Assange selbst auch von Leaks geplagt

--- Vom angespannten Verhältnis zwischen Wikileaks-Frontmann Julian Assange und der New York Times war bereits zu lesen. Nun bringt Vanity Fair weitere Hintergründe zu der damals bekannt gewordenen Weitergabe des Depeschenmaterials durch den Guardian an die Times. Das britische Blatt hatte den letzten Teil der "Cables" demnach selbst nicht mehr von Assange, sondern von einem Whistleblower aus dem Wikileaks-Lager erhalten, was in dem Kämpfer für die Informationsfreiheit den Kontrollfreak und kleinen Diktator geweckt haben soll:

On the afternoon of November 1, 2010, Julian Assange, the Australian-born founder of WikiLeaks.org, marched with his lawyer into the London office of Alan Rusbridger, the editor of The Guardian. Assange was pallid and sweaty, his thin frame racked by a cough that had been plaguing him for weeks. He was also angry, and his message was simple: he would sue the newspaper if it went ahead and published stories based on the quarter of a million documents that he had handed over to The Guardian just three months earlier. ... In Rusbridger’s office, Assange’s position was rife with ironies. An unwavering advocate of full, unfettered disclosure of primary-source material, Assange was now seeking to keep highly sensitive information from reaching a broader audience. He had become the victim of his own methods: someone at WikiLeaks, where there was no shortage of disgruntled volunteers, had leaked the last big segment of the documents, and they ended up at The Guardian in such a way that the paper was released from its previous agreement with Assange—that The Guardian would publish its stories only when Assange gave his permission. Enraged that he had lost control, Assange unleashed his threat, arguing that he owned the information and had a financial interest in how and when it was released.