18 June 2010

Wikileaks Insider Messages: http://cryptome.org/0001/wikileaks-mess.htm

A sends via PGPboard, 18 June 2010:

WIKILEAKS NOT CONSIDERED FOR KNIGHT FOUNDATION AWARD

Quote (Knight Foundation via Yahoo News)

"In terms of how popular certain applications were among advisers, we don't comment. Every year some applications that are popular among advisors don't make the cut after Knight staff conducts due diligence. That's not unusual."

Unquote

Here at WIKILEAKS the news that we had been passed over for $537,000 in funding came as a terrible blow to the dedicated unpaid volunteers and activists that form the core of the organization. We are all beginning to understand just how Assange's autocratic management style, questionable use of donor funding, and sometime behavior bordering on paranoia compromised our chances of obtaining funding from the Knight Foundation.

"Due Diligence" is the operative phrase that prevented us from being seriously considered by the Knight Foundation. WIKILEAKS cannot stand up against a serious due diligence review. As indicated in some of my previous updates, WIKILEAKS is a one-man band, from expenditure and disbursements to editorial content, which included editing the helicopter attack footage to further a political point, rather than just release the raw footage and let the viewer draw their own conclusions.

Internal estimates here at WIKILEAKS indicate that in the last 18 months Assange has been responsible for in excess of $225,000 of expenditures without receipts or any form of control or authorization.

How can we expect to obtain funding, without being transparent about our finances and expenditures?

The probability is that the taxman will catch up with Assange before the Feds do.

Here at WIKILEAKS we can only hope for a major donor who will provide us with funding, AND insist upon correct and transparent account procedures in the use and disbursement of donor funding.

Assange should step aside now....

A Wikileaks Insider