The US military looked into undermining Wikileaks

And the modus operandi was mostly going to be a propaganda and sabotage effort to attempt to discredit the organization.

From the link:

In an ironic twist, Wikileaks has now published what appears to be an assessment of the site and the danger is poses to US military confidentiality, apparently from the US Army and Counterintelligence center and dated 18 March 2008.

Most of the report is a measured analysis of the site’s activities, modus operandi, funding and history, which then details numerous documents allegedly leaked to Wikileaks relating to US military activities in Iraq, Afghanistan and beyond that it sees as having handed intelligence to agencies hostile to the US.

Not sure if this is illegal, or not, and certainly there are national security issues with any military leak, but this type of covert action sure feel unAmerican.

Also from the link, here’s the lovely company our military was hoping to join:

A justification for following this course of action is considered to be that other countries have attempted to do the same.

“The governments of China, Israel, North Korea, Russia, Thailand, Zimbabwe, and several other countries have blocked access to Wikileaks.org-type Web sites, claimed they have the right to investigate and prosecute Wikileaks.org and associated whistleblowers, or insisted they remove false, sensitive, or classified government information, propaganda, or malicious content from the Internet,” says the report.

Wikileaks looking to ramp up the leakage

An interesting idea, but the potential for abuse and outright fraud are enormous with anonymous, over-the-net whistle blowing. As a responsible journalist you’d either want to be able to independently verity who is providing the leak, or a least have a source willing to do so.

Now if this type of leak is used to jump-start an investigative journalism piece, and not used as the primary source material I can see real utility and the potential to shed light into a few more shady corners out there.

I’d also say Wilileaks is really going out there on a limb with its involvement with the verification process coupled with privacy and legal protection. But still, a very interesting idea.

From the link:

Wikileaks.org, the online clearinghouse for leaked documents, is working on a plan to make the Web leakier by enabling newspapers, human rights organizations, criminal investigators and others to embed an “upload a disclosure to me via Wikileaks” form onto their Web sites.

The upload system will give potential whistleblowers around the world the ability to leak sensitive documents to an organization or journalist they trust over a secure connection, while giving the receiver legal protection they might not otherwise enjoy.

“We will take the burden of protecting the source and the legal risks associated with publishing the document,” said Julien Assange, an advisory board member at Wikileaks, in an interview at the Hack In The Box security conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Once Wikileaks confirms the uploaded material is real, it will be handed over to the Web site that encouraged the submission for a period of time. This embargo period gives the journalist or rights group time to write a news story or report based on the material.