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January 16, 2007
Wikileaks.org leak: Site for the Whistleblower?
A new project, wikileaks.org is out of the bag, ahead of schedule. News leaked of the new site's proposal to unite international cybernerd expertise with political dissidence to create a place where persons can safely post leaked government documents with minimal fear of direct detection. The technical feasability and security value I know not, but here is where they provide basic info, with link to a sample of a leaked document allegedly from the Somali Islamic Courts movement. For MENA-watchers, or more probably US-MENA watchers, it may be a site to keenly watch.
I should be thanked for avoiding any "leak" puns.
Posted by Matthew Hogan at January 16, 2007 05:55 AM
Filed Under: Foreign Policy & MENA
, MENA Region General
, Media
, Political Development
, Press Freedom
, Society & Culture
, US Foreign Policy
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Comments
You are duly thanked.
I have little respect for this wiki fad, so shall ignore this.
Posted by: The Lounsbury at January 16, 2007 07:52 AM
Dear Matthew,
I've looked at the site & would counsel to be careful. While it is understandable that the organizers don't want to make their identities public, it also means that the visitors don't know just who exactly is behind it.
What if it's some government agency that wants to CATCH whistleblowers?
So far, it's not clear how the poster will be able to remain untraceable by the WikiLeaks staff.
So, let's wait and see ...
--MSK
Posted by: MSK at January 16, 2007 07:57 AM
The sample doc. must have taken a number of researchers a fair bit of time to produce. When things start to come in as live feeds, will there be sufficient people to deal with the analysis?
Posted by: john at January 16, 2007 01:06 PM
I will be interested to see how this leak site works - its certainly an interesting idea.
Posted by: Iwasawa at January 16, 2007 04:33 PM
They will be using software called The Onion Router (TOR), see tor.eff.org, and some other tools, in order to hide the poster's identity from even the site owner. A lot of thought has gone into the site and it has some of the best crypto and security minds around involved in it. They already have over one million documents (1+ terabyte of data) which they have sourced from a variety of places including various dissident groups and elsewhere. This is definitely a site to keep a close eye on.
Posted by: Amir at January 16, 2007 07:50 PM
Sounds fantastic - I foresee a bit demand for interpreters and translators.
Posted by: secretdubai ![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.aqoul.com/nav-commenters.gif)
at January 17, 2007 10:54 AM
Dear Amir,
SP's comment made me think "Hmmm ... I am looking for a good job anyway ..." So, if you happen to be in contact with them ... do let me know if they're hiring.
--MSK
msk.email@gmail.com
Posted by: MSK at January 17, 2007 11:28 AM
What Steve Aftergood at FAS has to say:
http://www.fas.org/blog/secrecy/2007/01/wikileaks_and_untraceable_docu.html
Posted by: mas at January 19, 2007 05:04 AM
John Young from cryptome.org is saying the whole thing is a scam. They had originally convinced him to put his name on the registrar information, but apparently they were looking for sponsors to give them ~$5 million dollars within the first few months of launching the site (!).
(And they claim to have 1.2 million documents, and the site is not even up yet? ... okay, I believe that ...)
He severed the relationship and posted messages from the wikileaks mailing list here and here.
Posted by: Yuri Guri at January 19, 2007 10:35 AM
