Government study of leaks of classified documents calls for dialogue with media

A study of leaks of classified information says that the friction caused by interests in keeping national security secrets and in the public’s right to know can be mitigated to some extent through improved understanding and management achieved partly through dialogue between the government and media. WikiLeaks has changed the secrecy terrain, writes Steven Aftergood [...]

Government watchdog alleges FBI stonewalling on WikiLeaks surveillance

The Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) has sued the Justice Department and the FBI claiming that they refuse to release information on the FBI’s surveillance of citizens who have shown support for or interest in WikiLeaks. EPIC made the Freedom of Information Act complaint in federal court. -db From the Courthouse News Service, January 31, [...]

WiliLeaks founder getting TV show

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange will have his own TV interview show this spring pending the outcome of his court hearing on February 1. He says he plans to interview political thinkers and revolutionaries. Assange is waiting for the appeal of his extradition to Sweden on sex charges. -db From Gizmodo, January 24, 2012, by Jamie [...]

Appeal in the works in Twitter/WikiLeaks case

The American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Frontier Foundation are set to file an appeal concerning the U.S. government’s attempts to obtain Twitter records in their investigation of WikiLeaks. The ACLU and EFF are seeking to prevent the government from sealing records of their efforts to obtain private information of Internet users without a [...]

Reporter’s privilege: Technology increases difficulty of protecting sources and notes

Faulty computer security and their own inexperience with encryption pose problems for journalists in keeping their notes and sources from authorities. With the right surveillance technology, it is easy these days to gain access to reporters’ telephone, Skype, e-mails and instant messaging. -db From a commentary in the Columbia Journalism Review, January 9, 2012, by [...]

Government forces clamp on Twitter demanding censorship

The U.S. government has stepped up efforts to pressure Twitter to censor posts by a militant Somali group and the Taliban according to the Electronic Frontier Foundation. The Israeli government and U.S. Senator Joe Lieberman are also pressuring Twitter. -db From a commentary for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, January 6, 2012, byy Jillian C. York [...]

State Department still says cables WikiLeaks released last year are classified

The Obama administration is still insisting that cables WikiLeaks released last year are classified even though the cables were released by the State Department in compliance with a Freedom of Information Act request. The classified information concerned targeted killings, detention at Guantanamo, torture and rendition. -db From a commentary for the American Civil Liberties Union, [...]

WikiLeaks reveals details on ‘mass surveillance industry’

WikiLeaks released  the first documents of a massive cache of documents from contractors involved in surveillance. To make the release, WikiLeaks worked with two other nonprofits and with the media including the Washington Post. WikiLeaks said surveillance companies were invading personal computers and cell phones. -db From Mashable, December 1, 2011, by Stan Schroeder. Full [...]

Opinion: WikiLeaks made significant contributions to the right to know

WikiLeaks has changed the face of journalism and contributed more scoops this year than any other media outlet, reports Trevor Timm in a commentary for the Electronic Frontier Foundation. In using the Espionage Act to prosecute WikiLeaks, the federal government poses a real threat to the mainsream media and the First Amendment, argues Timm. -db [...]

Opinion: WikiLeaks may die out but seminal idea will endure

WikiLeaks seems all the more vulnerable as the founder, Julian Assange, is likely to be extradited from Britain to Sweden on charges of sexual misconduct. But even if WikiLeaks falls, the idea of a transnational organization gathering and disseminating information while evading the grasp of governments, seems likely to survive, writes David Carr in The [...]

Justice Department gains right to WikiLeaks associates’ Twitter info

A federal judge upheld a lower court decision that the Justice Department may obtain records of twitter accounts of three current and former WikiLeaks associates. Under the ruling by the lower court, the order includes records showing the times messages were sent to one another and the Internet IP addresses but does not include the [...]

Bloomberg editors call National Security Agency secrecy policy ‘dysfunctional’

Bloomberg editors Max Berley and Tobin Harshaw were unimpressed with NSA’s declassification of 50,000 pages of historic documents and the agency’s boast that the act demonstrated the Obama administration’s commitment to openness. The editors said one of the documents released was already long in the public domain and that the release of the documents was [...]

Out-sourcing the job of muzzling the media

BY EDWARD WASSERMAN–A comment posted to London’s Guardian newspaper said it best: “Censorship, like everything else in the West, has been privatized.”  The writer, somebody called “edensasp,” was referring to news that Wikileaks—the online whistleblower that has been embarrassing governments and corporations worldwide by disclosing their secrets–was suspending operations. Why? Had its leader, the mercurial [...]

