[Vision2020] Bank of America to Block Donations to WikiLeaks

[Paul Rumelhart]

Here is the URL:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/12/18/world/main7162637.shtml

Basically, Bank of America has joined Paypal, Mastercard, and Visa in 
refusing to do business with WikiLeaks.  This is the first bank to do 
so, as far as I'm aware.  This doesn't mean that they are closing down 
WikiLeaks account, as far as I can tell WikiLeaks has never done 
business with Bank of America.  What it does mean is that you as a 
customer have to pass through Bank of America's moral filter in order to 
do perfectly legal business.  They can decide whether or not to allow 
you to send money to other people or organizations based solely on their 
whim.  What is their reasoning?  From the article:

"This decision is based upon our reasonable belief that WikiLeaks may be 
engaged in activities that are, among other things, inconsistent with 
our internal policies for processing payments."

Now that's an interestingly worded statement.  They can't say that they 
refuse to do business with criminals, because WikiLeaks hasn't been 
charged with a crime relating to espionage.  The y can't say that they 
don't do business with terrorists, because Wikileaks hasn't been 
classified as a terrorist organization.  Possibly because they've never 
done any sort of violence, but then I'm not a lawyer.

So why did BoA do this?  Well, WikiLeaks has talked about releasing dirt 
on a major American bank 
(http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/11/wikileaks-target-major-bank/).  They 
have also mentioned that they have 5GB of data from the hard drive of an 
executive of Bank of America 
(http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/11/flashback-wikileaks-chief-5gb-dirt-bank-america/), 
so you can put two and two together to see why they are overreacting in 
this way.

In fact, that may be the best service that WikiLeaks is providing: a 
sort of litmus test for who is the most corrupt.

Well, here's hoping for a run on the Bank of America as angry customers 
close out their accounts.  I doubt we'll see it, though.  People seem to 
be buying into the "wikileaks is evil" propaganda, just as surely as 
they are buying into the "wikileaks = Julian Assange" one.

Paul