PayPal says it blocked WikiLeaks after U.S. government request

[News_Editor]

PayPal says it blocked WikiLeaks after U.S. government request

2010-12-08 21:01:17 GMT+7 (ICT)

PARIS (BNO NEWS) -- E-commerce business PayPal blocked WikiLeaks payments and froze its account last week after a warning from the U.S. government, TechCrunch reported on Wednesday.

PayPal's Vice President of Platform, Osama Bedier, was taking part of the Le Web 2010 conference in Paris on Wednesday where he answered a question about PayPal's decision last week to block payments for the whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks.

Bedier said the U.S. State Department had told PayPal that WikiLeaks was involved in illegal activities. "It was straightforward," Bedier told the audience, according to TechCrunch.

Last Friday, PayPal announced its decision to close WikiLeaks' account. "PayPal has permanently restricted the account used by WikiLeaks due to a violation of the PayPal Acceptable Use Policy, which states that our payment service cannot be used for any activities that encourage, promote, facilitate or instruct others to engage in illegal activity," the company said in a brief statement.

"We first comply with regulations around the world making sure that we protect our brand," Bedier added, without detailing which exact U.S. laws WikiLeaks is breaking by using PayPal to collect funds.

WikiLeaks has been making headlines around the world this year since it released a classified video on April 5 which showed a 2007 U.S. helicopter attack in Iraq which left several civilians killed, including two unarmed Reuters journalists.

Later, in July, WikiLeaks released the so-called 'Afghan War Diary', more than 92,000 documents with sensitive details about the ongoing war in Afghanistan. It was one of the largest leaks in the history of the U.S. military, but also exposed the names of Afghans who have provided information to NATO. The Taliban pledged to kill those informants, although no such violence was ever reported.

Then, in late October, WikiLeaks released nearly 400,000 U.S. Army field reports of the Iraq War between 2004 and 2009. It led to several revelations, including new reports of civilian deaths. It was the biggest leak in U.S. military history.

But especially its latest release has been sending shock waves around the globe since WikiLeaks began releasing some of the 251,287 U.S. diplomatic cables it claims to have. As of Wednesday, however, only 1,060 cables have been released.

But in recent days, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange's personal life has begun to overshadow the release of the documents amid rape allegations in Sweden. On Tuesday, Assange was arrested by British police on a European arrest warrant.

But others have questioned the motives of Swedish authorities to issue the arrest warrant, saying it is an attempt to destroy Assange's image and to put him behind bars. Assange himself has also denied the accusations on multiple occasions, although he admitted to having consensual sex with two women within several days of each other. "The charges are without basis and their issue at this moment is deeply disturbing," he said on August 21.

Assange questioned the timing of the charges when speaking with media organizations and said he had been told to expect 'dirty tricks' from the Pentagon, including 'sex traps' to ruin his reputation.

And while few details about the cases have been released by officials, the British newspaper the Daily Mail in late August obtained a copy of the women's police statements.

The statements showed that the women had met with Assange and both had unprotected sex with him during the course of several days. They later met each other and discovered that they had both slept with him while not using a condom.

After this discovery, the women walked into a police station together to report the events. According to the documents, the women feared that they had received a sexually transmitted disease (STD) from Assange. And especially one of the women was anxious about the possibility of HIV and pregnancy.

Meanwhile, WikiLeaks says it will continue to publish secret documents despite the arrest of Assange. "The release of the US Embassy Cables - the biggest leak in history - will still continue," said WikiLeaks spokesman Kristinn Hrafnsson.

-- © BNO News All rights reserved 2010-12-08

[LaoPo]

The statements showed that the women had met with Assange and both had unprotected sex with him during the course of several days. They later met each other and discovered that they had both slept with him while not using a condom.

After this discovery, the women walked into a police station together to report the events. According to the documents, the women feared that they had received a sexually transmitted disease (STD) from Assange. And especially one of the women was anxious about the possibility of HIV and pregnancy.

Watch the VIDEOS in the link below and look how the 2 women act during the speech of Assange....

The part in BLUE is an utter lie; they KNEW each other...they are girlfriends... and also knew that they both planned to have sex with him and they were BOTH present at the speech by Assange.

http://www.thaivisa....ost__p__4075225

LaoPo

Edited December 8, 2010 by LaoPo

[Ulysses G.]

The statements showed that the women had met with Assange and both had unprotected sex with him during the course of several days. They later met each other and discovered that they had both slept with him while not using a condom.

After this discovery, the women walked into a police station together to report the events. According to the documents, the women feared that they had received a sexually transmitted disease (STD) from Assange. And especially one of the women was anxious about the possibility of HIV and pregnancy.

Watch the VIDEOS in the link below and look how the 2 women act during the speech of Assange....

The part in BLUE is an utter lie; they KNEW each other...they are girlfriends... and also knew that they both planned to have sex with him and they were BOTH present at the speech by Assange.

How do you get that out of that video? Why even bother with such an absurd stretch?

