The
PayPal-offshoot Becomes a Weapon in the War Against Whistleblowers
and WikiLeaks. The Palantir document notes that most well-known
journalistic professionals “with a liberal bent . . .if pushed will
choose professional preservation over cause, such is the mentality of
most business professionals.”
WikiLeaks,
the transparency organization known for publishing leaked documents
that threaten the powerful, finds itself under pressure like never
before, as does its editor-in-chief, Julian Assange. Now the fight to
silence WikiLeaks is not only being waged by powerful government
figures but also by the media, including outlets and organizations
that have styled themselves as working to protect whistleblowers.
Pierre
Omidyar – eBay billionaire and PayPal’s long-time owner – holds
considerable sway over several journalists and organizations that
once championed WikiLeaks but now work for the Omidyar-owned
publication, The Intercept. Thanks to his deep ties to the U.S.
government and his own long-standing efforts to undermine the
organization, Omidyar is using his influence to bring renewed
pressure to WikiLeaks as it continues to publish sensitive government
information. However, Pierre Omidyar is not the only PayPal-linked
billionaire with strong government connections and a dislike for
WikiLeaks.
Part
3 - The Palantir Plan
It’s
no surprise that Palantir has developed capabilities that allow it to
thwart the leak of government information to organizations like
WikiLeaks by tracking – and predicting – the actions of
potentially disgruntled government employees, soldiers and
contractors. In 2010, the U.S. government was left reeling following
WikiLeaks’ publication of the Iraq War logs and other documents
allegedly leaked by Chelsea Manning. Already a top government
contractor at the time, Palantir, along with two other top technology
companies contracted by the government — HBGary Federal and Berico
Technologies – was tasked with developing a plan not only to
silence WikiLeaks but to destroy it completely.
The
resulting plan of attack devised by three firms, titled “The
WikiLeaks Threat,” was made public in 2011 after hackers associated
with Anonymous targeted HBGary and gained access to scores of emails
sent between HBGary, Berico and Palantir. It seeks mainly to take
advantage of existing fractures within the community of WikiLeaks and
its supporters through an elaborate media disinformation campaign.
The leaked correspondence among the three contractors showed that the
plan was meant to target WikiLeaks’ “global following and
volunteer staff” as well as its donor group.
Read
“The WikiLeaks Threat”:
The plan
is based largely on what the firms identified as WikiLeaks’ three
biggest weaknesses and how those weaknesses could be “capitalized
on.” The first weakness mentioned is “financial” and references
the financial blockade against WikiLeaks that began in 2010. HBGary’s
CEO at the time, Aaron Barr, had also mentioned, in the leaked
correspondence relating to the document, that it was important to
“get people to understand that if they support the organization we
will come after them. Transaction records are easily available.” In
other words, Barr asserted that those individuals donating to
WikiLeaks should also be targeted.
The next
weakness noted regards “security.” Though it doesn’t reference
any existing security problem, the document calls for the “need to
create doubt about their security and increase awareness that
interaction with WikiLeaks will expose you.” The latter was also
part of an anti-WikiLeaks strategy laid out in a U.S. Army report.
The
final weakness noted in the document targets the “mission” of
WikiLeaks. It notes that “there is a fracture among the followers
because of a belief that Julien [sic] is going astray from the cause
and has selected his own mission of attacking the U.S.” The
document later notes that this fracture should be exploited by
working to “feed the fuel between the feuding groups” by using
“disinformation” and by creating “messages around [WikiLeaks]
actions to sabotage or discredit the opposing organization.” A
“media campaign to push the radical and reckless nature of
WikiLeaks activities” is also cited.
Most
interesting of all, perhaps, is the attention the document gives to
one individual in particular: journalist and the shining star of The
Intercept, Glenn Greenwald. The document notes that Greenwald was
critical in moving WikiLeaks’ U.S.-based server to a French one
following the release of the Manning leaks, stating specifically that
“it is this level of support that needs to be disrupted.” This
statement refers more broadly to well-known journalistic
professionals with “a liberal bent.” The document further notes
that most of these professionals “if pushed will choose
professional preservation over cause, such is the mentality of most
business professionals.”
The
document concludes that “without the support of people like Glenn,
WikiLeaks would fold.”
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