Both sites in Canada and the US were inaccessible for most of the day.
The attack is supposed to be a form of retribution for both Visa and Mastercard cutting off service with WikiLeaks, which effectively cut off donations to the controversial website.
Mastercard Canada spokesmen have said that the attack has not affected any credit card transactions.
Anonymous has called the attacks "Operation Payback". Early wednesday, Anonymous led media outlets to a video posted on YouTube which explained the objectives of the attacks.
Anonymous released a statement in which they said: "While we don't have much of an affiliation with WikiLeaks, we fight for the same reasons. We want transparency and we counter censorship... This is why we intend to utilize our resources to raise awareness, attack those against, and support those who are helping lead our world to freedom and democracy."
The US government has put intense pressure on both the business community and political world to condemn and cut ties with WikiLeaks. Earlier this week, Amazon.com cut ties with WikiLeaks, which was using Amazon.com's servers, due to political pressure from Washington to do so.
Washington has also put pressure on France to shut down mirror websites that are hosting WikiLeaks information in the stead of WikiLeaks own webpages being shut down. Currently the French government has been stalled by their court system while trying to comply.
WikiLeaks first garnered attention in the spring when it posted a US military video which showed US troops in Iraq shooting down two unarmed Reuters journalists. The video was apparently taken by US army helicopters.
Since that video, WikiLeaks has published nearly half a million classified US documents from Iraq and Afghanistan. WikiLeaks feels the public has a basic right to know what their Military and Governments are doing.
I understand that governments have a right to secrecy when it comes to armed forces potentially being in danger, and can understand why the US has reservations to seeing these documents in the public. However, I do feel the public has the right to know if their governments or military forces are doing unsavory things, intentional or not. This includes incidents of Friendly Fire, such as the Reuters journalists or other hidden agendas that may infringe on anyone's basic human rights or freedoms.
Censorship is a dangerous concept, and governments would do well to remember that one way or another in some point in time, the truth ALWAYS comes out.
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