The founder of WikiLeaks, international man of mystery?

The founder of WikiLeaks lives a secret life in the shadow of those who blow the whistle, writes Bernard Lagan.

On the Al Jazeera television network, an overbearing host was grilling Julian Assange, one of the founders of WikiLeaks, the online drop zone for whistleblowers. 

(...)

He didn't need to say more; by week's end the video had been viewed 4.8 million times. Its impact upon the reputation of US servicemen in Iraq is devastating. Another US military video - showing last year's bombing of Afghan villages as they siphoned fuel from a tanker hijacked by the Taliban - is also coming to WikiLeaks.

Clearly someone inside the military has begun leaking, elevating WikiLeaks and Assange overnight from mainstream journalism's fringes to a must-see news breaker. ''This is a whole new world of how stories get out,'' declared Sree Screenivasan, a professor of digital media at the Columbia University journalism school in New York. Full story...

Don't miss:

1. Collateral murder in Iraq. (Graphic)
2. IMMI, Iceland's endeavour to protect whistleblowers...
3. Latvian 'Robin Hood' hacker exposes banks and bankers...
4. The global warming guerrillas: how bloggers exposed the climate bullshit...