Wikileaks In The News and Blogs

Jules Crittenden is reporting that Wikileaks is at it again...

Wikileaks reportedly is preparing to release an Afghan ”massacre” vid that is more shocking than the Iraq gun camera footage they popped a couple of months ago. Now, does that mean it will be even more clueless, distorted and offensively biased than that one was?

Also, Cryptome has an insider look at Wikileaks, and it ain't flattering...

What most people don't realise is just how WIKILEAKS internal structure resembles an absolute dictatorship. Forget the invisible nine so called board members composed of technologists and media representatives, they do not exist, and they never have.

Forget about Daniel Schmitt, one of WIKILEAKS public faces, he is of absolutely no consequence and has no influence, editorial or otherwise within WIKILEAKS.

WIKILEAKS is, and always has been the brain child of Julian Assange, a convicted ex hacker, who's original concept was to attach a value to leaked information, and sell it to the highest bidder. From an initial base of approximately eight high value sponsors, and an Internet community ready to buy into Assange's snake oil of protecting the whistleblower by guaranteeing anonymity based upon technological means and legal support if the smelly stuff really hit the fan..!!

WIKILEAKS is essentially a one man band, with a core of unpaid volunteers, who provide all of the grunt work and server space for WIKILEAKS. There is no huge bill for server space. Assange fronts for an organisational infrastructure donated gratis by others. So you may justifiably ask just how much does it cost to run WIKILEAKS?

The basic expenses incurred by WIKILEAKS such as minor running expenses, paying for the server space that is not donated, and communications costs is approximately $55K per year. This figure excludes Assange's so called promotional expenses, which include international travel in business class, hotel accommodation, taxis, clothing, and personal expenses. For FY 2009 and YTD, these are estimated to be in excess of $225,000.

There are no internal accounts at WIKILEAKS accurately detailing expenditure of monies received from donors, and Assange has no visible income streams.

Now, we do need to caveat the Cryptome reference. They've been spectacularly wrong about plenty of things before, especially when talking about HTS and MapHT.


By: Brant