Dear Jeff Bezos,

Today I have closed my Amazon account because of your decision to stop hosting WikiLeaks. It has now been shown that privately owned cloud computing is not an open public space that respects the First Amendment of the American Constitution. Censorship of information that the people have a right to know cannot be accepted in a free society. Along with PayPal and Facebook, you have shown that you have put your own financial interest above the interest of the people, who need to know what is done in their name with their taxes. The reputation of the digital economy has suffered, and trust in America is diminished. It cannot be right that a non-profit organization and its CEO should be the subject of a witch hunt by those in power, without any respect for the due process of law. I am in agreement with the statement by Congressman Ron Paul, that this issue is similar to the Pentagon papers during the Vietnam War, and that many questions now need to be answered about the public accountability, not only of the US government, but also of the large corporations that are restricting freedom of information, and, as a consequence, open public debate on the issues of the day.

Yours truly,

Leighton Cooke