Hundreds of Wikileaks Mirror Sites Appear [Fwd: NYT]

[J.A. Terranson]

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/06/world/europe/06wiki.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

Hundreds of WikiLeaks Mirror Sites Appear
By RAVI SOMAIYA
Published: December 5, 2010

LONDON . The battle lines between supporters of the whistle-blowing Web 
site WikiLeaks and its detractors began to form on Sunday, as supporters 
erected numerous copies of the site on the Internet and the United States 
put pressure on Switzerland not to offer a haven to the site.s founder, 
Julian Assange.

Since several major Internet companies cut off services to WikiLeaks in 
recent days, activists have created hundreds of mirror sites, Web sites 
that host exact copies of another site.s content, making censorship 
difficult.

The collective Anonymous, an informal but notorious group of hackers and 
activists, also declared war on Sunday against enemies of Mr. Assange, 
calling on supporters to attack sites companies that do not support 
WikiLeaks and to spread the leaked material online.

Meanwhile, the American ambassador to Switzerland, Donald S. Beyer Jr., 
responded to signs that Mr. Assange and WikiLeaks might seek refuge in 
that country, warning in the weekly magazine NZZ am Sonntag that the Swiss 
.should very carefully consider whether to provide shelter to someone who 
is on the run from the law..

Since the release of classified diplomatic cables a week ago, from a batch 
of more than 250,000 obtained by WikiLeaks, the Web site has been 
bombarded by cyberattacks and abandoned by Internet companies like PayPal, 
an online payment service that had accepted donations for the site, and 
Amazon, which had rented it server space.

WikiLeaks said that PayPal had .surrendered to U.S. government pressure,. 
but the government has not acknowledged involvement in efforts to try to 
disable the site.

On Friday, WikiLeaks sought refuge in a diffuse web of financial and 
Internet infrastructure spread across Europe, particularly in Switzerland. 
It moved to wikileaks.ch, a domain registered to the Swiss Pirate Party, a 
political organization that shares many of Mr. Assange.s aims.

A Swiss-Icelandic company, Datacell, will process donations instead of 
PayPal, and the WikiLeaks site shows that Mr. Assange is accepting direct 
donations into a Swiss bank account held with the financial arm of the 
Swiss postal service.

But that solace may be short lived: a spokesman for the financial arm of 
Swiss Post, Marc Andrey, also told NZZ am Sonntag on Sunday that it was 
.reviewing. its relationship with Mr. Assange subject to proof that he has 
Swiss residency, owns property or does business in the country. A message 
seeking comment from Mr. Assange.s British lawyer was not immediately 
returned.

The Internet group Anonymous, which in the past has taken on targets as 
diverse as the Church of Scientology and Iran, disseminated a seven-point 
manifesto via Twitter and other social networking sites pledging to .kick 
back for Julian..

Gregg Housh, a prominent member of the group, said by telephone from 
Boston that an orchestrated effort was under way to attack companies that 
have refused to support WikiLeaks and to post multiple copies of the 
leaked material.

The Anonymous manifesto singled out PayPal, which cut off ties with 
WikiLeaks for .a violation. of its policy on promoting illegal activities, 
a company statement said.

.The reason is amazingly simple,. Mr. Housh said of the campaign. .We all 
believe that information should be free, and the Internet should be free..

By late Sunday, there were at least 208 WikiLeaks mirror sites up and 
running.

.Cut us down,. said a message on the WikiLeaks Twitter feed on Sunday, 
.and the stronger we become..