Wikileaks is developing an uncensorable version of Wikipedia, whose primary purpose is to untraceably publish and analyze leaked documents.
Topics we are primarily concerned with are despotic regimes in Asia and the former Soviet bloc, sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East, but we also hope to help those people in the West who would like to shed light on unethical behavior in governments and corporations in their own countries. We are aimed at obtaining the maximum political resonance. This means that our audience is as large as the Wikipedia audience, and it does not have to have special technical skills. We currently have 1.2 million documents in our hands, mostly from dissidents and anonymous sources. We believe that transparency in government actions will serve to reduce corruption, lead to better governance and stronger democracy. Careful monitoring of the political situation on the part of the world community and directly the population of the country itself will have a beneficial effect on the governments of other states. We believe that only full access to information can objectively recreate the picture of current events. Historically, information has always been given at a high price - the price of human life and human freedoms. Using its moral right, Wikileaks makes the publication of documents obtained from secret sources as safe as possible, since the materials become immediately public.
Wikileaks makes it possible to conduct a more thorough analysis of sources, rather than versions widely represented in the media or intelligence agencies; well-informed wiki publishers conduct their own investigations along with the populations of all countries. Wikileaks offers a forum for the entire world community to scrutinize any document for accuracy and authenticity. Thus, everyone has the opportunity to make their own interpretation and publicly express their own point of view regarding the information received. If the document comes from the Chinese government, then all Chinese dissident circles get the opportunity to study and discuss the information received, if the leak comes from Iran, Farsi themselves can analyze the materials and shed light on their true meaning. You can read the analysis of the document.
We believe that not only the population of a particular country is able to monitor the integrity of their government, but also people from other countries who closely monitor that same government. The time has come when an anonymous planetary organization must open the closed doors of secret institutions and reveal the truth.
Your idea is amazing and I wish you the best of luck with it.. -- Daniel Ellsberg (2007)
H what is a site? Why "wikify" a leak?
Wikileaks is the uncensored version of Wikipedia, whose main task is to publicly release and analyze documents that have become available due to information leaks. The project combines a security system and anonymity built on the most advanced cryptographic technologies, along with the accessibility and simplicity of the wiki interface.
The publication of documents not intended for publication changed the course of history for the better; it can influence the course of events now, it can give us a better future.
Consider the example of Daniel Ellsberg, who worked for the United States government during the Vietnam War. He gained access to the Pentagon Papers, a protocol for strategic planning of military operations in the Vietnam campaign. These documents shed light on how long the US government has been deceiving its population about the course of military events. And yet, neither the people nor the media knew anything about this extraordinary and shocking discovery. Under the guise of national security legislation, the government kept its population in complete ignorance of the crime being committed. Confronting government threats and risking his own life, Ellsberg decides to circulate the Pentagon report to journalists and around the world. After felony allegations that were later refuted, the release of the Pentagon files shocks the world, exposes government machinations, helps hasten the end of the war, and saves thousands of lives.
The significance of the leak, deliberately exposing government bodies, corporations and large organizations, has provided strong evidence of its effectiveness, especially in recent years. Public scrutiny controls the unethical behavior of secret institutions that otherwise would not bear any responsibility for their actions. What official would dare to commit an unspoken corrupt act, knowing that this act is being watched by the entire public? What repressive plan can be introduced if not only the population of the whole country, but the whole world can learn about it? The risk of being taken by surprise makes you think and resist corruption, conspiracy, exploitation and aggression. Open government reacts to injustices rather than committing them. Open government exposes and prevents injustice. Open government is the most efficient form of government.
Today, as authoritarian rule has spread throughout the world, increasing its tendencies in democracies, giving more and more power to dubious corporations, the need for open dialogue and democratization is stronger than ever.
H Does a massive leak of documents carry any responsibility?
- Can leak documents be deliberately false and misleading?
- Is the leak infringing on privacy?
Creating an open forum for the free posting of information entails the threat of abuse of this freedom, but it is enough to take the necessary measures to minimize the potential damage. The simplest and most effective countermeasure is the global community of knowledgeable users and editors themselves, who can carefully research and discuss leaked documents.
Concerns about invasion of privacy, lack of responsibility, and the publication of false material also arose during the creation of Wikipedia. At Wikipedia, the irresponsible publication of false information can be detected by other users, and the results of such self-monitoring are very satisfactory and encouraging. There is no reason to think that it will be different with Wikileaks. As the Wikipedia experience has shown, and it came as a surprise to many, the collective intelligence of an informed community of users ensures rapid and error-free dissemination, validation and analysis.
In addition, false leaks and disinformation have long been placed in the mainstream media and, as the recent past has shown, can be seen as a clear example of the cause of the war in Iraq. The spreaders of disinformation will be eliminated by the Wikileaks system itself, which is as flawlessly equipped to scrutinize classified documents as the mainstream media is. A similar example can be found in the excellent analysis of the structure of the political additions made by the British government to the case of intelligence information about Iraq. The case, cited by Colin Powell in a speech to the United Nations during the same month, provided justification for the coming attack on Iraq by the United States.
Be that as it may, our overarching goal is to create a forum where whistleblowing will serve to expose injustice. Every decision we make is based on this goal.
D Does Wikileaks care about legal implications?
Our roots are in dissident circles and we target non-Western authoritarian regimes. Therefore, we believe that politicized legal attacks on us will be seen as a serious mistake by Western administrations. Nevertheless, we are prepared, technically and structurally, to give a fitting rebuff to all legal attacks. We have developed software designed to protect human rights, but the servers are run by anonymous volunteers. Since our software does not have any commercial purpose, there is no need to restrict its distribution. In the least likely case, if we are forced to allow censorship in our software, many other people will continue to work in other jurisdictions.
M Can a leak be ethically correct?
We uphold and encourage moral behavior in all circumstances. Each person is the ultimate judge of his own conscience. Where freedom is stifled and injustice is rooted in the law, there must be room for principled civil disobedience. If a simple gesture of spreading information can expose authority or prevent crime, we recognize the right, nay, the duty, to make such a gesture. Providing this kind of damning information usually involves a huge personal risk. In the same way that laws can protect whistleblowers in some jurisdictions, Wikileaks provides the means and opportunity to mitigate this risk as much as possible.
We propose that every authoritarian government, every oppressive organization, and even every corrupt corporation be subject to pressure not only from international diplomacy or freedom of information laws, and not even only through periodic elections, but through the most powerful factor: the individual human consciousness within every people.
ABOUT does the press have to be free?
A turning point in the life of society was the statement of the American Supreme Court during the proceedings for the disclosure of the Pentagon Papers: "..only a free and unimpaired press can effectively expose a false and corrupt government." We agree.
The court ruling also emphasizes that "one of the main tasks of a free press is to prevent the government's attempts to misinform the population and commit crimes against its own people, sending people to far abroad countries to die from fevers and bullets from foreign weapons."
The connection between the publication and the negative public outcry caused by this publication is quite simple to establish. It is much more difficult to determine the consequences that the refusal of publication will entail for citizens who have received their freedoms primarily through freedom of speech. Freedom of the press and speech is a major factor in motivating governments and corporations to refrain from wrongdoing, because it is much easier to act in good conscience and not pursue base goals in a free press environment. Thus, you can count on more correct behavior on their part in the future.
