WikiLeaks defector took submissions system

Posted By Elizabeth Dickinson Thursday, February 10, 2011 - 4:06 PM Share

Wired magazine has the inside details of former WikiLeaks spokesman Daniel Domscheit-Berg's book, Inside WikiLeaks, which is set for release tomorrow. Domscheit-Berg, who says he hates Assange so much that "I’m afraid I’d resort to physical violence if our paths ever cross again,” makes big claims about the organization's dysfunction since he left.

By far the biggest scoop that's leaked so far is that, when Domscheit-Berg left WikiLeaks, he took the organization's encrypted submissions system with him, and Assange's site has been unable to accept new material since. A current WikiLeaks spokesman characterized this as a confession to  "acts of sabotage" by the former defector. Domscheit-Berg, however, writes that "Children shouldn’t play with guns ... [and] That was our argument for removing the submission platform from Julian’s control," according to an excerpt obtained by Wired. (Read more juice at Wired's post here.)

The good news for Assange in all this is that, at least so far, he seems to have won more fans -- not less -- when he is criticized. Assange has defined transparency in a way that is so radically all-encompasing that it doesn't allow for a lot of shades of grey. There's no room for debate once those are the terms; there's only room for traitors and martyrs. Domscheit-Berg and Assange will both be vying for the latter role as the defector opens his own, new site: OpenLeaks.

JOHANNES EISELE/AFP/Getty Images

 

VONRYANSEXPRESS

5:33 PM ET

February 10, 2011

Assange gets freebie

Word is that SAS (Airline of Sweden) is offering Assange a free one way ticket to Stockholm to help his 'fear of flying' & zipless issues.

 

XENOPHON

12:23 AM ET

February 13, 2011

Free Flight

Is it a free ticket to Stockholm or a ticket to Washington via Stockholm?

 

GONZOV

11:00 AM ET

February 13, 2011

Correction:

Scandinavian Airlines System.

 

XENOPHON

12:30 AM ET

February 13, 2011

Who is this Guy?

I must admit: My first instinct towards Domscheit-Berg is one of extreme distrust. Who is this guy? We've gotten a lot on Assange, but virtually nothing on this "defector". Why did he feel the need to use the pseudonym "Schmitt" for years and now assumes his real name? Why did he feel the need to relate what I assume were confidential conversations between colleagues--him and Assange?

He is trying to convey the notion that Assange is paranoid, childlike, etc. Let's hear from some other Wikileaks members. Of those who know both, who sides with Assange and who with D-B? Why should I trust this character?

 

VOLDEMORTFOE

2:48 AM ET

February 14, 2011

Prosecuting Wikileaks

Where is the Obama administration outrage about leaking Valerie Plame's identity? Some Bush appointee, or probably Cheney himself, elected to punish an official (Wilson) for publishing the truth about the alleged Iraqi threat of WMD.
They caused to be committed an act similar to others who have been jailed for treason. The only person who could be identified as involved refused to give information as to who had put him up to it, and George W. Bush essentially pardoned that criminal.

Wikileaks has done nothing to reach the level of depravity and abuse of power of that single offense by members of the Bush administration.

 

WikiLeaked is FP’s blog dedicated to sorting through and making sense of the more than 250,000 State Department cables acquired by WikiLeaks.

Read More