WikiLeaks' ability to receive new leaks has been crippled after a disaffected programmer unplugged a component which guaranteed anonymity to would-be leakers, activists and journalists who have worked with the site say. Details of the breakdown are contained in a book by estranged Assange collaborator Daniel Domscheit-Berg, which is due to be published on Friday, a source familiar with the contents of the book told Reuters.
Neither Wikileaks' embattled Australian founder, Julian Assange, nor members of his entourage responded to an e-mailed request from Reuters for comment but a WikiLeaks spokesman confirmed the website's submission system was being overhauled. Domscheit-Berg also took a backlog of leaks sent to the WikiLeaks website with him when he left, the source familiar with the contents of "Inside WikiLeaks: My Time With Julian Assange at the World's Most Dangerous Website", said.
In a statement issued to the Forbes website on Wednesday, Kristinn Hrafnsson, a WikiLeaks spokesman, said the website was suing Domscheit-Berg, who with Assange served until late last year as one of WikiLeaks' two principal spokesmen. "In (his) book Domscheit-Berg confesses to various acts of sabotage against the organisation. The former WikiLeaks staffer admits to having damaged the site's primary submission system and stolen material," Hrafnsson's statement said.
"The sabotage and concern over motives led to an overhaul of the entire submission system, an ongoing project that is not being expedited due to its complex nature and the organisations need to focus its resources on publication and defence," Hrafnsson added.
The activists and journalists who have worked with WikiLeaks and Assange, who faces a sexual misconduct investigation in Sweden, say the website's ability to receive new leaks of data has been crippled, if not totally disabled, for months. Domscheit-Berg recently announced that he was creating a WikiLeaks spin-off or rival called OpenLeaks.org with support from a former WikiLeaks programmer, believed to be a German, whose programming skills are more dazzling than Assange's. Precisely how much material sent in to WikiLeaks is now under the control of Domscheit-Berg and the programmer, known only as "The Architect", is unclear.