WikiLeaks' Julian Assange's Next Target? Corporate America

One of America's most hated and controversial figures, Julian Assange, told Forbes last week that his expose on the Pentagon and the US Government are only the tip of the iceberg. According to Assange, next year a major American bank will confront a crisis as it finds itself with tens of thousands of leaked exposed documents and communications among executives. Forbes reports, "The data dump will lay bare the finance firm’s secrets on the Web for every customer, every competitor, every regulator to examine and pass judgment on." Assange won't let up on anymore details such as where and when, or give any more hints on who the major financial firm in question is. But one thing's for sure-- he's planning to follow through, as he has on every other major project under Wikileaks' wings.

In his interview, Assange declares the work he's accomplished so far as just the beginning of a series of long-overdue exposes or "mega-leaks" as he decidedly calls them. Over the last year, his "information insurgency" has included 76,000 secret Afghan war documents and another trove of 392,000 files from the Iraq war, many of which documented data explosions. Their release created one of the largest classified military security breaches in history and has roused antiwar activists while enraging the Pentagon.

But what is the value of Assange's work? And is it the beginning of a movement we should fear or embrace? Admire him or revile him, Assange has been referred to as "the prophet of a coming age of involuntary transparency". His expose on misconduct in the world's largest and most reputable military has given him significant respect, if not bargaining power. Now, with the same philosophy, he's taking aim at corporate America. He claims to have unpublished, damaging documents on everything ranging from top pharmaceutical companies to Wall Street's biggest financial firms. On energy, he says that he possesses everything from BP to an Albanian oil firm that he says attempted to sabotage its competitors’ wells. 

What is the driving force behind his work? Being a visionary of free-speech. He prefers to think of himself as an "entrepreneur". "Leaks merely lubricate the free market," he says. Markets rely on pure information. He cites the example of the Chinese Sanlu Group, whose milk powder contained toxic melamine in 2008. While poisoning its customers, Sanlu also gained an advantage over competitors and might have forced more of them to taint their products, too, or go bankrupt—if Sanlu hadn’t been exposed in the Chinese press. “In the struggle between open and honest companies and dishonest and closed companies, we’re creating a tremendous reputational tax on the unethical companies,” he says.

But, of course, Assange isn't being entirely fair.  He alone decides which targets to choose, what documents to leak, and the theatrical fashion of their penality—all with zero personal accountability.

Powerful? Just? Frightening? The world can only wait and watch.

--Raj Persaud
[Forbes, Andy Greenberg]