Inside WikiLeaks: My Time with Julian Assange at the World's Most Dangerous Website

220 Pages·2011·1.43 MB·English

by  Daniel Domscheit-Berg

English translation copyright © 2011 by Crown Publishers, an imprint of the Crown Publishing
Group, a division of Random House, Inc.
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Crown Publishers,
an imprint of the Crown Publishing Group,
a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
www.crownpublishing.com
CROWN and the Crown colophon are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
Originally published in paperback in Germany as Inside WikiLeaks: Meine Zeit bei der gefährlichsten
Website der Welt by Econ, an imprint of Ullstein Buchverlage GmbH, Berlin. Copyright © 2011 by
Daniel Domscheit-Berg, copyright © Ullstein Buchverlage GmbH, Berlin.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.
eISBN: 978-0-307-95193-9
JACKET DESIGN BY SABINE WIMMER, BERLIN
v3.1
To the First Amendment
and those defending the
world’s most precious bastion
of freedom of speech
Cover
Title Page
Copyright
Dedication
A N
UTHOR’S OTE
A W L T
IKI EAKS IMELINE
Prologue
1 The First Meeting
2 David vs. the Bears
3 The Scientology Handbooks
4 Dealing with the Media
5 Julian Assange
6 Financing WikiLeaks
7 Quitting My Day Job
8 The Censorship Debate
9 Heroes in Iceland
10 Going Offline
11 A Free Haven for the Media
12 Back to Berlin
13 Collateral Murder
14 The Ordeal of Private Manning
15 The Afghan War Diary and the Dead-Man Switch
16 Accusations in Sweden
17 My Suspension
18 Quitting WikiLeaks
19 The Iraq War Logs
20 Cablegate
21 The Promise of OpenLeaks
A
FTERWORD
A
CKNOWLEDGMENTS
About the Authors
HEN I joined WikiLeaks in 2007, I found myself involved in a
W
project devoted above all to one goal: subjecting the power that was
exercised behind closed doors to public scrutiny. The idea of using
an Internet platform to create transparency where it was most resisted
was as simple as it was brilliant.
Over the course of my time with Julian Assange at WikiLeaks, I would
experience firsthand how power and secrecy corrupt people. As the
months passed, WikiLeaks developed in a direction that dismayed core
members of the team and led us to leave the project in September 2010.
I was confident that the diplomatic, almost reticent criticism I voiced at
the time would cause people to question the power of WikiLeaks and the
chief figure behind it, as is the case with other organizations.
In fact, the opposite happened. Small segments of the public around
the world, people who had been acquainted with the topic for a while,
did begin to criticize what WikiLeaks had turned into, but their
questions were drowned out in the hype surrounding the platform for
leaking confidential documents and its founder. Julian Assange and
WikiLeaks, bound inextricably to each other, became a pop-culture
phenomenon.
That was due primarily to the informational vacuum at the heart of a
secretive organization whose motto is transparency. Now, like so many
of the people to whom we gave a platform for revelations, I have
decided to make inside information public. This isn’t a decision I have
taken lightly. For a long time, I was torn between feelings of loyalty and
my own moral standards.
At WikiLeaks we often used to say that only an accurate historical
record can enable a true understanding of the world. I have decided to
do my part toward that end with this book.
D D -B
ANIEL OMSCHEIT ERG
Berlin
January 2011
O WikiLeaks.org is registered as a domain name
CTOBER 4, 2006:
D First publications
ECEMBER 2006:
J WikiLeaks announces 1.2 million documents waiting to be
ANUARY 2007:
processed and published N WikiLeaks publishes the
