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OpenLeaks — 'A New WikiLeaks'

Flixie writes "Swedish newspaper dagens Nyheter reports: '...[S]everal key figures behind the website that publishes anonymous submissions and leaks of sensitive governmental, corporate, organizational or religious documents have resigned in protest against the controversial leader Julian Assange only to launch a new service for the so-called whistleblowers. The goal: to leak sensitive information to the public."

99 of 538 comments (clear)

  1. Assange gets arrested. by thehostiles · · Score: 5, Informative

    And ten more shall take his place

    1. Re:Assange gets arrested. by PhxBlue · · Score: 5, Informative

      The new site doesn't appear to have anything to do with Assange's arrest. It's more about a disagreement regarding how to handle leaked information. OpenLeaks is looking to provide information to interested parties, e.g., journalists, whereas WikiLeaks is there to disseminate the information to everyone.

      --
      !#@%*)anks for hanging up the phone, dear.
    2. Re:Assange gets arrested. by icebike · · Score: 5, Funny

      Wasn't there some aspect of Assange not playing well with others too?

      That's what SHE said.

      --
      Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
    3. Re:Assange gets arrested. by PhxBlue · · Score: 2, Insightful

      There were indeed. So it's less a case of "Assange is arrested, and 10 more shall take his place," and more a case of "Assange is a douchebag, and 10 more shall take his place."

      Hopefully we'll end up with 10 more *Leaks sites and not 10 more douchebags.

      --
      !#@%*)anks for hanging up the phone, dear.
    4. Re:Assange gets arrested. by Nadaka · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Why are journalists a special protected class in your opinion? Would they release information without filtering it? What if they were pressured to not release it by a government? Or what if it exposes the wrongdoing of the corporation that owns the journalists?

      The ideal journalist will disseminate the information to everyone anyway, why add the extra step?

    5. Re:Assange gets arrested. by by+(1706743) · · Score: 2

      I say fragmentation and infighting.

      Steve Jobs, is that you?

    6. Re:Assange gets arrested. by amicusNYCL · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Unlike WikiLeaks, Openleaks will not receive and publish information directly for the public eye.

      Ah. So, it's not really "open" at all then. Following the classic tactic of naming your product/service exactly what it's not (I'm looking at you, Great Quality).

      --
      "Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black
    7. Re:Assange gets arrested. by Velex · · Score: 2

      That's what SHE said.

      Well played, sir.

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    8. Re:Assange gets arrested. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

      Can we DDOS this Openleaxe as a protest?

    9. Re:Assange gets arrested. by Opportunist · · Score: 5, Funny

      Well, actually SHE said he was playing TOO well with others.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    10. Re:Assange gets arrested. by poetmatt · · Score: 3, Funny

      as someone else pointed out, that means it's not an open site. it's a bunch of useless bullshit phrases then. May as well have called it opencloudleaks to cram in more buzzwords.

    11. Re:Assange gets arrested. by Opportunist · · Score: 5, Insightful

      *sigh*

      Who, please name ONE SINGLE person who got killed! One would do.

      Repeating spin over and over is not making it any more correct.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    12. Re:Assange gets arrested. by spynode · · Score: 5, Insightful

      It's as if you know him personally. Do you have more first hand experience with controversial personalities?

    13. Re:Assange gets arrested. by martin-boundary · · Score: 5, Insightful
      Exactly. In an ideal situation, middlemen aren't needed. In practice, those who leak don't have the resources or know-how to give the information directly to the public.

      In the past, before the web, leakers had to talk to journalists because there was no alternative to reach the masses, even though journalists have never been paragons of objectivity.

      Wikileaks today is much better than talking to a professional journalist, because what it publishes is closer to the raw leaked information, and it doesn't care about market share or editorial slant like newspapers do.

      But wikileaks is still a middleman. If there was simple free software that any would-be leaker (nongeek) could use to put raw information directly and untraceably on the web, then the ideal would be one step closer.

    14. Re:Assange gets arrested. by Requia · · Score: 2

      You mean the way the cables were only released to a select few newspapers, and then redacted versions of those cables were published at the journalists' discretion?

      So in other words, exactly what wikileaks is now doing.

      --
      By all means mod me troll. I'm always happy to see my enemies are afraid to debate me.
    15. Re:Assange gets arrested. by pz · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Why are journalists a special protected class in your opinion? Would they release information without filtering it? What if they were pressured to not release it by a government? Or what if it exposes the wrongdoing of the corporation that owns the journalists?

      The ideal journalist will disseminate the information to everyone anyway, why add the extra step?

      Two simple factors (I'm actually quite surprised that a thinking person wouldn't already realise this): first, not everyone can write, so not all of the material you would want disseminated would be easy to read. Second, journalists do more than just copy, they gather potentially disparate facts, distill them, drop irrelevant cruft, and give the readers the good parts.

      Seriously, have you read all of the thousands of recently leaked cables? Do you have any desire to whatsoever? Personally, I'd rather pay a professional reporter to do that for me, and filter out what is important and what is not. I'll especially pay him if he can write well.

      --

      Put my fist through my alarm clock with its ding-dong death inside my ear. - The Blackjacks.
    16. Re:Assange gets arrested. by Magic5Ball · · Score: 4, Insightful

      When was the last time that WikiLeaks had a Wiki to which the public could contribute context or analysis?

      --
      There are 1.1... kinds of people.
    17. Re:Assange gets arrested. by Bigjeff5 · · Score: 2

      Why are journalists a special protected class in your opinion?

      Because it they are given such protection by the Constitution as a check against the government pulling the wool over the eyes of its citizens. This prevents a government-controlled media, and allows for information to spread.

      Would they release information without filtering it?

      Yes, even though they don't have to. That is what responsible journalism is all about.

      What if they were pressured to not release it by a government?

      It has been tried many times, the government is virtually never successful. Only when a real, imminent threat to US citizens lives can be demonstrated can the government take action, and it must go through a federal judge first. Even then, if I remember correctly, the government cannot stop the distribution of the information, they can only punish it after the fact. There was a NY Times case regarding this in I think the WW2 era, but I don't remember exactly.

