Wikileaks

Article by Jeremy Undis

Wikileaks.org is an international non-profit �whistle blower� organization formed in 2006. Its purpose is to create more open governments by publishing secret or classified media information from anonymous sources. Wikileaks states that its �Primary interest is in exposing oppressive regimes in Asia, the former Soviet bloc, Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East, but we also expect to be of assistance to people of all regions who wish to reveal unethical behavior in their governments and corporations."

Almost all of Wikileaks founding and current members are anonymous, and because of the strong backlash the site gets, it is doubtful they will ever reveal themselves intentionally. The main spokesman for Wikileaks for the past several years has been Julian Assange, an Australian Internet activist and computer programmer.

Wikileaks has received awards from the Index Of Censorship and Amnesty International. Wikileaks has much support from organizations and countries alike. Daniel Ellsberg, the man who released the pentagon papers in 1971 also gives support to the website. But for all the support the site gains, it makes just as many if not more enemies, such as the U.S., Australia and China. Many private companies, like Amazon, PayPal and EveryDNS, have also refused to access or support Wikileaks. Wikileaks has always encountered problems due to the controversy of the site, such as in the Bank Julius Baer case, but in the last year, Wikileaks has become even more controversial, even being called terrorists by Congressmen Peter King.

Notable Publications

Wikileaks first got notoriety for one of its early posts in 2006, a document signed by the Somali Shiek Hassan Dahir Aweys to assassinate government officials. The authenticity of this document was never conclusive but it did give light to who Wikileaks was and what it did.

In 2007 Wikileaks released the 2003 and 2004 operational procedures of Guantanamo bay detention camp, revealing the restrictions of some of the prisoners, including marking some of the prisoners as off limits to the International Red Cross. As of late April 2011, more Guantanamo bay files have been released, revealing specific and personal information about the detainees and the conditions they were being held under.

In 2008 Wikileaks released allegations of illegal activities at the Cayman Islands branch of the Swiss Bank Julius Baer. Julius Baer sued Wikileaks for hosting the documents, claiming them to be trade secrets and copyrighted. The court issued a permanent injunction and the site was inaccessible through its domain. For this first hearing, Wikileaks had no representation, and eleven days later after a re-hearing with given representation from Wikileaks, the injunction was lifted. The case was dropped soon after Wikileaks presented a defense based off of first amendment rights.

In November 2008 Wikileaks publicized a report of executions and disappearances by Kenyan police. The report was written and released by two Kenyan human rights activists Oscar Kamau Kingara and John Paul Oulu. These men were later assassinated by Kenyan police march 2009. Wikileaks called for information on this assassination. And were later awarded by Amnesty International for spreading the report The Cry of Blood � Report on Extra-Judicial Killings and Disappearances.

In March 2009 Wikileaks published the black listed censored sites for Australia. The list was originally created to prevent access to child pornography and terrorism, but the leaks revealed that other sites covering unrelated subjects were also listed. Wikileaks also released the black lists for Denmark and Thailand.

Wikileaks has gotten the most attention this past year with releasing of the Baghdad airstrike video. And the Iraq war dairies particularly.

On April 5 2010 Wikileaks released classified military footage from an apache attack helicopter that killed twelve people, including two Reuters news staff. The videos has received a lot of media attention due to the carelessness of the pilots of the copter resulting in the unnecessary deaths of innocent people.

On July 25 2010 Wikileaks released to the news media 92,000 documents related to war Afghanistan. Assange describes this release to be comparable to the pentagon papers release in1971. The Guardian, a British national newspaper, describes it as "one of the biggest leaks in U.S. military history ... a devastating portrait of the failing war in Afghanistan, revealing how coalition forces have killed hundreds of civilians in unreported incidents, Taliban attacks have soared and NATO commanders fear neighboring Pakistan and Iran are fuelling the insurgency". This was the biggest release Wikileaks had made to date, and incited the anger of the U.S. and others alike.

Backlash

Wikileaks has since its beginning had to deal with attempts to shut the site down. Wikileaks has never relied on the support of any one strong organization, with many fearing the consequences of partnering with a site that posts the �dirty secrets� of the world. So the site itself has struggled to find servers on which it can be hosted and a country in which it can protect the anonymity of the whistleblowers that submit leaks.