OVEMBER 2007:
Guantánamo Bay handbooks
D Daniel meets Julian at the 24th Chaos Communication
ECEMBER 2007:
Congress (24C3) in Berlin J WikiLeaks publishes hundreds of
ANUARY 2008:
documents about the Cayman Islands subsidiary of the Swiss banking
house Julius Bär F Julius Bär sues Dynadot (the registry of
EBRUARY 2008:
WikiLeaks.org), loses the injunction it obtained to shut down the
WikiLeaks site, and then withdraws the suit M WikiLeaks
ARCH 2008:
publishes the Scientology handbooks
M WikiLeaks publishes the first American fraternity handbook
AY 2008:
J WikiLeaks publishes documents from the “Memorandum of
UNE 2008:
Understanding” in Kenya J Global Voices Summit in Budapest
UNE 2008:
S WikiLeaks publishes e-mails from the private account of
EPTEMBER 2008:
Sarah Palin N WikiLeaks publishes a membership list of the
OVEMBER 2008:
far-right British National Party N WikiLeaks publishes a
OVEMBER 2008:
report by the Oscar Legal Aid Foundation about political killings
carried out by Kenyan police D WikiLeaks publishes German
ECEMBER 2008:
secret service documents about corruption in Kosovo in cooperation
with German media D WikiLeaks publishes the 2008 Human
ECEMBER 2008:
Terrain Team handbook D Daniel and Julian hold their first
ECEMBER 2008:
official lecture at the Chaos Communication Congress (25C3) J
ANUARY
Daniel quits his job and begins working full-time for WL
2009:
F WikiLeaks publishes more than 6,700 Congressional
EBRUARY 2009:
Research Service reports F WikiLeaks inadvertently
EBRUARY 2009:
publishes the e-mail addresses of WL donors M WikiLeaks
ARCH 2009:
publishes the database of supporters of US senator Norm Coleman
A International Journalism Festival in Perugia, Italy
PRIL 2009:
J WikiLeaks receives an Amnesty International Media Award
UNE 2009:
J WikiLeaks publishes a list of the biggest debtors to the Icelandic
ULY 2009:
Kaupthing Bank A Hacking At Random (HAR) conference in
UGUST 2009:
Vierhouten, Netherlands S WikiLeaks receives a prize from
EPTEMBER 2009:
Ars Electronica in the category “Digital Communities”
O WikiLeaks publishes a second membership list of the British
CTOBER 2009:
National Party N WikiLeaks publishes the 9/11 pager
OVEMBER 2009:
messages
N WikiLeaks publishes the investigators’ reports about a major
OVEMBER 2009:
German pharmaceutical company N WikiLeaks publishes the
OVEMBER 2009:
Toll Collect contracts
N WikiLeaks publishes the e-mail correspondence of David
OVEMBER 2009:
Irving N WikiLeaks initiates the idea of a free haven for the
OVEMBER 2009:
media, leading to the Icelandic Modern Media Initiative (IMMI)
D WikiLeaks publishes field reports concerning the bombing
ECEMBER 2009:
of two tanker trucks in Kunduz D WikiLeaks goes offline
ECEMBER 23, 2009:
D Daniel and Julian talk about the future of WikiLeaks at the
ECEMBER 27, 2009:
Chaos Communication Congress (26C3) J WikiLeaks begins
ANUARY 5, 2010:
work in Iceland on the Icelandic Modern Media Initiative (IMMI) A
PRIL
WikiLeaks publishes the “Collateral Murder” video
5, 2010:
M Bradley Manning is arrested
AY 26, 2010:
J WikiLeaks publishes the Afghan War Diaries
ULY 26, 2010:
J WikiLeaks posts the encrypted insurance file
ULY 30, 2010:
A WikiLeaks publishes documents concerning the planning of
UGUST 20, 2010:
the Love Parade in Duisburg, Germany A A warrant for
UGUST 20, 2010:
Julian’s arrest is issued, then withdrawn in Sweden A Julian
UGUST 26, 2010:
suspends Daniel
S Daniel repairs a malfunctioning mail server
EPTEMBER 14, 2010:
S Daniel and others leave WikiLeaks
EPTEMBER 15, 2010:
S OpenLeaks.org is registered as a domain name O
EPTEMBER 17, 2010: CTOBER 22,
WikiLeaks publishes the Iraq War Logs
2010: