| WikiLeaks - is an International social networking project, based on the redesigned wiki-engine, in which the facility was provided for carrying out anonymous editing of articles using the technologies Media- wiki, Freenet, Tor & PGP. The aim of the project is stated as being a "non-traceable publication and an analysis of documents, that have become available due to information leakage". Secure access using HTTPS protocol is possible for navigation purpose.
Despite its name, Wikileaks is not a wiki-site - readers, who do not have appropriate permissions, can not change its content.
Decision from the court of the State of California in 2008:
The project is known for denying the access to the original address wikileaks.org through the court ruling of the State of California (USA) dated February 18, 2008. The recorder Dynadot was ordered to delete all the DNS-records on above-mentioned domain.
The same court, presided over by Judge Jeffrey White, relying on the First Amendment and space of jurisdiction, once again allowed Wikileaks to be online and also rejected the demand of Bank Julius Baer to ban Wikileaks for publication of its material.
The leak of classified documents about Afghanistan:
On July 26, 2010, the US Administration stated that the "irresponsible" leak of thousands of files with sensitive military information to the media could pose a threat to national security. The issue is about documents, posted on the website Wikileaks and republished by the world's leading publications - the British Guardian, U.S. New York Times and the German magazine Spiegel. They in particular, contain information about the death of Afghan civilians, which was not disclosed earlier.
Apart from this, it becomes evident from documents that NATO suspects the Iran and Pakistan intelligence agencies from both countries are covertly supporting the Afghan Taliban. More than 90 000 published reports and messages of intelligence services during the conflict in Afghanistan have been prepared over the last six years of military operations, during which more than three hundred British and over one thousand U.S. military personnel were killed.
This leak of classified information became, probably, the biggest in the history of USA.
In general, the documents, to which reporters gained access, give the following picture: coalition forces lose the war in Afghanistan, armed forces kill hundreds of civilians and such information will not be made public, the number of attacks by the Taliban is increasing and NATO fears that Pakistan and Iran are supporting the instability in the region.
In addition, according to these documents, the Taliban have gained access to missiles with infrared-homing provisions that can be transported from one place to another and can be used for attacking aircraft.
According to the BBC correspondent in Kabul, David Loyn, the White House is "furious" about the leak, which can render serious damage to the reputation of the American administration.
The Barrack Obama administration has criticized the owners of the site for publishing secret documents. The owners of site, in turn, are not disclosing the names of who provided them with these materials.
The leak of classified documents about the war in Iraq:
On October 23, 2010, the site published around 400 000 documents pertaining to Iraq War. Information on the site says that 391,832 military reports, with the name "Iraq file", cover the period from January 1, 2004 to December 31, 2009.
The leak of confidential data about the correspondence of American diplomats:
The next leak occurred at the end of November 2010 when more than 250,000 letters of US diplomats appeared on the site. Amongst the miscellaneous data, it became known that the leaders of Saudi Arabia have requested the USA to conduct air attacks on Iran and also know about numerous informal characteristics of world leaders.
Australia's reaction:
The Australian Commission on Media and Communications ordered the Australian Internet providers to block the access to certain pages of Wikileaks. The situation occurred in consequence to the publication of a list of sites, blocked by the Danish Internet service providers, on Wikileaks.
Hackers against Wikileaks:
Following the publication of confidential U.S. documents, WikiLeaks was hacked on November 28, 2010. For some time, the website was unavailable for users. The website maintenance personnel called the source of the problem as a DDoS failure due to hacker attacks.
The website Wikileaks, which published more than 250,000 diplomatic documents, containing documents of an explicit nature relating to Heads of State, gave major headaches to Washington. These revelations could alter the relationship between countries.
Telegrams, which were earlier kept secretly, were exchanged by U.S. diplomats and originate from the period from 1966 to 2010. Most documents belong to the last decade and give a frank picture of behavior of the world super-power after September 11 terrorist attacks and relations with other countries.
The White House sharply condemned the leak of the documents, arguing that it would pose a threat to diplomats, spies and people around the world, who turn to the USA with a request to establish democracy. |
WikiLeaks, a whistle-blowing website known for leaking state secrets, released on Sunday its latest batch of controversial documents. It has posted the first of what it says will be more than 250,000 secret U.S. diplomatic cables. Some leaked classified info is shocking and very damaging to the world leaders that held conversations with the US ambassadors. Here are some "leaks" that call for political scandals:
