What is Wikileaks ?
Wikileaks is a whistleblower website set up in October 2004 that publishes sensitive and often secret documentation obtained from unknown sources.
Who is Julian Assange?
Although Wikileaks.org creators have not been formally identified, the site itself explains that it was founded by Chinese dissidents. Australian born Julian Assange is the editor in chief and main spokesperson for Wikileaks and generally seen by the public as the founder of the site. Julian Assange was Readers' Choice for TIME magazine’s Person of the Year earlier in the year, but recent developments have seen him arrested and he is currently being charged for sex violations in Sweden.
What did Wikileaks do?
So far in 2010 Wikileaks has revealed a series of 3 “mega-leaks.” In July classified documents related to the Afghan war were released, in October revelations about the Iraq war were leaked and following the release of US diplomatic affairs in November the website has been taken out of cyberspace!
Other huge revelations included that the Chinese government had hacked into Google, and that Putin and Berlusconi have ‘intimate ties’. Israel had not been acting out of malice by stopping ambulances crossing enemy lines in the 2006 Lebanon War but had acted to stop Iran smuggling in weapons, and that North Korea and Iran had been sharing weapons technologies for years. More…
What are the 2 Sides of the Argument?
One side argues that transparency informs the public as to the real issues to be concerned about, guarding them from corruption and political motives whilst the other side argues that the troops, missions and international security are endangered making diplomacy and discretion very difficult.
How does Amazon fit in?
Wikileaks was hosted by Amazon’s EC2 cloud computers. Amazon stopped hosting Wikileaks recently insisting that Wikileaks had broken their terms of service as they did not own or control all the rights to the content they displayed. They deny succumbing to political pressure to take the website offline. Wikileaks then switched to internet provider EveryDNS. Amazon were then subject to revenge hack attacks by pro-Wikileaks supporters.
Is Wikileaks online now?
Wikileaks was forced offline days after Amazon stopped hosting them on December 3rd when the internet hosting provider EveryDNS retracted use of its services to protect its customers from attacks. Wikileaks had been subject to “distributed denial of service” attacks (DDoS) by hackers who favor the stance of the US government. After retracting service EveryDNS was attacked by pro-Wikileaks revenge hackers known as ‘Anonymous’ also using DDoS.
How did Julian Assange respond to Wikileaks going offline?
Julian Assange declared that the mission of Wikileaks would continue, but that the attacks on Wikileaks should “be setting off alarm bells about the rule of law in the United States.”
What brought Facebook into the story?
Facebook and Wikileaks have clashed since 2008. A random Facebook user, a student at Stanford, was an officer for a Wikileaks Facebook page. Having no real connection to Wikileaks,the student was unhappy tofind himself in court as the “Stanford representative” of Wikileaks when they were being sued by Swiss bank Julius Baer. He was mistakenly thought to be an employee of Wikileaks, with real employees being hard to find. Since then Wikileaks has been unhappy with Facebook for deleting a user-run 30,000 member fan club. Facebook argues that the official Facebook page of Wikileaks is still running so there should be no problem.
How are Visa, MasterCard and PayPal involved?
As a non-profit organization Wikileaks relies on donations from the public, often via Visa, MasterCard and PayPal. Following controversy surrounding Wikileaks, PayPal decided to suspend Wikileak’s account after the US State Department claimed the site was involved in illegal activities. The same goes for Visa, MasterCard and PayPal. These sites were then subject to DDoS online attacks by ‘Anonymous’ a group of hackers retaliating in support of Wikileaks. The Metropolitan Police are set to investigate these revenge attacks.
What of Julian Assange’s extradition and rape accusations?
Two Swedish women have accused Julian Assange of rape, and this led to the controversial 2003 European Arrest warrant being used in order to hold him in jail in Britain. He was granted bail but this has been questioned by Sweden. The accusers have become subject to a hate campaign by Wikileak supporters who claim them to be a honey trap created by the US government, and questions are also roused about the rise in power of the European arrest warrant with so few questions being asked!
What was Wikileaks’ reputation prior to this?
In 2008 Wikileaks was awarded The Economist New Media Award. Following this, in 2009 Julian Assange was presented with the Amnesty International UK Media Award for the publication of “Kenya: The Cry of Blood – Extra Judicial Killings and Disappearances" about police killings in Kenya. Following US diplomatic cable leaks which began on 28 November 2010, Russia issued a statement to suggest Assange should receive the Nobel Peace Prize. In May 2010 New York Daily News put Wikileaks highest in its list of 5 ‘pioneering websites that could totally change the news.'
Julian Assange is released on bail...
Clare Jackson - Clare enjoys research and has a range of interests. With a background in scientific writing she likes to include lots of information in ...
