Long-Awaited Wikileaks Secret Bank Of America Files Have Been Destroyed

A look back at the Wikileaks, Bank of America document drop that never happened.

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FT

Bank of America may just have dodged a bullet when it comes to the stash of its confidential information that was said last year to be in the hands of Wikileaks.  After an internal feud, a break-away member of Wikileaks has told Spiegel Online that he has destroyed information that he took from the organisation – and Wikileaks itself says that includes 5 gigabytes of information from Bank of America.

Der Spiegel

Tensions between WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange and ex-spokesman Daniel Domscheit-Berg have escalated. According to information obtained by SPIEGEL, the former deputy destroyed thousands of unpublished documents entrusted to WikiLeaks. The information they contained appears to be lost forever.

Former WikiLeaks spokesman Daniel Domscheit-Berg claims to have destroyed more than 3,500 unpublished files obtained from unknown informants. The information they contained is now apparently lost, irrevocably. The documents in question were stored on the WikiLeaks server until late summer 2010, when Domscheit-Berg left the organization , taking the files with him upon his departure.

Now Domscheit-Berg says that these documents were "shredded over the past few days in order to ensure that the sources are not compromised." WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange could not guarantee safe handling of the documents, he says.

Comments

[DailyBail]

USA becomes Food Stamp Nation but is it sustainable?

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/08/22/us-usa-poverty-foodstamps-idUSTRE77L45Z20110822

[Michael Rivero]

When I posited that Julian Assange was a manufactured propaganda front, and that at best he was running an extortion racket with the information handed to him by whistleblowers, I was accused of being jealous that Julian Assange had become the instant darling of the corporate media in a matter of months whereas my own website has been around 17 years with scant corporate media notice. I was also chastised for being "petty" when I pointed out Julian Assange's past criminal record and his predilection for avoiding blowing the whistle on anything to do with Israel.

So now, after all these months of media grandstanding about a coming expose' of Bank of America, we learn that, "whoopsie", the files have been destroyed, and there will be no revelations after all.

It seems that Assange has been running an extortion racket after all, and Bank of America met his price! And the corporate media helped him do it!

[DailyBail]

You make a good point Mike. I have always had some doubts about Wikileaks. Less so about Anonymous, as they have followed thru on their promises.

[Dave]

It is strange to say the least he is not as big in the news for one and two,,,,,, what happened? Is he going to gail? It went from being an issue of being deported, and if so this would happen, etc. Even his coworker said in so many words he was a jerk, and thats putting it nicely. Was he punished at all? If not it would only make sense that Mike is totally right.

Forgive me on this one DB. I don't have TV. LOL!! So I have to play catch up all the time.

[Canuck]

Far as wikileaks goes, cui bono? That's easy, Israel, the warmongers and now BAC. It's been fairly obvious to anyone who thinks for themselves that Assange was a disinfo pant. If only because of the media attention he was given. Someone truly exposing the fraud of war and banking ould have shot himself in the back of the head 5 times.

[j]

I don't think Mike's point is very well made at all. Because Daniel Domscheit-Berg deleted BoA documents and who knows what else when he left WikiLeaks to form OpenLeaks it means that Julian Assange is a running an extortion racket? That makes no sense whatsoever. If anything it would indicate Domscheit-Berg is running some sort of racket or is at least in an alliance with some faction of the powers that be. Look no further than the fact that Assange is still being pursued by the authorities of Western governments (especially the U.S.) while Domschet-Berg is free, not under an sort of Western suspicion, and seems to be operating his new organization (which to my knowledge has not released any information so far that has lead to the kind of explosions in coverage WikiLeaks sustained for so long) with no official resistance whatsoever.

Also, you are a fool if you think WikiLeaks has never published information that "blows the whistle on Israel." Don't make the mistake of blaming the corporate media's lack of coverage on publicly available WikiLeaks docs on the WikiLeaks organization or Julian Assange himself. Just because the Israeli government says there is nothing damaging in their cable leaks doesn't make it so. Evidence: http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-503543_162-20027345-503543.html
Israeli diplomatic cables provided by Wikileaks have done a lot to expose to the whole world just how intentional the plight of the Palestinian people is at the hands of Israel.

As for Anonymous keeping promises... lol.... how's the "death of Facebook" coming for them? What about Anon+, I haven't heard about that in awhile. What about the Koch brothers attack? That seems to have fizzled... I just mean to say that both Anonymous/LulzSec and WikiLeaks/Assange have had hits and misses, but the evidence available doesn't point anywhere near "he's a Mossad agent/disinfo agent who has done nothing to hurt Israeli interests."

I appreciate a lot of the stories the independent online media (mostly libertarians like yourselves) breaks for the world but you need to get over your tendencies to label anyone and everyone a disinfo agent because you perceive them as not being damaging enough to Israel. It does NOT help your causes.

Just trying to help...

