Has the hype of Wikileaks finally died down? The discussion of making a movie based on WikiLeaks or Julian Assange, the Editor-in-Chief of Wikileaks, is still rolling right along. Wikileaks has received a lot of attention from the media previously for leaking Iraq and Afghan war-related documents and the USA’s diplomatic cables. As a result of some of this “attention”, the organization has been skipping across the Internet in order to stay up with mirrors since hosts and domain registrar’s seem to crumble around them. Perhaps you’re curious as to where to find the Wikileaks site or what other similar sites are out there. If that’s the case, here’s a list of four sites that post documents that some may wish were still securely hidden.
Wikileaks
The original, wikileaks.org, redirects currently to mirror.wikileaks.info. You can also find a list of other Wikileaks mirrors at Wikileaks.info. Wikileaks subtitles itself as “global defense of sources and press freedoms, circa now” and explains its objective as:
We are of assistance to peoples of all countries who wish to reveal unethical behavior in their governments and institutions. We aim for maximum political impact.
Disclosed documents are classified, censored or otherwise opaque to the public record. We rely on readers to alert their communities and press to the revelations here.
Anonleaks
According to Stephen Colbert, Anonymous is Wikileaks’ guard dog, so they’ve been attacking companies that have made life hard for Wikileaks including big companies that refused to process donations like PayPal, Mastercard, and Visa. Some documents may be discovered as a result of Anonymous’ operations and they’d like to make them public. Supposedly Anonleaks.org was coming as the location to find Anonymous’ documents but it has only been showing a suspended account message whenever I visit the site. Following the HBGary-Anonymous operation, the e-mails of HBGary have been posted for your browsing and searching pleasure at http://hbgary.anonleaks.ru.
Want to search the database? search.hbgary.anonleaks.ch
Protip: search for WikiLeaks, Anonymous, FBI, NASA, Stuxnet, Divorce, etc.
OpenLeaks
Speculation states that a number of individuals originally working with WikiLeaks did not like the sensationalist approach Wikileaks was taking and decided to branch off and found their own organization called OpenLeaks.
A number of us were previously involved with WikiLeaks. None of us has any remaining association with WikiLeaks, and all of us had left by the end of September 2010 (despite other claims). While we fully support the stated goals of WikiLeaks, and wish them success, OpenLeaks is an independent project.
Read the OpenLeaks FAQ for more information.
As of today, OpenLeaks is not yet operational with regard to actually having members that accept documents, since we are only in the alpha phase of the project. For now we are further developing our concept, processes and infrastructure, with the help of our development partners.
The alpha phase began in January 2011, when we started testing with a small group of media organizations and NGOs. Our partners for this phase have already been selected and we shall describe our progression with them in the coming months.
We plan to start the beta phase in the second half of 2011, when we shall open the door for more initiatives (ranging from media, to NGOs and unions; anyone who requires the service) chosen both by ourselves, and the public.
Cryptome
Cryptome has been around since 1996 and could teach these newcomers a thing or two about hosting private documents although they’ve experienced many of the same trials. The website has been forced to find new hosting and PayPal stopped processing donations to them in March 2010, according to their Wikipedia article.
Cryptome welcomes documents for publication that are prohibited by governments worldwide, in particular material on freedom of expression, privacy, cryptology, dual-use technologies, national security, intelligence, and secret governance — open, secret and classified documents — but not limited to those. Documents are removed from this site only by order served directly by a US court having jurisdiction. No court order has ever been served; any order served will be published here — or elsewhere if gagged by order. Bluffs will be published if comical but otherwise ignored.
These leaks provide valuable insight into governmental operations (listen to the story from NPR) and at their core should protect whistleblowers from consequences. For that reason, I prefer Cryptome and await OpenLeaks becoming operational but everyone has their own preferences. If you’re interested in receiving the news from the source, doing your own research, and forming your own opinions, check out the above sites that host leaks and see for yourself.