Posted on 10/24/2011 9:16:22 AM PDT by lbryce
At a press conference this morning, Julian Assange—whom we imagine was wearing nothing but a barrel and suspenders—announced Wikileaks was so broke it might have to shut down in a matter of months. Even more than it already has shut down, that is.
Since soon after Wikileaks published the first of its giant diplomatic cable leak in November 2010, Mastercard, Visa and Paypal have refused to do business with the group. Assange has claimed the blockade has cost the website $15 million—a made up number, to be sure, but an impressive one!
Assange said today the lack of funds was so dire that Wikileaks faces imminent closure. "If WikiLeaks does not find a way to remove this blockade we will simply not be able to continue by the turn of the new year," he said, according to the Associated Press.
So, Assange said, Wikileaks is now "temporarily suspending" their publication of leaks to focus on fundraising. This suggests that Wikileaks has actually been publishing leaks. In fact, besides slowly, painfully, dribbling out the diplomatic cable stash that ended up being leaked anyways after Assange reused his password, Wikileaks hasn't released anything of note since the end of 2010, besides a line of official merchandise.
What has Assange been spending all his money on? He's been living rent free under house arrest in a wealthy British journalist's country estate for eight months, so living expenses haven't been a huge concern. Assange says his group is launching a "new generation submission system" at the end of November, finally replacing the system that has been broken for more than a year. That probably cost some dough. The group kicked in $15,000 of a promised $50,000 to the defense fund for Bradley Manning.
But it doesn't add up.
(Excerpt) Read more at gawker.com ...
He probably qualifies for a government grant.
Hmmm... and it seemed like such a promising plan...
Getting legitimate companies to do business with an organization with a stated purpose of espionage...
Peace, love, let’s all hold hands and change the world !
/sarc
Where’s George Soros? Seems like they need another cash infusion.
Ewwwwwwwww!!!! What a metro-sexual!
The truth is has probably done us a favor by exposing holes in our security.
If he can get these documents that easy, is there any doubt the Chinese or the Russians didn’t already have them?
This vid is always good for a chuckle. This guy is a total whack job.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNqd4hW98sQ
I don't suppose Assange would mind if someone leaked his accounting books, would he?
What happened to the advance from Bertelsmann....?
Actually, he’s not half bad. I like his moves.
Otherwise, it looks like he’s going out with a whimper rather than a bang.
Assange was never more than a common Leftist punk, thief, and rapist, spending lavishly upon himself while starving his supporters. He’s the little kid you hated in grade school for saying, “Teacher! Teacher! Bobby just passed a note to Suzzie!” He deserved to be beaten-up then and he deserves it now.
I don’t like him, but our leadership now has us in the debt hole for $200 TRILLION, an amount FORTY times what we spent on WW2 in the 1940’s.
Think about that.
Why are we busy dumping on this guy..?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.