It is impossible to prevent an offense if it is carefully hidden. Secretly hatched plans for criminal acts in the future cannot be destroyed until they are put into practice - which deprives all preventive measures of timeliness. For example, administrative crimes can affect the fate of many people.
At the disposal of government bodies is a fairly wide range of different methods to prevent or slander published information, among them are the special services, and legal sanctions, and corrupt media. Thus, the struggle for glasnost as the basis of democracy falls entirely on the shoulders of those who uphold justice. In cases where "exposure" is nothing more than a falsification, it affects the fate of individual people, but if the published facts are true, they can affect the course of political planning and management and, as a result, the life of the whole society as a whole.
Europeans often criticize the freedom of the press in the US, pointing to the abundance of obscenities posted in the mainstream media. Such freedom has nothing to do with the true publicity of a democratic state, and is most likely just another financial discovery by a newsroom that has calculated that printing secular gossip is much cheaper than investing in investigative journalism. Unlike conventional media, we choose the Internet, which has not yet become a universal mechanism for disclosures within the entire world community, but is already close to it. Take a look at some examples of document releases and you'll immediately discover the immediate positive policy changes that followed the release.
Wikileaks exposes, but its functions are much wider. There are a huge number of ways to expose via the Internet. What's really missing is a social movement that celebrates the virtues of ethically correct publishing. What's really missing is a universal, secure and easy way to make it public. What is really missing is the ability to turn previously unknown facts into knowledge that can have political impact and acquired through the collective analysis of documents, first established on wikipedia.
The successful release of the documents will put an end to the criminal activities of many administrative bodies that remain unpunished thanks to the facts carefully hidden from their people. Daniel Ellsberg calls for this. Everyone knows about it. We do it.
P Why are Wikileaks founders anonymous?
Most people (in the West) associated with Wikileaks do not hide their names, however, the founders, and of course, the sources remain anonymous.
The reasons that force us to do this:
- Some of us are refugees from authoritarian countries, our families stayed in these countries.
- Some of us work as journalists, for whom entry into these countries may be denied if our involvement in this project is discovered.
Besides,
- Considering that several founders are forced by circumstances beyond their control to hide their names, we decided that it would be solidary to maintain general anonymity.
- One of our core missions is to encourage anonymous sources to release material. Our anonymity allows us to work with sources more effectively.
- Anonymity is a clear evidence that we are not looking for fame, we set ourselves higher goals.
W ikileaks is a centralized organization?
Regionally, the project sees itself as an ethical movement that uncovers leaks on a global scale. Many countries form their own regional groups (see Contacts).
Our goal is to provide ourselves with maximum professional and political support in order to reduce pressure from the West. But we are not looking for mere favors from Western liberal democracies. We believe that in this way we form a more solid base from which to fight repressive regimes in the rest of the world. As long as we continue to publish leaks under any circumstances with the hope that it will bring maximum benefit, we can consider ourselves an open organization.
W Is Wikileaks interested in leaking information hidden by large corporations?
Yes. We are interested in any area where there is an opportunity to influence the education of the ruling circles.
It has often been noted that the gross domestic product of many corporations exceeds that of the nation, while at the same time much less attention has been paid to the fact that the number of employees in such corporations can also exceed the population of an entire country. However, oddly enough, the above comparison has not been further developed. Many give the best years of their lives working for corporations, which is why it is necessary to take statistics seriously and ask yourself the following question: "What kind of world are such giant corporations?"
After fairly easily ascertainable data regarding the population and gross domestic product of a country, it would be natural to continue the comparison of government systems, major influential circles and freedoms of citizens. While each individual corporation has a number of distinctive features, in general, the concept of "corporation as a state" carries the following general properties:
- Suffrage (the right to vote) is the exclusive priority of landowners ("shareholders"), but even their influence is directly dependent on the size of the holdings.
- All executive power is concentrated in the hands of the central committee.
- There is no system of separation of powers. There is no jury and no innocence is assumed.
- Failure to follow any command unquestioningly can result in instant dismissal.
- There is no right to freedom of speech. There is no right to form associations. Love is allowed only with state approval.
- Central planning of the economy.
- A widespread system for tracking physical movements and electronic means of communication.
- Society is tightly controlled, and this control is developed to such an extent that many employees are prescribed in advance where, when and how many times a day they can go to the toilet.
- Virtually no transparency, something reminiscent of the "Freedom of Information Act" is unimaginable.
- There is only one party in the state. Opposition groups (unions) are banned, monitored or simply ignored.
Corporations of this type, despite the fact that their number of employees and the size of the gross domestic product are commensurate with those of Belgium, Denmark or New Zealand, have nothing to do with these countries in terms of granting civil liberties and rights. On the contrary, the internal structure of such organizations is a reflection of the most pernicious aspects of the regime of the Soviet Union in the 1960s. An even more stunning sight is presented by a company operating in states with a poorly developed legislative system (for example, West Papua or South Korea). In an environment that is not burdened by state intricacies, the aggressive behavior of corporations, the so-called "new states", becomes most obvious.
So, yes, we will try to influence corporations by elevating them to the level of a liberal democracy by exposing anti-civil agendas and policies.
M Can I talk about Wikileaks on Facebook, Orkut, Livejournal or some other blog?
We will be grateful if you do so. We need the support of independent sites in order to gain relevance not only among potential whistleblowers, but also people who may wish to close the project. With a strong, real support group from not just journalistic or dissident circles, but from all social groups, any action directed against us will be considered by the courts in one of the Western countries, and we do not doubt our success.
FROM does it look like Wikileaks owns multiple domains?
We do have a certain number of domains. Some of them are variations of "Wikileaks" (eg http://wikileaks.de/), others exist under more veiled front names (eg http://ljsf.org/ or http://destiny.mooo .com/ are quite transparently hidden domain names for public use).
However, many domain buyers (perhaps agents of the Chinese government?) have already registered in their name absolutely every name that could have anything to do with Wikileaks. However, it didn't just end with domain buying, as even names like http://wiileaks.blogspot.com/ were taken to prevent Wikileaks from using them or to force us to buy titles at dictated prices.
If you have such an opportunity, then you could help us by registering in your name any free domain whose name will be related to Wikileaks (for example, national domains of your country, blogs, sites intended for a large number of Internet communities (Facebook or Myspace)), and send us information about the domain you registered (if you have time, give your pages the appropriate content!).
R Does the site have any discrete cover names?
In many countries with poorly developed information security systems, people cannot afford to be seen in correspondence or any other way of communicating with the site. In order to provide the audience with the most comfortable way to communicate with us without installing an additional software package, we have a number of cover domains available. So, for example, instead of sending an email to [email protected] site, you can use one of our public cover domains - [email protected]
At the moment we have a large number of shell domains, but we would like to create a stable list that meets all our requirements. For example, chem.harvard.edu or london.ibm.com are considered by us to be really good front names, as they are widely known in areas that have nothing to do with Wikileaks.
If you can create an account for a sub-domain on a well-known organization's server, or know someone who could, please contact us.
M Can the actions of repressive regimes be prosecuted as a result of the publication of the facts on Wikileaks?