[Greg Diablo]

I don't agree that BofA has suffered enough; they've acted abominably towards homeowners. This internecine struggle was quite depressing to discover because once again, the bankster whores skate on accountability. I tend to agree with Michael (and other analysts like Webster Tarpley) that Assange is getting way too much media hype to be legit (unlike cryptome, for example, who seem more solid), but wikileaks has put out some worthwhile documentation in the infowar.

But certainly not enough for Amy Goodman to swoon over Assange repeatedly and act like he's the incarnation of V for Vendetta. Bottom line is I don't think we have enough credible source material on this character to know for sure, but is it really worth debating so heatedly? There's so much real scandal going on right out in the open that we have more than enough to deal with as it is!

[Sagebrush]

("Former WikiLeaks spokesman Daniel Domscheit-Berg claims to have destroyed more than 3,500 unpublished files obtained from unknown informants. The information they contained is now apparently lost, irrevocably. The documents in question were stored on the WikiLeaks server until late summer 2010, when Domscheit-Berg left the organization, taking the files with him upon his departure.")

What a load of Bullshit!

Am I really supposed to believe that there were no secure backup copies made of this information? Files this important would have been backed up somewhere safe off site. You can put 5 Gigs. on a $12.00 flash drive and store it in a prayer wheel in Tibet. No one will ever find it. Thats a dramatization of course, but it makes my point!

I Wonder how much Assange and Domschiet-Berg milked BofA out of to keep a bunch of crooked bankers out of prison?

[Danny]

Once again, Rivero shows us his clown shoes...

The story goes, and according to the guy who did it, Domscheit, that HE, NOT ASSANGE, got rid of the files, because he "didn't trust" Assange.

Beofer anyone says Assange gets too much attention, or anything, ask yourself, "where has he been?" Who's ACTUALLY running wikileaks now?...

[Norman]

Hi Sagebrush, been awhile. How you be? Indeed, you are correct about the files. Recall that when the Army guy got popped, all the rage in the MSM & Wikileaks, that Assange preached that the files that were in possession, were stored on many servers,sites/etc. To believe that Domscheit-Berg was able to squirrel away with the files and destroy them, defies credibility he is being truthful. There may be a conspiracy, though we probably will never know the truth.

There is the real possibility that BofA made some sort of payoff, which wouldn't surprise, considering the state of the Financial TBIF's and the criminal acts that have taken place with the approval of this U.S.Government. That old saying: "follow the money" rings just as true today as it always has. Also, only a naive idiot would give up their only get out of jail free what ever, so the files, if indeed they exist[ed], are still out there, somewhere.

Remember, all the Banks are intertwined in one way or another, joined at the hip, if you may. They feel so confident today, that they can actually flout their impunity, while blatantly go about the systematic looting the treasuries of the worlds peoples.

There is a fly in the ointment though, that no matter how many false flag operations they employ, the fact remains, that they lie to cover the lie, to cover the lie. . . . . . . . . . . ! Reality being what it is, it is beginning to come back to bite them in the ass, which they have no way to stop from happening. One could easily say that it's a conservation of energy type of thing, push begets push back, whether of equal or greater force. That may seem to go against such, but when you consider the few pushing the many, (there are over 7 billion humans now, though not very many manipulators-crooks-what ever name applies) the odds are going against the success exponentially each day.

[Sagebrush]

Greetings Norman, I be good, hope all is well with you and yours.
Yep! those files are out there somewhere and it's a damn shame the world isn't going to see them. If we did there would probably be a bounty on bankers the day after they were published.

("manipulators-crooks-what ever name applies")

The names I would apply to the worthless parasitic pond scum would get DB's site a XXX rating.

[Dave]

@ Sagebrush,


Am I really supposed to believe that there were no secure backup copies made of this information? Files this important would have been backed up somewhere safe off site. You can put 5 Gigs. on a $12.00 flash drive and store it in a prayer wheel in Tibet. No one will ever find it. Thats a dramatization of course, but it makes my point!

I didn't even think of that. Those files, if they do exist somewhere I would think?

I didn't even know what "Wikileaks" was really until I kept hearing about it and then I saw Julian Assange on Ted Talks. They gave a whole 15 minutes as an interview on Ted. I remember thinking that was like wow who is this guy??

But as a homeowner dealing with the very issue of fighting fraud, where plane and simply I should not have to be just to safe my home, my life's work. I was thinking what a Hero he was at first like a lot of people.

Michael Moore going all the way to Sweden to save him there from a sex charge of sorts. That after he had more of less had some harsh words for Assange at one point. Michael Moore was even asked why he bailed him out of the hole there? He response was more or less, because he believed in journalism and was trying to protect it's integrity. But doing that for Assange I believe Moore truly felt he stood for what was good for all Journalist.