      Or what if it exposes the wrongdoing of the corporation that owns the journalists?

      More than likely the news agency's competitor will expose it in order to gain a commercial advantage. The whistleblower would likely not go to a journalist of that particular news agency in the first place anyway.

      The ideal journalist will disseminate the information to everyone anyway, why add the extra step?

      The key is responsibility. Journalists get extra protections, but they also have a responsibility to the public. They can and do face legal action for intentionally lying about the facts they are representing.

      You can view membership costs here and there is a link at the bottom to apply.

      Wikileaks has not become a member of any news association, and as such are not considered members of the press. That means they don't get a lot of the extra protections members of the press receive unless they can make a really, really good argument in court. They also show very little in the way of responsible reporting of these leaks. Many of the leaks offer no benefit to the public, while a few do. A good journalist would talk about the leaks that matter, and leave the rest (semi) private.

      They could just become members of the press and be done with it, it isn't all that expensive to join.

      --
      Security is mostly a superstition... Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. - Helen Keller
    18. Re:Assange gets arrested. by skyride · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The main is sitting in custody with a crime he probably didn't commit as an excuse, I'd say that any paranoia he has is pretty darn well justified.

    19. Re:Assange gets arrested. by h4rr4r · · Score: 2, Informative

      They can and do face legal action for intentionally lying about the facts they are representing.

      This is not true, the courts have ruled they have no such obligation. There was a rather recent case in Florida about FOXnews doing just that.

    20. Re:Assange gets arrested. by Lazareth · · Score: 2, Informative

      A good while ago now, but it started out as such.
      I don't know if you knew that already or if you're being sarcastic; if the latter let me further elaborate:
      WikiLeaks originally functioned like a wiki, thus its name. It no longer does, but now the name sticks. Contrast this to OpenLeaks, which starts out from the beginning with the statement that they won't release directly to the public but rather to someone they choose. Yeah, real "open" there from the start.

      That aside I do think it is a good thing that more organisations like these spring up, but OpenLeaks can hardly claim the first part of their name.

    21. Re:Assange gets arrested. by Opportunist · · Score: 2

      You think Liberman or Palin would hold back if they could offer even something that could resemble a possibility of proof that Wikileaks "killed" someone? Do you?

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    22. Re:Assange gets arrested. by c0lo · · Score: 2

      In the past, before the web, leakers had to talk to journalists because there was no alternative to reach the masses, even though journalists have never been paragons of objectivity.

      How is? If somebody tells me anything else but "I'll do my best to stay objective" I'll start doubting that person immediately.

      But wikileaks is still a middleman. If there was simple free software that any would-be leaker (nongeek) could use to put raw information directly and untraceably on the web, then the ideal would be one step closer.

      As the ideal is far from possible and you'll always need at least one middle-man to act between you (who want to know) and those who want to withold the information (unless you really choose to take the risk of obtaining the information by yourself), there always be the questions of:
      1. How much you trust the middleman?
      2. are you lucid enough to pick what you can trust and what is better for you to discard as dubious

      Life will never offer a black/white choice between who you can and cannot trust. This is no reason to abdicate from living it as it is: just need to add the extra effort of constantly judging what you do and evaluate the consequences.

      Now, speaking for myself: being offered between WIkileaks (with large/public dissemination of the information) and "OpenLeaks" (with dissemination restricted to other jurnalists), I strongly preffer the first... even if what is leaked may be incomplete (thus having a risk of a possible bias "by selection") at least I can pick the raw undigested information and deal with the possible bias by looking for other sources of info to counter-balance before making my mind.

      Anyway, the more the merrier. And I need to grant Assange the merit of making restoring the "leaking practice" as an acceptable in/by the civil society (proof: others started to help, other started to open other "leaking" outlets). I do hope to see this continued and established as way to allow the citizens control over govts' power - much better than revolutions and the "right to bear arms" and certainly much better than "casting you vote in the dark". Maybe that's what democracy needed to be better and stop being the worst... except the others...?

      --
      Questions raise, answers kill. Raise questions to stay alive.
    23. Re:Assange gets arrested. by alchemy101 · · Score: 5, Informative

      2008 - Julius Baer (Swiss Bank), Scientology (US but not govenrment), BNP member list (UK) + many more.

      2009 - Petrogate recordings (Peruvian Government and Business), Barcaly Bank documents (UK), Natanz Nuclear accident report (Iran), Kaupthing bank (iceland), Australian censor list (Australia) + many many more.

      2010 - Loveparade 2010 Duisburg planning documents (Germany)

      That's a fair bit over a short period.

    24. Re:Assange gets arrested. by hedwards · · Score: 4, Insightful

      That's a bullshit explanation. If it were really true, there'd be no reason not to release the identity as the terrorist or whoever would already know who they are and the people around them. The fact that they haven't bothered to cite a single instance is a pretty good indication that they've got bupkiss and are just talking out of their asses.

      Additionally, if the information were really that sensitive, why on Earth did the US government not tell Wikileaks what legitimately needed to be redacted? Seems if the information is that dangerous that they ought to be willing to play ball. Seeing as how they couldn't prevent it from getting to the public at that point.

    25. Re:Assange gets arrested. by Ihmhi · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The only difference between what you see from Wikileaks and the raw data is that the Wikileaks version has gone through "harm prevention".

      Here's a hypothetical example. The U.S. federal government gets a tip about a crime ring from someone. The government tramples all over the rights of the crime ring - therein is the leak-worthy material. Do you include the name of the person who tipped off the feds? I think there is a point where leaking certain information is irresponsible, especially when it interferes with an individual's (but not a government's) privacy and/or safety.

      WL is, IMO, doing their job in the most responsible way possible - they make efforts to protect the privacy and safety of individuals and prevent any collateral damage.

