*Could Bank of America be on WikiLeaks radar?

The founder of the whistleblower site, Julian Assange, told Forbes blogger Andy Greenberg earlier this month that he plans to release a bunch of documents involving a major U.S. bank - documents that Assange said "will give a true and representative insight into how banks behave at the executive level in a way that will stimulate investigations and reforms, I presume." He didn't name names, but in a 2009 interview with Computer World, Assange mentions that "we are sitting on five gigabytes from Bank of America, one of the executive's hard drives." From Greenberg:

There's no telling what might be revealed in any Bank of America documents-if Assange does indeed have them-but it could be old news. By the time of publication, the documents would be more than 14 months old. And, as much as any bank on Wall Street, BoA has been scrutinized in recent years by everyone from plaintiffs' attorneys in class-action investor suits to the New York Attorney General's office. And why would Assange hold onto the documents for so long before publishing them? He's said he simply has too much material.

*From Andrew Sullivan:

My sense is that we have crossed a Rubicon, and there is close to nothing we can do about it. It is inherent in the kind of communication technology we now all use. Anything can easily be leaked; there is no real limit on the amount of private or secret data that can be widely disseminated within minutes; it only takes one or two individuals to break faith and spill every bean. We live increasingly in a world with no curtains or even veils. This is true personally - ask Brett Favre or Christine O'Donnell - and collectively - ask Don Rumsfeld after Abu Ghraib. The era of secrecy is over. What we need to do is adjust, not simply regret or attack.

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Mark Lacter
Mark Lacter created the LA Biz Observed blog in 2006. He posted until the day before his death on Nov. 13, 2013.
 
Mark Lacter, business writer and editor was 59
The multi-talented Mark Lacter
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