A WikiLeak Too Far?

Why do I get the feeling that this won’t end well for Julian Assange and his motley crew of information pirates?

WikiLeaks: Is Russia the Next Target?

Say what you will about Julian Assange, founder of the whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks, but his work has shown him to be pretty fearless. After his site published the biggest cache of secret files in U.S. history on Oct. 22, detailing some of the ugly truths about the war in Iraq, he continued to travel around Europe despite U.S. reprimands and warnings. He even told the global media that new leaks will expose more secrets not only about the U.S. military but about other “repressive regimes,” such as Russia and China. The signals coming from Moscow, however, suggest that the Russian reaction will not be as reserved as America’s. So is WikiLeaks really ready to take on the world’s more callous states?

It’s certainly talking the talk. In an interview published on Tuesday in Russia’s leading daily newspaper Kommersant, WikiKeaks spokesman Kristinn Hrafnsson said that “Russian readers will learn a lot about their country” after one of the site’s upcoming document dumps. “We want to tell people the truth about the actions of their governments.” (See the top 10 leaks in history.)

So far Russia has had no official response. But on Wednesday, an official at the Center for Information Security of the FSB, Russia’s secret police, gave a warning to WikiLeaks that showed none of the tact of the U.S. reply to the Iraq revelations. “It’s essential to remember that given the will and the relevant orders, [WikiLeaks] can be made inaccessible forever,” the anonymous official told the independent Russian news website LifeNews.

See also:
Wikileaks vs. the FSB
WikiLeaks to publish classified documents from Russia, China
WikiLeaks to release secret Russia, China logs – paper
WikiLeaks Has Something to Tell the World About Russia
WikiLeaks to post Russian, Chinese files
WikiLeaks ready to drop a bombshell on Russia. But will Russians get to read about it?
Wikileaks to leak China and Russia’s secret documents
Wikileaks admits it has material on Russia
Has WikiLeaks landed in cyberattack crosshairs?

Unlike the United States, it sounds like Russia isn’t about to let any attempt to leak their classified documents go unpunished.

/R.I.P. Julian Assange, enjoy your self inflicted death wish