Bank of America & Wikileaks

It seems the saga of Wikileaks is going to run and run. Bank of America said on Friday evening that it was joining other financial institutions & declining to process payments intended for WikiLeaks.

“Bank of America joins in the actions previously announced by MasterCard, PayPal, Visa Europe and others and will not process transactions of any type that we have reason to believe are intended for WikiLeaks,” the bank said in a statement.

“This decision is based upon our reasonable belief that WikiLeaks may be engaged in activities that are, among other things, inconsistent with our internal policies for processing payments.”

Many people are already reading in between the lines and speculating that Wikileaks has some serious ‘dirt’ on BoA.  In 2009 Julian Assange said that he had possession of a Bank of America executive’s hard drive, a fact which the bank denies.

It is starting to seem to be the case that the US government is actually quite worried about the information Wikileaks has in its possession. For them, and many high-profile companies, to attempt to cripple the organisation financially and risk public backlash seems a very risky strategy. Indeed, there is growing public support for Wikileaks and the number of people reading their Twitter and Facebook posts is increasing rapidly – particually after Assange’s arrest in the UK. The worse Wikileaks is treated and more it can play the ‘victim’ card, the more public support grows.

Ignoring Wikileaks appears not to be an option for the US, which probably indicates some far more serious revelations to come. I would not be long Bank of America, just in case!