WikiLeaks isn’t getting much love from Internet providers. The Associated Press (News - Alert) reports that the French government is attempting to ban WikiLeaks from its servers. The Guardian newspaper called it quits this week on a live online question-and-answer session with WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, through the British newspaper’s website.
Inundated with visitors, the British newspaper either pulled the plug or became the target of a denial-of-service attack, either way preventing Assange from responding to queries from an undisclosed location.
Earlier this week, Amazon’s servers also quit carrying the WikiLeaks’ site, forcing the controversial organization to move back to a Swedish provider. The site was down for several hours and was dumped from Amazon’s servers in the wake of criticism from congressional staffers.
In late November, WikiLeaks published 251,287 leaked United States embassy cables, the largest set of confidential documents ever to be released into the public domain. The cables, which date from 1966 up until the end of February this year, contain confidential communications between 274 embassies in countries throughout the world and the State Department in Washington DC.; 15,652 of the cables are classified Secret.
According to WikiLeaks’ site, “the embassy cables will be released in stages over the next few months. The subject matter of these cables is of such importance, and the geographical spread so broad, that to do otherwise would not do this material justice.”
In a statement, Senator Joe Lieberman, chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, stated, "This morning Amazon informed my staff that it has ceased to host the WikiLeaks website.” According to the Associated Press, congressional staffers called Amazon to question its relationship with WikiLeaks.
In its own defense, WikiLeaks argues that “the cables show the extent of U.S. spying on its allies and the UN; turning a blind eye to corruption and human rights abuse in ‘client states’; backroom deals with supposedly neutral countries; lobbying for U.S. corporations; and the measures U.S. diplomats take to advance those who have access to them.”
Edited by
Jaclyn Allard
