Want to “partner” with WikiLeaks? CNN reports that WikiLeaks posted an application form for possible new media partners on its website. In it, WikiLeaks stated:
“WikiLeaks is looking for the most reliable and trustworthy organisations to collaborate with on our upcoming releases. If you would like to register your interest please fill out the form below. Should an appropriate collaboration opportunity present itself we will be in touch. http://wikileaks.ch/Medias.html?nocache.”
WikiLeaks will also begin hosting “roundtable” events starting Feb. 1, according to CNN and the WikiLeaks website.
The roundtables will be “regular direct meetings with the public and press” in which questions are e-mailed or tweeted to WikiLeaks.
OpenLeaks Finally Launches After Delay…Sort Of
Daniel Domscheit-Berg “launched a new site to aid whistleblowers on the sidelines of the Davos meeting of the global business elite,” Reuters reported.
The site was supposed to be launched in December, but there was only a “Coming Soon!” page until recently. According to ReadWriteWeb, the site is now live. (See here.)
However, “Cryptome released a leaked PDF of the OpenLeaks content. OpenLeaks announced that not all the areas of content and functionality in that document are good to go yet.”
The Cryptome version is a leak, though, Information Week reported. PCMag noted that OpenLeaks “currently has about a dozen staffers working on the project, and ‘a number’ of those people were previously associated with WikiLeaks.”
Likewise, Reuters noted that “all across Europe, from Brussels to the Balkans, new generation of WikiLeaks-style websites is sprouting.” Besides Domscheit-Berg’s OpenLeaks, Reuters noted “groups of activists in Denmark and Germany” are working to create “environmentally-oriented websites under the rubric ‘GreenLeaks.'” And, there’s EnviroLeaks.org, which currently is active.
Manning’s Supervisor Warned : Don’t Send Him to Iraq
The direct supervisor for Bradley Manning, the man “accused of downloading hundreds of thousands of sensitive reports and diplomatic cables that ended up on the WikiLeaks website,” reportedly advised the Army not to send Manning to Iraq, McClatchy newspapers reported.
“Superior officers decided to ignore the advice because the unit was short of intelligence analysts and needed Manning’s skills,” two unnamed “military officials familiar with the investigation” reportedly told McClatchy.
As CNN reported, “Manning’s lawyer filed a complaint about conditions of the 23-year-old’s confinement at a Virginia military lockup, and the military defended itself.”
WikiLeaks Defender Hacktivists Arrested
Five UK males between the ages of 15 and 26 were arrested ” in connection with a spate of online attacks last month in support of the whistleblowers’ site WikiLeaks,” according to The Guardian.
The hacktivists are allegedly part of “Anonymous,” a hacking group that attacked websites that had severed ties with WikiLeaks last year.
“They are part of an ongoing [Metropolitan police] investigation into Anonymous which began last year following criminal allegations of DDoS attacks by the group against several companies,” Scotland Yard is quoted as saying.
“This investigation is being carried out in conjunction with international law enforcement agencies in Europe and the US,” The Guardian reported.
Assange Likes Making Banks Squirm
Reuters reports that CBS published a teaser video showing a controversial statement by WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to advertise a Sunday broadcast of “a full segment.” Assange was asked by CBS if he enjoys making banks anxious to think about possibly being the target of a large leak.
Assange answered in the clip from the forthcoming CBS television “60 Minutes” interview: “I think it’s great. We have all these banks squirming, thinking maybe it’s them,” Assange told the in an interview.
Meanwhile, blogger “SamHenry” wondered if WikiLeaks is “a purveyor of news or chaos?” in a Jan. 18 blog post.
Commenting on Assange’s “insurance files” (devastating files Assange claims he holds back to ensure his and his project’s safety)– “SamHenry” mentions that Assange “is playing on our emotions and he needs to counter that with facts.”
WikiLeaks Not Causing U.S.A. Govt. Problems?
Reuters reported that “Internal U.S. government reviews have determined that a mass leak of diplomatic cables caused only limited damage to U.S. interests abroad, despite the Obama administration’s public statements to the contrary.”
However, the sources for this information are anonymous. As Reuters explained, “State Department officials have privately told Congress they expect overall damage to U.S. foreign policy to be containable, said the official, one of two congressional aides familiar with the briefings who spoke to Reuters on condition of anonymity.”
Tulane Prof: WikiLeaks is “Random Journalistic Movement”
Tulane University’s Ryan Rivet reported comments from Paul Greenberg, Tulane School of Continuing Studies’ media ethics professor and journalism program director, on WikiLeaks.
Greenberg commented:
“In traditional journalistic thought, this never should have been published because the New York Times didn’t have the proper sources, they couldn’t confirm what they had. As a journalist I believe the information should be out there; as an ethicist, I worry about the fact we don’t know if the material is accurate.”
Further, Greenberg adds that WikiLeaks “could serve a purpose” if its leader wasn’t “someone like Assange.”
“We’re living in a random journalistic moment,” Greenberg is quoted as saying. “We used to have rules and regulations that worked for the benefit of the reader or the viewer. Now we’re approaching this anything-goes, anything-gets-published moment, which is to the distinct disadvantage of the consumer.”
WikiLeaks From a Technology Expert’s Perspective
Jason Pontin, Technology Review’s editor-in-chief, sought to “define WikiLeaks, separate its technology from its mission” in a lengthy post about Wikileaks, titled “Secrets and Transparency: What is Wikileaks, and what is its future?” on Jan. 26.
Pontin argued that you can’t define WikiLeaks without including Assange, especially given a chat transcript in which Assange reportedly stated:
“I am the heart and soul of this organization, its founder, philosopher, spokesperson, original coder, organizer, financier and all the rest.”
Pontin went on to suggest that WikiLeaks is more interested in the result of leaks as opposed to the actual leaks themselves.
“Although Wikileaks is often described as a ‘whistle-blower site,’ Assange cares less about the content of leaks than what leaking does to conspiracies,” Pontin stated. But, Pontin also claimed that WikiLeaks “has become more like a media organization as it has evolved,” while it is still “not a media organization.”
See Pontin’s full post here.