Judge Orders Wikileaks Web Site Shut

[DeepModem Mom]

Source: New York Times

By ADAM LIPTAK and BRAD STONE
Published: February 19, 2008

In a move that legal experts said could present a major test of First Amendment rights in the Internet era, a federal judge in San Francisco on Friday ordered the disabling of a Web site devoted to disclosing confidential information.

The site, Wikileaks.org, invites people to post leaked materials with the goal of discouraging “unethical behavior” by corporations and governments. It has posted documents concerning the rules of engagement for American troops in Iraq, a military manual concerning the operation of prison at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, and other evidence of what it has called corporate waste and wrongdoing.

The case in San Francisco was brought by a Cayman Islands bank, Julius Baer Bank and Trust. In court papers, the bank claimed that “a disgruntled ex-employee who has engaged in a harassment and terror campaign” provided stolen documents to Wikileaks in violation of a confidentiality agreement and banking laws. According to Wikileaks, “the documents allegedly reveal secret Julius Baer trust structures used for asset hiding, money laundering and tax evasion.”

On Friday, Judge Jeffrey S. White of the Federal District Court in San Francisco granted a permanent injunction ordering Dynadot of San Mateo, Calif., the site’s domain name registrar, to disable the Wikileaks.org domain name. The order had the effect of locking the front door to the Wikileaks.org site — a largely ineffectual action that kept back doors to the site, and several copies of it, available to sophisticated Web users who knew where to look.

Domain registrars like Dynadot, Register.com and GoDaddy.com provide domain names — the Web addresses users type into browsers — to Web site operators for a monthly fee. Judge White ordered Dynadot to disable the Wikileaks.org Web address and “lock” it to prevent the organization from transferring the name to another registrar....

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/19/us/19cnd-wiki.html?hp

[derby378]

1. Too late, Judge White...

http://www.wikileaks.be/

[zabet]

2. Damn.

Protect the companies, shut the
whistle-blowers down using one
person that should be held responsible
for their action, while not being
used as a tool to squelch this web
site.

[thunder rising]

3. There are good providers in Canada...move the site.

[HuffleClaw]

4. good luck with that

pretty damned funny they are trying to protect a cayman islands banker

[Canuckistanian]

5. Like trying to nail a piece of jelly to a wall

The data is out there.

The judge could sit there all day and issue injunctions - the data is still there in caches, mirrored servers and alternate hosts.

The only thing Julius Baer has done is to attract more attention to it's own corruption.

[seriousstan]

6. Wikileaks has many intriguing links and a few questionable.

I would say 50-75% of the link documents are authentic. It is a shame their BS filter isn't as good as using the net to find legit critique from unbias sources. I hope they find a new home and keep from sliding to Rense level.

[Ian David]

7. Have you seen the footage from the nuclear accident in Japan?

http://www.wikileaks.be/wiki/Monju_nuclear_accident_video_2

[cosmicdot]

8. Bu$h appointee

via stolen elections ... and confirmed, of course

"The case in San Francisco was brought by a Cayman Islands bank..."

can't have any transparency in those Cayman Island banks



White, Jeffrey Steven

Born 1945 in New York, NY

Federal Judicial Service:
Judge, U. S. District Court, Northern District of California
Nominated by George W. Bush on July 25, 2002, to a seat vacated by Charles E. Legge; Confirmed by the Senate on November 14, 2002, and received commission on November 15, 2002.

Education:
Queens College of City University of New York, B.A., 1967

State University of New York, J.D., 1970

Professional Career:
Attorney, Criminal Division, U.S. Department of Justice, 1970-1971
Assistant U.S. attorney, District of Maryland, 1971-1977
Attorney, Criminal Division, U.S. Department of Justice, 1977-1978
Private practice, San Francisco, California, 1978-2002

Race or Ethnicity: White

Gender: Male http://www.fjc.gov/public/home.nsf/hisj


there's no vote record at senate.gov to determine if confirmation was unanimous (most all of them have been confirmed unanimously - for a lifetime)

http://www.senate.gov/legislative/LIS/roll_call_lists/vote_menu_107_2.htm

[Alexander]

9. Once again, many judges show they are ignorant of the Internet...

I just visited Wikileaks yesterday through a mirror.

Nice try, Judge Idiot.

[Uncle Joe]

13. I believe

for future reference it's just a matter of time before they figure that out as well. As the poster up thread alluded to, I wonder who is the sensitive political leader tied in to this Cayman's Bank?

[robcon]

10. Prior restraint of free speech is forbidden.

I don't think this ruling will survive the next appeals court.

[HCE SuiGeneris]

11. Here is a valid link to the site

http://88.80.13.160/wiki/Wikileaks

[hunter]

12. This is an interesting story. Lots of potential connections...

... to political corruption in U.S. & Germany.

In related news, perhaps:

Germany hunts tax haven cheats

It has all the ingredients of a novel: a secret informant, a spy agency and a computer disc reputed to contain incriminating banking data.

The hero (or villain) is Germany's taxman who, armed with the disc, is going after the wealthy who use a neighbouring country to avoid taxes.

Germany's spy agency paid a reported 5m euros (£3.75m; $7.3m) for the data.

The probe has led to the arrest of the ex-Deutsche Post boss Klaus Zumwinkel, accused of evading 1m euros in tax.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/7250339.stm