WikiLeaks Revolt: Former Assange Colleague Daniel Domscheit-Berg Forms OpenLeaks

(Dec. 14) -- The embattled WikiLeaks chief detested by governments across the globe and wanted for questioning on sex crime allegations in Sweden is now under assault from within his own ranks.

Former members of the anti-secrecy organization are staging a virtual revolt against Julian Assange, launching a spinoff site called OpenLeaks.

"We felt WikiLeaks is developing in the wrong direction. There's too much personal entanglement," Daniel Domscheit-Berg, a former top WikiLeaks member and one of the founders of OpenLeaks, told the BBC in an interview today.

former WikiLeaks staffer who is now opening site to rival Assange's

Markus Schreiber, AP

Daniel Domscheit-Berg is one of the founders of OpenLeaks, a WikiLeaks spinoff site that launches Dec. 20.

He did not name any of the other defectors but offered a first look into the internal politics of one of online publishing's most controversial organizations, a group that appears to be splintering as it faces intense scrutiny for its release of secret diplomatic cables.

OpenLeaks, which launches Dec. 20, won't publish secret material itself but will pass along leaked information it obtains to news outlets. Domscheit-Berg said the goal is to create a more stable platform for sharing secret documents and to decentralize the process.

"We won't publish any documents ourselves. The whole field is diversified," Domscheit-Berg told Forbes.

Domscheit-Berg and Assange had worked together since 2007, but their relationship seemed to disintegrate in September, when Assange suspended Domscheit-Berg from the site after he publicly criticized Assange's leadership and criticized him in an online chat room.

"You behave like some kind of emperor or slave trader," Domscheit-Berg wrote of Assange, according to The Guardian.

Assange, the public face of WikiLeaks, has been featured on magazine covers around the world and has generated his own personal controversy as well, not only for his radical views about freedom of information but also for accusations levied against him in Sweden, where he is wanted for questioning on sex crime allegations.

Domscheit-Berg seemed to suggest that he and other former members of WikiLeaks tired of dealing with the fallout from Assange's high profile -- and, apparently, from his ego as well.

"It's not entirely clear anymore what is personality and what is organization there. There's also too much self-promotion for the organization and a lot of other things," Domscheit-Berg told the BBC.