The law can be applied by federal or international courts, as far as various committees and other legal organizations are concerned, the situation here varies, so we cannot give a specific answer. In the event of litigation, the authenticity of a document published on WikiLeaks is determined by the court itself. Nevertheless, we hope that the criminal actions of those in power will be fairly denounced.
B Will access to Wikileaks be free for the entire world community, or is there a fear of blocking the site in some countries with repressive regimes?
The Chinese government is actively trying to block all traffic on Wikileaks.
However, we have several thousand cover domains at our disposal, among which are https://destiny.mooo.com or https://ljsf.org . You can always write to us and clarify the names of other domains. Please make sure the cryptographic evidence points to "website" (most browsers will issue this warning).
Alternatively, you can use tor or Psyphon to access the site, however, be careful as the default names of the sites you visit are also filtered by the Chinese government.
We have some ideas on how to allow access to our site without the Chinese government blocking, and we hope to implement them at a later stage of the project development.
G Does your site guarantee complete anonymity?
Depending on many factors, among which are location, position held, significance of documents, potential whistle-blowers, as a rule, put themselves at great risk. Organizations in power can use any method - legal sanctions, political pressure or physical violence - to prevent unwanted leakage of information. We cannot guarantee complete security, because, for example, the government probably owns the data of who exactly had access to this or that information, but the risk can be reduced. By mailing a CD using advanced encryption technology, a whistleblower can achieve complete anonymity and effectively reduce traceability. Wikileaks admires the courage of those who dare to release classified information in the name of justice, and tries to prevent harmful consequences for whistleblowers as much as possible.
Wikileaks falls under international jurisdiction because our servers are based in different countries. We do not maintain accounts, therefore, they cannot be intercepted. If Wikileaks itself sets out to trace the sources of its Internet publications, this will require an initial agreement between Wikileaks programmers, administrators, volunteers or the ubiquitous traffic analysts. Which in itself seems to be a rather difficult task and is part of our system for protecting the source of the publication.
Including we will offer instructions for publishing material through the mail, from Internet cafes or any other places equipped with wireless Internet. Thus, even if Wikileaks is monitored by, say, agents of the Chinese security service, the CIA, or both, our informants will be impossible to trace.
TO How does Wikileaks determine the authenticity of a document?
Wikileaks believes that the best way to determine the authenticity of a document is to present it to the general public, especially those circles whose interests are primarily affected. So, for example, suppose that a certain document, received by Wikileaks, points to human rights violations committed by regional representatives of the Chinese government. It is likely that local Chinese dissident circles, human rights organizations and experts (for example, from academia) will be able to give the most accurate assessment of the document, since the information presented will specifically affect their interests.
At the same time, the materials will be able to be analyzed by everyone, because our project provides the ability to comment on the original document in exactly the same way as it is on the wiki. Each subsequent reader of the materials will be able to view the original version and comments on it left by previous users.
To some extent, we are willing to sacrifice the guarantee of a document's authenticity for the sake of the absence of censorship. Imagine that by founding a site, you give an absolute guarantee for the authenticity of all posted materials. This decision leaves no choice but to withdraw all received documents, whose veracity is in doubt at the moment, but, quite possibly, can be proven in the future and be of great interest to the general public. We believe that our audience is competent enough to independently make the necessary assessment of the degree of reliability of the information.
Another point to point out is that journalists, governments, and even intelligence agents can often be misled despite their sincere desire to get to the bottom of the issue (for example, the recent search for weapons of mass destruction). When journalists encounter government intelligence agencies, where the falsification of information is built on a professional level, most reporters simply cannot detect their sophisticated methods and absolutely guarantee the authenticity of the document. The idea of Wikileaks is to provide original documents as they are, along with public scrutiny, and let the audience decide for themselves whether the materials are authentic or not.
Wikileaks will be an excellent resource for members of the media, as the site will include original documents, their analysis, and commentary. This is expected to make it easier for many professional journalists to gather information of public importance. Perhaps free access to primary sources will be of interest to scientists, in particular historians.
IN Are you saying that you already have 1.2 million documents at your disposal?!
- Where are they from?
- How did people know they could pass them on to you?
- How many of them really contradict the official versions?
For obvious reasons, Wikileaks cannot disclose its sources. We can only say that the documents were obtained through the journalistic and dissident communities through the technology we developed.
Some of the papers that we plan to publish in the future will no doubt be commonplace to one audience of readers, but quite likely to be of interest to another. Most people don't bother looking at business news in the daily press, and yet that doesn't make the news so insignificant that newspapers stop publishing it.
One of the challenges in the current work on Wikileaks is to decide how to ethically and logically structure the information received, while maintaining a relatively simple way to navigate the site. Should we classify documents according to the countries to which they relate? By original language? On this topic? We would like to create the most convenient classifier for users, since a competent structure is a kind of basis on which all subsequent site content will be built.
TO How do you determine the authenticity of a document?
Wikileaks does not evaluate the authenticity of documents. This is the prerogative of our readers.
TO How can Wikileaks provide a more thorough analysis of materials than the media does?
Since the original material will be made freely available online to a global audience, a huge number of people will be able to scrutinize, analyze and comment on the documents, which will undoubtedly prove to be very useful for many journalists, since it is quite difficult to be an expert in every field that they encounter in the course of their work. Already existing comments on the document will cause subsequent comments, which, in turn, may become a topic for a journalist or analyst interested in its development.
W Have you thought about the fact that Wikileaks can become a tool of propagandists?
Governments, corporations and other organizations constantly use the media for propaganda purposes. The same information is provided by media sources for a long time and often without any explanation.
In many liberal democracies, the situation is such that people get their news from the hands of politicians who have prepared (perhaps for propaganda purposes) their statements for the general public, and not from the media themselves. Media outlets that claim to be independent (although in fact most of them no longer even pretend to be independent) prefer to present information based on public statements by politicians rather than their own.
Wikileaks is completely independent and completely neutral, as it is only a conduit to the original material. At the same time, he is a source of publicity, since all comments and analyzes of documents are open to a wide audience.
Wikileaks intends to publish the original documents, not versions adapted for the media. Thus, the news value of the content of the document will be determined by the readers themselves, and not by politicians or journalists.
Wikileaks is able to provide information that is completely uncensored. The project may seem somewhat cumbersome compared to a regular online publication, but there is just as much propaganda in it as in any modern media.
B Has Tor been modified to be completely secure? If yes, how?
Wikileaks cannot discuss security details as we want to minimize the risk of our sources being identified. Suffice it to say that anonymity is the main priority of our project.
Modifications made by us are evaluated by experts. Perhaps at a later stage of site development, the expertise will be presented to the general public.
Due to the fact that your computer may be infected with a virus that illegally collects information, or your home is under covert surveillance, we do not recommend publishing documents that pose an increased risk to the source from home.
For the greatest security, we suggest using a combination of postal and electronic technologies.
W ikileaks - "front" for the CIA?
Wikileaks is not a front for the CIA, MI6, FSB or any other intelligence agency. Against. Behind our project is a global community of people whose main goal is to expose the machinations of organizations and, in particular, government services. We consider openness and transparency to be the key foundations for building any society, leading to the reduction of corruption and the prosperity of democracy. Intelligence agencies seek to hide information. We open it to the general public.
P Is it true that Wikileaks is blocked by the Chinese government?
