian police, and two Dutch investigators dispatched to help them has failed to locate him.

A kayak believed to belong to Kamphuis, who advised governments, corporations, journalists and activists on information security, was pulled from the sea about 50km from Bodø on Thursday, police said, the day after an amateur fisherman found some of his belongings – reportedly including an ID card – floating in the water.

But mobile phone records show that 10 days after the Dutchman was seen leaving his hotel, both his work and personal mobile phones were briefly switched on – with German SIM cards inserted – more than 1,700km from the small northern town, at Vikeså near Stavanger.

Police said on Thursday they were “holding all possibilities open in respect to what might have happened” to Kamphuis and pursuing three distinct lines of inquiry: a “voluntary disappearance” including a possible suicide; an accident; or foul play.

But if investigators have no clear idea of what happened, the internet has plenty - mainly because on 1 September the whistle-blowing website Wikileaks tweeted to its 5.4 million followers: “@JulianAssange associate and author of ‘Information Security for Journalists’ @ArjenKamphuis has disappeared.”

The anti-secrecy organisation has since published several updates and comments on the investigation, describing Kamphuis’s disappearance as “strange” and highlighting the fact that his phone was activated a long way from where his belongings were found.

The site’s followers have suggested variously that Kamphuis, an outspoken campaigner for online privacy rights, was kidnapped or even murdered by the US, British or Russian secret services, or perhaps by Islamists.

Alternatively, they speculated, he may have gone undercover on a secret mission for Assange, the group’s founder, who has been living in the Ecuadorean embassy in London since June 2012.

Police have denied any connection between Kamphuis’s disappearance and the fact that Bodø houses a Norwegian military airbase, and that buried deep inside a nearby mountain is a major part of the Scandinavian country’s secret cyber defence operations.

read more
https://www.theguardian.com/media/20...d-to-wikileaks

He's safe now, wrapped up in a cloak of a conspiracy. He will never die, but live for ever in some people minds. It's how he would have wanted to go.

I saw that wikileaks guy down at seven with Elvis. They were waiting around for their ham n cheese sammiches to cook.

There are way too many of these strange disappearances.

no worry, he is resting in a nice US summer camp over at Gitmo