Wikileaks

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Wikileaks
URL www.wikileaks.org
Type of site Whistleblower wiki-site
Registration Private
Launched December 2006
Current status Active

Wikileaks is a website that publishes anonymous submissions and leaks of sensitive corporate and government documents, while taking measures to preserve the anonymity and traceability of its contributors. Within one year of its December 2006 launch, its database had grown to more than 1.2 million documents.[1] Running on modified MediaWiki software, Wikileaks is hosted by PRQ, an internet service provider in Sweden.[2]

Contents

[edit] History

The site and its project were secret until their existence was disclosed in a January 2007 article after Wikileaks invited the editor of Secrecy News to serve on their advisory board.[3]

The site is being developed in part by Chinese government dissidents,[4] and its primary target[clarify] is the former Soviet bloc, sub-Saharan Africa, and Middle Eastern nations, but its developers expect it to be used for leaks of information about Western governments and corporations.[5] All current staff, developers, or employees of Wikileaks are unidentified as of January 2007.[6]

Wikileaks advisory board member Julian Assange stated the site was to go live in March 2007 but was unprepared for the media attention that its ahead-of-schedule disclosure generated. Their advisory board includes members of the expatriate Russian and Tibetan refugee communities, reporters, a former U.S. intelligence analyst, and cryptographers. There are no ties between Wikileaks and the Wikimedia Foundation.[7] The website has stated that they already have over 1,200,000 leaked documents that they are preparing to publish.[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 in the Afghanistan war to corruption in Kenya.[10]

Wikileaks aims to 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, pornography, and spam. All users will be able to comment on all documents, analyze them, and identify false material.[6] 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] Traffic following its disclosure increased from eight Google searches to over 1,000,000 in the first two weeks.[13]

The project has drawn comparisons to Daniel Ellsberg's leaking of the Pentagon Papers in 1971.[14] In the United States, the 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] Author and journalist Whitley Strieber has spoken about 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 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.[16]

[edit] Chinese censorship

The Chinese government currently attempts to censor every web site with "wikileaks" in the URL, including the primary .org site and the regional variations .cn and .uk. However, the site is still accessible from behind the Chinese firewall through one of the many alternative names used by the project, such as "secure.ljsf.org" and "secure.sunshinepress.org". The alternate sites change frequently, and Wikileaks encourages users to search "wikileaks cover names" outside mainland China for the latest alternative names. Mainland search engines, including Baidu and Yahoo, also censor references to "wikileaks".[17]

[edit] 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."[18]

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

[edit] Verification of submissions

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."[20] 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.[21] ”

[edit] Guantánamo Bay procedures

A copy of Standard Operating Procedures for Camp Delta (the protocol of the U.S. Army at the Guantánamo Bay detention camp) dated March 2003 was released on the Wikileaks website on 7 November 2007.[22] The document, named "gitmo-sop.pdf", is also mirrored at The Guardian.[23] 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 U.S. military had in the past repeatedly denied.[24]

On 3 December 2007, Wikileaks released a copy of the 2004 edition of the manual,[25] together with a detailed analysis of the changes.[26]

[edit] Bank Julius Baer lawsuit

 It has been suggested that Bank Julius Baer vs. Wikileaks lawsuit be merged into this article or section. (Discuss)
Main article: Bank Julius Baer vs. Wikileaks lawsuit

In February 2008, the Wikileaks.org domain name was taken offline after the Swiss Bank Julius Baer sued Wikileaks and the wikileaks.org domain registrar Dynadot in a California court and obtained a permanent injunction ordering the shutdown.[27][28] Wikileaks had hosted allegations of illegal activities at the bank's Cayman Island branch.[27]

The same judge who issued the injunction vacated it on February 29, 2008, citing First Amendment concerns and questions about legal jurisdiction.[29] Wikileaks was thus able to bring its site online again. The bank dropped the case on March 5, 2008.[30]

[edit] Scientology

On April 7, 2008, Wikileaks reported receiving a letter (dated March 27) from the Religious Technology Centre claiming ownership of several recently leaked documents pertaining to OT Levels within the Church of Scientology. These same documents were at the centre of a 1994 scandal documented here.

The email stated

“ The Advanced Technology materials are unpublished, copyrighted works. Please be advised that your customer's action in this regard violates United States copyright law. Accordingly, we ask for your help in removing these works immediately from your service.

-- Moxon and Kobrin[31]

 ”

The letter continued on to request the release of the logs of the uploader, which would remove their anonymity.

