Daniel Domscheit-Berg: Inside WikiLeaks: My Time with Julian Assange at the World's Most Dangerous Website

The publisher provided this product description: Former WikiLeaks Insider and Spokesman Daniel Domscheit-Berg Authors an Exposé of the “World’s Most Dangerous Website.” In an eye-opening account, Daniel Domscheit-Berg, the former spokesman of WikiLeaks, reveals never-disclosed details about the inner workings of the increasingly controversial organization that has struck fear into governments and business organizations worldwide and prompted the Pentagon to convene a 120-man task force. In addition to Germany and the U.S., Inside WikiLeaks will be published simultaneously in 12 other countries. Under the pseudonym Daniel Schmitt, Domscheit-Berg was the effective No. 2 at WikiLeaks and the organization’s most public face, after Julian Assange. In this book, he reveals the evolution, finances, and inner tensions of the whistleblower organization, beginning with his first meeting with Assange in December 2007. He also describes what led to his September 2010 withdrawal from WikiLeaks, including his disenchantment with the organization’s lack of transparency, its abandonment of political neutrality, and Assange’s increasing concentration of power. What has been made public so far about WikiLeaks is only a small fraction of the truth. With Domscheit-Berg’s insider knowledge, he is uniquely able to tell the full story. A computer scientist who worked in IT security prior to devoting himself full-time to WikiLeaks, he remains committed to freedom of information on the Internet. Today he is working on a more transparent secret-sharing website called OpenLeaks, developed by former WikiLeaks people, to be launched in early 2011.





Daniel Domscheit-Berg (previously known under the pseudonym Daniel Schmitt) (born 1978) is a German technology activist. He is best known for his prior work as spokesperson and effective number two in WikiLeaks, a whistleblower organisation. Before working with Wikileaks, Domscheit-Berg was involved with the German hacker group the Chaos Computer Club. He is planning on opening a new website for anonymous, online leaks called OpenLeaks, in December, 2010. A novel about his experience and separation from WikiLeaks is planned for release in Germany in January, 2011, titled "Inside WikiLeaks: My Time at the World's Most Dangerous Website". An English translation is expected in April 2011 by Australian publisher Scribe Publications. Among the criticisms Domscheit-Berg mentions are an organization culture which was too centered around the figure of one individual, head of Wikileaks, Julian Assange, an authoritarian style which was contrary to the transparency-focused mission of the organization, and a rush to unleash big news stories in lieu of steadily building up the organization. Domscheit-Berg is highlighted in the Swedish Sveriges Television (Swedens' Television) programme, WikiRebels - The Documentary, released in the second week of December 2010.





From Tech Crunch: As WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange stews in a British jail, with a U.S. indictment reportedly imminent on top of the alleged Swedish sex crimes he was arrested for in the first place, some of his former staffers are already preparing to launch a competing site for whistleblowers called OpenLeaks. The new site will be headed up by Daniel Domscheit-Berg, Assange’s former right-hand man who left last September, after bristling under Assange’s autocratic ways. OpenLeaks will be structured a bit differently than WikiLeaks. It will be designed to accept leaks in a secure and anonymous manner, but won’t publish them itself. Instead, OpenLeaks will work with other publishers, including newspapers and websites around the world, which will asses the newsworthiness of any leaked documents, and edit and redact them as appropriate before releasing them. In this way, OpenLeaks hopes to address one of the biggest early criticisms against WikiLeaks: that it publishes sensitive documents indiscriminately without regard for the safety of people who may be mentioned in those documents. This was certainly the case with the Afghanistan war documents, and is one of the main reason why the WikiLeaks defectors set up OpenLeaks. In an online chat at the time, in reference to the way Assange handled the first leak of Afghanistan war documents, Domscheit-Berg accused him of behaving “like some kind of emperor or slave trader.”





From The Australian: A defector from the WikiLeaks website has spoken of a siege mentality within an organisation run by its founder, Julian Assange, allegedly as a personal fiefdom. In an interview with The Times the German defector gave a blistering insider's insight into the workings of WikiLeaks, which appears to operate as secretly as the institutions that it infiltrates. Until this month "Daniel Schmitt" was the second most public face of WikiLeaks after Mr Assange, giving hundreds of interviews in defence of the organisation's mission to put classified documents directly on the internet. This was his first interview with the international media since breaking cover at the weekend. He has dropped his pseudonym and now uses his real name, Daniel Domscheit-Berg. He is 32, a former hacker and lives in the Prenzlauer Berg district of Berlin with his wife, an expert on e-governance. Initially, the WikiLeaks experiment was hailed as a turning point in investigative journalism and Mr Domscheit-Berg, as its press spokesman, was at the helm. Then things started to go wrong. "The aim of the platform when it started in 2006 was to inform intelligent people and supply them with a basis of solid facts for intelligent decisions," he told The Times. "But it became a problem as soon as we started to take sides."

"WITNESS STATEMENT OF MICHAEL MOORE" from MichaelMoore.com

Michael Moore pledged bail money to help Assange, who is currently still held in limbo, while appeals are held.

5. I support Julian, whom I see as a pioneer of free speech, transparent government and the digital revolution in journalism. His commitment to exposing the follies of government and business offers the greater society a chance to protect itself from these follies. Some aren't just follies. Some are crimes. What do we do with someone who informs the authorities -- and in this case it is the free people in a democracy who are the "authorities" -- that a crime has been committed? Do we arrest HIM? Do we try to shut his mouth? Do we hound him, threaten him, track him down and hunt him as if HE is the criminal? He bravely informed the citizenry of what was being done in their name and with their tax monies. That is no crime. That is an act of patriotism. He should be thanked and honored, not abused and jailed. It dishonours this court to be used in this way, holding this man without bail. Julian has made the world, and my country in particular, a safer place. His actions with WikiLeaks have put on notice those who would take us to war based on lies that any future attempts to do so will be met by the fierce bright light provided by WikiLeaks and intended to expose those who commit their war crimes. His actions will make them think twice next time -- and for that we all owe him a debt of gratitude. 6. I believe that Julian takes pride in his reputation and as any journalist would understands that if he were to abscond he would ruin his reputation in the media and journalism industries. 7. I regret that I am out of the country and therefore I am unable to attend court and explain in person that I expect Julian to observe his bail conditions. I am offering to stand and provide security for him abiding by his bail conditions to the value of USD$20,000. 8. I understand that by acting as security for Julian I risk forfeiture of the aforementioned sum to the crown if he breaches his bail conditions by absconding or by not attending Court as and when required. 9. The money which I will pay to the Court, to be held as security, is my own. As I am abroad I am unable to produce any statement as evidence of these funds. However I have already transferred the sum of USD$20,000 into the client account of FSI. 10. I have not been indemnified against the loss of this money in the event of Julian breaching his bail conditions, and understand that if I were to be so indemnified it would amount to a separate criminal offence for which I could be imprisoned. 11. I have been advised by Julian’s solicitors that it would be prudent to obtain independent legal advice in relation to my liabilities as security. 12. I have no previous convictions.

Read the full witness statement here. See also: Dude, Where's My Country?, Stupid White Men : ...And Other Sorry Excuses for the State of the Nation!, Michael Moore Is a Big Fat Stupid White Man, Mike's Election Guide 2008, Downsize This! Random Threats from an Unarmed American, Fahrenheit 9/11, The World According to Michael Moore: A Portrait in His Own Words