Wikileaks — Anonymous Whistle-Blowing

too_old_to_be_irate writes to tell us about a site that word got out on before they were ready. Wikileaks aims to be an anonymous and uncensorable repository of leaked documents, posted for commentary by interested parties. It's expected to go live in a month or two. From the site: "Wikileaks is developing an uncensorable version of Wikipedia for untraceable mass document leaking and analysis. Our primary interests are oppressive regimes in Asia, the former Soviet bloc, Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East, but we also expect to be of assistance to those in the west who wish to reveal unethical behavior in their own governments and corporations. We aim for maximum political impact; this means our interface is identical to Wikipedia and usable by non-technical people. We have received over 1.1 million documents so far from dissident communities and anonymous sources."

alternate names....

[User 956]

Wikileaks aims to be an anonymous and uncensorable repository of leaked documents, posted for commentary by interested parties.

They were going to name it LawyerMagnet.com, but that was already taken by a file-sharing service.

Fab!

[Rob T Firefly]

I can't think of a single possible way this could be misused in any manner whatsoever by anyone for any reason in any whatsoever.

OT III

[Anonymous Coward]

Can we expect to see the full story of Xenu? :P I mean, Soviet secret police are one thing, but you don't want to mess with Scientologists...

Wikileaks...

[TheSHAD0W]

On hearing the name of the service, the one thing that came to mind was - "Pssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss..."

Re:One word was missing - verifiable

[eln]

provide a fertile breeding ground for conspiracy theories

That's exactly what they want you to think.

Irony

[OfficialReverendStev]

I love the irony... the existence of a site about leaks was... yes... leaked. Fantastic.

Why only US 'unfriendlyish' governments?

[iwein]

Is this another attempt of the Saudi-Bush alliance to keep us under control? But wait, I have here a msn history of GeorgeW with OsamaB. Freshly leaked!

GeorgeW: I like what I see, wanna get busy ;'#P#?
OsamaB: No thanks, I'm watching a movie...
GeorgeW: Not that boring Fahrenheit again PHULEASE :p
OsamaB: :o LOL
GeorgeW: (K)
OsamaB: (L)

Re:One word was missing - verifiable

[CommunistHamster]

Let us hope that this never happens to the internet.

In Russia...

[mwpierce]

Wikileak is sent documents about you!

Re:Baloney

[Anonymous Coward]

Dude, you couldn't have picked two worse examples. There is a huge amount of documentable and verifiable evidence on both the 9/11 conspiracy and moon landing hoax theories. In fact, the amount of contrary evidence exceeds "real" evidence for both.

Could be fun

[RichPowers]

Someone with a pirated copy of Photoshop and a few graphics design courses can produce documents that will fool plenty of people. Until the site gets sued to oblivion, we should all enjoy the damaging "documents" that spill onto the Internet.

I look forward to that CIA memo reminding Area 51 employees to keep the cryo freezers nice and cool so Marvin and friends don't decompose. We might also get some behind-the-scenes photos of Soundstange 56 where Stanley Kubrick filmed the moon landings (rumor has it that Neil showed up to the first shooting totally wasted). We might also see a few invoices addressed to the Bahamas for one "Elvis P."

Re:One word was missing - verifiable

[s20451]

I do wonder how they'll sort the facts from the fud.

What part of "wiki" do you not understand? How else would today's children know that the elephant population is skyrocketing and President Taft was eaten by wolves?

If there's anything that Web 2.0 has taught us, it's that you can't believe what you read in newspapers, but everything posted anonymously to the internet is true.

Re:abuse of moderation

[jacksonj04]

The truth is written by the winners. As simple as. If you're on the side which doesn't get heard, what you know to be true suddenly doesn't matter any more.

After all, the War against Terror was a huge victory, after minor injuries and a few deaths before the Mighty and Valiant Coalition fully grasped the lowly depths the Evil Terrorists would sink to. Diplomacy was granted to the people of Iraq following years of oppression by the cruel tyrant Saddam Hussein. This Vicious Monster, responsible for the cowardly murder of possibly millions of innocent people, was hanged following a Fair and Just trial in the name of Freedom led entirely by The Iraqi People. The execution was carried out in full view of the international community and was conducted in full accordance with every international law, despite Saddam's Evil Followers releasing doctored 'film footage' of the execution to turn the people of the Great and Free United States of America against the Noble Life President George W Bush...

I really wish I couldn't see it coming.