[SergeiY]

Illegal or not, wouldn't that be something for a court/judge/jury to decide and not a government order? separation of powers?

this is how it works in France:

French web host need not shut down WikiLeaks site: judge

(AFP) – 2 days ago

PARIS — A French judge declined to force web provider OVH to shut down the WikiLeaks site, OVH said on Monday, after the government called for the whistleblower website to be kicked out of France.

The legal challenge came after French Industry Minister Eric Besson called for WikiLeaks to be banned from French servers after the site took refuge there on Thursday, having been expelled from the United States.

A court in the northern city of Lille had rejected a first complaint by OVH arguing that it was incomplete.

A new complaint was made Monday calling on judges in Lille and Paris to rule whether or the not the site was legal, said OVH in an email to AFP.

The Lille court again rejected it, while the Paris court said the case needed further arguments.

"As far as OVH, the technical provider, is concerned we have done the utmost to clarify the legal situation of the site.... We have tried to be as transparent as possible," said the company based at Roubaix near Lille.

"It's neither for the political world nor for OVH to call for or to decide on a site's closure, but for the justice system," OVH's managing director Octave Klaba has said. "That's how it should work under the rule of law."

...

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5iojKm00N9vMvjVGwO2ZNko9rVpBw?docId=CNG.3c86e1065eee2cfd740284f4a84f3555.121

edit to add PS.

PS: Its of course, still up to paypal with who they wanna do business and with who not. In case of a question they seems to be not very customer oriented. In case of acting on government order is like in a commiestan state.

Edited December 9, 2010 by SergeiY

[hammered]

Dont courts usually decide what is or isnt illegal activity? So the US government (unlike the French I notice) now doesnt even need to worry about the law. Quite worrying that Pay pal would just accept the word of some government person and not even worry about or request a court ruling. Interesting to see the real operations of the establishment laid bare.

Anyway another admits it was the US government pressuring

[Wallaby]

Wouldn't you like to see the wikileak cables on what has happened recently about being banned from sites and extradition and sex charges etc. Now THAT would be worth looking at.

[Ulysses G.]

Dont courts usually decide what is or isnt illegal activity?

Businesses avoid certain activities all the time when threatened with penalties because something might be illegal.There is nothing unusual about that.

[Scott]

Just to clarify, the determination of whether something is illegal or not is made further down the food chain--police, district attorneys etc. Whether or not someone charged with something illegal or not is determined by a Court. Whether the law for which they are charged is a 'legal' law, that is usually decided by a higher court, such as the Supreme Court.

This is fairly simplistic, but we have posters with a better knowledge of the law who can probably clarify this particular situation better.

[Wallaby]

I would think that if Wikileaks has been found to have acted illegaly THEN the sites etc would shut them out.

What would the businesses be threatened with? Don't allow wikileaks because they MAY have acted ilegally?

I don't know, just seems to putting the horse before the cart.

In any event I don't think it matters in the grand scheme of things, the leaks will continue one way or the other because even if the US govt pressues companies to shut them out there are other companies in other countries that will allow them to continue and the leaks will keep on coming.

[Ulysses G.]

IMHO the US is not trying to plug the leaks. They are trying to point out to dishonest riff-raff that there will be big repercussions to deal with for such activities.

[Wallaby]

IMHO the US is not trying to plug the leaks. They are trying to point out to dishonest riff-raff that there will be big repercussions to deal with for such activities.

Who is the dishonest riff raff?

Do you know something the rest of the world doesn't know yet?

[Ulysses G.]

There is now a reason to arrest Assange for allegedly paying money to Manning for providing him with stolen documents. A witness says that Manning told him that he had been paid for the information by Wikileaks.

http://edition.cnn.com/2011/12/22/justice/bradley-manning-wikileaks/index.html

[flying]

There is now a reason to arrest Assange for allegedly paying money to Manning for providing him with stolen documents. A witness says that Manning told him that he had been paid for the information by Wikileaks.

http://edition.cnn.c...eaks/index.html

From your link.....

But the claim seems to contradict a claim made by Manning to a hacker named Adrian Lamo. Manning confided in Lamo about his access to the classified documents. In an instant message exchange obtained by Wired Magazine, Manning wrote he could have made a lot of money selling the documents to Russia or China but rejected the idea because "it belongs in the public domain," and "information should be free."

At the end of the day they will need more than a he said she said offense/attack

It would be different if they had bank statements etc of a deposit originating from Assange

[Ulysses G.]

You are right, but the documented e-mails and this new witness are a first step towards charging Assange.

Edited December 23, 2011 by Ulysses G.

[maidu]

I usually lean to the liberal range of the spectrum, but the Wikileaks thing has got me leaning to the conservative

Besides bolloxing up international relationships, some of the leaked memos can get people killed. I'm referring to undercover operatives - when their identity is exposed.

Assange's shotgun approach is bordering on treason.

In his online shananigans and his sex life, Assange should have stemmed his releases.

[Scott]

This is an old thread and there is a more current thread for comments.

closed.