WikiBroke: The whistle-blower site WikiLeaks may shut down by the end of this year because of a lack of funds. Major financial intermediaries—including Visa, MasterCard, PayPal, and Western Union—stopped processing donations to the group about 11 months ago in response to a U.S. government request, and founder Julian Assange said this week that the “financial blockade” had forced the company to use up most of its cash reserves. He also said there were “high-level calls” to assassinate him. WikiLeaks’ financial difficulties became public in September, when Assange put personal memorabilia up for sale on eBay, including a laptop computer containing secret U.S. diplomatic cables and some coffee from the prison he was in while awaiting a hearing on extradition to Sweden to face rape charges.
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