OpenLeaks: Schmitt on Toast

Daniel Domscheit-Berg expelled from the CCC.

FINOWFURT (Rixstep) — Daniel Domscheit-Berg aka the Leberkäse Kid has now been expelled from the Chaos Computer Club. Even more people feel relieved.



The board of the CCC met at their summer event and voted to exclude Domscheit-Berg because of the trouble he'd caused.



Trying to hype the involvement of the CCC in OpenLeaks, to give the impression the CCC were going to give OpenLeaks a 'stamp of approval', was 'the straw that broke the camel's back', CCC spokesman Andy Müller-Maguhn told Spiegel Online.



After months of false starts and work weeks crammed with efforts to squeeze every last pfennig out of something Swedish journalists called a 'boy's adventure book' and others called even worse, the on-again off-again WikiLeaks thief was trying to rejoin the whistleblower community.



Except nobody believed him anymore (if they ever did) and the leaders of the world famous Chaos Computer Club immediately began distancing themselves.

Eleven Months of Leberkäse

The frustration (Unwillen und Unverständnis) actually began almost a year ago when the leaders of the CCC tried to mediate to secure the data Domscheit-Berg had stolen from WikiLeaks.



But Daniel Domscheit-Berg couldn't make up his mind whether he actually stole anything from WikiLeaks and played 'hard to get' with the CCC. The CCC tired of Domscheit-Berg's lies and evasions in a big way.



Domscheit-Berg told Marcel Rosenbach of Spiegel Online already 26 September last year that stealing from WikiLeaks was out of the question, then he went on to brag about what he'd stolen, then he went back to denying he'd stolen anything, and then finally in an interview with Artificial Eyes in March of this year tried unconvincingly to explain he tried to return everything the same day he ran off with it.



Word has it Domscheit-Berg stole more than the 3,500 documents cited by Kristinn Hrafnsson in later interviews - he also stole WikiLeaks donations in the six-digit range as well as computer hardware.



As revealed by CCC board member Andy Müller-Maguhn, the CCC spent eleven months trying to get Domscheit-Berg to stick to a single story, admit what he'd done without embellishment, and return what he'd stolen. No such luck.







The CCC even interceded to ask Domscheit-Berg to destroy the documents if he refused to return them as people's lives could be in danger. Domscheit-Berg refused.



Andy Müller-Maguhn of the CCC now says Domscheit-Berg cannot be trusted. But it got worse: for Domscheit-Berg had been trying to use a CCC summer event to promote his own work and fool people into thinking the CCC approve of it.

'We on the board of the CCC are not happy Domscheit-Berg has given the impression OpenLeaks will be tested by our own people and thus given a CCC stamp of approval. This is outrageous.'

- Andy Müller-Maguhn

The board of the CCC informed Domscheit-Berg late yesterday afternoon of their decision. Domscheit-Berg's reaction was reportedly a variant of his now notorious 'BAHAHAHA'. He went on to suggest the real reason was his refusal to protect the people whose whistleblower documents he stole.

Transparency Taken to a New Level

Incessantly critical of WikiLeaks for all the wrong reasons, Domscheit-Berg tried to profile himself as a champion of transparency, yet to this day refuses to reveal who he works with (if anyone). The people at the CCC summer event were further incensed by the amateurish Domscheit-Berg when he refused to be transparent about the website he wanted everyone to hack.



'Secrecy is not security', said CCC spokeswoman Constanze Kurz. 'Secure systems need transparency.'



Domscheit-Berg's refusal to be transparent (as he insists others be) contributed to the decision of the CCC. They told Spiegel Online they don't feel Domscheit-Berg can be entrusted with protecting whistleblowers.

Pathological liars always have great faith in their own honesty. That's what helps them lie.

- Julian Assange

You have fucked up in so many ways and you want me to enumerate them but what is the point if you can't see things for yourself?

- Julian Assange to Daniel Domscheit-Berg May 2010

Further Reading

Industry Watch: The WikiLeaks Palace Revolt

Industry Watch: OpenLeaks Off to a Flying Fail

Topsy: The Life and Times of the Leberkäse Kid

Zeit Online: Chaos Computer Club misstraut OpenLeaks

Hanno's Blog: OpenLeaks doing strange things with SSL

The Technological: Daniel Domscheit-Berg: The Reviews

The Technological: The Life and Times of the Leberkäse Kid

Red Hat Diaries: Unrequited Love, Uncomfortable Coincidences

Spiegel Online: WikiLeaks-Aussteiger haben Datenschatz entführt

Spiegel Online: Chaos Computer Club wirft OpenLeaks-Gründer raus

Spiegel Online: Chaos Computer Club: Hacker distanzieren sich von OpenLeaks