Card donations go to WikiLeaks again

— LONDON - WikiLeaks has again begun accepting credit-card donations, a company affiliated with the secretspilling site said Thursday.

Andreas Fink, the chief executive of Icelandic payment processor DataCell, said Visa and MasterCard were again processing payments to WikiLeaks after a sevenmonth hiatus.

Visa Europe spokesman Simon Kleine said processing the payments was “not something that we’ve sanctioned.” He said the company was investigating.

Both Visa and MasterCard pulled the plug on Fink’s service in early December, shortly after WikiLeaks began publishing about 250,000 U.S. State Department cables. But Fink said Thursday that card services had been restored - saying lawyers had made sure of it by making test donations.

An e-mail and phone calls seeking comment from MasterCard were not immediately returned.

Front Section, Pages 4 on 07/08/2011

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