Court Shuts Down Whistleblower Site
Nobody likes a snitch, but the whistleblower, someone who exposes corruption, is often held in quite high regard. There's a fine line between the two types of tattletales, but most everyone is almost always happy to see shady and illegal back room dealings exposed. Everyone, it seems, except the American courts. The U.S. Supreme Court made exposing misdeeds a little more dangerous last year when it ruled that whistleblowing employees had no protection against retaliation from employers. Now, a California District Court judge has ordered the online anonymous whistleblowing site, Wikileaks.org, to shut down.
Wikileaks, which is currently available at the address Wikileaks.be, launched in December of 2006 as a place for the anonymous posting of information by whistleblowers. It was responsible for the revealing of the controversial "Standard Operating Procedures for Camp Delta" at Guantanamo Bay, which exposed some potential civil rights violations. The site hosts thousands of other posted documents, which range from supposed e-mails from U.S. Ambassadors to videos showing a nuclear accident in Japan.
Last week's ruling from the California judge is in response to a lawsuit by the Julius Baer Group, a Swiss bank that was alleged to be involved in money laundering. The allegations were backed up by documents posted -- illegally, according to the bank -- to Wikileaks. The judge ruled that the Wikileaks.org domain name could no longer be renewed or resolved.
Given that the site is mirrored in many countries around the world with suffixes besides ".org," however, it's likely that Wikileaks won't be affected too much by this immediate ruling. All that said, we expect a more concerted effort against this site in the not too distant future, given that the site's main purpose of exposing secrets more less always creates enemies.
From Computerworld and Wikipedia
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Comments
67
Subscribe to commentsDaveFeb 21st 2008 3:49AM
Oh my God. Kate actually said "if they want to be real whistleblowers and not just disgruntled employees they should contact the appropriate authorities" and I don't know if she is playing Jane Curtin from Saturday Night Live, but Kate - welcome to the real world. What about when the authorities are actively a part of the corruption? What about when the authorities have business connections with the perpetrators of the crimes? What about when the authorities have had prior, a look for future employment by the same firms engaged in the crimes? This is how the most sophisticated and profitable segment of organized crime functions in the U.S.A. in conjunction with the U.S.Trustee attorneys.
J. RountreeFeb 21st 2008 9:49AM
I have tried, reported things through traditional channels such as government officials, but nothing gets done.
J. RountreeFeb 21st 2008 10:08AM
Kate says:
"Freedom of speech" sometimes actually means "libel". There's no proof of anything these people have written or put up (plus it doesn't sound as though this is a solely US site, and our constitutional freedoms do not protect us against a foreign government) - if they want to be real whistleblowers and not just disgruntled employees they should contact the appropriate authorities, not post anonymously on a website.
02/20/08 12:05 PM
===========================
Kate, that is the way things should work, but have you ever tried to report corruption? Very rarely does anything ever get done. I have reported until I am blue in the face a case of fraud - a government contractor billing for taking me to physical therapy when I was npot even in town - but nothing is done. Responible and responsive government is a joke in this country. If our government handled problems, this site would have never existed!
AnonymousFeb 22nd 2008 7:33AM
Since the pre-9/11 days the governments of the world have consistently lied to all inhabitants of the earth. The US government knew 9/11 would happen, yet did nothing to stop it from happening. Once it did happen, little by little, our freedoms began to disappear. In ways that rival Communist Soviet Union several years ago, our American government simply allows only hype and lies to be reported on the news. These false news reports are in reality nothing more than carefully scripted lies to make the American Sheeple...Bah Bah Baaaaa! We are no longer united as a nation because we are forced to take sides against everyone. Capitalism has destroyed the world. No one is safe from the lies and frivilous lawsuits filed by money-grubbing fools who actually believe that a wealthy way of life is better than the alternative. We live in a culture where we are not free. If a person truly wanted to swear off the capatilist faux persona of life, that person would not be allowed to walk away from civilization and live free in some remote forest. This is illegal and why? Because if your not working paying all those taxes and fines the government and those who would control civilization in its entirity seek to impose, then groups like the Federal Reserve and the Bilderberg group cannot control us by screwing with our economy and making us slaves to the false reality that is our way of life.
From the bogus fuel oil depletion lies to drive prices up, to the pseudo-election where politicians vie for the coveted Public Relations fall guy position of President, our world rapidly becomes a lie. Lets be honest, the President is merely a talking head that fills the peoples heads with a lot of untrue crap, has no real control without oil companies and the Federal Reserve, the House and Congress are both a lie and only the wealthy have any real rights. Our elections dont mean crap when the peoples vote doesnt count. Electoral votes are just a way of removing what the people really want and instill whomever the wealthy believe can fill our heads full of a lot of crap to scare us and take our guns and make us pay a fortune to big oil. Our opinion doesnt matter because everything we see on tv is a lie. Everything! The news, the presidential election, American Idol, its all scripted B.S. engineered to take our minds off reality. Dont buy it anymore!
Ever notice that when both gold and oil prices rise that stocks fall. Its all a lie and were all living it and until we unite and stand against the tyrany, will America ever be a free country again!
indiansonFeb 22nd 2008 11:18AM
people--SOMEBODY has got to keep an eye on big business,who has no concern whatsoever about laws and moral decency.By taking away immunity(and if it isnt true,then there would be no need for the million dollar businesses to retaliate)the big businesses are trying to keep their shennannigans unknown to you and me,and the courts surely dont want to rule on big business wrongdoings-they would rather just screw the common people,as they themselves are influenced by the big business money--just look at this ruling!
meFeb 26th 2008 6:27PM
of course the gov. shut it down!
who do you think is banging their heads under the desks of these government slime ?.....the corporate executives that are ALSO getting beyond rich at OUR expense.
if bin laden wanted to do some REAL good he'd nuke washington and all those fat,greedy, puked up bags of vulture guts sucking the life out of ALL OF US for their own personal gain!
TevisMar 21st 2008 9:39AM
Whenever I hear negative comments about the Republicans, I imagine sheeple just rec'd an e-mail from moveon.org, or some other liberal propaganda machine. It's as digsusting as giving credit to Susan Sarandon as a politcal analyst. She's just an actress, which is another name for ventriliquist dummy. It seems like it's her speaking, but really its someone else's words. I, for one, believe the liberal morons in the public as much as I think Hollywood ACTORS are worth listening to on the topic of politics. Want to know what Susan or her cronies think, visit moveon.org. It is after all, their ideas that hollyweird promotes. Way to be free thinkers, moove on moveone.org, make way for real thinking folks.