It was inevitable for to me to make Wikileaks the site for today. My last post on this blog was on a huge scandal that erupted yesterday regarding American soldiers firing on to Iraqi civilians from their Apache helicopter back in July 2007 . The massive news story was broken due to the sheer tenacity and bravado of just one site:
WikiLeaks.
I've often heard of this site, but for whatever (stupid) reason have never really taken the time to have a look at what WikiLeaks had to offer (at http://www.wikileaks.com/). That is to my discredit. After hearing about the breaking news on the 2007 massacre of Iraqi civilians by airborne American soldiers, I just had to take a look at the site that had been so instrumental in breaking the story.
Their lead expose on the 2007 Iraq massacre from the air is brilliantly entitled "Collateral Murder".
It's quite a site. It is just one leak after another on some of the biggest news stories and scandals of the last few months. They include leaked documents regarding different aspects of the recent Icelandic financial and banking crisis, as well as a stunning expose by a well-known anti-secrecy online site that was forcibly shut down after exposing a secret manual being used by police and intelligence services regarding user online activities (read: snooping of what people do online), a manual put together by none other than the corporate giant...Microsoft. I'd never even heard of this until I took the time to look at this site today.
There's even an investigation as to what lengths the US Intelligence Service had tried hard to shut down WikiLeaks itself. And that's just on their home page!
Talk about indefatigable journalism - you know, the kind that was once the mainstay of the serious printed media, but which is now long dead due to the corporate takeover of world-renowned newspapers over the past 20 years.
But it's quite shocking to me to read that this invaluable site nearly shut down entirely towards the end of last year owing to a lack of funds. You can see it on the site - it looks so pared down, owing to the site's inability last year to save all its articles and links. The site looks clearly very scaled down - but, thankfully, not out.
And there are quite a few mirror sites that allow one to access some of the older articles and leaks that are currently not available on the official site. One such mirror site is mirror.wikileaks.info - thank goodness for the ongoing spirit of open source and keeping dissent and the truth alive at all costs in the online community.
The good news is that they have raised over 300 000 US dollars to date, which is keeping them afloat - at least for now. They still need to raise more funds. Which is why I too must try to ensure that this site gets as much financial support as possible, even if I do so primarily by spreading the word about what this site does (and means) to other people and potential financial supporters I might know.
It is the least one can do to ensure that a group of people who are trying so hard and so valiantly to do the type of investigative, expose journalism that is so desperately needed in the world today. As we are fed more and more disgusting corporate hogwash masquerading as news by much of the world's media, so the importance of fact-finding online sites like WikiLeaks, warts and all, must keep growing. Otherwize we will be all the poorer for it.
If knowledge is power, then a site like WikiLeaks is our means to ensure and to harness that power.
Ignorance is not always bliss.
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