Opinion: Congress copyright bill threat to whistleblowing and Internet

The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) under consideration in Congress could result in extensive Internet censorship and threaten the work of human rights advocates and whistleblowers, argues Trevor Timm, an Electronic Frontier Foundation lawyer. “[SOPA]threatens to transform copyright law, pushing Internet intermediaries—from Facebook to your ISP—to censor whole swaths of the Internet. SOPA could forever [...]

The odds against WikiLeaks

Is the WikiLeaks movement, faced with myriad internal and external challenges, on the precipice? And if so, will this marriage of technology and transparency emerge in new forms? In a New York Times essay, media writer David Carr examines the troubles bearing down on WikiLeaks and asserts that the challenge to similar approaches might be [...]

WikiLeaks founder loses round in attempt to avoid extradition to Sweden to face alleged rape charge

Britain’s High Court found that the sex charges were sufficiently serious to warrant extradition of WikiLeaks Founder Julian Assange to Sweden. Assange’s attorneys contend  that the sex changes were politically motivated, part of a plot to extradite Assange to the United States for prosecution over the WikiLeaks release of thousands of cables on the Afghanistan [...]

U.S. diplomat suspended for publishing book criticizing Iraq war policy

The Obama administration suspended Foreign Services Officer Peter Van Buren for his book critical of the State Department operations in Iraq. Van Buren also installed a link to WikiLeaks on his blog. “No one was particularly concerned about what we were doing, how much money we were spending, and the results of our endeavors,”  Van [...]

Sources in peril as journalists fail to keep pace in cybersecurity

A robust free press often relies on anonymous sources with reporters going to prison to protect these sources, but with the advances in electronic surveillance, journalists are ill-equipped to protect these sources, writes Christopher Soghoian, an expert in cybersecurity, in an op-ed for The New York Times. Soghoian says that news organizations need to invest [...]

WikiLeaks’ Assange says site in peril from U.S. blockade

WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange said WikiLeaks may have to shut down by next year since the financial blockade organized by the United States has turned off the spigot of donations. Assange charged that with Visa, MasterCard, PayPal and Western Union refusing to provide conduits for donations the site’s revenues have fallen to five percent of [...]

Obama releases executive order to tighten security in WikiLeaks era

The Obama administration has taken steps to safeguard classified secrets and to insure that with safeguards agencies still share critical intelligence. The president’s executive order will establish internal auditing systems to assess information security and sharing throughout the federal government. The order also sets up a study to determine whether agencies can identify people who [...]

Diplomat shares perspective on reading diplomatic cables released by WikiLeak

A former diplomat provides a practical guide for reading diplomatic cables released by WikiLeaks with perspectives for working journalists and others on the value of the information. -db From Wired, October 7, 2011, by Daniel Serwer. Full story

Opinion: Obama promise of transparency bogs down in oil sands dealings

An opponent of the Keystone pipeline proposed to carry oil from the tar sands area of Canada to the United States says that the Obama administration has been conducting  secret meetings with the oil industry, this confirmed by documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request. “…Barack Obama said he would ‘end the tyranny [...]

Australia Broadcasting Corporation reports key desertion rendering WikiLeaks impotent

The Australia Broadcasting Corporation reports that the future of WikiLeaks is threatened as a key figure in the organization called “The Architect” left the organization taking with him the submission system or drop box which was his creation. Now WikiLeaks has no way to receive submissions from whistleblowers and protect their identities. WhistleLeaks founder Julian [...]

Guradian denies it caused leak of U.S. diplomatic cables from WikiLeaks website

The Guardian said it had no role in the release of thousands of unredacted U.S. diplomatic cables. WikiLeaks claimed that the newspaper had caused the security breach. A Guardian News & Media spokeswoman said their story about WikiLeaks in February contained a password but nothing about the location of the files and that WikiLeaks had [...]

WikiLeaks’ unredacted U.S. diplomatic cables show up online

WikiLeaks has once again fueled criticism that it is irresponsible in handling its cache of U.S. diplomatic cables. The cables have surfaced online, unredacted with names of informants and intelligence agents. WikiLeaks denied they leaked the cables, putting the blame elsewhere. “The issue relates to a mainstream media partner and a malicious individual,”  they wrote. [...]

Obama to issue new order improving security in response to WikiLeaks

The Obama administration will issue an executive order in a matter of weeks to tighten security of classified information. New procedures will meet the challenge of groups like WikiLeaks who  got ahold of thousands of classified documents concerning the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. The procedures will fill in gaps in policy for information systems security [...]

Government accountability: New online information sharing can supplement whistleblowers

An open government  blogger, Micah Sifry, is optimistic that new information sharing websites will allow citizens affected by government projects and subsequent waste, fraud and inattention to share their complaints and initiate action. In his book WikiLeaks and the Age of Transparency, Sifry cites the website Seeclickfix.com adopted by around 500 cities which allows citizens [...]

