After months of embarrassment, the U. S. has finally gathered its mighty forces and taken aim at Wikileaks. In unsealed subpoenas, the San Francisco based company, Twitter was informed to turn over all contact information and information that the Twitter accounts might have on Julian Assange, Wikileaks and others connected with the Wikileaks organization.
The U. S. has been striving to find a legal rationale to attack the government leaks that Wikileaks has been responsible for. With Wikileaks finally in their cross hairs and with subpoenas being served, the U. S. appears ready to put a case together against them and their supporters reports MSNBC.com.
Since Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. implied last month that the U.S. was conducting an investigation, it has been only a matter of time before the subpoenas began to fly. According to a N. Y. Times report Wikileaks assumes Facebook and Google will receive similar subpoenas. Wikileaks reports they have 1.5 million fans on Facebook.
Not stopping with Wikileaks and Julian Assange, the records of Brigitte Jonsdottir, an outspoken Wikileaks activist, have also been subpoenaed. Since the subpoenas were unsealed, Twitter was allowed to inform its clients of the investigation into their accounts. When informed, one of Ms Jonsdottir’s comments was, “Do they realize I am a member of Parliament in Iceland?” The U. S. was not swayed by that.
The U. S. has subpoenaed the Twitter records of Pfc. Bradley Manning as well. He is a U. S. intelligence specialist who is facing a court martial for possibly being a source of the leaks. The Twitter accounts of two computer programmers, Ron Gonggrijp and Jacob Appelbaum are also being investigated. In the subpoenas the U. S. is asking for information relative to addresses, name, telephone numbers, credit card and bank account numbers. The content of their Twitter correspondence is not being requested.
Although the U. S. has emphatically stated that the leaks put soldiers lives at risk. Wikileaks has steadfastly refused to accept responsibility for putting anyone’s life at risk and believes that is a ruse used to try to stop them according to the N. Y. Times report.
A copy of the subpoena has been posted on Salon, Inc. Twitter is currently refusing to comment, according to U. S. News.
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