Today has seen increased anticipation of a forthcoming megaleak on an American bank. John Carney, Senior Editor at CNBC, posted on the CNBC "Network Network" blog a report purporting to confirm that the target of the next leak will be, as widely speculated, Bank of America:
Bank of America is the target of the next "megaleak" from WikiLeaks, according to a person who has close contact with top people at WikiLeaks.
and
Our source has confirmed that Bank of America is indeed the target of the next big leak. The source couldn't elaborate on the materials held by Assange.
A cautious reader of the news will regard with a healthy suspicion that an 'unnamed source' has confirmed something to do with WikiLeaks, especially given the uncertainty generated in the past by "WikiLeaks insiders".
Salon.com's Adam Clark Estes carried forward Carney's information, but added some information:
Assange also confirmed this morning outside of the British Magistrates court that the next leak would come soon.
It has to be questioned whether the quote cited as confirmation that the next leak will come soon indeed confirms that:
"We are stepping up our publishing for matters related to Cablegate and other materials," Assange said. "Those will shortly be occurring through our newspaper partners around the world -- big and small newspapers and some human rights organizations."
This statement doesn't necessarily confirm that the anticipated bank-megaleak will be what will 'shortly be occurring.' The statement is vague, and doesn't confirm even that "other materials" will be among "those" leaks. It is arguable that one could read the statement as confirming that more Cablegate releases will occur through new media partners, and that "other materials" are also in the pipeline, although on an unconfirmed schedule.
These are merely cautionary remarks, however, in recognition that making predictions about what WikiLeaks is about to do has proven to be quite a cagey issue in the past. It has to be said that the above predictions are agreeable to anyone with a shrewd sense of how WikiLeaks operates, and who has been paying attention to the organization over the last few years.