Meet The 'Spiritual Godfather Of Online Leaking'

An Excerpt From 'This Machine Kills Secrets'
Andy Greenberg, Forbes Staff
9/17/2012 @ 9:46AM

... “I take umbrage at that question. That is a stupid question, and it’s the kind of question asked by stupid people,” he says in the same whisper, so soft that I can’t tell if he’s inhumanly calm or holding back enormous anger. “And it shows me that you’re not serious. So let me tell you that if you ask another question like that I will walk out that door.” ...

“My mentor, Jean-Paul Sartre, said that imagination is the only thing you can trust,” says Young, after I’ve smoothed out some of our friction. “Facts are not a trustworthy source of knowledge. Cryptome is not an authoritative source. It’s a source of imaginatory material. Don’t trust Cryptome, we lie to you helplessly. Don’t believe anything you see there.” ...

Young doesn’t recommend that his secret-spillers use Anonymous remailers, like Tim May’s BlackNet, or Tor, like WikiLeaks. Cryptome doesn’t endorse any specific anonymity technologies, or make promises about safe- guarding any identity information it does receive: The leaker’s anonymity is wholly his or her own problem. “Do not identify yourself, jerk,” says Young. “That’s our policy. Don’t send us stuff and think that we’ll protect you.” ...

After our lunch, the rain has let up and I walk with Young to the Eighty-Sixth Street subway entrance. I start to thank him for meeting me and ask when we can talk again, so that I can hear the rest of his story. He answers with one final point of friction. “I’ll talk to you. But until you publish something that puts you in prison, I won’t fully respect you,” he says, his face blank ...

http://www.forbes.com/sites/andygreenberg/2012/09/17/an-excerpt-from-this-machine-kills-secrets-meet-the-spiritual-godfather-of-online-leaking/