WikiLeaks suspends publishing to fight financial blockade

[dipsydoodle]

Source: The Guardian

Julian Assange, co-founder of WikiLeaks, has announced that the whistleblowing website is suspending publishing operations in order to focus on fighting a financial blockade and raise new funds.

Assange, speaking at a press conference in London on Monday, said a banking blockade had destroyed 95% of WikiLeaks' revenues.

The website, behind the publication of hundreds of thousands of controversial US embassy cables in late 2010 in partnership with newspapers including the Guardian, revealed that it was running on cash reserves after "an arbitrary and unlawful financial blockade" by the Bank of America, Visa, Mastercard, PayPal and Western Union.

WikiLeaks said in a statement: "The blockade is outside of any accountable, public process. It is without democratic oversight or transparency.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/oct/24/wikileaks-suspends-publishing

[leveymg]

1. The answer to this is simple & old fashioned. Send them a check in the mail.

If it isn't cashed in 3 weeks, the sender will know there's a problem and can write a check to the lawyer or other designated trustees. There are ways around this.

[EFerrari]

3. If money is speech, isnt MasterCard violating our first amendment rights

by blocking our ability to give to Wikileaks?

[snot]

6. The Constitution protects our rights only as against gov'l incursions, although

it should also apply to corps. to the extent that gov'l powers are delegated to them.

This is why I think TSA searches are unConstitutional. Good question as to whether the same argument shd apply to credit card cos.

[EFerrari]

12. Right but the blockade was caused by pressure from Holder.

So it is the government interfering with my speech, isn't it?

[Octafish]

11. That is it exactly.

And MC is acting on Govt's behalf. And that is Fascism.

[snot]

7. Full info re- how to donate here:

http://shop.wikileaks.org/donate

It looks like there are different options depending where you live.

Of course, even if there are ways around the blockade, the effects of the blockade are still devastating.

What's happening to Wikileaks could happen to any of us.

Note, it was a Wikileaks publication that forced the Iraq gov't to reject the US's request for immunity for war crimes, which in turn forced the US withdrawal of troops from Iraq; see http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x2174765 .

[dixiegrrrrl]

2. Goes to show what lengths TPTB will go to shut someone up.

So far they have tried legal charges, economic ring fencing.
Hope Assange knows how to physically protect himself.

[Octafish]

4. Gosh. All Wikileaks did was publish the truth.

That's what democracy needs most to survive.

[chill_wind]

22. Yes, and journalism organizations were big legal advocates back in 2008.

Traditional journalists in the United States have been split on the issue. While many have criticized Obama administration investigations into whether WikiLeaks or Assange can be charged with a crime as an affront to First Amendment freedom of the press, there has been less commentary about the canceling of its accounts that receive credit card donations over the Internet.

There was no such debate in February 2008, when 12 journalism organizations, including the Associated Press and the Reporters Committee for the Freedom of the Press, filed a brief on behalf of WikiLeaks and its domain register, Dynadot, in a case brought by a Swiss bank, Bank Julius Baer.

The bank filed the suit after WikiLeaks published hundreds of private documents on a land deal that suggested money laundering and tax evasion. It asked a U.S. district judge in California to enjoin WikiLeaks from publishing the documents and order Dynadot to stop hosting its website.

The judge agreed, but he quickly reversed his order after the U.S. journalism organizations weighed in, calling the decision a violation of the First Amendment and WikiLeaks' right to publish.

Mark Seibel | McClatchy Newspapers
Oct 24
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/10/24/128113/wkileaks-announces-suspension.html

What has happened?

[ananda]

5. I donated by buying a shirt and long scarf with the Wikileaks logo.

That was a while back. Do they still do that?

[fasttense]

8. Seems that our bankers are feeling their oates.

They think they can shut up anyone they don't like.

Don't say anything bad about your banker or you may be the next one targeted.

[dadzilla]

9. Time to loosen the purse strings

Seriously, if not this than any number of good organizations and charities exist. I'm not rich by any standard, yet I've donated here, at AlterNet and today ordered a WikiLeaks cap. Lending a hand to those who do good, even if it' just some scratch is one way we can make a difference.

[AllyCat]

10. Once again, the financial sector shows they own us all and are to blame for this

despite US statements/findings to the contrary.

[Peace Patriot]

13. Anyone know the address where checks or cash can be mailed to?

I was thinking, a) Wikileaks can endorse any check over to their lawyers or other third parties who will give Wikileaks access to the funds, and b) though it's a bit risky to send cash in the mail, but that is another way to donate to Wikileaks.