Yes, since January 2007. We see this as a good sign. Our project had not yet entered into full force, but the authoritarian elements of the Chinese regime were already scared.
We have at our disposal several ways to bypass the blocking, some of them are quite simple. See Internet Censorship for more details.
TO When and how did the idea to create Wikileaks come about?
It all started with an online dialogue between activists from all over the world. The greatest concern among these people was the fact that the vast majority of human suffering - lack of food, lack of developed health and education systems, lack of basic necessities - is the result of a corrupt government. Such a government is typical for countries with anti-democratic and repressive regimes. The people at the origins of Wikileaks thought long and hard about how to solve the problem, and in particular, how modern information technology can affect the solution of the problem at the international level.
It is interesting to note that one of the online commentators accused us of being naive about the project's lofty goals. We take this as praise, not criticism. As a rule, you need to be a little naive in order to take a leap and do something that at first glance seems impossible. It was naivete that gave impetus to the invention of many innovations in the fields of science and technology.
Here is the example of Phil Zimmerman, the creator of the world's first free and widely available encryption software (PGP). In the early 1990s, when PGP first appeared, encryption technology was only available to intelligence agencies. Governments have classified cryptography as a "weapon" that poses a serious threat in the hands of the average user, which, in turn, provoked a violent public outcry against the release of "dangerous" technology into mass use.
A decade and a half later, now every Internet user uses encryption technologies virtually constantly, ranging from online orders, checking a bank account, to sending private love letters. Thus, what was thought to be the naive idea of a lone programmer from Boulder, Colorado became the basis of a global revolution in security technology.
It is likely that Wikileaks could be the basis for another global revolution, providing a way to release classified documents and holding organizations and governments to account. We believe our technology will raise the quality standard of every government around the world, just as it will give the average citizen, aware of the misbehavior of those in power, the determination to make public the information available to him or her, whistleblower, even if he or she has never done so before.
D Is it sufficient to simply type in a keyword such as "Ahmadinejad" to successfully search the site?
Wikipedia is an information communication system that works great and is known to millions of users. Wikileaks wants to create the most convenient site navigation for the average user, as a result of which we offer an identical and time-tested Wikipedia interface. We hope that our system will be quite easy to use for non-technical journalists.
P Is it supposed to have a block with readers' comments analyzing the content and authenticity of the document?
The reader will be able to clearly distinguish between comments (and comments on comments) and the documents themselves, which appeared on the project as a result of information leakage.
TO What guarantees do you give that the source of information leakage will not be traced?
Our system for receiving documents is quite secure, however, some whistleblowers leaked secret information can be tracked down in the usual way, whether by means, motives or opportunities.
If Wikileaks itself sets itself the goal of tracing the sources of its Wikileaks" internet submissions, this will require an initial agreement between Wikileaks programmers, administrators, volunteers or ubiquitous traffic analysts. Which in itself seems to be quite a difficult task and is only part of our system of protecting the source of the publication.
For potentially dangerous information requiring a high degree of protection, we offer the postal addresses of public figures in different countries who have expressed a desire to cooperate with us and receive encrypted CD / DVD from sources for further publication of documents on our servers. Any return address can be used, and we develop relatively easy-to-use encryption software. As for the coded documents themselves, neither the interceptors of the mail, nor the prominent figures themselves - the recipients will have access to them, thus we expect to protect both the sender and the intermediary.
FROM Are you going to use Tor as mentioned in "New Scientist"?
Tor has been criticized in the New Scientist pages. Little known, however, is the fact that the man quoted by the journal staff, Ben Laurie, is one of our advisory experts. We use a wide variety of technologies, including a modified version of Tor, as well as regular mail, to ensure maximum anonymity. Arguments against Tor, which are very unconvincing, were rejected by Wikileaks.
TO How many stages does a document go through between submission and publication?
If you provide a document via the Internet, all you have to do is upload the file, specifying the language of the document, the country, and the area to which it belongs.
Documents are sent to a common database, where the date and time of their upload to the site are encrypted, after which they are immediately distributed to servers.
However, just as with files uploaded to Wikipedia, a document may remain unknown to the general public unless other users interested in the information provided link it to the rest of the Wikileaks document database. In this way, the information that readers consider most important to the public will become widely known first, while other documents will continue to be available, albeit inconspicuous, until perhaps one day they become unexpectedly relevant.
IN what is the difference between public disclosure and private disclosure?
People with access to classified data, depending on the motives, may provide information privately, using it for their own interests, or may release documents to the general public. Public disclosure tends to lead to reforms and give the people a voice. Public disclosure does not hide the fact that this information was previously classified. Public disclosure promotes justice.
Private leaks are often used for corruption purposes. For example, in the last phase of the Cold War for a decade, the head of CIA counterintelligence, Adrich Ames, provided intelligence on double agents and KGB informants. As a result, from 10 to 20 people were killed or thrown into prison. If Ames had made his statements public, practically all double agents would have been saved, as they would have known that their identities had been established and taken the necessary protective measures. To top it off, it would serve as a step towards improving not only the ethics of the CIA (whose negative aspects, along with financial interests, were Ames' main motives), but also the security system and the general attitude towards employees.
H What explains your statement "anonymity at any cost"?
The Chinese Communist Party's network protection blocks 90% of the information flow of 90% of the population. This small effort (technically not difficult) is enough to stay in power. Based on this example, we want to protect the 90% of the population that is able to tell the truth, without "any" additional convoluted configurations, since this is enough to break many corrupt regimes. For the remaining 10% of the population, who are at high risk, we are ready to offer a more complex protection mechanism that requires software installation, connection from an Internet cafe, sending a CD, etc.
We do not see the need to force people to spend a huge amount of their time inventing ways to protect themselves at the level of the National Security System. It seems to us much more appropriate to give people the chance to independently determine the level of potential risk and the availability of opportunities based on certain circumstances.
P Why is Wikileaks so important?
More than a million people will die of malaria this year, most of them children. Britain was infected with malaria. In North America, the malaria epidemic has passed, but outbreaks of infections are repeated from year to year. In Africa, malaria claims the lives of 100 children every hour - in just 24 hours, 7 Boeings full of children's bodies will rise into the air. In Russia during the corrupt 1990s, malaria also made itself felt. What is the similarity of all these cases? We know how to avoid this disease. Science is universal. The difference is in good government. In other words, bad government is responsible for child mortality that is comparable to the losses caused by the events of 9/11 every day.
A good government is responsible for the suffering of its people.
Was the reduction in the use of carbon fiber in production a response to global warming? A good government can find and provide a decent response. Looking around the world, we see that almost all the joys of life depend in one way or another on good government, whether it be political, economic or academic freedoms, food, health, scientific research, the environment, stability, equality, peace or happiness - it all depends on good government. government and administration.
Political history and the present state of society are the best evidence that the original requirement for good government is open government.
An open government significantly improves the quality of life. Open government is responsible for injustices, not perpetrators of them. Under the protection of open government, criminal plans become public and are suppressed long before they are put into practice. Open government exposes and thereby destroys corruption.
Democracy is directly dependent on open government and a free press, since citizens are able to make informed decisions only when they are informed about the current state of affairs in the state. Historically, the most public forms of democracy have been those where the rights of promulgation and publication have been protected. Publicity, being essentially an act of unethical behavior for the majority, is by its very nature a force to strengthen democracy.
