WikiLeaks: US Blacklisted Us, Screwed Up Funding

Assange says US waging financial war
By Kevin Spak,  Newser Staff
Posted Oct 15, 2010 8:43 AM CDT
WikiLeaks: US Blacklisted Us, Screwed Up Funding
FThis Aug. 14, 2010 file photo shows WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in Stockholm, Sweden.   (AP Photo/SCANPIX, Bertil Ericson, File)

WikiLeaks funding has been cut off thanks to what Julian Assange calls financial warfare by the US government. In an email to Assange, Moneybookers, the company that collected donations for WikiLeaks, said it was closing WikiLeaks' account “following the recent publicity and subsequent addition of the WikiLeaks entity to blacklists in Australia and watchlists in the USA.”

Moneybookers’ decision came on Aug. 13, just days after the Pentagon publicly threatened reprisals against WikiLeaks. Moneybookers tells the Guardian that it “never had any request, inquiry, or correspondence from any authority regarding this former customer,” but couldn’t explain how that squared with the email’s mention of a blacklist. Assange, meanwhile, is furious. “This is likely to cause a huge backlash against Moneybookers,” the WikiLeaks founder predicts. “Craven behavior in relation to the US government is unlikely to be seen sympathetically.” (More WikiLeaks stories.)

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