    26. Re:Assange gets arrested. by NeutronCowboy · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Misleading.

      The current claim is that the leaks are killing informants or people mentioned in leaks. What Assange is talking about is people killed as a result of the government clamping down on protests based on information in the leaks. In other words, if people would have kept quiet about the information contained in the leaks, instead of protesting, no one would have died.

      So the score is that no one has yet to die because information was leaked. Going for second order effects to blame Assange is kinda silly.

      --
      Those who can, do. Those who can't, sue.
    27. Re:Assange gets arrested. by anythingwilldo · · Score: 2

      "In this exit interview with Der Spiegel, Daniel vents about how founder Julian Assange neutered him."

      Ouch!_!' No wonder he's pissed...

    28. Re:Assange gets arrested. by lennier · · Score: 2

      Unlike WikiLeaks, Openleaks will not receive and publish information directly for the public eye.

      Ah. So, it's not really "open" at all then. Following the classic tactic of naming your product/service exactly what it's not (I'm looking at you, Great Quality).

      So OpenLeaks is to WikiLeaks as Citizendium is to Wikipedia, then? "We want to be democratic... but not TOO democratic. Successful... but not TOO successful. Information the public eagerly wants to know... but not TOO eagerly, because whether it's Pokemon slashfic, maths theorems or state secrets, there are some bits of knowledge mankind needs to be protected from for your own good."

      Hey Larry, how's that project working out for you, anyway?

      --
      You are not a brain: http://books.google.com/books?id=2oV61CeDx-YC
    29. Re:Assange gets arrested. by raddan · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It's not just the leakers who don't have the know-how, it's the consumers. In an ideal situation, people would 1) have the time to read volumes of leaked information, 2) connect the dots, and 3) understand what that means. Since almost no one except journalists meet those criteria, I think, yeah, journalists still have a place in this world.

      There's more information now-- if anything, we need them more. Google has hardly killed librarians. Why should Wikileaks kill journalism?

      There's a HUGE difference between information and understanding.

    30. Re:Assange gets arrested. by icebraining · · Score: 5, Informative

      They weren't killed because they were informants or whatever and got "burned".

      They were killed because they revolted against a corrupt dictatorship.

      The leak exposed massive corruption by Daniel Arap Moi, and the Kenyan people sat up and took notice. In the ensuing elections, in which corruption became a major issue, violence swept the country. "1,300 people were eventually killed, and 350,000 were displaced. That was a result of our leak," says Assange. It's a chilling statistic, but then he states: "On the other hand, the Kenyan people had a right to that information and 40,000 children a year die of malaria in Kenya. And many more die of money being pulled out of Kenya, and as a result of the Kenyan shilling being debased."

      This wasn't Wikileaks "fault", this was a fight of a people against tyranny, who willingly decided to risk their lives to fight it.
      If anything, we the so called "first world" countries are at fault for ignoring this people's struggle.

    31. Re:Assange gets arrested. by martin-boundary · · Score: 3, Insightful
      When the raw data is available to everyone, nobody can stop you from paying a professional of your choice to sift through the raw data and summarize it to your liking.

      When the raw data is only accessible to certain professionals who summarize it for the public, then you can't pay a professional of your choice to sift through the data and summarize it for you, because they'll only have the summaries to work with.

    32. Re:Assange gets arrested. by raddan · · Score: 2

      Strictly speaking, this is not what the court said. You're referring to the dispute over improper firing of two journalists, Wilson and Akre, that occurred in 2000. You can read the court opinion here. The irony here is that the widespread claim that "the courts have ruled that FOX News can lie" is itself disingenuous.

      What the court is saying is: the FCC policy is not a law. The whistleblower statute only defends against breaches of law. Therefore, Akre is not entitled to compensation under the state's whistleblower statute. It's important to note that this is in keeping with the founding legal principle that Congress may not delegate law-making, except under very limited circumstances. Really, what the FCC's policy says is that intentional distortion of facts is discouraged, as FCC may revoke a station's license. This is in keeping with the idea that broadcast media must fulfill some public interest. But the FCC is not obligated to do this.

      While I do think that there should be some tradeoff for journalists ("you get special protection from the government, so long as there is due diligence to get the facts straight"), I'm not really sure how one would enforce this. FOX, for instance, insists that Bill O'Reilly is part of their "opinion" segment, and while I do personally believe the guy is completely full of shit, and in general, damaging to the well-being of the country, I can't see a valid argument for preventing him from being on air. I think a truly free press is more important.

    33. Re:Assange gets arrested. by horza · · Score: 5, Insightful

      In one film, I don't remember which, the chief editor of the newspaper says to his staff "Our job isn't to break the story first. We're never going to beat the television. Our job is to give the story behind the story."

      A good journalist will always have his place. He's prepared to do the legwork that the armchair pundit isn't, checking facts and talking to people to find their motivations. Here on Slashdot people are quite happy to paste from Wikipedia as 'evidence'. A good journalist will spot an anomaly, and if necessary jump in the car and trawl through paper archives to see if the digital one is actually correct or has been altered.

      Of course there will be bad journalists, like Gizmondo who can't tell the difference between and EveryDNS and EasyDNS, but the good ones are worth their weight in gold. It's the reason people will happily subscribe to the FT and the Economist, yet The Times has died an online death.

      Raw data has become more readily available to the public, but hopefully it will inspire more people to write quality articles as well as add to the armory of those already in the business.

      Phillip.

    34. Re:Assange gets arrested. by raddan · · Score: 2

      It's interesting that you should mention that. We recently had a speaker from Twitter do a technical talk at our CS department, and he essentially said the same thing. Even online journals are finding it hard to do "breaking news" now. Journalists, he said, should focus on what they are supposed to be good at: analysis. He used the Mumbai attack as an example-- Twitter's "trends" engine picked up the event well before the media had any idea anything had happened, essentially because the platform itself was an intelligent intermediary for people who were witnessing the event firsthand.

