Wikileaks kicked off of Amazon EC2
J.A. Terranson
measl at mfn.org
Wed Dec 1 18:27:19 PST 2010
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6B05EK20101202
By Jeremy Pelofsky
WASHINGTON | Wed Dec 1, 2010 7:28pm EST
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc has stopped hosting WikiLeaks'
website after an inquiry by the U.S. Senate Homeland Security Committee
amid anger about the release of classified U.S. government documents on
the site.
WikiLeaks turned to Amazon to keep its site available after hackers tried
to flood it and thus prevent users from accessing the classified
information posted. WikiLeaks said Wednesday it was now being hosted by
servers in Europe.
Staff for Senate Homeland Security Committee Chairman Joe Lieberman had
questioned Amazon about its relationship with WikiLeaks Tuesday and called
on other companies that provide web-hosting services to boycott WikiLeaks.
"I wish that Amazon had taken this action earlier based on WikiLeaks'
previous publication of classified material," Lieberman, an independent,
said in a statement. "I call on any other company or organization that is
hosting WikiLeaks to immediately terminate its relationship with them."
WikiLeaks has said since Sunday, when the first of its latest cache of
U.S. government documents were published by media outlets, that its site
was the target of a "distributed denial of service" attack, which is a
computer attack meant to overwhelm a website and render it unavailable.
A representative for Amazon, which is widely known for its Internet retail
business but also offers smaller Internet-hosting services, did not
respond to requests for comment.
WikiLeaks slammed Amazon for dropping it, saying via the social media
network Twitter that if Amazon was "so uncomfortable with the First
Amendment (of the U.S. Constitution), they should get out of the business
of selling books."
WikiLeaks obtained scores of internal U.S. State Department
communications, some of which were classified and included candid and
embarrassing assessments of world leaders, and released them via media
outlets and its own website.
Earlier this year, the website also released thousands of U.S. classified
documents related to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, drawing
condemnations that the information could endanger U.S. forces and those
helping the war efforts there.
The U.S. Justice Department and Defense Department are investigating how
the treasure trove of documents wound up in WikiLeaks hands. The prime
suspect has been a former U.S. Army intelligence analyst, Bradley Manning.
Even though Amazon has stopped providing the web-hosting services to
WikiLeaks, Lieberman suggested that his problem with the company was not
fully resolved.
"I will be asking Amazon about the extent of its relationship with
Wikileaks and what it and other web service providers will do in the
future to ensure that their services are not used to distribute stolen,
classified information," Lieberman said.
Ryan Calo, a lecturer at Stanford University's Center for Internet and
Society, said that under U.S. law, Amazon would likely have been shielded
from any possible prosecution by the government over the WikiLeaks
document dump.
"It would set a dangerous precedent were companies like Amazon to take
down things merely because the senator or another government entity
started to ask question about them," Calo said.
(Additional reporting by Alexandria Sage in San Francisco, Alex
Dobuzinskis in Los Angeles and Tim Castle in London; Editing by Doina
Chiacu and Cynthia Osterman)
//Alif
--
"Never belong to any party, always oppose privileged classes and public
plunderers, never lack sympathy with the poor, always remain devoted to
the public welfare, never be satisfied with merely printing news, always
be drastically independent, never be afraid to attack wrong, whether by
predatory plutocracy or predatory poverty."
Joseph Pulitzer, 1907 Speech
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