The entrance of the Pionen data centre

Pionen data centre: Above the main server room is a suspended glass corridor leading to a round see-through meeting room. Picture: Lipka/RexFeatures/Austral Source: Herald Sun

      With his eccentric personal life and air of mystery, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange seems to be doing his best to impersonate a James Bond villain.

      How appropriate, then, that he has chosen what looks like a 007 film set as the back-up store for the thousands of confidential emails and documents that have shaken the world.

      These pictures show the Pionen data centre, 30m below ground in a former Cold War nuclear bunker, where all the WikiLeaks files are kept.

      The vast cave, drilled into granite under the Vita Berg Park in Stockholm, houses dozens of servers used as storage by many companies.

      Complete with a floating conference room, suspended glass corridors, lunar-landscape flooring, designer furniture, and even, intriguingly, German U-boat engines as back-up generators, all that is missing is the bleached-blond Assange himself, stroking a white cat.

Pionen data centre: Plants soften the hard rock for employees working in the bunker. Picture: Lipka/RexFeatures/Austral Source: Herald Sun

      The disused bunker was reopened in 2008 with its futuristic design the brainchild of Swedish architects Albert France-Lanord, who were inspired by Bond sets created by Sir Kenneth Adams.

      The brutalist design is softened by plants kept alive by brilliant solar lighting and artificial waterfalls.

      While on the run from Swedish and American authorities, Assange has had to use this secure base for his files. WikiLeaks was hosted by internet retailer Amazon, but it was kicked off its website following intense pressure from American politicians. Assange then used a French firm before being expelled from there as well.

      As a result, WikiLeaks has set up numerous domain names in dozens of countries.

      Assange has turned to Sweden because the country's laws are some of the best in the world for protecting the work of freedom of speech campaigners. Under Swedish law, WikiLeaks cannot be prosecuted and neither can the people who pass it information.

      Everything WikiLeaks has in its possession could probably be stored on a high-capacity memory stick.

      However, putting it into the trust of this set-up, which any self-respecting Bond villain would be proud of, must surely pander to Julian Assange's huge ego.

Source from Herald Sun

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