    35. Re:Assange gets arrested. by alchemy101 · · Score: 2

      I don't know what you mean by lip service;

      Firstly while the leaks I mentioned above might not seem significant and embarrassing to you but I would imagine that they were pretty embarrassing and problematic for those parties involved, and may be of immense interest (and use) to others, for example the leak of the Australian censorship list was infinitely more interesting and informative than the cables that have made the Australian newspapers thus far (note that the censorship list also made the Australian newspapers when they were released on wikileaks).

      Certainly the recent cable leaks have received comparatively larger coverage but that's because the US has massive influence on the rest of the world, it's not like the NY Times or the South China Morning Post would put a story of Peruvian corruption as their front page, most of their readers wouldn't care. The cables that have received coverage in the Australian media, have been those relating to Australian interests (telling us what we already know (Kevin Rudd is a control freak))

      Secondly, wikileaks can only leak what they've been given. I've not read of any reports that have stated that wikileaks are holding back leaks to focus on embarrassing the US, and as I shown in my earlier post it's not like they haven't leaked non-US leaks or that they are trivial.

      Perhaps I'm just misunderstanding you?
      PS. What's DFIP? Google brings up nothing.

    36. Re:Assange gets arrested. by Jafafa+Hots · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Wikileaks did just as you asked, released the information to professional reporters.

      Right now those professional reporters are spending 99% of their time on the subject discussing NOT what was in the leaks, but rather calling Assange a terrorist, irresponsible, appearing on TV "news" shows talking about how terrible he is, how he's a criminal, a traitor, calling for his arrest, for wikileaks to be stopped, and in some cases even calling for his death.

      Yeah, those professional reporters - a trustworthy lot.

      --
      This space available.
    37. Re:Assange gets arrested. by cold+fjord · · Score: 2, Informative

      Having consensual unsafe sex is not rape unless you live in crazy-town.

      When the woman withdraws consent the man withdraws his organ, or it is rape.... unless you live in crazy-town.

      Assange allegedly didn't follow that rule, he isn't in crazy-town, so therefore it is possibly.....

      PS - Anyone heard anything about Hans Reiser lately? (Creator of the Reiser Filesystem so loved in Linux land.)

      Julian Assange rape allegations: treatment of women 'unfair and absurd'

      The women were "very credible" witnesses, he said. "They have given very detailed stories about what they have been through."

      Assange's reputation is less the focus of scrutiny online, but an acquaintance who met him and both women in Stockholm around the time of the alleged assaults told the Guardian he had warned Assange that his behaviour towards women was going to get him into trouble.

      "I don't think it was a conspiracy, but this provided a golden opportunity for the enemies of WikiLeaks to use the situation to neutralise him," said the man, who wanted to remain anonymous. "A personality like Assange, who is known throughout the world, in the media every day, has a huge attraction to women. A lot of women invited him to their beds and he took that opportunity too much ... all the time.

      "I spoke to him about this. I warned him that it was not a good way to behave ethically and also in terms of his security. ...

      "These two women were molested by Mr Julian Assange at two different times, independently of each other," he said. One of the two women, who met Assange at a lecture he gave in Stockholm in August, wanted to contact him after the alleged assault because she wanted him to take a test for sexually transmitted infections. She contacted the second woman, who had helped organise the lecture, to see if she could help her to find him. "When they spoke to each other they realised they had been through something very similar so they went to the police. That's not odd," he said.

      "They decided to go to the police, to inform the police of what happened, to ask for advice; also they were interested in whether there was a risk that they could have got HIV. They were not sure whether they should make a police complaint, they wanted to have some advice. But when they told the police officer, she realised that what they were telling her was a crime and she reported that to the public prosecutor, who decided to arrest Assange."

      --
      much of left-wing thought is a kind of playing with fire by people who don't even know that fire is hot - George Orwell
    38. Re:Assange gets arrested. by Belial6 · · Score: 2

      The story you quoted sound mighty suspicious. First, is it common for people that think they might have an STD to tell that to strangers when they ask where someone is? That seems suspicious, unless the woman is from 'crazy-town'. Second, one of the women is intelligent enough to organize a conference, but is dumb enough to go to the police to find out if they could have contracted HIV? Maybe in Stockholm, the police do double duty as doctors, so that wouldn't be an obvious lie. I was under the impression that in pretty much all countries, doctors handled the medicine, and the police handled law enforcement.

      I cannot say what did and didn't happen, but the timing of all this seems highly suspicious. And the last paragraph makes absolutely no sense. It reads like someone was trying to make up a story to explain something that was a little too convenient to be believable.

    39. Re:Assange gets arrested. by L4t3r4lu5 · · Score: 2

      Not in the UK. BBC is approx 1:1 Assange / Leaked material coverage. As Assange has a photograph, you see him more on the news, but actual reporting is about equal for both.

      --
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    40. Re:Assange gets arrested. by jmcvetta · · Score: 2

      the man doesnt seem like the kind of person youd want running one (and not because of the assault allegations).

      Why, what's it matter if he's the all-time greatest douchebag in the history of douchebaggery? The big qualification to be spokesman for a free information site, is a serious dedication to freedom of information. Assange seems to have that one down pretty well.

    41. Re:Assange gets arrested. by TheLink · · Score: 2

      Wow that's taking sexual harassment to the next level...

      --
  2. Horrible Timing... by Haedrian · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Just as the US government, and a bunch of private companies (perhaps guided by the US government) are attempting to destroy wikileaks?

    I don't know, with all the trouble going on - Assange getting arrested, sites getting DDOSed, more people getting arrested for DDOSsing... I think that now is defentally not the best time for this. Public sympathy is too erratic at the moment - adding more sites like that will only make the situation worse.

    When its one site, its an anomaly - what's next, a law to prevent similar sites? If they keep popping up like mushrooms, there's going to be less "Please stop letting them get funds" and more "We classify protecting the identity of leakers to be a terrorist act.. bla bla bla"

    1. Re:Horrible Timing... by Samantha+Wright · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Well, the strategy of multiplicity works pretty darn well. And laws are already bouncing off the Wikileaks people pretty hard—they're going to be far harder to apply to hundreds of similar leak sites than just one! It's standard guerilla warfare.

