[Infowarrior] - Fwd: German face of Wikileaks steps down in anger

[Richard Forno]

Begin forwarded message:

> From: "Dissent" <admin at pogowasright.org>
> Date: September 25, 2010 10:00:53 AM EDT
> To: rforno at infowarrior.org
> Subject: German face of Wikileaks steps down in anger
> Reply-To: admin at pogowasright.org
> 
> Thought this might be of interest to you:
> 
> -----
> 
> German face of Wikileaks steps down in anger
> http://www.thelocal.de/society/20100925-30075.html
> Published: 25 Sep 10 13:12 CET
> 
> The German spokesman for whistle-blowing journalism site Wikileaks,
> Daniel Schmitt, has resigned his post following internal problems in
> the organisation and arguments with the founder Julian Assange.
> 
> Schmitt, who recently described to The Local in an exclusive interview
> how the site was changing the journalism and investigations game, told
> Der Spiegel over the weekend, he had had enough and was leaving.
> 
> “We all had crazy stress over the last months. Mistakes happened,
> which is ok as long as one learns from them. But to do that one has to
> admit them. Above all, it seems the trust that we are all pulling in
> the same direction has been lost,” he said.
> 
> The website created headlines over the summer when it published 92,000
> classified US documents concerning the Afghanistan war, which provided
> insight into what is actually happening there.
> 
> Schmitt says he is unhappy that such large international projects have
> taken priority over smaller national documents – and blames Assange
> for this change in emphasis.
> 
> “I have tried several times to talk about it but Julian Assange
> reacted to all criticism with the allegation that I am not obeying him
> and have become disloyal to the project,” said Schmitt.
> 
> He said he would not be the only one to leave the group. “There is a
> lot of discontent and some will leave like me,” he said.
> 
> Schmitt also revealed his real identity in the magazine, saying his
> name was actually Daniel Domscheit-Berg and that he had previously
> worked in the IT security sector. He said he was recruited to
> Wikileaks via personal contacts and gave up his regular work to devote
> himself full time to the project.
> 
> Assange has been increasingly under attack since the publication of
> the US documents, with allegations of sexual attacks made against him
> in Sweden, which he said were part of a campaign against him.
>