Abstract
WikiLeaks is an international non-profit organisation that
publishes submissions of private, secret, and classified
media from anonymous news sources, news leaks, and
whistleblowers. Its website, launched in 2006 under The
Sunshine Press organisation claimed a database of more
than 1.2 million documents within a year of its launch.
WikiLeaks describes its founders as a mix of Chinese
dissidents, journalists, mathematicians, and start-up
company technologists from the United States, Taiwan,
Europe, Australia, and South Africa. Julian Assange, an
Australian Internet activist, is generally described as its
director. The site was originally launched as a user-editable
wiki, but has progressively moved towards a more
traditional publication model and no longer accepts either
user comments or edits.
The wikileaks.org domain name was registered on 4
October 2006. The website was unveiled, and published its
first document in December 2006. The site claims to have
been "founded by Chinese dissidents, journalists,
mathematicians and start-up company technologists, from
the US, Taiwan, Europe, Australia and South Africa".
WikiLeaks states that its "primary interest is in exposing
oppressive regimes in Asia, the former Soviet bloc, Sub-
Saharan Africa and the Middle East, but we also expect to
be of assistance to people of all regions who wish to reveal
unethical behaviour in their governments and
corporations."
WikiLeaks posted its first document in December 2006, a
decision to assassinate government officials signed by
Sheikh Hassan Dahir Aweys." In August 2007, The
Guardian published a story about corruption by the family
of the former Kenyan leader Daniel Arap Moi based on
information provided via WikiLeaks. In November 2007, a
March 2003 copy of Standard Operating Procedures for
Camp Delta detailing the protocol of the U.S. Army at the
Guantanamo Bay detention camp was released.
Thanks to the era of instant information retrieval,
Americans and the Western alliance have a huge problem:
silencing Julian Assange as he brings to light 250,000
sensitive documents regarding national security.
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