On Friday, February 15, a San Francisco federal judge ordered that the domain registar Dynadot disable wikileaks.org and prevent the transfer of the domain name to another registrar. Wikileaks.org is a website dedicated to the publication of leaked materials documenting government and corporate abuse. It represents a courageous and needed contribution to the free flow of information.
The judge’s injunction was in response to a request for an injunction against wikileaks by a Cayman Islands bank stung by the publication of leaked documents demonstrating money laundering, asset hiding and tax evasion. Rather an issue an injunction against the publication of the banks’ documents, which would itself be an unacceptable act of censorship, Judge White shut down the entire website. This is a terrifying act of censorship.
In 1971 the bungling, authoritarian Nixon administration attempted to block the publication of the Pentagon Papers by the New York Times. This censorship was rejected by the US Supreme Court as unconstitutional prior restraint. No one, however, suggested, shutting down the New York Times. This is precisely what the disabling of the wikileaks.org website entails.
The censorship of the public flow of information to disguise corporate malfeasance must not be tolerated. This injunction must be reversed.
We are fortunate that wikileaks has numerous mirror sites. Here is one: http://wikileaks.be/wiki/Wikileaks
Wikileaks has published countless valuable documents, including the Guantanamo Camp Delta Standard Operating Procedures Manual. This leaked manual proved that the repeated government claims that the International Red Cross was allowed access to all inmates were lies. It demonstrated the widespread use of techniques of psychological torture. And it demonstrated the petty brutality of prison life; if a prisoner damaged or destroyed a styrofoam cup provided with their meal, they were to be “disciplined for the destruction of government property (8-10 [12], page 8.6).
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