WikiLeaks released the following statement in response to excerpts from a book that were leaked to Cryptome.org on Wednesday. The response from WikiLeaks spokesperson Kristinn Hrafnsson was posted at Forbes.
WikiLeaks has been taking legal action against former employee Daniel Domscheit-Berg who was suspended from the organisation in September. The reasons for these actions will gradually become clear, but some are hinted at by extracts from Domscheit-Berg's book.
In the book Domscheit-Berg confesses to various acts of sabotage against the organisation. The former WikiLeaks staffer admits to having damaged the site's primary submission system and stolen material.
The sabotage and concern over motives led to an overhaul of the entire submission system, an ongoing project that is not being expedited due to its complex nature and the organisation's need to focus its resources on publication and defence.
It should be noted that Domscheit-Berg's roles within WikiLeaks were limited and started to diminish almost a year ago as his integrity and stability were questioned. He has falsely misrepresented himself in the press as a programmer, computer scientist, security expert, architect, editor, founder, director, and spokesman. He is not a founder or cofounder, nor was there any contact with him during the founding years. He did not even have an email address with the organisation until 2008 (we launched in December 2006). He cannot program and wrote not a single program for the organisation, at any time.
Domschiet-Berg was never an architect for the organisation, technically or in matters of policy. He was a spokesperson for WikiLeaks in Germany at various times, but he was never the spokesman for WikiLeaks, nor was he ever WikiLeaks editor, although he subedited some articles. He was also never a computer scientist or computer security expert, although he was a computer science student many years ago. His accounts of the crucial times in WikiLeaks history since April last year are therefore based upon limited information or malicious falsifications.