It's a question whether or not the U.S. postal service is being so closely monitored, and our rights so attenuated, that donations to Wikileaks in this way would be interdicted. Maybe an independent courier system of some kind needs to be set up.

It is utterly OUTRAGEOUS that these "private" financial institutions are DICTATING how we can spend our hard-earned pittances. If Assange was a convicted murderer on death row about to be executed, and we believed him to be innocent and wanted to contribute to his legal fund, or even if he was guilty and we wanted to send money to assist his poor family or to help end the practice of state murder, would contributions of the free citizens of this democracy be banned? Would that be permissible? Absolutely not! And Assange is not only NOT a murderer or any kind of criminal, he is a hero of democracy and one of the greatest ones of this technological era.

We have an INHERENT RIGHT to know what our government is doing. And we have an INHERENT RIGHT to support anyone who helps us to know what our government is doing or who helps to improve our battered, bludgeoned democracy. How far we have come from the days when Nixon & Co. LOST their fight to keep the Pentagon Papers secret! This is an APPALLING abuse of power by private corporate monsters and by our collusive government!

The list to too long of such abuses of power. Item number one on that list, in my opinion, would be corporate-controlled, 'TRADE SECRET' voting machines. But I would put this conspiratorial suppression of Wikileaks and Julian Assange maybe at No. 2. It's hard to chose among the abuses, I know, but this one is very, very, VERY serious, because--like the corporate vote rigging machines--it is seizure of control over a basic mechanism of democracy--how we spend our money--and creation of a BAD, BAD, BAD precedent for vast, massive oppression by unaccountable powers. "Freezing" of the bank accounts and forbidding financial transactions by the "Occupy..." protestors is only a step away.

So, even if you "don't like" Julian Assange (i.e., likely have been manipulated by corporate media imagery to "dislike" him), or even if you think he is a "criminal" of some kind (i.e., likely have been manipulated by corporate media to believe that he was sexually abusive or that he is somehow an Australian "traitor" to the U.S.), or even if you GENUINELY (unmanipulated) don't like him for some reason, you should contribute to OTHER PEOPLES' right to contribute to Wikileaks: their right to their financial sovereignty, their right to use the mails and their right to make up their own minds about who and what they support.

[EFerrari]

14. Link:

http://shop.wikileaks.org/donate#dpost

[Peace Patriot]

19. Thanks for the info! nt

[KamaAina]

15. Looks like the domestic terrorists win

:(

[Bragi]

16. Won't the fascists eventually go after donors?

If I make an electronic financial transfer to Wikileaks, I am confident that eventually the oligarch security apparatus will obtain information about that transfer that will allow them to identify me.

My concern about this shows why it is we need Wikileaks, and why the oligarchs have to take it down, and explains why we should make contributions.

However, like most people who understands how important Wikileaks is at this time, I know that oligarch security will be in the loop if I donate, and I want them to know as little about me as possible.

So what to do?

[krabigirl]

17. I figure that I am already on one of their "lists" for something, so I may as well donate.

They can come after me..I really don't care.

[Peace Patriot]

21. I would suggest cash or perhaps a money order through the mail.

One of the recipient sites (the one in Brazil) at http://shop.wikileaks.org/donate#dpost says that you can put any name on "to" line of the envelope. (Maybe write something like "Free Speech Fund" or better, "Orphan Fund," on the "to" line but with the correct address.) (No, wait! Don't say "fund." Use something innocuous--a made-up name. Or you might just go ahead and write or type "Wikileaks," since the Feds no doubt have the recipient addresses.)

If you can't get a money order anonymously (say by paying cash), I'd say take the risk of sending cash. There needn't be any information about you on the envelope. Just be sure you address it correctly and get proper postage. And if you want to go that far, do the whole thing with gloves on and use back-slanting, disguised handwriting or an anonymous printer to print the address on the envelope. Don't leave a fingerprint on the money, the envelope or the stamp, and don't use your tongue to lick the stamp. And mail if far from your home. Better yet, put it inside another envelope to a friend far away and ask him or her to drop it in a mailbox for you.

That's the only way to remain anonymous to government/corporate snoopers that I can see, in this situation. They may be monitoring mail to these donation addresses (since the addresses are on line) but, even if they interdict your contribution, they won't have much of a clue who you are. Even if they put together your post here at DU with the interdicted mail item in your region, they still wouldn't have a direct connection between you and your donation. They would have to track your internet connection to your home--if you are using a computer at home--and how would they know that you put the donation in the mail? And if you have it mailed for you remotely by a friend in another state, there is almost no way they can connect your donation with your DU post. I suppose if they were truly after you and have tracked your entire network of friends and contacts, they could possibly put it together, but they would have to be highly motivated to do that.

