CAIRO: Imagine being a government worker in a repressive regime and getting your hands on classified memos that depict the ugly truth about your national authorities. How do you leak the valuable information without being subject to either long jail sentences or torture?
Oppressive government regimes might be meeting their maker online when Wikileaks.org, a website where whistleblowers can upload confidential government documents without risking persecution, goes live in March.
Essentially an uncensorable version of the online encyclopedia Wikipedia, Wikileaks is a free haven for Deep Throats where individuals can upload sensitive documents anonymously and without the possibility of being traced.
“Whistleblowers face great risks, including political repercussions, legal sanctions, and physical violence depending on their location, their position, and the nature of the leaked information. Therefore, we have implemented sophisticated mathematical and cryptographic techniques to secure the privacy and complete anonymity of our posters, Wikileaks said in an interview with The Daily Star Egypt.
Founded by Chinese dissidents and technicians from the US, Taiwan, Europe, Australia and South Africa, Wikileaks focuses mainly on oppressive regimes in Asia, the former Soviet bloc, Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East.However, the site also hopes to be of assistance to those in the west who wish to reveal unethical behavior in their own governments and corporations.In order to circumvent Internet censorship, a common practice in China and numerous other repressive regimes, Wikileaks said that while blocking the site is certainly possible, the company will use advanced software.
However, numerous human rights organizations remain skeptical of the Wikileaks phenomenon.
“I wonder how they are planning to make the site uncensorable and untraceable. I don t know of any way to make a website uncensorable, and I would be surprised even if genuine dissidents could convince one of the companies responsible for maintaining computer servers to host such a site and protect it from the prying eyes of intelligence agencies, Elijah Zarwan, Middle East Researcher at Human Rights Watch, told the The Daily Star Egypt.
Ibrahim El-Houdeiby, editor of the Muslim Brotherhood’s website, however, welcomed the new initiative for online whistleblowers.
“Sites like this one are needed nowadays. Our website has been blocked several times within the past few weeks and you can confidently say that we have been through several technological battles to keep the site running, El-Houdeiby said.
While the documents posted on Wikileaks are not legally binding, the company hopes that “criminal behavior by those in high places, such as the government, can be brought to justice with the help of Wikileaks.
“We are not lawyers, so we can t give any advice on the particular application of the law. Of course the laws and immunities available in national courts and the International Criminal Court vary greatly. The probative value of documents posted on WikiLeaks in a court of law is a question for courts to decide, Wikileaks stressed.
At the moment, the site still only exists in English, but Wikileaks plans to implement live discussion forums, also known as ‘talk pages’, where site visitors can hold free discussions in different languages.
However, Zarwan argues that multilingual versions of the site are necessary for it to have an impact.
“Assuming the site is legitimate and that it can guarantee complete anonymity to the whistleblowers, there is still a little chance that conscientious employees of the Egyptian Interior Ministry are going to start leaking incriminating documents until they translate this page into Arabic, Zarwan continues.
A few weeks ago, the first ‘leaking document’, a memo on the Union of Islamic Courts in Somalia issued by the national government, was posted on Wikileaks.org. Curious readers may access the document through the following link: http://www.wikileaks.org/news.html
“We hope that WikiLeaks can make a difference in Egypt, and everywhere else. We applaud the courage of those who blow the whistle on injustice in all corners of the world, Wikileaks added.