Wikileaks is the most effective way to achieve true democracy and open government, the quality of which depends all humanity.
Not accepting new submissions due to reorganization improvements site to make it both safer and more user friendly. Since we are currently not accepting applications during the reorganization, we have also temporarily closed our online support chat, how to make a submission. We look forward to resuming email drop and chat support in the near future.
1. Material we accept
Will accept restrictions or censorship material political, ethical, diplomatic or historical significance. We do not accept rumours, opinions, other types of first hand or material that is publicly available elsewhere. This is because our journalists write news stories based on the material and then provide a link to supporting documentation to prove our story is true. It's not news if it was publicly available elsewhere first, and we're a news organization. However, from time to time, editors may re-publish material that was previously published elsewhere if the information is in the public interest but did not have proper news analysis when first released.
2 Our anonymous email box drop
Wikileaks has an anonymous drop email box if you'd like to provide source material for our journalists. Wikileaks accepts a range of content, but we do not require it. If you are going to send in material this should be done as securely as possible. That is why we have created a new submission method based on a set of security technologies designed to provide anonymity. We have put a lot of technical and design work into "Added" because we take journalist-source relationships very seriously.
2.1 She's easy to imagine
Our add-ons are easy to use and provide military-grade encryption protection.
The filing of documents by our journalists is protected by law in the best democracies. For other countries, an email drop box is there to offer help and protection. Especially designed to keep your identity hidden from everyone, including Wikileaks. We never keep logs of who is using the files or where they are coming from.
There are several ways to submit the material, but the safest and most anonymous is through the following link.
(Currently closed for security refactoring and scope improvements)
To add another layer of protection, you can also use the TOR secure network (http://suw74isz7qqzpmgu.onion/) Tor is a secure anonymous distributed network that provides maximum security.
2.2 Help with any questions about shipping
You can also chat with us over the web and we will answer any questions and resolve any issues you may have when submitting (https://chat.wikileaks.org) (Currently closed with email drop box for reorganization) Our Chat is designed to be secure and anonymous. Visitors are protected by many layers of security. They cannot see each other. There is a mechanism to stop logging and the server bans potentially dangerous commands that could reveal another user's identity. Communication is secured using SSL encryption.
2.3 Protection for you
Wikileaks does not record any source of identifying information and there are a number of mechanisms to protect even the most sensitive submitted documents from sources. We do not store logs. We can't fulfill requests for information about sources because we simply don't have enough information to start with. Likewise, we cannot see your real identity in any anonymous sessions with us. Our only knowledge of you as a source is if you provide a codename for us. Many meticulous world experts in security technology have gone through the development of these systems to provide maximum protection for you. Wikileaks has never identified the source.
2.4 How it works
When Wikileaks receives the document, our accredited journalists evaluate the submission. If it meets the criteria, our journalists then write or produce a news piece based on the document. This usually includes a description of the documents, an analysis of why it is important, and an explanation of what it means to society at large. The news part can also highlight those parts of the document that are most newsworthy. Our news coverage is deliberately analytical regarding the greater importance of this document. Then the news link piece is the initial submission.
materials establish a journalist-source relationship. Internet Submissions pass through countries that have strong shield laws to provide additional protection to sources and journalists.
Some documents submitted contain confidential information. has developed a harm minimization procedure to clean up documents that could endanger the lives of innocent people. In other cases, WikiLeaks may delay the publication of some news stories and their documents until publication should not pose a danger to such people. However, in all cases, WikiLeaks will only edit the details that are absolutely necessary to achieve this goal. Everything else will be published for support news exactly as it appeared in the original document.
WikiLeaks has the main goal of publishing and bringing information to public life in order to promote public awareness. He will remain stubbornly true to this goal.
3. Directions on how to submit material
If you would like to send us a message of your own, as opposed to a document, please see Contact.
3.1 Resources for secure boot
Fast, easy and automatically encrypted with the best banking grade encryption. We keep no record of where you uploaded from, time zone, browser or even when your submission was made (if you choose a non-zero post delay, let's put file records time, release date + random times during the day).
If you are anonymously submitting a Microsoft Word file (.doc") that you have edited at some point, try sending a PDF document (.pdf") instead, as Word documents may include your name or the name of your computer, see the Word file editors for more information If you do not have the funds to produce a PDF file, the document will be converted by Wikileaks staff.
The document process will take place scheduled for understanding submissions.
NOTE: Currently Wikileaks does not accept new submissions due to reorganization improving the site to make it both safer and more user friendly. Since we are currently not accepting applications during the reorganization, we have also temporarily closed our online support chat, how to make a submission. We look forward to resuming email drop and chat support in the near future.
You can also use the secure TOR network (secure, anonymous, distributed network for maximum security)
3.2 Submissions through our discreet postal network
Materials in our mail network offer a strong form of anonymity and are good for loose truth.
First place your leak on a floppy disk, CD, DVD or USB flash drive. If you are using floppy disks, please create two as they are often unreliable. If you only have paper documents, we will scan them if they are of significant political or media interest (if you are unsure if this may be the case, please contact us first). This will delay the process however.
Post information to one of our trusted true resellers listed below. You can ship to any country on the list that you deem most appropriate given the nature of the material and your postal service. If the postal system in your country is unreliable, you can send multiple copies using DHL, FedEx or other postal courier service.
WikiLeaks coordinators true then download the submissions using their fast internet connection. If you are using floppy disks, make sure to send two for increased reliability.
You can use any return address you like, but make sure you write the correct destination twice as the postal workers will not be able to return the envelope to you.
Upon receipt of the mail submission, our resellers upload the data to WikiLeaks and then destroy the mail package.
3.3 High risk postal submissions
If the leak is extremely high risk, you may want to locate away from your local post office in a location that has no witnesses or CCTV.
Many CD and DVD writers will include the serial number of the DVD or CD writer on the CD/DVDs they write. If a message is intercepted this information could in theory be used to track down the manufacturer and with their collaboration, distributor, sales agent and so on. Consider whether there are financial records of you with CD/DVD sales by the writer if your adversary is capable of intercepting your emails to us and will do this type of expensive investigation. Cash if you can for the CD/DVD writer.
In addition, the CD and DVD media themselves include a non-unique production "batch number" for each group of around 10,000 CDs/DVDs made. Cash when buying a CD or DVD. Try to choose a store without video cameras in the registry.
Although we know of cases where none of the above has been successfully used to track individual, anti-piracy operations have used the information to track pirated clothing that sell tens or hundreds of thousands of counterfeit CDs or DVDs.
If you send it to us, a good option is to encrypt the USB/CD file and then contact us at a later date via live online chat with the encryptin phrase. Thus, if the message is intercepted, the data cannot be copied.
If you suspect that you are under physical surveillance, discreetly give a letter to a trusted friend or relative to leave messages. On some rare occasions, purposes of considerable political surveillance were observed by the mail, with the extent of their ordinary mail seized secretly. In this rare case, if you are not going to encrypt your data and if the police or intelligence agencies in your country are equipped to perform DNA and/or fingerprint analysis you may wish to take appropriate precautions.
3.4 Postal addresses of our trusted agents of truth
You can ship to any country in our network.