      --
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    2. Re:Horrible Timing... by freedumb2000 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I disagree, I think it is the perfect time for another institution like Wikileaks. The best defense is attack. Already the U.S. and other governments are starting to show their true face concerning free speech. This is starting to look like a real litmus test. Whatever is in the leaked documents is secondary at this point. Much more important is to see how far governments are willing to surpress anyone that they see as a potential danger to their power structures. And this war is fought pretty much in the open, for everyone to see. Maybe this is going to play out without much drama, maybe not. Interesting times nevertheless.

    3. Re:Horrible Timing... by Jedi+Alec · · Score: 2

      One could argue that 1300 people in Kenya have died because of a wikileak, especially considering Assange himself said so. That's what happens when you point out to people the guy with the gun who's supposed to be standing behind them covering their back is instead fucking them hard and deep in the ass.

      --

      People replying to my sig annoy me. That's why I change it all the time.
    4. Re:Horrible Timing... by b4dc0d3r · · Score: 5, Insightful

      http://comixed.memebase.com/2010/12/08/4-koma-comic-strip-an-issue-of-debate/

      When an I Can Has Cheezeburger site explains the entire Obama administration, government view of free speech vs. censorship, and current political climate in 3 panels something is wrong.

      Yeah some details didn't need to be leaked. But most did. The military calls this "collateral damage" and minimizes it compared to the success of hitting a target. Civilians are apparently held to a different standard because we haven't been trained how to properly attack and cover up.

    5. Re:Horrible Timing... by hedwards · · Score: 2

      Indeed, this is likely what asymmetric warfare is going to look like in the information age. The US government right now is at best tilting at windmills and at worst encouraging and supporting this sort of thing.

      Probably the best play for the US government would be to shut up and focus on finding and plugging the leaks. Wikileaks is well set up enough that it's going to be more or less impossible to stop them from releasing the information. What's worse for the government is that by attacking Assange they're only kicking the ball to folks who have far less to lose than Assange does by releasing the leaks unredacted.

    6. Re:Horrible Timing... by c0lo · · Score: 2

      A spin off directly from wikileaks doesn't exactly seem to lead to the assumption that similar sites will "keep popping up like mushrooms." Talk to me when we have a third player from outside the wikileaks lineage.

      Hell... there exists at least one and existed for quite some time cryptome...

      Funny thing is: even the quite a long presence, I haven't heard of them until recently, and I only heard of them because of WikiLeaks and Assange (somebody named John Young was foaming a few days ago against Assange and Wikileaks)... I find this a bit (unintendedly) ironic... but, lucky me, cryptome also do have some interesting leaks.

      --
      Questions raise, answers kill. Raise questions to stay alive.
  3. Re:What's wrong with wikileaks? by nomadic · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Wikileaks has credibility; Assange does not. I mean, he told a reporter that he was too busy to talk to them because he "too busy ending two wars." That kind of narcissism is profoundly stupid.

  4. Re:What's wrong with wikileaks? by igreaterthanu · · Score: 4, Insightful

    He gets himself on the news and he stays there. What good is a leak site if after the first leak it disappears from the public eye and any remaining data will miraculously disappear along with all the people that work for it who have "accidents"?

    --
    I dream of a nation where a man is not judged by his skin color but by an number assigned by a credit rating agency.
  5. coming soon iLeaks by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    and VisualLeaks, DynamicLeaks, and TeenLeaks (oh wait that one already exists) Seriously, anyone else bothered by the predictability of made up internet words.

    1. Re:coming soon iLeaks by cyber-vandal · · Score: 4, Funny

      And exposing vegetable-related cover-ups - WikiLeeks.

    2. Re:coming soon iLeaks by Red+Flayer · · Score: 5, Funny

      Let's see if they try to arrest the founder of Wookieleaks.

      We might get to see arms ripped off!

      --
      "Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
    3. Re:coming soon iLeaks by grantek · · Score: 2

      OpenLeaks tend to focus on security by design, but NetLeaks focuses on portability and cleanliness of leaks. Then there's the new ones like PC-leaks for leaks on the desktop, and specialist ones like LeakNAS that makes storage of leaks easy for everyone.

  6. Re:One for all.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Informative

    Why should moral responsiblity == solidarity?

    Isn't that one of the problems with many movements, the leaders (w/ all of their faults) are often deified and thus are become easy targets for the opposition. Of course you can argue vaguely about a greater good or the lesser evil, but why not strive for an organization that isn't about a person, but is about an ideal? Do we always have to have egomanics representing a cause?

  7. CIA trick by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    And who's to say that they really are former Wikileaks members, and not agents of the CIA seeking to intercept leaks and trace them back to the source?
    *dons tinfoil hat*

  8. Re:What's wrong with wikileaks? by squiggleslash · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Credibility means fairly little to the organization organizing the leaks - what matters are the outlets.

    I think Wikileaks got it exactly right this time, using some of the most respected newspapers in the world to filter and disseminate the cables, rather than attempting to dump them directly. Sure, they got stick from the usual suspects, but the reality is that nobody is questioning the credibility of the leaks themselves: if The Guardian posts a cable reporting that, to use a real example, defense contractor Dyncorp organizes child rape parties for Afghan warlords in order to close the sale, and the US government's complicity in covering it up, we pretty much accept it, in a way less likely to happen if it's some random voice on the Internet posting what they claim is a cable.

    OpenLeaks is made up of people who know this. I don't think they'll have an issue.

    --
    You are not alone. This is not normal. None of this is normal.
  9. Protection by symes · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Unlike WikiLeaks, Openleaks will not receive and publish information directly for the public eye. Instead, other organizations will access the Openleaks system and in turn, present their audience with the material. Documents will be processed and published by various collaborating organizations.

    Who are these other organisations? Surely one of advantage of wikileaks is that leakers are separate from publication. Under Openleak's nebulous "other organisations" leakers might feel more, rather than less, vulnerable. Or am I wrong?

