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There’s a difference in unauthorized disclosure from an authoritarian state versus disclosure from a democracy. In a democratic system, people have the opportunity to define their own disclosure standards. If you violate those standards or encourage others to do so then you are in effect undermining the democratic process...<ref name=FederalTimes1>Daniel Friedman [http://www.federaltimes.com/index.php?S=2460843 "Web site aims to post government secrets"], [[Federal Times]], [[January 4]], [[2007]].</ref>
There’s a difference in unauthorized disclosure from an authoritarian state versus disclosure from a democracy. In a democratic system, people have the opportunity to define their own disclosure standards. If you violate those standards or encourage others to do so then you are in effect undermining the democratic process...<ref name=FederalTimes1>Daniel Friedman [http://www.federaltimes.com/index.php?S=2460843 "Web site aims to post government secrets"], [[Federal Times]], [[January 4]], [[2007]].</ref>
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[[Bill Thompson (technology writer) | Bill Thompson]], writing on the BBC News website, described Wikileaks as "basically a dumping ground for anyone to place documents that they want to see made public." and "on reflection I am not sure the site is a good idea. Even if it is a good idea I do not trust the people behind it. And even if the people behind it are trustworthy I do not think they can deliver the secure, anonymous and uncensorable site they promise."<ref>Bill Thompson [http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6443437.stm "Who stands to gain from Wikileaks?"], [[BBC News]], [[March 13]], [[2007]].</ref>


In response to concerns about the possibility of misleading or fraudulent leaks, Wikileaks said misleading leaks “are already well-placed in the mainstream media. [Wikileaks] is of no additional assistance.”<ref name=FederalTimes1>Daniel Friedman [http://www.federaltimes.com/index.php?S=2460843 "Web site aims to post government secrets"], [[Federal Times]], [[January 4]], [[2007]].</ref> The FAQ states that "The simplest and most effective countermeasure is a worldwide community of informed users and editors who can scrutinize and discuss leaked documents."[http://wikileaks.org/faq-en]
In response to concerns about the possibility of misleading or fraudulent leaks, Wikileaks said misleading leaks “are already well-placed in the mainstream media. [Wikileaks] is of no additional assistance.”<ref name=FederalTimes1>Daniel Friedman [http://www.federaltimes.com/index.php?S=2460843 "Web site aims to post government secrets"], [[Federal Times]], [[January 4]], [[2007]].</ref> The FAQ states that "The simplest and most effective countermeasure is a worldwide community of informed users and editors who can scrutinize and discuss leaked documents."[http://wikileaks.org/faq-en]

Revision as of 19:20, 5 December 2007

Wikileaks
File:Wikileaks logo wl1hires.jpg
Type of site
MediaWiki
OwnerUnknown
Created byUnknown
URLhttp://wikileaks.org/
RegistrationPrivate

Wikileaks is a website running on modified MediaWiki software which allows whistleblowers to anonymously release government and corporate documents, allegedly without possible retribution. It claims that postings are untraceable by anyone attempting to do so. It was launched in December 2006 and, as of November 2007, had contained over 1.2 million documents.[1]

History

The site and its project were themselves secret, pre-launch, until their existence was disclosed in January of 2007 by Steven Aftergood, editor of Secrecy News.[2] Wikileaks had approached Aftergood to serve on their advisory board. The site in part is being developed by Chinese government dissidents.[3] According to the Wikileaks website, their main targets for leaked disclosure are the former Soviet bloc, sub-Saharan Africa, and Middle Eastern nations, but they expect it to be used for leaks of information about Western governments and corporations.[4] All current staff, developers, or employees of Wikileaks are thought to be secret and unidentified as of January 2007.[5]

According to an interview with a member of the Wikileaks advisory board, the site was planned to go live in March 2007 but was unprepared for the media attention its ahead-of-schedule disclosure generated. Their advisory board includes members of the expatriate Russian and Tibetan refugee communities, reporters, a former US intelligence analyst, and cryptographers. There are no formal ties between Wikileaks and the Wikimedia Foundation.[6] The website has stated that they have over 1,200,000 leaked documents already that they are preparing to publish.[7]The first example document released was written by Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys of Somalia's radical Islamic Courts Union.[8] They also posted a 19 page analysis.[9] The group has subsequently released a number of other significant documents which have become front-page news items, ranging from documentation of equipment expenditures and holdings[10] in the Afghanistan war to corruption in Kenya.

