Photo: Julian Assange (left) and Daniel Domscheit-Berg, Jacob Appelbaum/Flickr
A domino chain of resignations at the secret-spilling site WikiLeaks followed a unilateral decision by autocratic founder Julian Assange to schedule an October release of 392,000 classified U.S. documents from the war in Iraq, according to former WikiLeaks staffers.
Key members of WikiLeaks were angered to learn last month that Assange had secretly provided media outlets with embargoed access to the vast database, under an arrangement similar to the one WikiLeaks made with three newspapers that released documents from the Afghanistan war in July. WikiLeaks is set to release the Iraq trove on Oct. 18, according to ex-staffers — far too early, in the view of some of them, to properly redact the names of U.S. collaborators and informants in Iraq. [Emphasis CAJ]
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‘I am the heart and soul of this organization, its founder, philosopher, spokesperson, original coder, organizer, financier and all the rest. If you have a problem with me, piss off.’ ~Julian Assange
both quotes “Unpublished Iraq War Logs Trigger Internal WikiLeaks Revolt,”
Wired, 9/27/2010
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Wikileaks Julian Assange Tries to Control Leaks in His Organization
John
Verum Serum
9/28/2010
Wired magazine has come up with a chat transcript in which Wikileaks founder Julian Assange is desperate to find out who inside the organization is leaking information to the press and to others in the group. Enjoy the sweet irony:
Assange: Was this you?
Domscheit-Berg: i didnt speak to newsweek or other media representatives about this
Domscheit-Berg: i spoke to people we work with and that have an interest in and care about this project…
Assange: who, exactly?
Domscheit-Berg: who exactly what?
Assange: Who have you spoken to about this issue?
Domscheit-Berg: i already told you up there
Assange: those are the only persons?
Domscheit-Berg: some folks from the club have asked me about it and i have issued that i think this would be the best behaviour…
Assange: How many people at the club?
Assange: In what venue?
Domscheit-Berg: in private chats…
Assange: How many people are represented by these private chats? And what are there positions in the CCC?…
Domscheit-Berg: i am not a dog you can contain the way you want to j
Assange: I am investigation a serious security breach. Are you refusing to answer?…
Assange: If you do not answer the question, you will be removed.
He’s investigating a “serious security breach” at Wikileaks. Uh…yeah. I’m sure we’re all real sympathetic to the privacy of your internal operations, Julian.
If anyone formerly at Wikileaks wants to leak any more info on Julian Assange and his domineering behavior, feel free to contact us.
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At Breitbart read, German criticises WikiLeaks chief as authoritarian
WikiLeaks’ representative in Germany has quit the organisation, criticising the founder of the whistleblower website as being authoritarian, in an interview withDer Spiegel published Monday.
“Julian Assange reacted to the smallest criticism by accusing me of being disobedient and disloyal towards the project,” Daniel Schmitt [CAJ note: aka Daniel Domscheit-Berg] was quoted as saying in an interview posted on the German weekly’s website.
“Four weeks ago he suspended me in acting as the judge, jury and executioner at the same time,” added Schmitt, 32, who Der Spiegel described as the second most well-known person in the organisation…