    1. Re:Protection by Red+Flayer · · Score: 2

      Under Openleak's nebulous "other organisations" leakers might feel more, rather than less, vulnerable. Or am I wrong?

      WRT the US -- there is precedent that a journalist publisher of leaks is not prosecutable.

      So organizations like the New York Times or Vanity Fair, for example, might be willing to take on the risk of publication.

      --
      "Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
  10. Take Heed by bky1701 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    People fragmenting away from an organization that has shown it upholds moral law, especially at a time like this, are probably not people you want to be sharing your information with; they might just decide to leak you rather than it.

  11. How is this by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Insightful

    How is this more transparent then WikiLeaks when the public can't even see the information when it finally IS released?

  12. Double cross? by Albinoman · · Score: 5, Interesting

    The first thing that came to my mind is that it's a new site is being set up to catch whistle blowers. Leak occasional trivial documents to snare the big ones. I don't condone any of this but it wouldn't surprise me in the slightest.

    1. Re:Double cross? by grcumb · · Score: 4, Funny

      And this is why these leak sites should use TOR. And not TOR to Public Internet. TOR to TOR.

      Too complex. TOR to TOR is a Traveling Salesman problem.

      TOR to TOR. Salesman. Get it?

      ...

      ...

      *sigh*

      All right, don't get up. I'll show myself out....

      --
      Crumb's Corollary: Never bring a knife to a bun fight.
  13. Re:What's wrong with wikileaks? by Trufagus · · Score: 2

    What Assange has done is great, but he is quite an egotist and that was getting in the way of making wikileaks effective.

    For him, this had to be about him, and it shouldn't be. The focus on him (or any individual) was the biggest weakness of wikileaks.

  14. Sounds good to me by Spy+Handler · · Score: 2, Insightful

    the *idea* behind wikileaks was good, but Assange is an Ass-hat with an overinflated ego, who needs to go.

    Another site that does what wikileaks does, without Assange, sounds like a good thing.

    1. Re:Sounds good to me by santax · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Well, his inflated ego is what got wikileaks on the map. I sort of believe we need someone as bold as him.

    2. Re:Sounds good to me by petsounds · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Assange was originally a programmer; overinflated ego comes with the territory.

      It's easy to armchair quarterback Wikileaks from your computer, isn't it? Assange is taking a very real stand with very real consequences against some very nasty people working in very compromised governments. You need to be a bit insane, a bit self-important, and more than a bit strong on your convictions and courage to have a mindset that enables to think this is a logical idea. You may not like the way Assange operates, but did you see anyone else do it? No? Exactly.

  15. Wrong name! by rilister · · Score: 2, Interesting

    One of Wikileaks biggest problems is their name: they aren't actually *leaking* anything - they are publishing other people's leaks. Leaking is legally dubious, but publishing is protected by the concepts like Freedom of the Press in many countries. Calling yourself FooLeaks implies that you commit some kind of crime for a living.

    --
    'This writing business. Pencils and what-not. Over-rated if you ask me. Silly stuff. Nothing in it' - Eeyore
    1. Re:Wrong name! by ISoldat53 · · Score: 3, Funny

      Wilileaks sounds like an old man's disease.

  16. oh gee. then they are fools. by unity100 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    so, they will leak the information to journalists. the people that any notable ones from among them would be in the employ of established media conglomerates, which are subject to pressure of politicians and corporations ?

    i think the fact that there has been no major leak that is detrimental to a government or a company has occurred since watergate, escapes these people. werent there any scoops ? werent there any brave journalists to handle them ? surely. why didnt anything in the scale of watergate came up ?

    information must be provided to EVERYONE. we are the people, we are the owners of these governments and countries. we have the right to see them first hand. not anyone else, regardless of their profession.

    by the way, journalists are people too, from among us. if you release it to us, you release it to everyone.

    1. Re:oh gee. then they are fools. by _Sprocket_ · · Score: 3, Insightful

      by the way, journalists are people too, from among us. if you release it to us, you release it to everyone.

      And because you release it to everyone, you release it to opposing factions who use the intelligence contained. Well done. That'll help everyone. And it'll do a real wonder for whistleblowers to come.

      Fun thing about Cablegate - it came about because of an increased inter-agency sharing of intel. That's more eyes seeing more information. While the obvious intent is to make intel agencies more effective (something Assange aspires to prevent), but it put information in front of more sets of eyes. After Manning's mismanagement of that opportunity, we now have the knee-jerk reaction of clamping down on that information. Less eyes. Less whistleblowers.

      And of course, plenty of material for politicians to rabble-rouse with.

    2. Re:oh gee. then they are fools. by unity100 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Well, yes. It's all detrimental. The question is whether the problem being uncovered is more important than the damage done outing detrimental information.

      that doesnt work. private interests and government will ALWAYS say there are big things at stake, and prevent anything from being published. this is what happened up till today, and the only reason we are discovering these stuff is because some people decided governments corporations and news outlets shouldnt decide what is worth it and what is not.

  17. So the plan is to pass the raw data to... by John+Hasler · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ...politically-correct organizations who will decide what we need to see and what would "confuse" us.

    Bugger that. Release all of the raw data to the public or you're no better than Fox News and Huffington Post.

    --
    Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
  18. Misleading summary by martin-boundary · · Score: 5, Informative
    What kind of a misleading summary is that? From TFA:

    Unlike WikiLeaks, Openleaks will not receive and publish information directly for the public eye. Instead, other organizations will access the Openleaks system and in turn, present their audience with the material. Documents will be processed and published by various collaborating organizations.

    So there's no leaking, only controlled information transfer to participating organizations. If I was a whistleblower, I'd worry that the serious risks I'm taking to make information available will be wasted.

  19. The more you tighten your grip... by Chris+Mattern · · Score: 2

    the more websites will slip through your fingers.

  20. Re:One for all.... by Red+Flayer · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Do we always have to have egomanics representing a cause?