According to the group, Wikileaks will be "an uncensorable version of Wikipedia for untraceable mass document leaking and analysis."[11] Wikileaks developers have stated that there will be checks in place to keep the "completely anonymous" system from being flooded with false documents, porn, spam, and related things. All users will be able to comment on all documents, analyze them, and identify false material.[5] Their stated goal is to ensure that whistle-blowers and journalists are not thrown into jail for emailing sensitive or classified documents, such as what happened to Chinese journalist Shi Tao, who was sentenced to 10 years in jail in 2005 after publicising an email from Chinese officials about the anniversary of the Tiananmen Square massacre.[12] According to James Chen, an organizer of the site, traffic since its disclosure has increased from 8 Google searches to over 1,000,000 in the first two weeks.[13]

It has been observed that the existence of a project like Wikileaks can be of benefit and is needed, drawing comparisons to Daniel Ellsberg's leaking of the Pentagon Papers in 1971.[14] Additionally, at least in the United States, leaking of some documents may be legally protected. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that the Constitution guarantees anonymity, at least in the area of political discourse.[14] Whitley Strieber, author and journalist, has observed the benefits of the Wikileaks project, noting that "Leaking a government document can mean jail, but jail sentences for this can be fairly short. However, there are many places where it means long incarceration or even death, such as China and parts of Africa and the Middle East."[15]

On 31 August 2007, The Guardian newspaper featured on its front page a story about corruption by the family of the former Kenyan leader Daniel Arap Moi. They claim their source of the information was Wikileaks on The looting of Kenya under President Moi.[16]

Chinese censorship

The Chinese government currently attempts to censor every web site with "wikileaks" in the URL. This includes the main wikileaks.org site as well as regional variations such as wikileaks.cn and wikileaks.org.uk. However the site can be accessed from behind the Chinese firewall at the time of writing using https://secure.wikileaks.org/ or one of the many alternative names used by the project, such as ljsf.org or sunshinepress.org. As these alternatives may change frequently, the site suggests users from the mainland of China search for "wikileaks cover names" on non mainland-china search engines such as google.co.uk to locate the latest alternative names. Mainland based search engines, including those of Baidu and Yahoo, also censor references to "wikileaks."[17]

Additionally Wikileaks says users may bypass Chinese censorship by making Tor connections to Wikileaks' hidden server at gaddbiwdftapglkq.onion after installing the Tor software.[18]

With so many alternative names, there is a danger that whistleblowers may connect to a "fake" Wikileaks, run say, by the Chinese government. To prevent this possibility, the site asks users to tell their web browser to "show the site certificate" and verify that it is for "secure.wikileaks.org" and signed by "Equifax Secure, Inc."

Technology

According to the FAQ, "To the user, Wikileaks will look very much like Wikipedia. Anybody can post to it, anybody can edit it. No technical knowledge is required. Leakers can post documents anonymously and untraceably. Users can publicly discuss documents and analyze their credibility and veracity. Users can discuss interpretations and context and collaboratively formulate collective publications. Users can read and write explanatory articles on leaks along with background material and context. The political relevance of documents and their verisimilitude will be revealed by a cast of thousands."[1]

Wikileaks is based on several software packages, including MediaWiki, Freenet, Tor, and PGP.[19]

A CIA front?

There have been many allegations that Wikileaks is a CIA front (f.e. by cryptome[20]), although there is no direct evidence; arguments have centered around the location of Wikileaks-related matters and the source of its funding. A Wikileaks spokesperson has denied allegations but added "If we were CIA, we couldn’t tell you.”[21] The contact number on Wikileaks.org, has a D.C. area code and is a Verizon cell phone number registered in Adelphi, Maryland. Intellus.com, a Web tracking service, connected the number to a “Va Reston.”

