If WikiLeakS.org have really raised enough money to cover their costs for the forthcoming year, then why is the web site still non-functional in terms of its raison d'etre i.e. the publication whistleblower leak documents ?
Last week's stupid Twitter message
https://twitter.com/wikileaks/status/8613426708
Achieved min. funraising goal. ($200k/600k); we're back fighting for another year, even if we have to eat rice to do it.
5:51 PM Feb 3rd from bit.ly
generated a lot of "wikileaks is saved" or "wikileaks financial crisis is over" etc. coverage from the Twitterers and the online bits of the mainstream media.
Incredibly, the authenticity of this Tweet , and the unwarranted assumption that it really represents the collective official policy of the whole wikileaks.org project and its supporters, does not seem to have been questioned by those professional journalists and gungho "must be first to re-tweet" social media network addicts.
- Is there an announcement that "we have enough money thanks, there is no need to donate any more" on their web site ?
No, just the opposite, in fact, they are still begging for money.
- Is there a wikileaks Press Release with contact details for official WikiLeaks.org spokesmen, announcing the end of wikileaks' financial woes ?
No.
- Does this (non-existent) Press Release bear a Digital Signature, showing its authenticity and lack of forgery, using a (non-existent) WikiLeakS.org public key cryptography based valid PGP Signing Key ?
No (because WikiLeakS.org refused to renew their initially published, but now expired PGP Key - wikleaks@wikileaks.org PGP key id 0x11015F80 - expired 2nd November 2007)
Why has one single anonymous, very short "tweet" message via a notoriously insecure system like Twitter, been accepted and trusted as being entirely true ?
Remember that Twitter has had its "security" utterly compromised and has been used to send fake "tweets" messages, not just once, but several times in the last year or so.
Surely the amount of money being donated via PayPal and TipIT.to etc. must have been adversely affected by this premature announcement that gives the impression that the financial crisis is over ?
Belated removal of the "web bug" embedded video clip.
The only positive development this week, has been the belated removal of the embedded YouTube video, which was acting as a "web bug"
Because the static image was served remotely from web servers noy inder WikiLeakS.org control, this was betraying the browser details and IP addresses of most of the visitors to YouTube/ Google, who definitely do keep searchable log files and more, for the benefit of their Government and corporate clients.
The YouTube "web bug" has not actually have been removed, only not well coded for all web browsers:
The YouTube video link is to:
Wikileaks on the Culture Show - Friday 29th January 2010
http://www.youtube.com/v/4o2ZGk1djTU
from the BBC mainstream Arts & Culture tv show arrogantly called
"The Culture Show", which interviews some people about wikileaks,
including Julian Assange (in Iceland at the time)
Alan Rusbridger (the editor of "The
Guardian" mainstream and online newspaper) which broke the Trafigura "secret legal injunction" gagging order with the assistance of
wikileaks,
http://www.guardian.co.uk
the most popular political blogger in the United Kingdom Guido Fawkes (Paul Staines)
http://order-order.com
There is also a Skype webcam video call to John Young from
http://Cryptome.org
The tv director went for a "spooks and spies" theme - note the careful setting of the interview by the investigative journalist / presenter with Guido Fawkes. The building on the other side of the river Thames in London, is Thames House, the headquarters of the UK Security Service MI5
https://www.mi5.gov.uk/output/thames-house.html
.