Freedom of Information, the Wiki Way: Wikileaks.org to Allow Anonymous Posts of Government Documents

[DeepModem Mom]

WP: Freedom of Information, the Wiki Way
Site to Allow Anonymous Posts of Government Documents
By Elizabeth Williamson
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, January 15, 2007; Page A13

You're a government worker in China, and you've just gotten a memo showing the true face of the regime. Without any independent media around, how do you share what you have without landing in jail or worse?

Wikileaks.org is a Web-based way for people with damning, potentially helpful or just plain embarrassing government documents to make them public without leaving fingerprints. Modeled on the participatory, online encyclopedia Wikipedia, the site is expected to go live within the next two months.

Organizer James Chen said that while its creators tried to keep the site under wraps until its launch, Google references to it have soared in recent days from about eight to more than 20,000.

"Wikileaks is becoming, as planned, although unexpectedly early, an international movement of people who facilitate ethical leaking and open government," he said.

The site, whose FAQs are written in flowery dissident-ese -- "What conscience cannot contain, and institutional secrecy unjustly conceals, Wikileaks can broadcast to the world" -- targets regimes in Asia, sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East, but not exclusively. It was founded and partially funded, organizers say, by dissidents, mathematicians and technologists from China, the United States, Taiwan, Europe, Australia and South Africa. The site relies on a worldwide web of volunteers and contributors to post and vet the information, and dodge any efforts to shut it down. To protect document donors and the site itself, Wikileaks uses its own coded software combined with, for the techies out there, modified versions of Freenet and PGP....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/14/AR2007011400760.html

[caligirl]

1. send t to Jack Bauer!!

You're a government worker in China, and you've just gotten a memo showing the true face of the regime. Without any independent media around, how do you share what you have without landing in jail or worse?

[silverweb]

2. Love it!

It's going to be a boon here in the good ol' "land of the free" at this point, too!

:woohoo:

[Occulus]

3. It's things like this that make regimes like * impossible

It's about time something like this were created. Maybe now our "leaders" will have an increased incentive to lead well.

Or not...

[Hosnon]

4. God bless the internet! nt.

[silverweb]

6. You've got that right!

Thank God/dess and Al Gore!

:D

[Viva_La_Revolution]

5. cool

Wikileaks organizers say the site is self-policing. "Wikileaks will provide a forum for the entire global community to examine any document relentlessly for credibility, plausibility, veracity and falsifiability," they wrote in response to e-mailed questions. "If a document is leaked from the Chinese government, the entire Chinese dissident community can freely scrutinize and discuss it; if a document is leaked from Somalia, the entire Somali refugee community can analyze it and put it in context. And so on."

[otherlander]

7. That's... brilliant.

But how will they verify that the documents are real? I mean, I've seen some pretty far-out bullshit posted on Wikipedia before...

[WiseButAngrySara]

8. wondered the same thing. ....n/t

[Taoschick]

16. That's going to be a huge problem

There's no way to verify the legitimacy of the documents so wikileaks will be used by people with an ax to grind.

It'll become a joke in short order...and a magnet for conspiracy theorists.

[Egnever]

18. Agreed

n/t

[Hekate]

9. I'm impressed. Take that, Google!

After Google's "business decision" to cooperate with the Chinese government in suppressing their citizens' access to information, I am really pleased that Wiki is acting in the interests of human freedom.

:woohoo:

Hekate

[Egnever]

17. Google owns!

Nice that you have a grudge against them. You do know they also were the only major search engine to deny our search records to old george dont you?

Have you taken a look at how they treat their employees? I doubt you will find a beter company to work for in todays corporate america. Nice to see the right wing bash on them stuck with a lot of people though.

[Hekate]

19. I use Google all the time; I appreciate what they do; I don't have to like all they do...

...and the decision to cooperate with a repressive regime like China didn't pass the smell test with me.

I'm just sayin'.

Hekate

[tanyev]

10. How about starting with the Bush regime?

Come on, whistleblowers!

[wordpix]

13. that's my thought, too. Can't wait to see what turns up at wikileaks this week

Especially with Libby on trial and Unca Dick taking the stand.

[populistdriven]

11. Wikileak internal leaked Email - You Have to Read This! 8-D

Quote:
To: John Young <jyapipeline.com>
From: Wikileaks <wikileakswikileaks.org>
Subject: martha stuart pgp
Date: Sun, 7 Jan 2007 12:20:25 -0500

-----BEGIN PGP MESSAGE-----
Version: None

J. We are going to fuck them all. Chinese mostly, but not entirely a feint. Invention abounds. Lies, twists and distorts everywhere needed for protection. Hackers monitor chinese and other intel as they burrow into their targets, when they pull, so do we. Inxhaustible supply of material. Near 100,000 documents/emails a day. We're going to crack the world open and let it flower into something new. If fleecing the CIA will assist us, then fleece we will.

We have pullbacks from NED, CFR, Freedomhouse and other CIA teats. We have all of pre 2005 afghanistan. Almost all of india fed. Half a dozen foreign ministries. Dozens of political parties and consulates, worldbank, apec, UN sections, trade groups, tibet and fulan dafa associations and... russian phishing mafia who pull data everywhere. We're drowing. We don't even know a tenth of what we have or who it belongs to. We stopped storing it at 1Tb.


tons more over at cryptome
http://cryptome.org

[janx]

12. ONE PROBLEM

Snopes or Media Matters (or a whole new organization) will have to work hard to authenticate these docs since the secondary sources are anonymous.

[Marnieworld]

14. Nothing is anonymous on the internet

Even before the flagrant FISA crimes it was always possible to trace where anything on the internet is uploaded from. Remember the I love you or Melissa virus? They could find that guy they can sure as hell find someone uploading secrets. I wouldn't try it unless I was willing to go the Daniel Elsberg route.

[Pavulon]

15. Correct, dont pass, go no $200

you post classified data on that site you will be in prison right quick. People need to understand that leaking secret documents is not acceptable no matter who occupies what chairs.

Those who have that access classified documents know the penalty for disclosing it.