I don't think they are going to go after small Wikileaks donors or make an effort to find out who they are (unless the donor makes it easy for them--then they might, just to keep their spying programmers busy). Maybe big donors will get that kind of treatment (who would be smart to make donations in small segments). There is huge traffic in donations and political opinions that the Corpses and the Government don't like. They would have to have a good reason to go after you amidst the Mount Everest of useless data they accumulate in their spying programs. If you are engaged in other activity that the Corpses/Government don't like--are an "Occupier" or are challenging Monsanto with an organic farm, or whatever, or have an activist history--then be more cautious.

I don't think you are violating any laws by sending a donation. But I am not a lawyer. Do not rely on me for legal advice--nor stealth advice. I am no expert in either field. But I don't think you are talking about that kind of harassment--a midnight knock on the door, arrest--but rather getting on a "list" for further surveillance and/or anonymous kinds of harassment, just picking on you and making your life difficult because of your political opinions.

I don't think you are being paranoid, by the way. I take your fear very seriously and you should, too. There are ways to harass someone that the victim might not even realize is harassment--loss of a job or promotion, loss of good credit, identify theft, a loan getting turned down, etc. It is smart to be careful and to realize just how vulnerable we all are to electronic and other malicious actions--merely for expressing our political opinions.

We should be asking: What happened to our democracy? My first answer to that is: Diebold/ES&S!

[Bragi]

25. Thanks for that

You note that "I don't think you are violating any laws by sending a donation."

I don't think that either, but I no longer think that the oligarchs security apparatus is terribly concerned about breaking laws. In fact, it is pretty obvious that free speech is being violated by this shutdown of funding channels to Wikileaks, and yet nothing will be done to stop this shutdown.

At this point, I don't think anyone has reason to believe that the US government and security apparatus cares one way or the other about the law or the constitution.

Which why I want to try to be careful about identifying myself for them electronically or otherwise. Things are likely to get much uglier and darker before they get any better.

[Matilda]

18. Everybody should be concerned about this.

Even those who don't agree with what Wikileaks are doing should be concerned that the ability to carry on a business is being blocked when in fact neither Wikileaks nor Julian Assange have been found guilty of any crime. It's the 1% dominating and over-riding the wishes of all those in the 99% who wish to support Wikileaks.

They never apply such rules to corporate crooks.

[Peace Patriot]

20. Even if he had been convicted of a crime, that is no excuse to take away MY right to donate

to a cause of my choice, nor to take away his right to raise money from donations. I used the example of a convicted murderer whom I believed to be innocent. Could donations to his legal fund be blocked like this? And even if the convicted murderer was guilty, what about donations to his family or to stop state murders of prisoners? Currently, that kind of financial blockade would not be permitted. Or would it be? Who knows?

As I said, this is just OUTRAGEOUS, that private multinational corporations in collusion with the U.S. government can, by fiat, take away my right to donate to a cause, the right of millions of others to do so, and the right of an Australian, for godssakes--not even an American, who, by virtue of our country, have lost most of our rights--to receive our donations!

The Australian government ought to be throwing a shit fit over this, but, of course, they are warmongers, too, and fully collusive with the war profiteers here. Assange is a "man without a country," in many respects, and is being bullied, harassed and threatened by the most powerful entities on earth.

It is infuriating and depressing to see that our government has no shame--but then I realized that when Obama allowed Troy Davis to be executed in Georgia--A DEMONSTRABLY INNOCENT MAN! Obama damn well could have stopped it. His behavior was as bad as Pontius Pilot! As for the powers-that-be in Georgia, they ought to get life in prison for murder! (I don't believe in state murder of anybody).

U.S. "drones" flying around the world executing people--anybody, anywhere the CIA damn pleases! U.S. proxies in Libya shooting the captured Gadaffi in the head and letting his body rot in view of the world! Saddam Hussein hanging from a rope! Osama bin Laden's body dropped in the ocean!

These are the symbols of the U.S.A. now, and nobody cares and nobody apologizes and nobody hangs their head in shame!

[chill_wind]

23. k & R.

[BelgianMadCow]

24. I would REALLY like to hear about electronic payment options besides the usual suspects

who are abusing their power. Anybody got any tips besides checks & wiring?

regards
bmc

on edit: the boycott will have an adverse effect, I'm ready to donate now. And I'm sure ppl are getting ready to shoot back w/rgds to boycots.