Wikileaks pushes Facebook and Google to reveal US subpoenas

Washington - Amid growing controversy over a US Department of Justice (DOJ)subpoena for Twitter to hand over account information its associates, Wikileaks is demanding that Facebook and Google come clean on any US subpoenas they might have received.

After the emergence of the the DOJ subpoena, thanks to Twitter notifying one of its members, Birgitta Jonsdottir, of its existence, there is now evidence of the US government’s desire to form a case against Wikileaks and its founder, Julian Assange. In return, Wikileaks said in a statement: “Today, the existence of a secret US government grand jury espionage investigation into Wikileaks was confirmed for the first time as a subpoena was brought into the public domain,” according to the Guardian. The subpoena demands San Francisco-based Twitter hand over all information of those closely associated with Wikileaks from November 1, 2009 to present, including Assange, Bradley Manning, Rop Gonggrijp and Icelandic MP Birgitta Jonsdottir. Jonsdottir, Gonggrijp and Assange are named as producers of a military video, Collateral Murder, showing military personnel aboard Apache helicopters killing innocent civilians and journalists in Iraq. Among the wide-sweeping demands covered in the DOJ subpoena, it also requests information such as source and destination IP addresses used for account access, session times and durations, means and sources of payments for service (including banking and credit card information), and all billing records. The Guardian reports Manning, alleged to have turned information over to Wikileaks that is damaging to US credibility, is believed to have been offered a plea bargain for cooperating in the government investigation. In a statement, Assange said: “If the Iranian government was to attempt to coercively obtain this information from journalists and activists of foreign nations, human rights groups around the world would speak out,” according to the Guardian. Ms. Jonsdottir, in a Twitter message, said: “I think I am being given a message, almost like someone breathing in a phone.” In a comment praising Twitter for its handling of the case by notifying the individuals listed in the subpoena, Gonggrijp said: “It appears that Twitter, as a matter of policy, does the right thing in wanting to inform their users when one of these comes in.” He then added: “Heaven knows how many places have received similar subpoenas and just quietly submitted all they had on me,” according to the Guardian.