WikiLeaks Halts Publishing Due to Funding Woes

Being blacklisted by PayPal, Visa, and more has decimated Julian Assange's resources.

A bank boycott of WikiLeaks has led to the whistleblowing network suspending all publishing operations due to a shortfall of cash, founder Julian Assange said today. Assange blamed Bank of America, Visa, PayPal, MasterCard, and Western Union for refusing to transfer money from donors to WikiLeaks for the 95-per-cent drop off in funds available to Assange's organization. This time last year, WikiLeaks was pulling in about 100,000 euros a month in donations, but that has since slowed to a trickle of around 6,000 euros a month. The lack of resources means WikiLeaks, which, in the past year, has published all manner of confidential diplomatic cables, including hundreds of thousands of documents on the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, has, for the time being, put a stop to its publications. Assange claims the banking blockade was started at the urging of the U.S. government to prevent him from further embarrassing the States in subsequent releases. It seems to have worked.