Wikileaks Communications Infrastructure Attacked?

Wikileaks announced on Wednesday that its "communications infrastructure is currently under attack," as the Pentagon prepared to review as many as 400,000 leaked Iraq war documents expected to be published by the whistleblower site this month.

Wikileaks' cryptic tweet broadcast:

According to sources in the hacking circuit familiar with the goings-on in Wikileaks, the organization is adopting a new server cluster to replace those that have come under the denial-of-service attack. The security breaches were not connected to the site restructuring that has brought it down for about two weeks, said a Wikileaks volunteer. Because the organization's staff members operate on the policy of "security through obscurity," insiders were not clear about the magnitude of or the parties behind the attack.

The organization also has claimed the federal government is squeezing it where hurts: their accounts. The Guardian reported last week that Moneybookers, a UK-registered Internet payment company that collects WikiLeaks donations, closed down Wikileaks' account because it had been put on an official U.S. watchlist and an Australian government blacklist.

The website's publication of 70,000 Afghan war documents in July -- some containing names of U.S. collaborators -- raised the question: Should classified information be released if it poses a security threat?

"The most heavily guarded secrets, if revealed, have the most potential for reform," said Jacob Appelbaum, a programmer for the encryption software, Tor, and who is involved in Wikileaks, during a speech at the annual Hackers on Planet Earth conference in July.

Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said in July, "In my experience with troops from conventional to special forces, I think sometimes people don't appreciate what information could be out there that makes their jobs a lot more difficult and in fact, could jeopardize their lives."

Pentagon officials will be notifying Iraqis named in the documents to protect their safety.