Or it might cause a political shit-storm and undermine American credibility, while giving a moral imprimatur to future leaks. Wikileaks is more powerful as an

Or it might cause a political shit-storm and undermine American credibility, while giving a moral imprimatur to future leaks. Wikileaks is more powerful as an idea than an organization. They've legitimized the idea of web-based distribution of leaks, much like Napster legitimized file-sharing services. That genie isn't going back into the bottle. Shutting down Napster only gave rise to a host of unaccountable, decentralized services. Shutting down Wikileaks would likewise only lead to the creation of new decentralized services that facilitate leaks without any of the human editorial control that Wikileaks currently provides.