The DC telephone number is also on the same telephone exchange as the newly created (2006) Iraq Study Group[22] and the Afghanistan embassy of Washington[23]

Criticism

Steven Aftergood, of the Federation of American Scientists’ Project on Government Secrecy, said in an interview:

There’s a difference in unauthorized disclosure from an authoritarian state versus disclosure from a democracy. In a democratic system, people have the opportunity to define their own disclosure standards. If you violate those standards or encourage others to do so then you are in effect undermining the democratic process...[24]

In response to concerns about the possibility of misleading or fraudulent leaks, Wikileaks said misleading leaks “are already well-placed in the mainstream media. [Wikileaks] is of no additional assistance.”[24] The FAQ states that "The simplest and most effective countermeasure is a worldwide community of informed users and editors who can scrutinize and discuss leaked documents."[2]

Release of Standard Operating Procedures for Camp Delta

A copy of 'Standard Operating Procedures for Camp Delta' dating from March 2003, the protocol of the US Army at the Guantánamo Bay detention camp, was released on the Wikileaks website on the 7th November 2007.[25] The document, named gitmo-sop.pdf, is available via the edonkey and kademlia networks as well as retecool.com[26] and The Guardian.[27]Its release revealed some of the restrictions placed over detainees at the camp, including the designation of some prisoners as off-limits to the International Committee of the Red Cross, something the US military have in the past repeatedly denied. [28]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Wikileaks". Retrieved 2007-11-17.
  2. ^ Steven Aftergood "Wikileaks and untracable document disclosure"
  3. ^ Elizabeth Williamson "Freedom of Information, the Wiki Way: Site to Allow Anonymous Posts of Government Documents", Washington Post, January 15, 2007.
  4. ^ Referenced via UCLA. "CHINA: Cyber-dissidents launch WikiLeaks, a site for whistleblowers", South China Morning Post, January 11, 2007.
  5. ^ a b Paul Marks. "How to leak a secret and not get caught", New Scientist, January 13, 2007.
  6. ^ Yahoo! News "Chinese cyber-dissidents launch WikiLeaks, a site for whistleblowers", Yahoo! News, January 11, 2007.
  7. ^ "Wikileaks and Untraceable Document Disclosuree", Now Public News, January 11, 2007.
  8. ^ "Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys zipped document", Wikileaks.org, December 29, 2006.
  9. ^ H.H.Harpoon "Inside the Somali Civil War and the Islamic Courts", Wikileaks.org, December 29, 2006.
  10. ^ http://www.nysun.com/article/62236
  11. ^ CBC News "Website wants to take whistleblowing online", Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, January 11, 2007.
  12. ^ Scenta.co.uk "Leak secrets trouble free", retrieved January 15, 2007.
  13. ^ Jacob Cherian "Wikileaks To Allow Anonymous Government Document Posts", All Headline News; retrieved January 15, 2007.
  14. ^ a b Scott Bradner "Wikileaks: a site for exposure", Linuxworld, January 18, 2007. Retrieved January 18, 2007.
  15. ^ Staff Reports "WHISTLEBLOWER WEBSITE COMING", Free-Market News Network , January 18, 2007. Retrieved January 18, 2007.
  16. ^ . 2007-08-31 http://www.guardian.co.uk/kenya/story/0,,2159757,00.html. Retrieved 2007-11-17. {{cite news}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
  17. ^ See Wikileaks.org About, retrieved September 6, 2007
  18. ^ See http://wikileaks.org/wiki/Wikileaks:Submissions Wikileaks.org "Submissions", retrieved September 6, 2007
  19. ^ Wikileaks.org "Wikileaks.org FAQ", retrieved January 11, 2007.
  20. ^ http://cryptome.org/wikileaks/wikileaks-leak.htm
  21. ^ Dan Golberg Will Wikileaks Work?, Columbia Journalism Review, April, 2007.
  22. ^ http://www.usip.org/isg/news_releases/1110_isg_eagleburger.html
  23. ^ http://www.embassyofafghanistan.org/10.27embPRAISA.html
  24. ^ a b Daniel Friedman "Web site aims to post government secrets", Federal Times, January 4, 2007.
  25. ^ "Sensitive Guantánamo Bay Manual Leaked Through Wiki Site", Wired November 14, 2007
  26. ^ Specific address at retecool.com
  27. ^ specific address at The Guardian.
  28. ^ "Guantanamo operating manual posted on Internet". Reuters. 2007-11-15. Retrieved 2007-11-15. {{cite news}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)


External links

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