WikiLeaks inspires new whistleblower websites

A hacker group is establishing two WikiLeaks type websites providing ways for whistleblowers to publish information about corruption in business and government. A statement on the website said it provides a safe way for local government or corporate employees to disclose sensitive information. The site will screen submissions to eliminate clues to the identities of whistleblowers [...]

Obama administration presses to stop leaks

The Obama Administration is unrelenting in its campaign against leaks of classified information, despite its failure to uphold its case against a former National Security Agency official who allegedly fed secrets to the Baltimore Sun. Now, the New York Times says, the government is pursuing an arms expert who provided information to Fox News. The [...]

Whistleblower gets plea deal, dodges espionage conviction

A former employee of the National Security Agency, Thomas A. Drake, charged with espionage for leaking classified information, struck a deal with the Justice Department admitting to a misdemeanor of using NSA’s computers to to provide information to a reporter for the Baltimore Sun. It is expected that Drake will not have to serve any [...]

WikiLeaks founder Assange wins prestigious journalism prize

Julian Assange, founder of WikiLeaks, has been awarded the  Martha Gellhorn journalism prize awarded to a journalist  “whose work has penetrated the established version of events and told an unpalatable truth that exposes establishment propaganda, or ‘official drivel.’” In their citation, the judges wrote, “WikiLeaks has given the public more scoops than most journalists can [...]

Opinion: PBS special puts WikiLeaks journalistic legitimacy in question

Jason Mick says the Public Broadcasting Service special “WikiSecrets” has raised serious questions about the WikiLeaks‘ whistleblowing credentials as many of the leaked documents revealed secret details about U.S. operations rather than exposed wrongdoing. Mick also cited the resistance put up by WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange to redacting the names of Afghanistan tribal leaders and [...]

Hackers assault PBS for its documentary on WikiLeaks

Roiled by the PBS Frontline documentary on WikiLeaks and Bradley Manning, hackers launched attacks by posting a fake news story on a PBS blog, cracking its servers and posting stolen passwords. Supporters of Bradley Manning were upset that the documentary dwelled on Manning’s emotional problems and gave little detail of his restrictive pre-trial confinement.  -db [...]

Opinion: WikiLeaks needs special recognition and protection

WikiLeaks would be at a disadvantage should it find itself in federal court trying to withhold the identity of a source since it does qualify for reporter’s privilege according to criterion laid out by a federal court of appeals in 1998. The appeals court said to qualify, a person must be practicing investigative reporting, gathering news and [...]

Frontline delves into Bradley Manning’s ‘WikiSecrets’

Frontline reports the inside story of Bradley Manning, Julian Assange and the largest intelligence breach in U.S. history in WikiSecrets airing this week on PBS stations nationwide or on demand on the Frontline website.  Other resources available online include access to Bradley Mannings Facebook page, interviews with Julian Assange, Adrian Lamo and Brian Manning, and [...]

Will mainstream media match Wikileaks’ technology for receiving leaked documents anonymously and securely? Not likely.

BY PETER SCHEER—Ever since Wikileaks became a household word, traditional news media have had every reason to try to replicate its technology for receiving leaked documents, via the internet, on an anonymous and secure basis. Traditional media may be at war with Julian Assange and disagree fundamentally with his methods in vetting and disseminating classified [...]

U.S. House of Representatives wants Pentagon lockout of WikiLeaks

The House Armed Services Committee wants to require the Defense Department to employ and “insider-detection” system to block leaks of information. The system would require centralized monitoring and detection of unauthorized activities especially cross-domain transfers of information. The committee did voice concerns that increased  scrutiny and would block the flow of information and negatively affect [...]

WikiLeaks protects its information with threat of huge monetary penalty

To make sure that none of its treasure of leaked information is leaked, WikiLeaks is asking its associates to sign a nondisclosure agreement that the leaked information is solely the property of WikiLeaks, and should anyone leak this commercial property, they would be subject to a penalty of 12 million pounds or almost $20 million. [...]

WikiLeaks investigation part of broader campaign against leakers

As a federal grand jury is preparing to look into the WikiLeaks release of classified U.S. Iraq and Afghanistan war documents, the Justice Department is aggressively pursuing others accused of leaking government secrets. Says Steven Aftergood of the Federation of American Scientists’ Secrecy News, “For people who are concerned about freedom of the press, access [...]

Guantanamo documents: Lawyers told to avert their eyes

When are documents so public that they can be read about in the world’s newspapers, seen on national television and found readily on the Internet considered so sensitive that the Justice Department forbids certain lawyers to see them? Answer: When lawyers for Guantanamo Bay prisoners want access to documents released by WikiLeaks that reveal the [...]

Next Page »