Daniel Ellsberg released the Pentagon Papers that revealed much of the US government's dirty deals in Vietnam. Here is an open letter from him to Amazon. It comes to light that Paypal has also closed Wikileak's account, please close your paypal account if you have one and tell them why.
Daniel Ellsberg, December 02, 2010
December 2, 2010
I’m disgusted by Amazon’s cowardice and servility in abruptly terminating today its hosting of the Wikileaks website, in the face of threats from Senator Joe Lieberman and other Congressional right-wingers. I want no further association with any company that encourages legislative and executive officials to aspire to China’s control of information and deterrence of whistle-blowing.
For the last several years, I’ve been spending over $100 a month on new and used books from Amazon. That’s over. I ask Amazon to terminate immediately my membership in Amazon Prime and my Amazon credit card and account, to delete my contact and credit information from their files and to send me no more notices.
I understand that many other regular customers feel as I do and are responding the same way. Good: the broader and more immediate the boycott, the better. I hope that these others encourage their contact lists to do likewise and to let Amazon know exactly why they’re shifting their business. I’ve asked friends today to suggest alternatives, and I’ll be exploring service from Powell’s Books, Half-Price Books, Biblio and others.
So far Amazon has spared itself the further embarrassment of trying to explain its action openly. This would be a good time for Amazon insiders who know and perhaps can document the political pressures that were brought to bear–and the details of the hasty kowtowing by their bosses–to leak that information. They can send it to Wikileaks (now on servers outside the US), to mainstream journalists or bloggers, or perhaps to sites like antiwar.com that have now appropriately ended their book-purchasing association with Amazon.
Yours (no longer),
Daniel Ellsberg
1 comment:
I closed my Paypal account and this is what I sent them.
Amazon and internet companies like Paypal are, under pressure from the US government, severing relationships with Wikileaks and its co-founder Julian Assange and I no longer wish to have an account with Paypal for your cowardice in taking this action against free speech.
I urge Paypal to rescind this decision and have the courage to stand up for the truth.
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