SocraticGadfly: PayPal, the U.S. government and Assange

December 08, 2010

PayPal, the U.S. government and Assange

For those like Greg Laden at ScienceBlogs who claim those of us who think the U.S. government is being much of Julian Assange's troubles are just conspiracy theorists, PayPal officially admits it was ... err ... leaned on by the State Department.

Worse ... and why, if hackers want to fire back at PayPal, it brought this on itself, PayPal took State at face value (not that I am condoning illegal activity, of course, just citing some "secular karma"):
"State Dept told us these were illegal activities. It was straightforward," he told the LeWeb conference in Paris, adding: "We ... comply with regulations around the world, making sure that we protect our brand."

PayPal may become the next target of Operation Payback, which already went after MasterCard:
"We cannot let this happen," it said. "This is why our intention is to find out who is responsible for this failed attempt at censorship. This is why we intend to utilise our resources to raise awareness, attack those against and support those who are helping lead our world to freedom and democracy."

That said, the group claims Twitter is censoring WikiLeaks Tweeting. Is that true or not?

And, the U.S. is reportedly still fishing for legal grounds on which to try Assange.

Meanwhile, as Assange sits in British custody (more here), WikiLeaks' "succession plan," at least right now, doesn't look too organized.

2 comments:

Greg Laden said...

Actually, I've always assumed that the US Government was out to get J.A. How could it be otherwise?

But at the same time, I've also learned over the last few weeks that you are prone to delusional conspiracy theories about lots of things. Not that I care, but it's true.

You did go a little over the top, though, when you implied that somehow I was "in on" the conspiracy with NASA to do whatever it was you thought we were doing. LOL

Gadfly said...

You have a nice way of hiding what you say you believe. That said, I'd been warned before about how you (and Stephanie) like to back away from statements, shift words, then blame others for not understanding you. So, if I am prone to any delusions, it's not me alone. As for implying you were in on anything, that's your inference of what I implied. I never implied a conspiracy by NASA, let alone that you were in on it.

But, respond all you want. I won't threatened to try to ban you from "the entire Internet."