Com­ment: In FTR #‘s 724, 725, we exam­ined Wik­iLeaks, noting–among oth­er connections–the orga­ni­za­tion’s appar­ent con­nec­tions to intel­li­gence ser­vices.

Assange is part of a hack­er milieu that includes one Peit­er Zatko, aka “Mudge”, a cel­e­brat­ed hack­er cur­rent­ly employed by DARPA to strength­en cyber­se­cu­ri­ty.  This is a con­nec­tion that rais­es more ques­tions than it answers.

With web chat­ter assert­ing that Wik­iLeaks may be an intel­li­gence com­mu­ni­ty ploy to pre­cip­i­tate more cen­sor­ship of the Inter­net, this is a con­sid­er­a­tion to be weighed, although Mr. Emory feels there is much more to the sto­ry than that.

“Assange ties to DARPA cyber­se­cu­ri­ty pro­gram hir­ing ‘hack­ers’ An Inter­view With Wik­iLeaks’ Julian Assange” [Forbes]; rigorousintuition.ca; 11/29/2010.

FORBES: I want­ed to ask you about [Peit­er Zatko, a leg­endary hack­er and secu­ri­ty researcher who also goes by] “Mudge.”

Assange: Yeah, I know Mudge. He’s a very sharp guy.

FORBES: Mudge is now lead­ing a project at the Pentagon’s Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to find a tech­nol­o­gy that can stop leaks, which seems pret­ty rel­a­tive to your orga­ni­za­tion. Can you tell me about your past rela­tion­ship with Mudge?

Assange: Well, I…no com­ment.

FORBES: Were you part of the same scene of hack­ers? When you were a com­put­er hack­er, you must have known him well.

Assange: We were in the same milieu. I spoke with every­one in that milieu. . . .