10-12-25 WikiLeaks, Bank of America, and the New York Times - Freedom of the Press on the Line // Wikileaks, Bank of America, y el New York Times - Libertad de Prensa en Peligro de Extinción // 维基解密，美国银行，以及纽约时报-濒危新闻自由

 

Banks and WikiLeaks

A bank’s ability to block payments to a legal entity, as Bank of America has done with WikiLeaks, raises troubling questions.

December 25, 2010

A New York Times editorial today on the recent actions of Bank America, Visa, PayPal, and Mastercard to block payments to Wikileaks says the moves raise "troubling questions," given the fact that Wikileaks has not been charged or convicted of any crime:

What would happen if a clutch of big banks decided that a particularly irksome blogger or other organization was "too risky"? What if they decided -- one by one -- to shut down financial access to a newspaper that was about to reveal irksome truths about their operations? This decision should not be left  solely up to business-as-usual among the banks.

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As anticipated, the WikiLeaks saga is becoming a test case of US First Amendment rights and Freedom of the Press.

SO: WILL THE NEW YORK TIMES PUBLISH THE WIKILEAKS BANK OF AMERICA PAPERS NEXT MONTH? OR WILL THE NEW YORK TIMES CAVE IN?


LINKS:
[1] 10-12-25 Banks and WikiLeaks - NYT
http://www.scribd.com/doc/46072423

10-12-26 WikiLeaks: How the US Tried to Stop Spain Torture Investigation // Wikileaks: ¿Cómo los EE.UU. trató de detener la Tortura España Investigación // 维基解密：如何在美国试图阻止西班牙调查酷刑

CAROL ROSENBERG - MIAMI HERALD

MIAMI — It was three months into Barack Obama's presidency, and the administration -- under pressure to do something about alleged abuses in Bush-era interrogation policies -- turned to a Florida senator to deliver a sensitive message to Spain:

Don't indict former President George W. Bush's legal brain trust for alleged torture in the treatment of war on terror detainees, warned Mel Martinez on one of his frequent trips to Madrid. Doing so would chill U.S.-Spanish relations.

Rather than a resolution, though, a senior Spanish diplomat gave the former GOP chairman and housing secretary a lesson in Spain's separation of powers. "The independence of the judiciary and the process must be respected,'' then-acting Foreign Minister Angel Lossada replied on April 15, 2009. Then for emphasis, "Lossada reiterated to Martinez that the executive branch of government could not close any judicial investigation and urged that this case not affect the overall relationship.''

Read more: http://www.newsobserver.com/2010/12/25/881509/wikileaks-how-us-tried-to-stop.html#ixzz19G8pprXQ