An update to a previous story about a missing Wikileaks associate isn't looking good, as he's still missing but some of his belongings have turned up in the sea.
Arjen Kamphuis is a 47 year old cyber security expert and associate of Julian Assange who co-authored Information Security for Journalists to help media professional avoid being spied on. At the end of August he went missing from Norway after he was supposed to get on a plane on August 22nd.
Tweets were fluttering around about his disappearance in early September, with much speculation about what had happened to him. But after over two weeks of being out of contact with the world, his fate doesn't look good.
Police report being in possession of something owned by Arjen, as Norwegian police inspector Bjarte Walla said "we can say that this item belongs to missing Arjen Kamphuis", but they won't say more. We don't know what it is. Maybe it's not a serious item to have lost, but I think they would have said it otherwise.
Whatever these belongings are, it's one object that was "floating in the sea" on Tuesday September 11th by a man who went fishing near Bodo where Arjen was last seen in August.
Norwegian police also reported to have detected a signal from Arjen's cellphone earlier in September near Stavanger, Norway, which is 1,000 km (620 miles) away from Bodo. That's odd that his cellphone signal was detected after he was reportedly missing. Did he use it himself, or did someone else?
Police say they have three theories as to the fate of Arjen:
- he was involved in some incident
- he was the victim of a criminal act
- he went into hiding
Did he have a hiking accident? Is he in hiding on a secret assignment? Did he fall prey to a kidnapping or murder by a stranger or maybe a 'security' agency?
Human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell believes the third is likely, as Arjen's work has put pressure on governments and security agencies:
Quite clearly there are people in governments and security services around the world who would very much like to get the solution to that encryption and those cyber security measures that he's enabled journalists to use when those journalists are investigating, exposing bad things being done by governments
We're always hoping he turns up safe, but with something he owned turning up in the sea of all places, it doesn't bode well.
Thank you for your time and attention. Peace.
If you appreciate and value the content, please consider: Upvoting, Sharing or Reblogging below.
me for more content to come!
My goal is to share knowledge, truth and moral understanding in order to help change the world for the better. If you appreciate and value what I do, please consider supporting me as a Steem Witness by voting for me at the bottom of the Witness page.