Architecture of WikiLeaks and Julian Assange

via archdaily.com

This really made me curious, for all sorts of reasons. Doesn't anyone else find it rather sinister that an organisation created ostensibly for promoting free speech has an HQ which is an underground former war bunker which looks like the HQ for a James Bond type master villain hell-bent on world destruction?

In terms of the message this kind of architecture sends out, it is unashamedly about power. There are mixed messages about egalitarianism, openness and secrecy (circular meeting room with glass walls, with seats arranged in a circle, but at the same time the facility is in a bunker 30 metres below a park in Stockholm.

Furthermore, I thought Wikileaks was a non-profit organisation, funded by donations. How the hell can they afford this kind of thing? Building this kind of facility is very, very expensive.

When he was 16 he (apparently) started hacking using the name Mendax, which apparently means "nobly untruthful", hmm...

Again according to Wikipedia, in an essay he wrote, "To radically shift regime behaviour...". This doesn't sound to me like the sort of language a benign human rights and free speech campaigner would use.

Based on reports in the UK press relating to questioning after his arrest, he apparently has no permanent address, which is why he was denied bail when arrested in London recently.

Several senior activists has resigned because of issues regarding financial transparency (maybe the HQ might have something to do with this), and the organisation has been investigated several times over accounting issues.

In summary then, very expensive HQ, shadowy past as a computer hacker,with some sinister quotations about radically shifting regime behaviour, financial irregularities over vast amounts of money and concern among senior insiders about money and the management of the organisation (http://is.gd/iCVys).

If you look at his Wikipedia profile here (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_Assange) and compare it with this page (http://is.gd/iCUJ4), you can clearly see that his transformation into a Bond villain is almost complete!