http://www.swissinfo.ch/eng/politics/foreign_affairs/Society_needs_whistle-blowers.html?cid=28934346Dec 2, 2010 - 14:24
“Society needs whistle-blowers”
by Alexander Thoele, swissinfo.ch
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Rudolf Elmer, a Swiss whistle-blower, talks to swissinfo.ch about Wikileaks and the role of such organisations “in a media-manipulated world”.
Elmer, 55, ran the Caribbean operations of Swiss private bank Julius Bär for eight years until he was dismissed in 2002. He then moved to Mauritius and began sending global tax authorities what he said were the secrets of his former employer.
Wikileaks eventually published documents exposing allegedly illegal activities by Julius Bär clients in the Cayman Islands (see box).
Julius Bär did not want to comment. snip
The abuse was protected by every authority and I realised that this was a massive social problem:
“Earning money through capitalism justifies criminal deeds.” For that reason I looked for a way to make it public and found Wikileaks.
Swiss newspapers and also Swiss television portrayed me as a mentally ill data thief bent on revenge and didn’t address my arguments or evidence. “Wilful blindness” is what they’d say in English. But Wikileaks took up my cause and published my first whistle-blower letter.