Guantanamo Bay May Be WikiLeaks' Next Target
The rumored next WikiLeaks assault on Washington and United States politics may focus on suspected militants held at Guantanamo Bay, according to a Reuters report out Wednesday.
The Reuters report says WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who's currently in jail in Great Britain (not for any WikiLeaks actions but for an alleged sexual molestation), has told some of his media contacts that he has a large number of U.S. government reports about inmates currently housed at Guantanamo Bay (or Gitmo, as the base is also known).
Those leaks, if released, could be unpleasant for President Barack Obama, who in addition to being frustrated with the amount of information being leaked by Assange and WikiLeaks, has had a difficult week politically as he defends his Bush-era tax cut compromise with Republicans.
One of Mr. Obama's campaign promises was to close Guantanamo Bay's prison and move the terrorism suspects it houses to other less controversial locations or to release the suspects outright. That hasn't happened.
The Reuters article quotes one person who had contact with Assange as saying, "He's got the personal files of every prisoner in Gitmo."
Assange has threatened more than once to release embarrassing documents if WikiLeaks is in any danger of being shut down. The file of documents is said to be encrypted in such a way that not even government hackers can shut it down. It's not known if the Gitmo documents are part of that insurance file, according to Reuters.
Assange's lawyer Mark Stephens told Reuters that the insurance file is not set for release because WikiLeaks is still operational.
Read the full Reuters story here.
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