WikiLeaks.org is dead; long live WikiLeaks.ch

 ABOVE: Wikileaks new banner, featuring founder Julian Assange. Although the site has lost its domain name service - meaning its web address Wikileaks.org no longer works - the site can still be accessed via its less user-friendly IP address: http://213.251.145.96. Wikileaks has said it will move its domain name to servers to Switzerland in an effort to reestablish service at Wikileaks.ch).

Late Friday night NZ time, whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks went offline - and early Saturday it is still without a working web address [UPDATE: the site is now back online at the new address  WikiLeaks.ch].

EveryDNS, the US company that provides WikiLeaks' domain name (or URL or internet address - WikiLeaks.org), said it could no longer provide service.

Multiple denial of service (DoS) attacks on WikiLeaks were threatening the stability EveryDNS' infrastructure, the company said in a statement.

That will not stop the flow of leaked diplomatic cables from the site. Only a few hundred of the 250,000 US cables had been placed publicly on WikiLeaks.org. That handful can still be accessed via Google cache (or the IP address mentioned in the caption above). 

And, regardless, WikiLeaks has already forwarded cables en masse to The New York Times, The Guardian and other media organisations.

Incognito.

WikiLeaks repelled a major DoS attack on Wednesday, in part because the site was hosted on three IP addresses - two provided by France's Octopuce, and one in the US, provided by Amazon's E2 cloud service.

But without the domain name service previously provided by EveryDNS, WikiLeaks is inaccessible from any of its hosts.

Amazon pulls plug
On Thursday NZ time, Amazon announced it would no longer host WikiLeaks.

The decision to eject the whistleblowing site from its cloud servers came after a call from Senator Joe Lieberman, the Democrat-turned-independent who chairs the Senate Committee on Homeland Security.

International arrest warrant for founder
Senator Lieberman also suggested than WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange may have violated US law by releasing around 250,000 classified diplomatic cables through his site.

But beyond any possible treason charge, Mr Assange has a more immediate problem: Interpol earlier this week issued an international warrant for his arrest.

On November 19, a  Swedish court ordered Mr Assange's arrest after he failed to front for questioning on rape and sex crime charges, which the Wikileaks founder has denied.

Mr Assange is - an Australian citizen who has spent much of his recent career in Europe - is currently in hiding.

Through his London-based lawyer, Mark Stephens, Mr Assange has said he will not reveal his whereabouts because death threats.

History of trouble-making
Previous to posting the 250,000 cables, WikiLeaks gained notoriety for releasing thousands of sensitive US documents relating to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. 

It has also posted thousands of documents and articles censored in their home country including NBR's story on Vodafone and 2degrees' secret deal on mobile termination rates, taken offline by the Commerce Commission under a Section 100 order (and now back on NBR).