Assange was born in Townsville, Queensland, northern Australia, in 1971, where it has been reported that he “led a nomadic childhood while his parents supervised a touring theater,” according to one report.

After a run-in with the law in his youth for hacking activities, Assange eventually enrolled in Melbourne University, where he studied physics and became an honorable member of the mathematics community.

In 2006, Assange founded WikiLeaks, a so-called “dead-letterbox” for would-be whistle-blowers, together with other individuals from across the electronic netherworld.

The website first made headlines in April when it posted a 2007 video of a US Apache helicopter attack in Iraq that left 12 civilians dead, including two Reuters journalists.

WikiLeaks triggered another media sensation last month when it posted some 76,000 Pentagon classified documents related to the war in Afghanistan. Wikileaks reported it has another 15,000 documents, which it calls the “Afghan War Diaries”. It remains unclear whether the new revelations will be related to those documents.

The Pentagon, arguing that the release of the classified documents places its troops in danger on the ground, has demanded WikiLeaks return all Pentagon documents, as well as preventing them from entering the public domain.Internal secrecy was the key to WikiLeaks’ success, ensuring that leakers would not fear that their identities would be revealed, he said.

Yesterday, WikiLeaks released yet another secret document, this one an internal memo from the CIA that deals with domestic terrorism "exported" abroad.

The success of the website, critics say, is due to its tight-lipped atmosphere of secrecy. This did not, however, prevent WikiLeaks’ most prolific whistle-blower to date from being arrested for his activities.

Bradley Manning, 22, a US intelligence analyst, has been charged with passing the thousands of top secret documents on to WikiLeaks.He now faces a possible military trial.

Victim of a “smear campaign”?

Last week, Assange became the subject of an arrest warrant issued by Swedish authorities after two women alleged they were “sexually attacked” by the modern-day muckraker.

The charges, however, were withdrawn less than a day later by Chief Prosecutor Eva Finne.

Prosecutors now are considering whether to charge Assange with the lesser charge of molestation. But this reduction in charges may force the WikiLeaks founder into a lengthy legal spat.

In Sweden, molestation is roughly defined as inappropriate physical contact with another adult, and can result in stiff fines or up to one year behind bars.

According to Swedish newspaper Expressen, Assange had been wanted by police in connection with two separate “attacks”, allegedly involving women aged between 20 and 30. The alleged incidents are said to have taken place in Stockholm, and in the town of Enkoping, west of the capital.

While Julian Assange says he is the victim of a smear campaign, one of the women rejected the explanation.

"The charges against Assange are, of course, not orchestrated by either the Pentagon or anyone else," she told Swedish newspaper, Aftonbladet.

"The responsibility for what happened to me and the other girl lies with a man warped by problems and who would not take no for an answer."

Assange told the Arabic-language television network Al-Jazeera on Sunday the accusations are "clearly a smear campaign."

"The only question is, who was involved?" he asked, declining to say who he believes is behind it.

One thing is sure, the mud-slinging campaign now raging between Assange and the powers-that-be has certainly not seen its last day. Whether that will turn out to be a good thing for the public – not to mention Internet freedoms, which may now get a closer inspection thanks to Mr. Assange's vigilante work – remains to be seen as well.

Robert Bridge, RT