    Yes.

    1. People who aren't egomaniacs don't want to be the face of a cause.

    2. Causes aren't successful without faces attached to them.

    Thus, causes that become popular will always have egomaniacs leading them. Even Gandhi was a bit of an egomaniac, though less reprehensibly than most.

    --
    "Trolls they were, but filled with the evil will of their master: a fell race..." -- J.R.R. Tolkien on Olog-hai
  21. what responsibility ? by unity100 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    the responsibility of censoring information that u.s. or other governments dont want published ?

    wikileaks already has removed names from those leaks. there isnt any sensitive info in them in regard to 'people's lives'.

    and what will these people do ? release information to NEWS outlets. 90% of news outlets in usa are owned by parent corporations of 4 movie studios. and they are the very corporations who are also pressurizing and villifying wikileaks.

    i fail to see your logic regarding 'fresh'. that seems like what we have been NOT having since watergate : journalism.

    i dont want my information censored or edited by any news corporation. i want it direct and uncensored.

  22. Open source in action by unity100 · · Score: 2

    Wikileaks just forked.

  23. CounterLeaks by w0mprat · · Score: 5, Funny

    I propose a counter-wikileaks website to leak sensitive personal information to Governments and corporates. The idea is you enter all you personal information, brag about your potentially criminal behaviour, as well as spend time on the site interacting socially so the site can establish a pattern of behaviour including what you "like" etc.

    Damn.. someone beat me too it...

    --
    After logging in slashdot still does not take you back to the page you were on. It's been that way for 20 years.
  24. Re:What's wrong with wikileaks? by _Sprocket_ · · Score: 2, Interesting

    No. If you go back and look at the unedited video, you'll find that there were weapons in the group. But that gets removed from the edited version. But of course, the poor kids in the van that's about to get shot up gets blown up and a replay. Because details matter.

  25. This sounds like a honeypot organization by akeeneye · · Score: 2

    to me. Just get the leakers to leak to the honeypot site. Honeypottiers dribble out a few semi-juicy tidbits here and there but keep the good stuff locked down. No publicity. No "releases" without good strong infosec condoms. This would be just what the gubbmint and big corporations would want out there rather than media-blitzing, uncontrollable WL. The only question is, is this a U.S. effort or is it run by the International One-World-Government Conspiracy?

    --
    The man who dies rich dies disgraced. -- Andrew Carnegie
  26. Re:What's wrong with wikileaks? by Bigjeff5 · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Are you sure he didn't actually believe the other people were going for weapons on the bodies?

    War is a scary thing. I've never been in it, and as such I can't fully comprehend it, but I have worked with people who have.

    I'm not saying you are wrong, but it's easy to second guess the choices of people who are in the middle of combat when you yourself are not and never have been anywhere near it.

    --
    Security is mostly a superstition... Avoiding danger is no safer in the long run than outright exposure. - Helen Keller
  27. I have been calling for exactly this for years! by rAiNsT0rm · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Here and on Reddit, every single time a story about Wikileaks comes up I always state that as cool as Wikileaks seems it is terribly flawed overall and far too important to leave as it is... every single time I get downvoted/modded troll/whatever and everyone busts out the hate... after this last debacle people have finally opened their damn eyes and I couldn't be happier. The media is broken which is why Wikileaks is even relevant, and we all need to stand up and win the most important war of our lifetime: The War on Information. The other great thing that will come of this is that the media will see all of the potential and thirst for actual news and information and hopefully shift back to what thy should have been doing all along.

    --
    http://teasphere.wordpress.com - A little spot of tea
  28. An opinion about Assange by quarkie68 · · Score: 2
  29. Press by Compaqt · · Score: 5, Informative

    The Constitution doesn't mention "journalists". It references freedom of the press:

    Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press;...

    A press is a device for duplicating written matter. So the Constitution is recognizing the right to publish using presses (as opposed to speaking with your voice). Time passes. Huge presses are reduced to small laser printers.

    More time passes. A worldwide network for electronic publishing emerges. Anybody who cares about limits of government would say the Congress does not have the power to limit the ability to use presses (electronic or otherwise).

    And the right of the press isn't limited to any one specially-favored group that calls itself "the" press.

    --
    I'm not a lawyer, but I play one on the Internet. Blog
    1. Re:Press by biryokumaru · · Score: 3, Funny

      I'm not a lawyer, but I play one on the Internet.

      Sometimes this statement is rather more self-evident than other times.

      --
      When you're afraid to download music illegally in your own home, then the terrorists have won!
    2. Re:Press by Tranzistors · · Score: 2

      The US Constitution was adopted in 1787. What did "press" mean back then?

      Specific sense "machine for printing" is from 1530s; extended to publishing houses by 1570s and to publishing generally (in phrases like freedom of the press) c.1680. This gradually shifted c.1800-1820 to "periodical publishing, journalism." Meaning "journalists collectively" is attested from 1926.

      http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=press

      It seems that at the time, the word meant "publishing", not "machine for printing" or "journalism". Thus, "freedom of the press" is the freedom of publishing, not the freedom of journalists, and although the grandparent is wrong about the meaning of "press", it's still closer to the originally intended meaning than you are.

  30. It still leads to greater accountability by Sparx139 · · Score: 3, Insightful

    If the information is available to the public, then there's a greater risk of someone crying foul about any 'tweaks' that are made to the story. Also, it also means that it isn't a he said/she said thing. 'Scientific journalism' is good because it allows different news outlets to draw their own conclusions based on the actual leak, rather then passing through a game of Chinese Whispers. For example, an Australian Labour Party power broker passed on information, tipping the US off about Julia Gillard taking over Kevin Rudd's role as PM a year before it actually happened. I've seen everything on it from condemning it as pandering to the US, to passing it off as business as usual - explaining that it's important to share information to keep diplomatic lines open.
    The fact that the leak is out there for anyone to see means that spin can be kept to a minimum at least, they can't outright lie because people will check the facts against the evidence.

