Having successfully revealed State Department secrets by releasing troves of diplomatic cables and other documents, WikiLeaks.org founder Julian Assange now has his sights set on releasing the secrets of a big bank or financial firm.     As you probably know by now, Mr. Assange's WikiLeaks.org shared a collection of articles with reporters at The New York Times.  

    Next Up, New Year.     In an interview with Forbes, Julian Assange says his Web site is planning to release tens of thousands of documents from a major American financial firm in early 2011.  He doesn't say what bank or what documents, but does say they “will give a true and representative insight into how banks behave at the executive level in a way that will stimulate investigations and reforms, I presume.” Mr. Assange compared the soon-to-be released documents to the e-mail that emerged from the Enron trials.

“You could call it the ecosystem of corruption.  “But it’s also all the regular decision-making that turns a blind eye to and supports unethical practices: the oversight that’s not done, the priorities of executives, how they think they’re fulfilling their own self-interest.”  [NYT Dealbook, 11/29]