London: WikiLeaks has announced a new path for donations through a French credit card system Carte Bleue to find a way out of the US-backed financial blockade slapped by leading financial institutions.
Western financial institutions, including VISA, MasterCard and Western Union have choked the revenues of the world`s leading whistle-blowing organisation.
In a statement yesterday on the WikiLeaks website, founder Julian Assange said: "We beat them in Iceland and, by God, we`ll beat them in France as well. Let them shut it down. Let them demonstrate to the world once again their corrupt pandering to Washington. We`re waiting. Our lawyers are waiting. The whole world is waiting. Do it."
WikiLeaks appealed "all global supporters to make use of this avenue immediately before VISA/MasterCard attempts to shut it down."
The statement said that after WikiLeaks published US diplomatic correspondence, US financial institutions "erected a banking blockade against WikiLeaks wholly outside of any judicial or administrative process."
The blockade resulted in 95 per cent donations being chocked, with the whistle-blowing website`s income dropped to 21 per cent of its operating costs.
"The French credit card system, Carte Bleue, is coupled with the VISA/MasterCard system globally. VISA and MasterCard are contractually barred from directly cutting off merchants through the Carte Bleue system. The French non-profit FDNN (Fund for the Defense of Net Neutrality- Fonds de Dfense de la Net Neutralit) has set up a Carte Bleue fund for WikiLeaks," the statement said.
PTI
