Adonis Diaries

Who is Julian Assange? Who is Daniel Domscheit-Berg? As described in “Inside WikiLeaks”

Julian Assange is off the media screen; but the over 250,000 leaks are still being published, disseminated, and sold to various media.

What happened to Julian Assange? Daniel Domscheit-Berg in his “Inside WikiLeaks” describes the problems that WiliLeaks was plagued with as a publishing medium and the authoritarian and single-minded behaviors of Assange is the running of this project.

Daniel Domscheit-Berg wrote:

“My idea was to install a permanent work center and hiring steady collaborators.  I even contacted the German military and located a few potential bunkers at affordable prices.  The concept was for WL to become “The most aggressive press organization“.  Julian changed position: He opted to remain an “Insurgent Operation” and not settle in any publicly recognized headquarter.  Julian was under the strong impression that he was followed and secretly investigated.  Consequently, Julian refused to facilitate decisions on withdrawing money from the Wau Foundation.

The Wau Foundation was ready to pay us salaries, and Julian blocked the entire plan.  As money started to come in after releasing the video “Collateral Murder”, shot in Iraq, discords with Assange were exacerbated.  The transactions with the foundation was pretty straightforward: The foundation extended the sum that Daniel requested and Daniel remitted the invoices.  The late Wau Holland was a computer scientist and a philosopher; his foundation aided with grants on projects that enhanced freedom of the press.

Thanks to the video “Collateral Murder” shot in Iraq, donations started to come in.  Collateral Murder showed a US helicopter shooting at civilian Iraqis coming out of a van.  The foundation Wau Holland in Germany had agreed to receive the donations, handle the fiscal and tax deductions procedures, and sending requested expenses.

By summer 2010, the account climbed to $600,000.  By the time Daniel Domscheit-Berg quit WL, he said that he estimated that the foundation had accumulated one million.

Daniel Domscheit-Berg claims in his book “inside WikiLeaks” that the project had spent $75,000 by September 2010 on state of the art equipment, like 7 servers, decrypted mobile phones, pagers by satellites…During the 6-month stoppage of Wikileaks, due to the previous archaic equipment and server, WL continued to receive documents while restoring the network.

What pleased most Assange is someone calling him Mandax, the code name he used when a young computer hacker; he was overjoyed hearing Mandax when he was not known around 2007 and when he got famous.

Assange would travel light, a simple backpack carrying his outmoded portable computer. Julian would arrive at the last minute for a convention, hoard the computer at the press room, and never relinquish it.

Three days later, the once well-pressed clothes were dirty: He didn’t bring cloth change, and gladly accepted gifts for cloth and other objects since he would not carry money.

Assange, Daniel Domscheit-Berg, and the Architect stayed for an entire month in a hotel suit in Island, ironing out a law proposal for the parliament to declare Island a heaven for free press.

Since they had to meet with deputies and politicians, Daniel Domscheit-Berg made it a point never to get out without pressed and clean cloths.  This behavior angered Julian and reprimanded Daniel of trying to taking over WikiLeaks and out-staging Julian.

The air of the room, containing over 6 persons and working around the clock, got filthy; especially that they ordered food and no one would clean up the leftover.  Once, Daniel opened a window to refresh the climate and Julian was harsh in his reaction, a behavior that prompted Daniel to return to Berlin.

The relationship between the two associate got nasty and Daniel quit WikiLeaks.  The Architect, the most important programmer and the one who updated and modernized the servers and platform, joined Daniel. The Architect took with him all the programs that he created, bringing back WikiLeaks to its archaic state.