Wikileaks 88.80.13.160

UPDATE 03.04.08: The judge has now dropped his order, allowing Wikileaks to be reached by its original URL. Following the internet furor over the case, Julius Baer engaged a PR firm–Intermarket Communications of New York–to try to stem the damage (I received an email press-release explaining that “The posting of confidential bank records by anonymous sources significantly harms the privacy rights of all individuals.” Yeah, right.) Now, everyone involved in this inappropriate lawsuit is running for cover, having been roundly humiliated for their attempts at a cover-up. Sometimes the system works (and by that I mean a free and unfettered internet that “self-heals” the damage of censorship).

Wikileaks was conceived of and organized in 2006 by James Chen, Julian Assange, and Chinese government dissidents and others. According to InterNIC, wikileaks.org was registered on October 4, 2006. Their advisory board includes members of the expatriate Russian and Tibetan refugee communities, reporters, a former US intelligence analyst, and cryptographers. It planned a March 2007 public announcement of its existence.

On February 18, 2008, in a sickening affront to free-speech and transparency, a federal judge has ordered the entire domain of wikileaks.org shut down. But it’s still available at the IP address 88.80.13.160.

Whatever the issues of the case at hand involving Bank Julius Baer & Co., it’s clear there are more than a few people in this world who have no shame about the way they operate–namely in secrecy. The inescapable (and tautological) conclusion about secrecy is that there is something nefarious to hide. Something the secret-keepers couldn’t justify if it became known. When the secret-keepers succeed in pulling the strings of justice, we should all sit up and take notice.

Look behind every human-rights violation, every toxic spill, every externality, every case of torture, every war crime, every terror attack, you will find one thing: Secrecy. It’s the Phillips screwdriver of every power-broker. From the lowliest merchant disguising his margin as he marks up his goods to the elder statesman negotiating a better treaty, secrecy is essential.

That is–if we want to keep doing business as usual.

But if we want a better world, some secrets are going to have to come out. Especially those that have been institutionalized. Apparently, the offending secrets involved Swiss banking in the Cayman islands. Secret Swiss accounts have been around so long they are the stuff of legend. So some of us may rationalize that just maybe there should be a place to park or launder money without governments knowing about it. Some libertarians and tax protesters harbor barely-concealed glee that someone (if not them) can sequester their money in accounts out of reach of the long arm of the law.

But that same safe-harbor can be used by human traffickers, arms-dealers, terrorists buying nukes, or any number of civilization-threatening undesirables.

In the end, peace and freedom require placing a premium on transparency and trust. In the end, if we want to be ethical, we all have to act as if our every move will be published on the front page of the New York Times. Call me naive, but I refuse to accept that there is any good reason for a site dedicated to outing truth and concealed information to be taken off line.

So I champion the folks behind Wikileaks, and I wish them all the success in the world at moving the incriminating evidence to offshore servers and publicizing their IP addresses. District Court Judge Jeffrey White should be ashamed of himself. The irony is palpable. Julius Baer & Co. protects blood money and Wikileaks protects open documents. Who did White choose to shut down? Like all censors before him, he’s only drawn more attention to the incriminating information. And the movement toward transparency will grow.

Please repost the Wikileaks IP address as often as possible. Let’s participate in the growing internet swarm, and make fools out of the would-be censors.

[And yes, the Barefoot Bum beat me to it. Go Larry!]

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