With each release they make there has been both a wave of new support and a wave of attack, mainly from the powerful countries in the world. Control of information affects control over society, and this is why Wikileaks has become such an enemy of governments and private companies alike, taking information that is being controlled and hidden and releasing it for everyone to see. This obviously creates discontent and questioning, it ffects the perception that society has over one thing or another, and this affects the legitimacy that governments and other organizations have with the people. By posting these secrets, Wikileaks has effectively become the enemy of every organization it posts about. It has started a war over information with the world.

The biggest enemy Wikileaks has made is most definitely the United States. With the release of the Baghdad airstrike, afghan war diaries, Iraq war logs etc etc. Wikileaks has posted more groundbreaking news about the U.S. than about any other country. The Obama administration has asked other countries to consider charging Assange with criminal charges to limit his ability to travel. The United States is looking desperately for a way to take Julian Assange down. The problem is the U.S. justice department doesn�t really have strong solid ways to charge him or Wikileaks with anything. Because Wikileaks is a protected under freedom of the press, it is legal to re-publish illegally obtained information as long as the publishers did not break any laws acquiring it. So it is the whistle blowers that are accountable for the publications, and Wikileaks is all about keeping whistle blowers anonymous.

Several consequences have occurred because of Wikileaks. Bradley E. Manning has been arrested under suspicion of leaking U.S. military files to Wikileaks. Though this has not been proven yet, Manning has been held in Guantanamo bay detention center on charges of leaking the documents. He was put under extreme stress and humiliation tactics at Guantanamo until recently he was moved to Leavenworth security after mass protests over Manning�s treatment.

Currently it is known that Australia, China and Thailand have all blocked or intend to block Wikileaks from public view, each for different reasons. These and other attempts at censorship have been ultimately foiled by people mirroring the site, with Assange claiming in December 2010 that there were over 355 mirrors of Wikileaks on the Internet.

Future of Wikileaks

It is unclear how this information war is going to turn out. Currently Assange is in the United Kingdom trying to challenge the ruling of his extradition to Sweden on allegations of rape. It is unclear if these allegations are true or not, whether it is espionage to detain Assange enough to extradite him again to the United States, or if the Wikileaks rebel is not a white knight after all. It is unclear either way but at this point I think it is much more important to start questioning the legitimacy of Wikileaks now. Absolute power corrupts absolutely, and Wikileaks has become very powerful.

Wikileaks has a control over information now, information that threatens governments control over society�s perception of their governments. Now is the point where the governments are challenging Wikileaks to take them out of the game. And if it fails, then Wikileaks has an easy way to bargain with governments. Wikileaks has your dirty secrets: if you don�t want Assange to tell the world about them, you better negotiate with our demands. Wikileaks may become more trustworthy than our own governments, or at least that is how people would feel, and that is precisely what these governments are so afraid of. This may not happen, but the possibility is ominous.

Wikileaks has grown a lot since its beginnings and there will be a point in which things will have to change to handle growth. And in this change corruption can happen. Daniel Domscheit-Berg was an active member of the Wikileaks project and main spokesmen to Germany. Daniel left Wikileaks saying he was unsatisfied with a structural problem in Wikileaks. Later, Daniel and another former member of Wikileaks created another whistle blowing site called Openleaks, with the intent of being more transparent than Wikileaks. Daniel said, "In these last months, the Wikileaks organization has not been open any more. It lost its open-source promise.� At the Openleaks website there is an intro video explanation on the flaws of the usual whistle-blowing site �from our experience we have learned that this does not go over very well and contains some design fables that corrupt the system on various levels.� The implicit message is that Wikileaks has a corrupted system.

So it is unclear what way this is all going to end up, one can only speculate. But that is usually how life works. There are many more questions that just can�t be answered now. Wikileaks has caused uproar for the demand of information that has echoed throughout the world. One thing is clear: Wikileaks may have been the first, but is most definitely not going to be the last.

Sources and Additional Reading

Wikileaks are Terrorists?
Julian Assange's Poison Pill
Censorship and Wikileaks Event
Wikileaks Funding Blocked by U.S.
Intermediary Censorship of Wikileaks
Wikileaks Mirrors
Wikileaks Defector

Videos and Interviews

Wikileaks Documentary (60 minutes)
Private Manning's Treatment (4 minutes)
Why the World Needs Wikileaks (20 minutes)
Frost Over The World - Julian Assange (24 minutes)
Julian Assange Interview (15 minutes)