Wikileaks stops publishing classified files

Struggling Wikileaks stops publishing classified files

The whistle-blowing website Wikileaks is suspending its publication of classified files. Wikileaks said that it would focus instead on raising funds to ensure its future survival.

The announcement came after what the group called a blockade by US-based finance companies.

This followed its disclosure on the internet of hundreds of thousands of secret US government files and diplomatic cables.

Wikileaks founder Julian Assange said that since last December an "arbitrary and unlawful financial blockade" had been imposed by Bank of America, Visa, MasterCard, PayPal and Western Union.

"The attack has destroyed 95% of our revenue," he said.

The former computer hacker said the organisation had lost "tens of millions of dollars in lost donations at a time of unprecedented operational costs". "

A handful of US finance companies cannot be allowed to decide how the whole world votes with its pocket," he added.

Mr Assange said Wikileaks must "aggressively fundraise in order to fight back against this blockade and its proponents".

Well, it looks like Assange and Wikileaks are now crumbling from the inside and it's not looking too good. Even if they can raise the necessary funds, this is a pretty massive blow to them and it will hold all of their plans back a great deal.

Finance companies have been fighting wikileaks since its inception. I'm sure they will find a way to continue to prosper and they will have anonymous to help with crashing their oppositions webpages and internet based function.

reply to post by BigBruddah


Wikileaks and Anonymous are not actually related in any way. Anonymous just retaliated when companies like PayPal and Amazon pulled their support from Wikileaks.

I doubt it's going to happen a second time, but you never know. Unfortunately, this looks like either the ultimate end for Wikileaks, or a very long break. Even if they did manage to raise the funds, I can't help but feel that this exact same thing would happen again.

It could be that or it could be that there isn't anything to leak anymore. All the cables are out. BoA documents, US no fly lists etc. were erased by that worm of a traitor.

reply to post by The Empty Skies


Well, for one I can say, nothing Wikileaks ever published rocked the ground. Concerning UScables and whole hype about it, they only solidified current us foreign policies and views. No harm whatsoever.

Perhaps WikiLeaks grown too big, comparing to real influence they had. I mean, how big spendings are exactly?

I've always been skeptical of the WikiLeaks thing anyway. I've read in several different places over the last few months how they had received other files and sat on them. It makes me wonder if this just isn't one more form of controlled opposition.

reply to post by stainlesssteelrat


No, but the way he spoke, it sounded like Julian Assange had some information which could potentially shake the foundations of our society.

Unfortunately it would appear that was either hyperbole or that it's something we'll never see.

Originally posted by The Empty Skies
No, but the way he spoke, it sounded like Julian Assange had some information which could potentially shake the foundations of our society.
Unfortunately it would appear that was either hyperbole or that it's something we'll never see.

You know, i bet it wouldn't be good for his business if he showed up smiling, and said that he doesn't have anything new to reveal until some other poor fella will leak it out for him and gets punishment varying from career lose and some minor charges to complete solitary confinment tilll better days come.
Price for Assange's boost was life of Bradley Manning. Im aware he's not dead and not in SC anymore , but you know what I mean.

If he really had some groundbreaking information, shame on him he lost it. And even if he did, couldn't he revealed it anyway, just on his word, people would definitely pursue it and find some discrepancies s'o'later even if he would drop down to 'conspiracy theorist' category.

Ya know, im not trying to bash him, bless for what he had done, this video of trigger happy boys in apache really shooked me and millions of other people.

reply to post by The Empty Skies


It doesn't cost any money to upload files to a torrent site under an official username and to announce it on their own website.

Just saying.

Wait a minute...

You can make tens of millions of dollars with a popular whistle blowing website?

I wonder how much ATS makes. Or some other popular sites I know.that you would not think are For Profit sites.

Jullian should not care about millions of dollars - Whats he doing with this money to help the greater good? Nothing that I know of.

If I put up a whistle blowing site it will be to gather info (facts) on and get the word out about corruption and any money I make will be used to topple that corruption. With tens of millions of dollars he could fight many of these big corrupt companies and governments pretty effectively and he would do more good than just sitting on his hands.

Does this mean He is all about the money and not about really helping people? It does not take tens of millions of dollars to run a server farm for wikileaks or to store the info. My Opinion.

Real hackers hold press conferences?

I am not for or against wikileaks, but I'm sure atleast a cut of that money has to go out to obtaining information.

reply to post by keyboredhere


Yeah but how are they gonna get those files then? The system is a custom build system that leaves no traces of the sender. It is hosted at a very secure facility to boot. Then there is stuff like the network that has amongst other things backups of the files. Just sayin

reply to post by PsykoOps


That's easily solved. Just let people donate straight to the host provider to pay for it. No need for Paypal etc then

And I suppose the salaries for the 20 employees should be send directly to each of them too? And all the other expsenses. Not really viable.