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Originally posted by pizmobeach:
...but what were his real motives?

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WikiLeaks reportedly raised $1 million over the past year. In the past the group has said that its operating costs are $200,000, but these may have increased to somewhere in the neighborhood of $600,000 if staff is being paid. WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, has said the group will be spending some money this year on the defense of PFC Bradley Manning who passed the recently released classified cables along to the group, as well as the dump that produced the Afghan War Diaries.

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Originally posted by AnthonyT:
Hello,

The thing that occurs to me is... I'm fairly certain these people (Wikileaks) had a plan for all contingencies before they published article one.

I have a feeling that the unconventional nature of their organization will make all conventional tactics against them ineffective. Mere inconveniences. And these attempts will further expose the machinations of government.

--Anthony


Assured by friends that the signal-to-noise ratio has improved on this forum, I have disabled web filtering.

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Originally posted by dreamtrove:

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Originally posted by AnthonyT:
Hello,

The thing that occurs to me is... I'm fairly certain these people (Wikileaks) had a plan for all contingencies before they published article one.

I have a feeling that the unconventional nature of their organization will make all conventional tactics against them ineffective. Mere inconveniences. And these attempts will further expose the machinations of government.

--Anthony


Assured by friends that the signal-to-noise ratio has improved on this forum, I have disabled web filtering.

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Anthony nails it again.

Of course this is their goal. They were always aiming for a free opensource system.



Pizmo,

For some reason, despite your normally astute analysis, you're missing this one by a mile.

1) Assange has a crew dependent upon him, and he is putting his life on the line for them. Their handling of the information is essential to the security and running of the site, and it's always on the financial edge. I think this call fails to understand the way the system works.

2) If you were at all even one foot in the information economy, you would realize how truly meaningless traditional currency is. The traffic alone dwarfs the power of money itself. Money is a simple abstract representation of power, but it is power within a confined system, nothing more. Only the simple minded would draft their plans completely confined within this system.

Has it ever occurred to you that while myself and others may be quixotic idealists, we have actually thought things through when we make our plans for radical change? I actually make a sub-poverty level income, and do so intentionally. I think this all the currency I need to achieve my ends.

I think that people like Soros have done little more with their genius then to completely entrench their own power as completely subordinate to those who issue the currencies in which they trade. This enables said issuers to completely control Soros and the Superfriends in precisely the manner that you and I might control pawns on a chessboard.


Here, Assange has started a revolution. If he did not intend to do that, than it is a heroism of accident, and any petty side gain as insignificant an event as swedish threesomes. Meaningful to the person maybe, but not to the world. But in demonstrating a successful model with a radical change of information flow, he has very much shown us who actually know what we're doing, or at least are trying to, a whole new world of the information age.

So, yes, maybe you're right, I highly doubt it, but you could be. It would make no difference. After all, Edison and Steinmetz were in it to make a buck, right? So, I guess nothing they did might have any impact on our currently posting these comments in a purely digital artificial world based on a remotely broadcast moving picture show called Firefly... now could it?

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PayPal and MasterCard cut off financial support mechanisms. On Tuesday, Visa said it has suspended all payments to WikiLeaks pending an investigation of the organization's business. A Swiss bank, PostFinance, has frozen WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's legal defense fund. U.S. government scientists have been blocked from accessing WikiLeaks' websites for fear the data will "contaminate" their computers.

The cyber-battle is not one-sided. WikiLeaks also has exploited the decentralized nature of the Internet to remain functional. Assange and his WikiLeaks cohorts also have an insurance policy. About 100,000 WikiLeaks supporters have been given an encrypted file of WikiLeaks data, some potentially damaging to the U.S., that would be unleashed in the event of aggression that compromises its operations. "If something happens to us, the key parts will be released automatically," Assange has said. Hundreds of "mirror sites," which copy the data of the WikiLeaks site, have also been set up.

In addition, an anonymous hacking group has started to attack organizations, including PayPal, who denied services to WikiLeaks, Computerworld reported.

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A lengthy statement posted on the anonymous group's Web site listed several organizations that the group claimed had stifled WikiLeaks' effort to release the documents. "We will find and will attack those who stand against Wikileaks and we will support WikiLeaks in everything they need," the statement said.

Anonymous said it will offer WikiLeaks an additional site for mirroring the leaked documents. The group also claimed that it will create 'counter-propaganda' and organize DDoS attacks on "various targets related to censorship."

Anonymous' campaign over copyright enforcement issues, known as Operation:Payback, has resulted in DDoS attacks that have knocked out sites belonging to the Recording Industry Association of America, the Motion Picture Association of America and others.

In the statement announcing support for Assange, the organizers of Anonymous declared that "Operation:Payback has come out in support of WikiLeaks and has declared war on the entities involved in censoring [their] information."

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Originally posted by AnthonyT:
Hello,

Well, let's say he's the devil. Let's say he wants to get rich. Let's say he raped women.

Let's even say Wikileaks is for-profit, unlike all the other media and press sites out there. (Tongue in cheek here.)

These revelations may certainly paint Mr. Asange in a negative light. However, none of these things impacts the Wikileaks debate.

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Originally posted by pizmobeach:
I just don't trust anyone 100% who's risking so much.

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Originally posted by Fremdfirma:

That said, he did plan this shit out in advance, and Operation Payback is just the beginning - depending on what happens now, it's going to be very interesting, because if the US tries to haul his ass off to Gitmo, if they'll really go that goddamn far...

You might, just MIGHT, get to see just how bloody far the other side is willing to take it.
To quote Jayne: "Well, that'll be an interesting day.."

-Frem

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