Agence France Press is reporting that, very predictably, PayPal has now caved to the pressure of Uncle Sam and has blocked any money transfers to Wikileaks while the Australian goverment is considering voiding Assange’s passport. The Australian authorities have declared that they will “provide every assistance to United States law enforcement authorities.” Yeah – the Echelon-countries are all doing uncle Sam’s bidding; not exactly a surprise.
The more I think about it, the more I believe that this slow release of documents (only 667 of a total 251,287 as of this moment) will prove to be a big mistake. Clearly, Emperor Obama has followed the example of his predecessor and is now telling everybody “either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists!”. And keep in mind that there is much more at stake than a quarter of a million of mostly boring documents: it appears that the aim of the Empire is to make an example of Assange and Wikileaks and prevent anybody else of following that precedent (just imagine what a 9/11 leak would do if it happened!).
I sure hope that Assange has thought this one through very carefully and that he has not placed all his hope in the famous “insurance file” which you can download from any of the following locations:
It worries me that some very competent folks seem to have doubts about this “insurance file” business.
I am also concerned by Assange’s current silence. No matter where he is, it would be extremely easy for him to release a video making his case, yet all he did was a rather lame Q&A with the Guardian’s readers. Lastly, I sure hope that Assange can make it out to Iceland before the Brits arrest him.
Overconfidence is often the biggest weakness of very smart people.