Choose the one that best suits your conditions. If you are a country residing in has a postal system that is unreliable or often censored, you may be able to send your material to multiple addresses at the same time. For private postal addresses, please contact us.
In Australia:
To: "WL" or any name, probably to avoid postal censorship in your country.
BOX 4080
Australia Post Office - University of Melbourne Branch
Victoria 3052
Australia
Today, only a lazy or indifferent person has not heard of Wikileaks. for more than 10 years now, it has been flooding the world with sensational investigations, secret materials that were taken or stolen from the secret services of advanced countries. The founder of the site, Julian Assange, has become a cult figure in journalism, in America he is called a spy and a traitor, in other countries - a man fighting for freedom of speech.
History
Wikileaks is not just an investigative journalism site, it is an information base of international scope. The idea of creating such a media fund open to all was the assertion of a different point of view, different from the official ideology. This idea quickly gained wild popularity around the world. Today, all revelations and scandals of an international scale are somehow connected with the Wikileaks website.
Many ordinary users are interested in how to translate WikiLeaks into Russian. There is no exact translation, but the general meaning is "leak". The founder of the site, Julian Assange, along with several trusted persons, publish information on their portal from anonymous sources. Any person who has some data of interest to the public can upload files without advertising his real name. On average, the team of Assange and his like-minded people has 5-6 confidants and about 1.5 thousand volunteers, the same dissidents and fighters for justice. Only administrators can post documents on the site. Unlike other wiki sites, ordinary users cannot participate in data editing.
Founding goals
All over the world, the site is treated differently. Someone argues that Wikileaks is a spy project whose goal is to disorganize thinking in society. For his bold thoughts, Assange was repeatedly imprisoned, arrested and charged - both in America and in Europe.
Each new publication on the site is like a bomb. Suffice it to recall the classified documents of the Pentagon confirming its connection with terrorist Islamist groups, or the scandalous video of 2010 about how American helicopters shot civilians. At the time, this video caused a lot of noise, although the authorities continued to argue about the legality of their actions.
The goals of the founder and his associates are to open the eyes of ordinary citizens to the situation in the world. To force people to think critically, to see the truth, not the news imposed by the government.
According to the founders, they saw it as their task to post a different point of view on things and events in parallel with the official news. In addition, anonymity allowed many people who would normally not be able to speak to express their opinions.
Biography of Assange
Julian Assange is from Australia. Here he was known as an Internet presenter, hacker and journalist. Even in his youth he had problems with the law, at the age of 20, together with other hackers, he hacked the website of a telecommunications program, was tried, but got off with a fine. He was also suspected of stealing money from the accounts of a large bank. In 2006, together with other like-minded people, Assange thinks about creating a unique project where declassified data could be published so that the sources could not be traced. This was WikiLeaks.
According to some reports, Assange has 4 children, but in some interviews he himself speaks of only one son from his official wife. After a divorce from his mother, Julian raised the boy himself and did not communicate with him for several years due to his forced confinement in the Ecuadorian embassy in Sweden.
The pursuit
From the very beginning, realizing how difficult the task is for them, the founders of the portal decided to register in Sweden, known for its loyal attitude towards journalists and their investigations.
Later, the presence in this country of the founder of WikiLeaks, Julian Assange, played a bad joke on him. In 2010, he was accused of raping a Swedish woman, whose name was not disclosed. For the entire public, the question of the legality of such an accusation was clear: the authorities did not find any other reason to catch on to the Internet rebel, and therefore such a non-standard solution was invented. According to another version, the conflict happened because of the jealousy of two Assange women who could not share the man.
Be that as it may, the British court took the matter seriously, and Assange was soon to be arrested. Then Julian asked for asylum in Ecuador and hid in the territory of their embassy. For more than 5 years, he cannot leave its walls, since any appearance on the territory of Sweden threatens with instant arrest.
Since 2012, Assange has been living and working in a small room with a bike path, shower and computer. Sometimes he goes to the balcony to give interviews, and also actively communicates with those he supports. The decision to arrest him for sexual harassment was overturned in the summer of 2017, but Assange still cannot leave the building. A few years ago, he violated the rules of being under house arrest, which in the UK, where the trial was to take place, is punished severely.
Edward Snowden
The fate of this man also became forever linked to WikiLeaks. Snowden has been accused in absentia of high treason and the theft of 1.7 million classified Pentagon files, including military security. In 2013, he managed to escape to Hong Kong, then to Moscow. Here the fugitive hacker received a residence permit and political asylum. According to some reports, he lives in the Moscow region, but where exactly is not disclosed.
It was Snowden who revealed to the world the fact that every inhabitant can be subject to round-the-clock surveillance. The intelligence services of all developed countries monitor human behavior on the Internet, at work and even at home.
Snowden deliberately took risks, realizing that a comfortable life, a house, a good salary and even freedom - everything could disappear. According to him, he simply could not live with the idea of the impunity of the US government.
Website
What is this site - "Wikileaks"? When people talk about him, they first of all remember his founders and another associate of Assange - Edward Snowden. This man has also been hiding from the American authorities in Russia for several years now. Although the accusations against him are much more serious - espionage and
Wikileaks on the Internet has become something of a pioneer. No one has ever spoken so boldly and openly about important events in the world. The very first publications about executions in Somalia, as well as the disclosure of classified materials about the war in Afghanistan and Iraq, quickly established the portal and its founders among the same fighters against the imposed ideology.
To somehow protect himself, Assange made alliances with other hackers and Internet pirates. In addition, together with Snowden, they posted more than 4,000 GB of classified information files, which, if they die, will be in the public domain. Perhaps that is why they are still alive, but are persecuted by all strong special services.
Publications
Each placement of classified documents on Wikileaks becomes a sensation. In 2009, the site posted hundreds of high profile posts about the events of 9/11, suggesting government involvement in the worst terrorist attack in the United States.
In 2010, the site posted correspondence between US diplomats and other countries. Readers of Wikileaks could easily learn about Saudi Arabia's request for help in taking over Iran, nicknames and real attitudes towards the world's leading leaders.
The information that the NSA has been wiretapping the top leaders of Europe, including Angela Merkel, has caused a great resonance in the world.
One of the latest publications is devoted to hacking electronic devices of ordinary users.
Loud scandals
Many people believe that Wikileaks is a website designed to discredit and stop the US government and its war machine. Most of the publications concern specifically America, the wars unleashed by it and the consequences of hostilities. One of the most high-profile revelations that hit the image of the United States was the publication of inhuman torture in the Guantanamo prison. Photos and videos of atrocities perpetrated by soldiers almost cost Barack Obama the presidency and hurt the country's image.
Another global information bomb was Snowden's investigation of global surveillance of all people. Now the topic of control of state corporations has not subsided, but is growing more and more. There is an assumption that all data from phones, computers, correspondence in social networks is available to special services. That without the sanctions and permissions of the FBI, the FSB and other special services can monitor the life of any person.
Fuel was added to the fire by hackers, famous personalities and ordinary people who are replicating with might and main the idea that surveillance can be carried out even from an idle phone or laptop through a turned off camera.
"Wikileaks" in Russian
At the very beginning of his work, Assange was very skeptical about Russia and in his publications stated that his goal was to reveal the facts of repressions of recent years in this country and China, as well as to expose rich and criminal businessmen.
