Wikileaks Statement On 9-Month Anniversary Of Cablegate ("...Responded w/ Intimidation & Threats")

http://wikileaks.org/Wikileaks-Statement-on-the-9-Month.html

Editorial - Wikileaks Statement on the 9 Month Anniversary of Cablegate: Release of 133,887 Cables
29th August 2011

Over the past week, WikiLeaks has released 133,887 US diplomatic cables from around the world - more than half of the entire Cablegate material (251,287 cables). The new release was met with a sustained Denial of Service (DOS) attack during the first 36 hours. WikiLeaks had to rely on back-up servers for some hours. With supporters’ help, WikiLeaks was able to bring in additional servers to stave off the attack.

For the first time, the diplomatic cables are available from every country that has US diplomatic representation. Until now, many countries had been excluded from the news stories, partly due to WikiLeaks media partners’ geographical bias, and partly due to Wikileaks’ resource constraints in establishing new media partnerships (there are now over 90).

Background

Nine months ago today, WikiLeaks launched Cablegate together with four media partners (Der Spiegel, El Pais, Le Monde, the Guardian) and the New York Times (who obtained the cables from the Guardian). The US administration and allied media groups responded with threats and intimidation. WikiLeaks and an alleged source, US intelligence analyst Bradley Manning, bore the brunt of these attacks. During the first weeks, calls to kidnap and assassinate WikiLeaks staff, and particularly its founder and editor-in-chief Julian Assange, were frequent. Shortly thereafter, VISA, MasterCard, PayPal, Bank of America and Western Union unilaterally prevented WikiLeaks from receiving donations from its supporters. The unlawful financial blockade of our publication continues, although WikiLeaks is suing VISA Europe and MasterCard, and has filed a complaint with the European Commission for serious breach. (For ways to donate, see http://wikileaks.org/support ). A secret grand jury in Virginia is deciding whether Julian Assange, a journalist and Australian national, can be charged with espionage for the publication of this material.

Rationale: release of 133,887 cables

Cablegate launched nine months ago today. Despite the amount of material yet to be reported on, mainstream media organisations in Europe and the United States have slowed their rate of publishing Cablegate derived stories. This has led to the misperception in Europe and the US that WikiLeaks has been less active in recent months. In fact, WikiLeaks has stepped up its activity, establishing new partnerships on each continent with local media organisations that can contextualise the cables and carry out in-depth analysis. WikiLeaks has gone from its four original partners in November 2010 to over ninety as of this month (August 2011).

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