Internal Strife at WikiLeaks

Internal Strife at WikiLeaks

www.spiegel.de

A dispute has broken out within the leadership of WikiLeaks, the website known for publishing classified documents including the Afghanistan war logs. In an interview with SPIEGEL, WikiLeaks' German spokesman has said he will leave the organization as a result of rows with founder Julian Assange.

In a SPIEGEL interview to be published in the next issue, Daniel Schmitt, the German spokesman for WikiLeaks discusses the deficiencies within the whistleblower platform, criticizes internal fighting in the organization and announces his resignation.

(visit the link for the full news article)

This time it is not about any anonymous "Wikileaksinsider" at Cryptome, but an important figure of Wikileaks.

Wikileaks twittered this:
"Spiegel report Schmitt resigned which is misleading. Schmitt was suspended a month ago."

Looks worse and worse for the organization and especially Julian Assange.

Der Spiegel in Germany will publish the full interview in their next print edition on Monday, but the above linked English online version will publish it on Sunday.

Are we watching a process of self purification or of self laceration?

www.spiegel.de
(visit the link for the full news article)

Schmidt always reminded me of those Nihilist thugs from "The Big Lebowski"

Almost sounds to me like he left because he was scared. He says he wanted to not focus so strongly on the "big projects" like the US government and the military documents... but the way he's making it sounds, is as if Assange has an ego-complex.

I haven't made up my mind which is true, but it's probably a little bit of both.

Originally posted by erumisato
Schmidt always reminded me of those Nihilist thugs from "The Big Lebowski"

How much was he paid for his double-dealing sellout? I wonder.

Oh well, he's safe now.

And so is Wikileaks, I'm sure. Schmidt/Berg was just a mouthpiece, not a Legion Anonymous kingpin. ...Anonymous will keep Wikileaks going even if the CIA manages to take out Assange. 'Tis the nature of the beast - just like the Kochtopus and the Federal Reserve Ruling Elite, except the Legion Anonymous represent the people and work for the common good.

But Who Leaks The Leakers?

I can see it now: Mr. Schmitt/Domscheit-Berg will probably leak incriminating internal WikiLeaks documents to the press, make himself a "whistleblower" and seek protection for doing so.

Thus would the Law of Irony be upheld.

Oh what a tangled web we weave,


No ?

All this stuff seems orchestrated in order to discredit Assange and Wikileaks. I trust none of it!

IRM

reply to post by Siddharta


And what do you expect to happen to a person who hacks the DoD and publicizes it's secretive articles? Can you say, you are surprised wikileaks is on the path to destruction?

Originally posted by InfaRedMan
All this stuff seems orchestrated in order to discredit Assange and Wikileaks. I trust none of it!

IRM

Divide and conquer is often an effective stadegy but Mr Assange strikes me as an avid chess player; he always seems to have a counter-move at the ready.

I don't think their Afghanistan leaks were even worth it. It basically showed some troops doing their job, while mistakenly identifying their targets. WOW. I was hoping they were going to show the real reason we were there in the first place. They have showed nothing of importance, while compromising their selves.

Originally posted by BiGGz
reply to post by Siddharta

 

And what do you expect to happen to a person who hacks the DoD and publicizes it's secretive articles? Can you say, you are surprised wikileaks is on the path to destruction?

This thread is not about a person, who hacked the DoD. I even have my doubts, if that ever happened. And no: I am not surprised about what happens, but I am surprised, how it happens.

I also don't see it really as the inescapable path of destruction, but maybe a process of growing. Daniel Schmitt never appeared to me as someone, who could stand in the wind, which now is blowing against wikileaks. If that wind blows away those, who thought they just joined a nice little NGO - discussing things like: "Who can bring some coffee for the next meeting?" or "We should talk about the cleaning rags today, because we need new ones!" - then it will be a healthy process.

Let's see, if he had something of importance to say, when the interview is published tomorrow.

Seems, we will have to wait a little longer. I have checked out the English Spiegel Online every hour, waiting for the interview.

Now they changed the text below the article: "Check back on Monday to read the full interview on SPIEGEL ONLINE International."

But the Süddeutsche Zeitung obviously knows more about what Schmitt said.

He was suspended four weeks ago by Julian Assange, as Wikileaks has twittered. He complains that Assange played "prosecutor, judge and executioner in one person".
According to him, Wikileaks has a structural problem, which he does not want to support anymore.

Also the rape accusations caused a split of the two. Schmitt did not believe in a conspiracy, but said it was a private attack. He, too, had asked Assange to step back from the public and work in the background as long as the investigations in Sweden go on.

reply to post by InfaRedMan


I agree.

I think we should focus on what they actually provide.
It has been solid so far, and they have been consistent.
The whole idea of w/leaks is to simply provide the material without all the crap "MSM" baggage.

It seems they want to make W/leaks about Assange now.
Don't fall for it.

Wikileaks just twittered:

"Successfully completed our next three films. Thank you team and supporters."

Cryptome got a copy of the German print version and published an English translation by Babelfish:

Interview with Daniel Schmitt

Wiki leaks is leaking fuel and about to explode. They needto hurry with the new information.

Julian is obsessing over irrelevencies. "The American Military is corrupt" is NOT a major secret.. the world already knows so leaking such information just makes it say "well der". Leaking proof of aliens could change the world, or dirt on drug company deals with the WHO.. or maybe a pic of the pope doing naughty things. He has an axe to grind but he's swinging the thing it in the wrong direction.. leaking such information isn't going to change the way the american military operates.