Security expert with links to WikiLeaks vanishes in Norway
the Clintons, while others ask if he intended to disappear, possibly on some secret assignment for WikiLeaks.
Feeding the speculation is that Bodo, the town where he was last seen, is home to Norway’s main military airbase, the armed forces’ joint operations centre is nearby, and part of the country’s cyberdefence centre is hidden in a mountain outside town. Investigators have ruled out any connection between the military presence and his disappearance.
Friends say that Kamphuis, who is Dutch, was in Norway for vacation, had been there a few times before, and had plans to return to the Netherlands.
“He’s an avid hiker and mountaineer,” said Ancilla van de Leest, 33, a friend and prominent Dutch activist for online privacy rights.
On Twitter, WikiLeaks described Kamphuis as an “associate” of Julian Assange, the group’s founder.
But Kamphuis’s precise relationship with WikiLeaks is unclear. Friends say he is not close to Assange, but he has reportedly offered training to WikiLeaks members relating to “Information Security for Journalists,” a handbook he co-wrote on how to shield communications and data from government surveillance.
Police revealed that 10 days after Kamphuis had disappeared, someone tried to use his cellphone near the village of Vikesa.