But over time, the attitude of the founders of Wikileaks towards Russia and its role in world politics has changed in many ways. The media notice that the opinions of Assange and official Moscow often coincide, which is why the founder of the site has been repeatedly accused of having links with Russia and Putin personally. Moreover, Edward Snowden has been living and working in the Moscow region for several years now.
So, Assange, in an interview with the Russian-language RT channel, supported Putin's actions in Ukraine, and later in Syria.
Wikileaks in Russian has not been widely developed and is under development. For Russian-speaking users, the Russian Reporter magazine translates and publishes information on its portal. Some translations are available thanks to volunteers or just interested users.
Website fight
Attempts to close the project occurred repeatedly. Already after the first publications, the site was subjected to a severe Internet attack and was even inaccessible to visitors for several days, while WikiLeaks materials were not affected. After the arrest of Assange and publications about the diplomatic games of the US Government in some countries, the Wikileaks account was frozen, and accounts for accepting donations were closed. But the administrators got out of the situation and began to accept monetary "gifts" in bitcoins, an electronic currency.
Opinion in the world
Not everyone correctly understands and perceives the purpose of the Wikileaks website. Some call its founders heroes, fighters for justice, others consider such interference as treason and a desire to become famous. Fifth columnists say Wikileaks is America's giant information gun, part of Washington's elaborate campaign. And all the dumped information is only a small fraction of the real database.
WikiLeaks is always held up as an example of free investigative journalism, without the pressure of official authorities, intelligence agencies or official ideology. Despite the huge resonance in society, the site, in general, achieved its original goal. Millions of people were able to see reality in a different way, not in the way that the central media tell.
There are no other portals similar to WikiLeaks yet. There are individuals, hackers, volunteers, public figures who are trying to resist the system, but such a powerful "weapon" as the brainchild of Julian Assange no longer exists.
(pronounced /ˌwɪkɪˈliːks/ - "Wikilix", from English. wiki And leak- leak) - an international social networking project based on a modified wiki engine, which introduced the possibility of anonymous editing of articles using MediaWiki, Freenet, Tor and PGP technologies.
The aim of the project is "the untraceable publication and analysis of documents that have become available due to information leakage." For navigation, secure access is possible using the HTTPS protocol. Despite its name, Wikileaks is not a wiki: readers without permission cannot change its content. But anyone who has it and sends it to the "editor" can become an anonymous source of information.
IN Wikileaks missing Russian translations texts of diplomatic reports, but some dispatches are translated by enthusiasts [despatches from WikiLeaks in Russian]. Separate photomontages are dedicated to China and Russia: The Great Wall of China with the inscription “ Big brother is watching. We, too» (« The Big Brother is watching. So are we”), and Red Square with nesting dolls in human growth and the inscription “ Covering lies. Revealing the truth» (« Nesting lies. Hatch truth»).
Large publications on the WikiLeaks site are preceded by edited excerpts and advertisements in key media. For example, CFR member David Sanger is responsible for publishing Sulzberger's New York Times leaks.
Publications
Documents about the war in Afghanistan
On July 26, 2010, the Administration of the United States of America stated that the "irresponsible" release of thousands of files with classified military information to the media could pose a threat to the security of the country. This is about Documents posted on the Wikileaks website and reprinted by the world's leading publications - the British Guardian, the American New York Times and the German magazine Spiegel. In particular, they contain a previously unreported information about civilian deaths in Afghanistan.
Moreover, it is clear from the documents that NATO suspects Iran And Pakistan that the intelligence services of both countries covertly support Afghan Taliban. More than 90,000 reports and intelligence reports published there on the progress of conflict in Afghanistan were prepared during the last six years of the military operation, during which more than three hundred British and more than a thousand American soldiers died.
This leak of classified information was perhaps the largest in the history of the United States.
In general, the following picture emerges from the documents that journalists have access to (according to BBC Russian journalists): coalition forces are losing the war in Afghanistan, the military is killing hundreds of civilians without making it public, the number of attacks by the Taliban is increasing, and NATO commanders fear that Pakistan and Iran are maintaining instability in the region.
In addition, according to these documents, the Taliban gained access to heat-seeking missiles, which can be transported from place to place and used to attack aircraft.
According to the BBC correspondent in Kabul, David Loyn, the White House is "furious" about the leak, which could seriously damage the reputation of the American administration.
“These documents show that the assistance provided did not work, the political motives [of the campaign] were initially naive, and in addition, they show how difficult the enemy is "Taliban". Most Americans still didn’t understand this,” says Loyn.
Barack Obama administration severely criticized the owners of the site for the decision to publish secret documents. Those, in turn, do not report who provided these materials at their disposal.
Iraq War Documents
October 23, 2010 the site published about 400 thousand papers on the war in Iraq. As stated on the website, 391 thousand 832 military reports, called "Iraq Dossier", cover the period from January 1, 2004 to December 31, 2009. The United States blames US Army intelligence officer Bradley Manning for the leak.
United States diplomatic correspondence
Another leak occurred at the end of November 2010, when more than 250 thousand letters from US diplomats. Among other data, it became known that the leaders Saudi Arabia made a request to USA about the airstrike Iran, also became known numerous informal characteristics of world leaders.
List of sites vital to the United States
American security facilities in Russia
Nadym gas transmission hub
Druzhba oil pipeline
Novorossiysk seaport
Vladivostok sea port
California court ruling in 2008
The project is known for the fact that on February 18, 2008, a California (USA) court ruling denied access to the original address wikileaks.org, and the Dynadot registrar is ordered to exclude all DNS records for this domain.
The same court, presided over by Judge Jeffrey White, based on the First Amendment and jurisdictional space, allowed Wikileaks to be online again, and also rejected the Julius Bayer bank's request to ban Wikileaks from publishing material.
Assange's visit to Sweden and a warrant for his arrest
In August 2010, as part of his visit to Sweden, Julian Assange signed an agreement with the local Pirate Party to host part of the Wikileaks servers on its sites, which will provide the project with political support on the world stage.
In Sweden Two women, Anna Ardin (30, organizer of Assange's visit to Sweden, was deported from Cuba for subversive activities) and Sophia Vilen (26, photographer) jointly Assange accused of rape. The private prosecution received public coverage in the Expressen newspaper the day after the application was filed with the prosecutor's office. Julian Assange is on the international wanted list.
A similar attack was launched against the owner of the German domain WikiLeaks.de, Theodor Reppe. His home was ransacked on the pretext of possessing pornography. Investigators demanded the issuance of WikiLeaks passwords.
Australian reaction
The Australian Media and Communications Commission has ordered Australian ISPs to block access to certain Wikileaks pages. The situation arose as a result of the publication on Wikileaks of lists of sites blocked by Danish Internet providers.
Wikileaks in the CIS
The direction of Wikileaks for Russian-speaking countries is under development. Since July 2010, the site has published information about the sale of the domain name wikileaks.ru (information from the site of the FSB, GRU, SVR).
