Scanpix Sweden / Reuters
The CIA may not be the only group that has it in for Julian Assange: WikiLeaks’ spokesman Daniel Schmitt has quit the organization and in an exit interview he gives a damning portrait of Assange’s leadership. Schmitt says he wanted WikiLeaks to continue publishing local leaks, as it always had, but that “Julian Assange reacted to any criticism with the allegation that I was disobedient to him and disloyal to the project. Four weeks ago, he suspended me—acting as the prosecutor, judge, and hangman in one person. Since then, for example, I have had no access to my WikiLeaks mail. So a lot of work is just sitting and other helpers are being blocked. I know that no one in our core team agreed with the move. But that doesn't seem to matter. WikiLeaks has a structural problem. I no longer want to take responsibility for it, and that's why I am leaving the project.” Schmitt says, “There are technical problems and no one to take care of them. WikiLeaks is stuck in a phase in which the project has to change itself. … This development is being blocked internally. It is no longer clear even to me who is actually making decisions and who is answerable to them.”