Coming: Wikileaks.org - "the first intelligence agency of the people."

[warren pease]

I just heard about this site the other night on Rachel Maddow's show. It's still months from going live, but they've put up about 50 leaked documents from all over the world so far. Here's part of their mission statement:

We propose that authoritarian governments, oppressive institutions and corrupt corporations should be subject to the pressure, not merely of international diplomacy, freedom of information laws or even periodic elections, but of something far stronger — the consciences of the people within them.

We believe that transparency in government activities leads to reduced corruption, better government and stronger democracies. All governments can benefit from increased scrutiny by the world community, as well as their own people. We believe this scrutiny requires information. Historically that information has been costly - in terms of human life and human rights. But with technological advances - the internet, and cryptography - the risks of conveying important information can be lowered.

Wikileaks opens leaked documents up to stronger scrutiny than any media organization or intelligence agency can provide. Wikileaks provides a forum for the entire global community to relentlessly examine any document for its credibility, plausibility, veracity and validity. Communities can interpret leaked documents and explain their relevance to the public. If a document comes from the Chinese government, the entire Chinese dissident community and diaspora can freely scrutinize and discuss it; if a document arrives from Iran, the entire Farsi community can analyze it and put it in context.

In an important sense, Wikileaks is the first intelligence agency of the people. Better principled and less parochial than any governmental intelligence agency, it is able to be more accurate and relevant. It has no commercial or national interests at heart; its only interest is the revelation of the truth. Unlike the covert activities of state intelligence agencies, Wikileaks relies upon the power of overt fact to enable and empower citizens to bring feared and corrupt governments and corporations to justice.

And here's a link to a document entitled "Fallujah, the information war and U.S. propaganda."

I suppose the whole thing could be a disinfo psy-op designed to leak phony documents to "non-embedded" reporters, then embarrass them publicly for printing propaganda fabricated by the US. But only a cynic would think our government capable of such a thing.

Anyway, I hope that's not the case. We'll see over the next couple of months, I guess.


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[groovedaddy]

1. More Power to this project!!! n/t

[DCKit]

2. Ummmm, it LOOKS live and I was there a couple of weeks ago.

Is it "internet Easter" or something?

[warren pease]

3. They say themselves that it's going to take a while longer to go fully operational...

"Internet Easter"... Yup, hunting for eggs laid by rabbits. :toast:

So far, although there are some docs available, only a few are actually classified, including that one re Fallujah that I linked in the OP. Here's what they say about going live:

The extraordinary level of interest in the site has meant that in order to meet global demand our initial public deployment needs many times the capacity originally planned for.

Wikileaks has been running prototypes to a restricted audience but is still several months short a full launch. This is because we need something that can scale well to an enormous audience. The level of scalability required has been made clear by the immense response to the leak of Wikileaks' existence - and it's taken us by surprise.

Wikileaks is a based on a very simple concept. However, there is lot of complicated technical work behind making that idea work.

They also intend to offer detailed analyses of each document, done via Wiki editing by people who know the issues and preferably live in the affected areas. So that's another missing piece so far.

But so far, it looks like nirvana for nosy dissenters. I think many great investigative reports and articles will begin life on WikiLeaks. I sure intend to take full advantage of it -- at least as long as I can stay out of the gulag... :mad:


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[L. Coyote]

4. The shining bright light of display at midday in the town square. Truth can take that, lies cannot.

[warren pease]

5. Shameless kick to keep this topic alive -- doesn't anyone find this of great importance?

[warren pease]

6. One more shameless kick and then I'll give it up. n/t

[Progressive Radical]

7. Kicking just out of the sheer fabulousness of it!

The I didn't click on the link yet but don't the site admin risk death or detention?

If so, remarkably brave.

Oh, and recommending, too!

[warren pease]

8. Yeah, I'm wondering about that, too...

It's not explained on the site, nor wouldn't I expect them to divulge that kind of information. I also assume their servers aren't in the US or any other totalitarian country. Probably someplace politically neutral like Costa Rica or Switzerland.

I have no idea how they protect the identities of people like me who interact with the site from within fascist shift countries. I've got a piece of software that was allegedly developed by US intelligence and works by breaking up the transmission into packets, redirects them over multiple servers, then reassembles them. I'm guessing it would be difficult for, say the "secret NSA" closet at AT&T San Francisco to intercept that kind of transmission.

You can download the software for free here. However, be warned that all this breaking up and reassembling carries a high performance price. It's like being back on 56kb dial up. So I only use it for the most diabolical plotting and scheming.... :sarcasm:


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[Progressive Radical]

11. LOL ... it's good to have a fellow comrade in arms like you! n/t

[fenriswolf]

9. not so much an intelligence agency

but a place to post important private information for the public to see, sorta like an amnesty box.

[warren pease]

10. I think the "intelligence agency" refers to how they intend to massage the raw data...

The mission statement talks about how when a document is leaked, we'll also get analysis from people living in the communities most affected by the policy or strategy the document reveals, as well as their perspectives on how it's going to affect them. They say that's the reason they chose the wiki format, so that all analysis can be annotated and commented on.

But if it turns into a worldwide truth and reconciliation commission, with the people in charge of the facts for a change rather than the usual cadre of insiders and gatekeepers, that would be a very good thing as well. We'll have to see as it evolves.

I just hope the principals can stay out of jail long enough to make it work.


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