Wikileaks Under Attack
Just because sunlight is such a good antiseptic. From DailyKos: Wikileaks Under Attack: California Court Wipes Wikileaks.org Out of Existence.
One of the most important web sites in recent months has been Wikileaks.org. Wikileaks has upset the Chinese government enough that they are attempting to censor it, as is the Thai military junta. Wikileaks is now under attack from a censorship effort by a California court.
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Created by several brave journalists committed to transparency, Wikileaks has published important leaked documents, such as the Rules of Engagement for Iraq, the 2003and 2004 Guantanamo Camp Delta Standard Operating Procedures, and evidence of major bank fraud in Kenya that apparently affected the Kenyan elections.
As of Friday, February 15, those going to Wikileaks.org have gotten Server not found messages.
Today I received a message explaining that a California court has granted an injunction written and requested by lawyers for the Cayman Island's Bank Julius Baer. It seems that the bank is trying to keep the public from accessing documents that may reveal shady dealings.
Wikileaks was only given a couple of hours notice "by email" and was not even represented at the hearing where a U.S. judge took such a drastic step attempting to totally shut down an important information outlet.
The result was this totally unprecedented attempt to totally wipe out the existence of Wikileaks:
"Dynadot shall immediately clear and remove all DNS hosting records for the wikileaks.org domain name and prevent the domain name from resolving to the wikileaks.org website or any other website or server other than a blank park page, until further order of this Court."
[...] If this injunction stands, it will set an incredible precedent for all of us who use the web to unveil misbehavior by the rich and powerful.
So the response has been twofold; the first is the traditional one.
Fortunately, Wikileaks is fighting this unconstitutional attack on press freedom, aided by six pro bono attorneys in San Francisco.
The second, however, shows in spades that the people whose power comes from control of information haven't a clue about the Internet, and neither do many of the people who supposedly enforce the laws.
Its founders, knowing that governments and institutions will go to extreme lengths to censor the truth, have created an extensive network of cover names from which one can access their materials or continue leaking the secrets of governments and the corrupt rich and powerful.
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