Is There a War on Wikileaks?

WikiLeaks.org, which publishes confidential documents online, says that it is being harassed by U.S. military and intelligence agencies because of its disclosures of restricted information, including the forthcoming release of a classified U.S. military video of an air strike in Afghanistan that produced civilian casualties.  But those claims are disputed and can hardly be taken at face value.

“That WikiLeaks is being targeted by the U.S. Government for surveillance and disruption is beyond doubt,” declared Glenn Greenwald in Salon.com.

In support of this conclusion he cited the detention of a minor in Iceland last week who was supposedly questioned about an incriminating WikiLeaks video.  But there is no independent corroboration of this incident.  And WikiLeaks’ account of what transpired, though recounted by Salon as fact, is disputed by Iceland’s police:

“Chief of police in Reykjavik, Fridrik Smari Bjorgvinsson, said the only link he has been able to establish between the allegations and his force was the arrest of a 17 year-old in Kopavogur on Monday for breaking into a business premises. Bjorgvinsson emphasised that Icelandic police have not been working with the American secret services on the matter, as Wikileaks spokesmen allege.”

Perhaps the Reykjavik police chief is also part of a global campaign to destroy WikiLeaks.  Or perhaps the whole story is one of mystification and error.