WikiLeakS.org is currently unavailable until 6th [UPDATED 7th January] 11th January 2010, as they are appealing for your money and technical and legal support.
Have they run out of money ?
We protect the world--but will you protect us?
"Wikileaks has probably produced more scoops in its short life than the Washington Post has in the past 30 years"
-- The National, November 19. 2009To concentrate on raising the funds necessary to keep us alive into 2010, we have very reluctantly suspended all other operations, until Jan 6.
The Sunshine Press (WikiLeaks) is an non-profit organization funded by human rights campaigners, investigative journalists, technologists and the general public. Through your support we have exposed significant injustice around the world--successfully fighting off over 100 legal attacks in the process. Although our work produces reforms daily and is the recipient of numerous prestigious awards, including the 2008 Economist Freedom of Expression Award as well as the 2009 Amnesty International New Media Award, these accolades do not pay the bills. Nor can we accept government or corporate funding and maintain our absolute integrity. It is your strong support alone that preserves our continued independence and strength.
We have received hundreds of thousands of pages from corrupt banks, the US detainee system, the Iraq war, China, the UN and many others that we do not currently have the resources to release. You can change that and by doing so, change the world.
They want your money:
Support us financially
Pay by credit card or PayPal worldwide[...]
(Processed for us by the Wau Holland foundation; PayPal, VISA, Mastercard and more accepted)
We hope that this PayPal account is not compromised like the previous one was - see: Follow the money - WikiLeakS.org partial financial donors list email
Bank transfers
To contribute via direct wire transfer, please make your donation to one of the following organizations that can accept support on our behalf. Tax deductibility is possible where indicated.
Europe
Use our account at the tax-deductible Wau Holland foundation:
Wau Holland Stiftung, Postfach 640236, 10048 Berlin, Germany
Commerzbank Kassel, BLZ: 52040021, KTO: 277281204
(international: IBAN: DE46520400210277281204, BIC: COBADEFF520)
(inquiries: wl-supporters@sunshinepress.org)United States
Banking details available on request.
Email wl-supporters@sunshinepress.org with the name of your state to be guided through this simple process.
Australia & New Zealand
Use our tax-exempt infrastructure foundation:
WikiLeaks ICT, Australia
Full bank details available on request. Email wl-supporters@sunshinepress.org to be guided through this simple process.All other countries
Use our account at the non-profit Wau Holland foundation in Europe:
Wau Holland Stiftung, Postfach 640236, 10048 Berlin, Germany
Commerzbank Kassel, BLZ: 52040021, KTO: 277281204
(international: IBAN: DE46520400210277281204, BIC: COBADEFF520)
(enquiries: wl-supporters@sunshinepress.org)Other bank accounts are available on request from wl-supporters@sunshinepress.org
The Wau Holland Foundation has charitable tax status in Germany, and was set up in memory of German Chaos Computer Club pioneer and anti-censorship activist Herwart Holland-Moritz.
Cash or cheques
You can support us by posting cash, cheques or international money grams to one of the following addresses:
All countries
WikiLeaks ICT
BOX 4080, University of Melbourne
Victoria 3052, AustraliaUSD, EUR, AUD preferred. International cheques are best over $800 to avoid fees. If sending cash, please place it in a non-transparent envelope or a CD case for maximum security.
Remember that banknotes, and especially plastic CD cases, are good for fingerprints and DNA sample forensic evidence.
Kenya
WikiLeaks ICT
PO Box 8098-00200
Nairobi
KenyaOther addresses are available on request from wl-supporters@sunshinepress.org
Apart from these payment methods
I f you are interested in contributing to our mission using another payment method or with a shares, property, bonds, a grant, matched contribution, bequest, interest free loan, or have any other questions, please write to wl-supporters@sunshinepress.org
None of these methods of funding allow financial supporters of the WikiLeakS.org project to remain anonymous.
Financial transactions are even easier for governments and law courts etc. to trace than IP addresses are.
The wl-supporters@sunshinepress.org email address must surely be monitored and intercepted by various Government law enforcement and intelligence agencies.
Since there is no longer any WikiLeakS.org published PGP Public Encryption Key (see Why have WikiLeakS.org abandoned the use of PGP Encryption ?), any such financial correspondence will be at risk of being snooped on, and is likely to reveal the identities of potential and actual WikiLeakS.org financial supporters.
If you do plan to contact that target email address, you should not use your usual, personally identifiable email account.
What about limited liability ? Are you "jointly liable" with them, for any debts or legal fines or legal costs ?
If you become a supporter of WikiLeakS.org. and some Judge awards massive, inflated legal costs against WikiLeakS.org in a court case, do your financial assets become targets for avaricious lawyers or governments ?
Desperate lawyers and government bureaucrats will lash out at any identifiable people, e.g. identifiable financial supporters, in order to put censorship pressure on WikiLeakS.org.
Surely, in order to minimise the risk of this, WikiLeakS.org would need to employ exactly the same sort of sophisticated financial techniques involving investment trusts, nominee accounts and private bank accounts in tax havens etc., as used by the likes of Bank Julius Baer or Barclays etc. who have tried to sue WIkiLeakS.org to suppress details of such tax avoidance or tax evasion schemes and the rich people who have used them ?
Alternatively, some sort of Hawala informal banking /money transfer scheme would be needed, which is increasingly suspected of terrorism money laundering etc. by various suspicious and / or greedy governments.
Perhaps, as used in some African countries, pre-paid mobile phone credit vouchers could be used, to transfer small amounts of money to WikiLeakS.org.- just send the 12 digit voucher number to someone who can make use of it on a particular mobile phone network, perhaps for voice or data calls,or for "m-commerce" to buy goods or services.
When will WikiLeakS.org publish any sort of financial accounts ?
They are also appealing for technical and infrastructure help:
Support us technically
Wikileaks is currently overloaded by readers. This is a regular difficulty that can only be resolved by deploying additional resources. If you support our mission, you can help us by integrating new hardware into our project infrastructure or developing software for the project. Become patron of a WikiLeaks server or other parts of our technology, adding more pillars to the stability and balance of the WikiLeaks platform. Servers come trouble-free and legally fortified, software is uniquely challenging..
If you can provide rackspace, power and an uplink, or a dedicated server or storage space, for at least 12 months, or software development work for WikiLeaks, please write to wl-supporters@sunshinepress.org
"you can help us by integrating new hardware into our project infrastructure or developing software for the project" - who made the technical decisions about this ?
Where is there even a high level overview of the current or proposed new Security and Anonymity Architecture plan for this ?
What anonymity protection can a provider of server space or bandwidth or other infrastructure possibly be given by WikiLeakS.org ?
They also need legal help:
Support us legally
Individuals or organizations wishing to donate lawyer time write to wl-legal@sunshinepress.org . We provide unique legal challenges in an ongoing fight for global justice and freedom of speech. If you support our mission, join our legal team to help defend those values.
WikiLeakS.org have extended the period that they are offline, appealing for funds, until the 11th of January 2010 (originally the 6th)
Some hints about finances and WikiLeakS.org. The front page is now displaying: