Wikileaks Suspended Over Bank 'Blockade'

Whistle blowing site Wikileaks, that exposed a number of US war atrocities and embarrassing interdepartmental cables from foreign ambassadors, has been forced to close down due to a "blockade" by financial companies.

According to the site, Bank of America, VISA, MasterCard, PayPal and Western Union have all put a block on all payments to the site, which the site says has "destroyed 95% or our revenue" over the past ten months.

A statement by Wikileaks said its decision to publish the biggest leaks in journalistic history had triggered "aggressive retaliation from powerful groups".

"Since 7th December 2010 an arbitrary and unlawful financial blockade has been imposed by Bank of America, VISA, MasterCard, PayPal and Western Union.

"The blockade came into force within ten days of the launch of Cablegate as part of a concerted US-based, political attack that included vitriol by senior right wing politicians, including assassination calls against WikiLeaks staff."

Soon after the US cables went public, Sarah Palin, the former Republican vice-presidential candidate, called for the site's founder Julian Assange to be "hunted down" like the al-Qaeda leadership, while other Republican politicians called for a capital sentence against WikiLeaks personnel.

In a statement on the Wikileaks site on Monday, a spokesman for the organisation said: "The blockade is outside of any accountable, public process. It is without democratic oversight or transparency. The US government itself found that there were no lawful grounds to add WikiLeaks to a US financial blockade. But the blockade of WikiLeaks by politicized US finance companies continues regardless."

Donors wishing to contribute to WikiLeaks must now send money to two European bank accounts instead of donating conveniently by card. One of the few other methods is through the micro-donation site flattr.com.

(DW/GK)