After watching the PBS version trying to figure out what the real scoop was and why etc. on Assange, One thing stood out in my mind. His partner, don't remember his name this moment, (sorry) said that he was difficult to work with and had intentions to break away but continue with the work they were trying to do. And last they mentioned on the PBS show, that Assange wanted $10 million for the story about the reporters that were killed and the video of it.

I did think, Okay? he wants 10 million dollars, as they said, not that I heard Assange say, for this story to CNN who turned him down for it. Then he made some connections with the NY Times (if I'm right about the paper) to run the story and they pulled out last moment stating themselves, Well we were concerned about what this may do to the protection of US soldiers.

He ran with it on his end only to find out that they made this decision after he did. Either way.... I was one who had hope that he was going to put B of A in their place. But then........ Nothing.

But thinking about what you said, if in fact these Documents exist, they did not just go away and just going by the word of PBS as it was reported, Assange was not outside of a hand full of money vs Truth in Journalism. That said I wonder what Michael Moore has to say about it now? That would be interesting. Like I have said I don't have cable TV and I get my news from here mostly. He may have already said something in the news. But I'd like to know what his take is on it after what he did for Assange. That was pretty huge on his behalf from my humble opinion.

Thanks for sharing guys. Have a great one.

[Sagebrush]

("That said I wonder what Michael Moore has to say about it now?")

Yo Dave,
I would imagine he's disappointed to say the least. I know I am. I thought Assange was the real deal. Now I think he's as bad as the damn bankers.

Good luck saving your house.

[Dave]

Thanks Sagebrush. I take it that you didn't see anything in the news either that would confirm Moore's feeling about it. I too would imagine he's disappointed. Not that my opinion matters but after what he did for the guy I would like to hear it from him what he has to say about the outcome of it all. He deserves at least that.

The cool thing for someone like Moore is that, if he wants to, he can make some noise about it. I be on the look out for it for sure.

I thought of one other thing after I posted the last comment trying to cover all my thoughts. LOL!! But it's strange that such a comprehensive (accuracy always in question though anymore) story from PBS on the subject. Assange was interviewed so many times even during his "house arrest" in England at, strangely enough his friends house. I don't recall any of the interviewers asking Assange about the issues that PBS so boldly pointed out.

What I mean when I say that is, I would have perhaps asked him about weather or not he in fact asked CNN and who there for $10 million for the story? It just seems like a question that someone should have asked. Instead, we saw a seemingly calm yet vulnerable Assange who wanted to go back to Sweden. The very place (LOL) where he got his bail out by Moore to begin with over what in any civilized society considers a serious felony. That question got side stepped as well. Or so I remember it that way.

Last I was thinking again about your comment and how $12 Flash Drive would have hung on to it. And it hit me, in this day and age I don't think anything really vanishes away. We don't live in a time where such things are kept in a file that can be dumped, burned or what ever.

I remember a while back sending DB an article about twitter. It was an article that gave another person the ability to "re-tweet" if you will (I think thats what it's called) the ability to recover deleted tweeted messages . FB people have mentioned time and time again that no matter what you think you delete on FB, it is always there. So those so called destroyed documents either never existed or there somewhere under lock and key for what ever reason or another.

Ya, something smells fishy, ya know. LOL! Bummer really though. I was really hoping that he was the kick ass and be the hero a lot of us were looking for. But after all the points made and the outcome I have yet to hear on the news and so on, that next to impossible to believe. Damn shame too.

[Dave]

I found a couple of recent articles on Assange that may be of interest. Just in case.

WikiLeaks Assange wanted U.S. cables released months ago

http://news.yahoo.com/assange-months-ago-wanted-wikileaks-u-cables-released-222742155.html

WikiLeaks reveals all, media groups criticize move

http://news.yahoo.com/wikileaks-reveals-media-groups-criticize-move-144202957.html

AFP: WikiLeaks releases mystery file

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gD_TH7N_qZ87qCxbvmSShfQVdAzQ?docId=CNG.96f9ad25900131336388af4e36e3a985.1091

[TR]

Julian,
Have you ever heard the phrase: Back-Up your files, documents, etc
You don't have to if they don't exist.

[strega]

Michael Moore, Julian Assagne, Amy Goodman......none may be who or what they seem.....Anyone seen the most recent photos of Michael Moore's private home?......anyone considered why these folks and a few others maintain relevance, appear and reappear in the mainstream news but Kucinich and/ or Ron Paul can't get a 30 sec. bite on news shows?

I've read all of the foregoing comments and the last, "T.R."'s observation rings truest for me. It's Kabuki, all or most of it. I agree with Sagebrush that it could have/should have been backed up, copied with secret storage and.....if it did exist, it would have been.

Consider this: what 'actual, concrete' difference has Michael Moore made with regard to society; politics; governemnt? Granted, he's informed millions but....what specific salutory result has he effected? Seems to me a significant amount of 'leaks' as well as other forms of alternative news is invented bullshit.....if so cui bono?

[david]

Michael Rivero is the disinformation agent.

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