WikiLeaks-Just What is This Site's Potential?

According to the site, WikiLeaks : "WikiLeaks is the first intelligence agency of the people.". In the past whistle blowers and journalists uncovering horrifying conspiracies have always met with fear of reprisal. WikiLeaks is supposed to take that fear away and allow people to freely inform people of major conspiracies and fraud. This in turn is supposed to provide us with a "cleaner" more open and honest government. WikiLeaks feels that if there is the fear of being exposed, there will be less corruption. This goes for government and large corporations as well.

Is WikiLeaks Available to Everyone?

As of this writing, the Chinese Government has blocked passage to this site. Remember, its the Chinese government that has also been accused of censoring Google and its results. There is so much back and forth on that one its hard to decipher who is telling the truth. WikiLeaks has taken steps to go around these blocks, but that is not a guarantee that access will be possible. There are two ways for people trying to access WikiLeaks where it is prohibited, but both are a bit technical and one is under construction. These are TOR (The Onion Router) and Psiphon. Not only do these allow people access to WikiLeaks, it also allows people to provide information with a little less fear as they protect the user by making them anonymous and supposedly untraceable. According to WikiLeaks, this technology was: "Onion routing was developed by Michael G. Reed, Paul F. Syverson, and David M. Goldschlag, and patented by the United States Navy in US Patent No. 6266704 (1998)."

What Does WikiLeaks Mean to Whistleblowers?

In the past, whistleblower's lives have been ruined due to the fact they wanted to do the right thing and expose companies, as well as government when those companies/governments were involved in illegal activity. Many have even taken their own lives because they could no longer handle the pressure of the trials, the threats to their families and basically never being able to return to their "former life". It is impossible for anyone to say anonymity is a guarantee, but WikiLeaks informs potential whisleblowers how to remain anonymous and takes steps itself in order to protect privacy. This is wonderful news, as people can be a little less afraid to come forward now.

Is There Potential For Abuse in WikiLeaks?

Just like anything else, of course there is no guarantee that people will not try to use WikiLeaks to suit their own agenda and try to abuse this system. However, unlike Wikipedia and other counterparts, WikiLeaks articles are not just uploaded by John Q. Public. All documents go though a vigorous check and are written by the WikiLeaks staff.

In Conclusion

This project was started by a publisher called The Sunshine Press. This project has exposed many injustices and caused reform in many areas. In this day and age we need someone, or something willing to stand up to the big guys and stop intimidation tactics that have been employed by large corporations and governments alike. WikiLeaks just may be the answer.

http://sunshinepress.org/
http://wikileaks.org/wiki/WikiLeaks:About