    --
    Our culture doesn't get smarter, it just finds new ways of being retarded.
    1. Re:It still leads to greater accountability by TapeCutter · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Rudd is worthy of a hat tip for his public support of Assange even though some of the documets were embarrasing to him personally, Rudd blames the US for the leaks and claims Assange has done nothing wrong by publishing them. He is one of the few politicians in the world to publicly speak up for WL, another notable exeption being Putin who is reveling in the irony of lecturing the US in the basic principles of a free press. But the most suprising to me personally is ex-prime minister John Howard who has also said "Assange has done nothing wrong" by publishing the leaks.

      --
      And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
  31. Re:What's wrong with wikileaks? by chrb · · Score: 3, Insightful

    you'll find that there were weapons in the group

    That's right, because the government should have the right to kill anyone who stands next to a person exercising their right to bear arms.

  32. Re:who's been put in danger ? by Cederic · · Score: 5, Insightful

    1300 people dead because they refused to put up with the shit any more, as opposed to several thousand dead from malaria and the country's resources being misused.

    Was the leak a good or bad thing? Did it lead to 1300 deaths or save a few thousand more in the long term?

    This isn't playschool, there isn't a clear good and bad, just shades of grey and complicated trade-offs.

  33. Re:What's wrong with wikileaks? by RazorSharp · · Score: 3, Insightful

    That's the attitude that got George W. Bush elected. "This Gore guy really sounds like he knows what he's talking about, and this Bush guy looks confused, but Gore keeps sighing and being an asshole and berating poor Bush. I'm not voting for Gore, I'd never sit down and drink a beer with him!"

    Why is it more important to be likable than credible?

    --
    "From the depths of my skeptical and rationalist soul, I ask the Lord to protect me from California touchie-feeliedom."
  34. Re:who's been put in danger ? by makomk · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Oh my, that evil Julian Assange. If he hadn't revealed that Kenyan politicians were horribly corrupt, the populace would've just voted for the right guy and the incumbent wouldn't have had to blatantly rig the elections to stay in power, causing mass rioting. It's all Assange's fault for not allowing the Kenyan populace to remain in blissful ignorance of just how corrupt and screwed up their political system is. The corrupt, vote-rigging politicians bear no responsibility for it whatsoever.

    Seriously, though - did you really just blame Assange and Wikileaks for that?

  35. You've been fooled by the int to enemy angle by dbIII · · Score: 3, Informative

    When people leak stuff it's not about the cool new technology that ends up in some high tech weapon. They leak about people lying, cheating and generally breaking the rules. It's not about releasing information about soldiers killing enemy forces in battle. It's about unaccountable spooks breaking dozens of laws and the charter of their organisations by torturing people to death.
    Now we've had a lot of bullshit where manipulative bastards say that anyone that says anything bad about their own side, true or not, is "giving comfort to the enemy." That's just an excuse to be able to let the dead wood say at their posts without being embarrassed by enormous fuckups. The comfort angle in this case is utter bullshit because it really does not matter if somebody does the equivalent of point at one of these things and say "haha".

  36. Missing the point by Kyusaku+Natsume · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If this site is staffed by ex-Wikileaks members then Wikileaks is better without them since they didn't understand the point that Wikileaks is not about "leaks" but about accountability. A democracy without accountability is no better than a tyranny and the key to a lack of accountability in a sick democracy is the control of the mass media.

    --
    Mexico: 100% conservative's America now!
  37. Re:What's wrong with wikileaks? by guruevi · · Score: 2

    People in a war zone that aren't wearing uniforms are civilians. Ever been to those countries? I was in Zagreb when there was a civil war there. Everybody has weapons if nothing else to protect themselves. Unless they were being fired upon, they have no right to shoot first, ask questions later unless they did not come there to bring peace and democracy but occupy local resources for the aggressors interests or possibly genocide.

    The fact that local tribes protect themselves against foreign aggressors trying to occupy their territory doesn't make them 'illegal' combatants, during WWII the allies called them 'La Resistance'.

    --
    Custom electronics and digital signage for your business: www.evcircuits.com
  38. Re:Who is the face of Anonymous? by Xaositecte · · Score: 2

    Most of the older people I know (mid-30's+) aren't even aware Anonymous exists, while most of the younger people I know are aware of it, or actively participating. Even when I go out of my nerdish subset of friends they're aware of it, even if they don't consider anonymous to be particularly relevant.

    Anonymous is a clue to the direction the world is heading, spontaneously organized mobs of individuals who become very upset about something, and do something about it. I predict, in the future, this method of organizing people will grow more and more popular as more people people plug into the mentality. One day, we'll start to wonder how we ever lived our lives in any other way.

    Sorta've like how the 'net used to be something only basement-dwelling nerds used, now it's mainstream.

  39. Who plays with whom? by Daedalon · · Score: 2

    Kirk James Murphy says SHE was playing with CIA-funded terror-tactics groups not so long ago: http://my.firedoglake.com/kirkmurphy/2010/12/04/assanges-chief-accuser-has-her-own-history-with-us-funded-anti-castro-groups-one-of-which-has-cia-ties/

    The same groups publicly supported the coup in Honduras. The one which Wikileaks revealed US government lying not knowing about and being unable to intervene because of that.

    More on how CIA is hunting Assange through Sweden (emphasis added):

    The Swedes have a practical reason behind their deceptively slapstick police-work. The WikiLeaks founder, pursued by malevolent forces around the world, sought momentary relief beneath Sweden's reputation as a bastion of free speech. But the moment Julian sought the protection of Swedish media law, the CIA immediately threatened to discontinue intelligence sharing with SEPO, the Swedish Secret Service.

    The suspicion of whether the rape farce is an orchestrated campaign, might be illuminated by these facts: (1) Sweden sent troops to Afghanistan, (2) Assange's WikiLeaks published the Afghan War Diary... --- ...new secret materials by WikiLeaks might just influence the general elections on September 19. Perhaps that explains the sudden police raid on a WikiLeaks server.