WikiLeaks in Turmoil

Controversial war document-leaking website WikiLeaks is in turmoil as its German spokesman, Daniel Schmitt, is leaving after fights with founder Julian Assange. Schmitt told Der Spiegel that the organization had been under tremendous stress in the last several months, and mistakes were made—which, according to Schmitt, would be acceptable, if staffers were willing to own up to them. Schmitt said that WikiLeaks’ focus on massive projects, like the release of 77,000 classified documents about the Afghanistan war, led the site to neglect smaller, but still important, national document leaks. Worsening the situation, Schmitt said, was that “Julian Assange reacted to any criticism with the allegation that I was disobedient to him and unloyal to the project.” He said there was much resentment among staffers, and predicted others would follow his exit.