Wikileaks responded with a statement released on Wikinews stating

“ in response to the attempted suppression, Wikileaks will release several thousand additional pages of Scientology material next week.[32] ”

[edit] See also

Criminal justice Portal
Internet Portal
[[Image:|32x28px]] Law Portal

[edit] References

  1. ^ Wikileaks has 1.2 million documents?. Wikileaks. Retrieved on 2008-02-28.
  2. ^ David Gallagher. "Wikileaks Site Has a Friend in Sweden", The New York Times. Retrieved on 2008-03-01. 
  3. ^ Steven Aftergood. "Wikileaks and untracable document disclosure", Secrecy News, Federation of American Scientists, 3 January 2007. Retrieved on 2008-02-28. 
  4. ^ Elizabeth Williamson. "Freedom of Information, the Wiki Way: Site to Allow Anonymous Posts of Government Documents", The Washington Post, 15 January 2007. Retrieved on 2008-02-28. 
  5. ^ "Cyber-dissidents launch WikiLeaks, a site for whistleblowers", South China Morning Post, 11 January 2007. Retrieved on 2008-02-28. Archived from the original on 2007-02-12. 
  6. ^ a b Paul Marks. "How to leak a secret and not get caught", New Scientist, 13 January 2007. Retrieved on 2008-02-28. 
  7. ^ Agence France Press. "Chinese cyber-dissidents launch WikiLeaks, a site for whistleblowers", The Age, 2007-01-11. Retrieved on 2008-02-28. 
  8. ^ Kearny (11 January 2007). Wikileaks and Untraceable Document Disclosuree. Now Public News. Retrieved on 2008-02-28., Wikileaks, December 29, 2006.
  9. ^ H.H.Harpoon "Inside the Somali Civil War and the Islamic Courts", Wikileaks December 29, 2006.
  10. ^ "Wikileaks Releases Secret Report on Military Equipment", The New York Sun, 9 September 2007. Retrieved on 2008-02-28. 
  11. ^ "Website wants to take whistleblowing online", CBC News, 11 January 2007. Retrieved on 2008-02-28. 
  12. ^ "Leak secrets trouble free", Scenta, 15 January 2007. Retrieved on 2008-02-28. 
  13. ^ "Wikileaks To Allow Anonymous Government Document Posts", All Headline News, 15 January 2007. Retrieved on 2008-02-28. 
  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, 18 January 2007. Retrieved on 2008-02-28. 
  16. ^ "The looting of Kenya", The Guardian, 31 Augues 2007. Retrieved on 2008-02-28. 
  17. ^ Is Wikileaks blocked by the Chinese government?. Wikileaks (2008). Retrieved on 2008-02-28.
  18. ^ What is Wikileaks? How does Wikileaks operate?. Wikileaks (2008). Retrieved on 2008-02-28.
  19. ^ Is Wikileaks accessible across the globe or do oppressive regimes in certain countries block the site?. Wikileaks (2008). Retrieved on 2008-02-28.
  20. ^ Daniel Friedman "Web site aims to post government secrets", Federal Times, January 4, 2007.
  21. ^ wikileaks.org
  22. ^ "Sensitive Guantánamo Bay Manual Leaked Through Wiki Site", Wired November 14, 2007
  23. ^ specific address at The Guardian.
  24. ^ "Guantanamo operating manual posted on Internet", Reuters, 2007-11-15. Retrieved on 2007-11-15. 
  25. ^ "Camp Delta Operating Procedure (2004)"
  26. ^ "Changes in Guantanamo SOP manual (2003-2004)"
  27. ^ a b Wikileaks (18 February 2008). "Wikileaks.org under injunction". Press release. Retrieved on 2008-02-28.
  28. ^ Bank Julius Baer & Co. Ltd. et al. v. Wikileaks et al.
  29. ^ Philipp Gollner. "Judge reverses ruling in Julius Baer leak case", Reuters, 29 February 2008. Retrieved on 2008-03-01. 
  30. ^ Claburn, Thomas (2008-03-06). Swiss Bank Abandons Lawsuit Against Wikileaks: The wiki had posted financial documents it said proved tax evasion by Bank Julius Baer's clients. InformationWeek.
  31. ^ Church of Scientology collected Operating Thetan Documents, including full text of legal letter. (2008-06-04).
  32. ^ Church of Scientology warns Wikileaks over documents (2008-07-04).

[edit] Further reading

[edit] External links

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