whistleblower

WikiLeals filed an official complaint with the European Commission against Visa and MasterCard on allegations the credit card networks reject processing donations to the whistleblower website. The complaint was filed in association with Icelandic IT company DataCell.

Visa and MasterCard blocked WikiLeaks from collecting funds from donors in December 2010.

According to the filing submitted with the Directorate-General for Competition of the European Commission, Visa and MasterCard breached antitrust provisions set out by Articles 101 and 102 of the EU Treaty.

22 additional charges were filed by the US Army against Pfc. Bradley Manning, accused WikiLeaks whistleblower including one with a potential death sentence.

Manning, the Army intelligence analyst, is charged with the aiding the enemy which is the military equivalent of treason, but prosecutors said on Wednesday that they planned to seek only a sentence of life in prison if he is convicted on the charge.

It is up to the presiding military judge to take the decision and he would be free to sentence Manning to death if he is found guilty, according to NBC News.

 The key informant in the U.S. tax evasion case against Swiss bank UBS AG faces prison next year, but his harsher-than-expected treatment by the U.S. Justice Department will undermine efforts to expose secretive offshore tax havens, lawyers and whistle-blower advocates say.

Bradley Birkenfeld, a 44-year-old U.S. citizen, has been hailed by his attorneys and prosecutors alike as pivotal to the tax case against UBS, his former employer.