“This is a reminder that one can’t run around exposing the secrets of the most powerful governments, militaries and corporations in the world without consequences (h/t):

The Australian founder of the whistleblower website Wikileaks had his passport confiscated by police when he arrived in Melbourne last week.

Julian Assange, who does not have an official home base and travels every six weeks, told the Australian current affairs program Dateline that immigration officials had said his passport was going to be cancelled because it was looking worn.

However he then received a letter from the Australian Communication Minister Steven Conroy’s office stating that the recent disclosure on Wikileaks of a blacklist of websites the Australian government is preparing to ban had been referred to the Australian Federal Police (AFP).

Last year Wikileaks published a confidential list of websites that the Australian government is preparing to ban under a proposed internet filter — which in turn caused the whistleblower site to be placed on that list.

The Australian document was so damaging because the Australian government claimed that the to-be-banned websites were all associated with child pornography, but the list of the targeted sites including many which had nothing to do with pornography. That WikiLeaks was then added to the list underscores the intended abuse.

Forcing Assange to remain in Australia would likely be crippling to WikiLeaks.  One of the ways which WikiLeaks protects the confidentiality of its leakers and evades detection is by having Assange constantly move around, managing WikiLeaks from his laptop, backpack, and numerous countries around the world.  Preventing him from leaving Australia would ensure that authorities around the world know where he is and would impede his ability to maintain the secrecy on which WikiLeaks relies.

Secrecy is the crux of institutional power — the principal weapon for maintaining it — and there are very few entities left which can truly threaten that secrecy.  As the worldwide controversy over the Iraqi Apache helicopter attack compellingly demonstrated, WikiLeaks is one of the very few entitles capable of doing so and fearlessly devoted to that mission.  It’s hardly surprising that those responsible would be harassed and intimidated by governmental agencies — it’d be far more surprising if they weren’t — but it’s a testament to how truly threatening they perceive outlets like WikiLeaks to be.  I hope to speak with Assange later today and will provide more details as I know them.”

This piece follows on the wikileaks site’s reappearance on May 19.

And for those interested in following up on questions about wikileaks raised by Mother Jones magazine, as well as Cryptome, an older “leaks” site, I fished out this rather enigmatic exchange between MJ and Cryptome founder John Young, from the Cryptome site:

5 May 2010

Subject: Mother Jones fact-check questions: WikiLeaks
Date: Wed, 5 May 2010 14:27:58 -0700
From: “Evan James” james[at]motherjones.com
To: cryptome[at]earthlink.net

Dear Mr. Young,

I’m a fact-checker at Mother Jones magazine, and I’m working on verifying all of the information in an article we’re running about WikiLeaks in our July/August issue. I believe you spoke with the writer, David Kushner, who has included quotes and paraphrases from you expressing that:

– You are the founder of Cryptome.org – You basically felt you were tricked into registering the WikiLeaks domain when Assange’s team first launched, but that the site is no longer under your name

Does this sound accurate? I realize that some time may have passed since you gave
this interview, so feel free to include additional comments.

Thank you Mr. Young. I look forward to hearing from you.

Evan James
Mother Jones magazine
222 Sutter Street, Suite 600
San Francisco, CA 94108
Phone: 415-321-1700 x244
http://motherjones.com/

Evan,

I did not speak with David Kushner. He used remarks by me and others from email messages on a private mail-list concerning Wikileaks during its formation. These messages are here:

http://cryptome.org/wikileaks/wikileaks-leak.htm

I am the founder of Cryptome.org. I was not tricked to serve as domain registrant, I willingly agreed to do that. During further discussion of the initiative, as described in the email messages cited above, I disagreed with the fund-raising ambition, argument ensued, and I was replaced as registrant. I was then unsubscribed from the private mail list.

However, because the subscriber list included me under a different email address (not my doing) I continued to receive the private email and enjoyed the remarks made about me. Those messages are here:

http://cryptome.org/wikileaks/wikileaks-leak2.htm

However, it is important to understand and report that my early criticisms have been supplemented with admiration for Wikileaks, as I have said in several public fora since the Collateral Murder video was released.

That said, I affirm my criticism of Wikileaks in the email messages cited by Mr. Kushner. They remain applicable to Wikileaks and to other leak-exploiting venues, including Cryptome and Mother Jones. Foul as leaks are, commercializing leaks makes them much worse and deceptive.

I think Mr. Kushner’s article was a juicy smear of Wikileaks not a fair — and boring or, worse, adoring — report. That’s okay, too, for smears are what leaks are always used for, and what’s good for others is good for Wikileaks — and Cryptome and Mother Jones.

Mother Jones with Kushner’s article stooped to an admirable new low in green-eyed journalism, worthy of the exemplary low standard set by Mother Jones herself, queen of dirty smears.

Smears are truthful in revealing what they are, entertainment, certainly moreso than “fair and objective reporting” which brain stuns.

Wikileaks set out to raise $5 million as soon as possible. That’s what remains its primary mission, as recently demonstrated, and thus totally untrustworthy for information but fabulous entertainment in the leakage vein. Kushner nailed that.

Use any of this you like. It will be published on Cryptome.

Regards,

John