In Russia, Wikileaks documents are analyzed and published by the magazine under an agreement with WikiLeaks
Wikileaks controversy
As it became known from the publications of the Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter, Wikileaks disagreed on how the site was managed. Daniel Domscheit-Berg, Herbert Snorraso and other site employees decided to create an alternative project - which would work on new principles. To implement their plans, on September 17, 2010, domain names were purchased openleaks.org And openleaks.net.
Wikileaks countermeasures
After the publication of confidential American documents, on November 28, 2010, the WikiLeaks website was subjected to hacker attack. The site has been unavailable to users for some time. The owners of the site named the cause of the problems DDoS attack.
Immediately after the release of the cables that the government exchanged with US embassies in other countries, it stopped hosting the WikiLeaks site. December 4 payment system PayPal froze WikiLeaks account Subsequently, transfers through VISA and MasterCard were blocked. Hacker group "Anonymous" declared war on the websites of companies that they believe are acting to the detriment of the Wikileaks website.
Wikileaks address change
In connection with the closure of the hosting Wikileaks.ORG the Wikileaks project is forced to move from place to place. On December 3, 2010, the WikiLeaks.org site was closed and moved to http://wikileaks.ch/, and the Google search engine, upon request "wikileaks", gives out one of its IP addresses, 213.251.145.96 . WikiLeaks is currently mirrored on 2,174 sites.
Russian WikiLeaks
The non-commercial project WikiLeaks (wiki and leak - "leak") was officially opened in 2007. WikiLeaks considers its goal to bring important news and information to the public. Information is provided by anonymous sources using innovative means to ensure the safety of the whistleblower.
WikiLeaks is an Australian Julian Assange.
The Swedish authorities opened an investigation into the statement of two women who told the police that they suffered from the sexual claims of Assange - in August of the same year, he was in the country to attend a conference and give lectures. In December 2010, Assange was detained in London at the request of Swedish law enforcement officers. Since 2012, he has been taking refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy in London, having applied to the Ecuadorian authorities for political asylum due to fears of his extradition by the Swedish authorities to the United States.
WikiLeaks has published official documents of US officials, military and diplomats several times. At first, these were papers relating to US operations in Afghanistan. in July, US Army intelligence officer Private Bradley Manning was charged. Manning was arrested in Iraq where he served. He admitted that he gave the WikiLeaks website for publication a video recording of air strikes that killed civilians, hundreds of thousands of reports on incidents on the fronts of the war in Afghanistan and Iraq, a dossier on Guantanamo Bay prisoners and about 250,000 US State Department diplomatic cables. A US military court in late August sentenced him to 35 years in prison. Manning petitioned US President Barack Obama for clemency. In April 2014, U.S. Army Major General Geoffrey Buchanan denied a pardon to Bradley Manning.
WikiLeaks has published about 400,000 documents related to the US military operation in Iraq. The published documents, dubbed the "Iraq Dossier", cover the period from January 1, 2004 to December 31, 2009.
A loud scandal around WikiLeaks erupted after the publication of the documents of the US Foreign Service on the website. The site published copies of telegrams that came to the State Department from American embassies around the world. The dispatches contained frank, often unflattering comments about foreign leaders and assessments of their policies.
WikiLeaks has published 1.7 million US foreign service and intelligence documents from 1973-1976. According to Julian Assange, the documents shed light on "a whole spectrum" of US actions that have influenced world politics and history. Many of the documents were addressed to or personally written by Henry Kissinger, who served as US Secretary of State from 1973 to 1977. WikiLeaks named this database the US Public Library of Diplomacy (PlusD). Most of the documents are marked as "not for distribution" (NODIS, no distribution). Some of the documents also initially had the status of secret.
A document was published on the WikiLeaks website, according to which employees of the US National Security Agency (NSA) listened to almost all international and domestic telephone conversations in Afghanistan, and also recorded them. Earlier, the American editions of The Intercept and Washington Post published information about the involvement of the NSA in the collection of data on almost all domestic and international telephone conversations of residents of two countries, one of which is the Bahamas, the name of the second state was not made public, instead, in the publication it was classified as " State X.
The document published on the organization's website states that "State X" is Afghanistan.
The WikiLeaks website published a secret report by US Deputy Secretary of State William Burns, dated February 1, 2008. The document discussed the possible eastward expansion of NATO and the admission of Ukraine and Georgia to the organization, as well as the risks of such a policy. The report said experts said Russia was particularly concerned that Ukraine's deep division over NATO membership, opposed by the majority of the Russian-speaking population, could lead to the country's division, violence and, in the worst case scenario, civil war. In addition, it was noted that such a policy could lead to a serious complication of relations between Russia and Ukraine.
The WikiLeaks website reported that the President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko, when he was a People's Deputy in the spring of 2006, informed US Ambassador John Herbst in detail about the course of consultations on forming a coalition government. In a telegram from the US Embassy in Kyiv to the State Department dated April 28, 2006, published by WikiLeaks, Poroshenko was named as an insider of the Our Ukraine party, but American diplomats questioned the veracity of the information provided by him. In particular, they suspected Poroshenko of plotting to arrest Oleksandr Turchynov, an associate of Yulia Tymoshenko, who later became Poroshenko's predecessor as acting. President of Ukraine
Former Prime Minister of Ukraine Yulia Tymoshenko, being the head of the company Unified Energy Systems of Ukraine (UESU), may have collaborated with crime boss Semyon Mogilevich.
WikiLeaks has published a complete archive of documents from Sony Pictures Entertainment (SPE). Correspondence of the head of Sony Pictures Entertainment Michael Linton with US Deputy Secretary of State Richard Stengel, published by WikiLeaks, testifies to the attempts of the American foreign policy department against Russia by representatives of the largest corporations in the field of the film industry and entertainment.
WikiLeaks has released 17 classified documents that shed light on closed-door negotiations within the Trans-Pacific Partnership, which involves the United States, the European Union and 23 member states of the World Trade Organization. According to WikiLeaks, one of the goals of the Trans-Pacific Cooperation is to counteract the growing influence on the world economy of the BRICS countries - Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa.
The WikiLeaks portal has posted more than 70,000 documents from the Saudi Arabian Foreign Ministry, including classified ones. Among the documents is a classified correspondence between the country's Foreign Ministry and the kingdom's embassies around the world. The archive also contains reports from various state institutions in Saudi Arabia, including the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the intelligence service.
That Saudi Arabia advised the neighboring Kingdom of Bahrain to limit the admission of Shiites to its projects. The text of the 2011 message, quoted by the Iranian Al-Alam TV channel, points to the need for "joint strategic work in the field of security in relation to people who are appointed to high posts in Bahrain", as well as "minimizing any influence of Shiites on projects, representing the Kingdom of Bahrain". In addition, as follows from another document, Saudi Arabia collected information about the activities of the Shiites in Bahrain and the means they use to infiltrate power.
A document was published on the WikiLeaks portal, according to which the US National Security Agency (NSA) conducted intelligence activities against the last three presidents of France. According to data obtained by WikiLeaks, US intelligence agencies tapped the telephone conversations of Jacques Chirac, Nicolas Sarkozy and Francois Hollande. Data obtained by the French media indicates that surveillance of the French presidents was carried out from at least 2006 to May 2012. In addition, the conversations of a number of ministers, high-ranking officials and diplomats, including the French ambassador to the United States, were also tapped.
The material was prepared on the basis of information from RIA Novosti and open sources
