14 DAY TRIAL // Wikileaks has been in the news recently not for the controversial scoops it regularly publishes but for its financial troubles. The site was taken offline until the necessary funding was raised for it to operate, but it is now coming back with a vengeance. The latest document published on the whistleblower site is a very interesting one, a report about Wikileaks itself that calls it a "threat to the U.S. Army."
"Wikileaks.org uses trust as a center of gravity by assuring insiders, leakers, and whistleblowers who pass information to Wikileaks.org personnel or who post information to the Web site that they will remain anonymous," the report now available on Wikileaks reads (PDF).
"The identification, exposure, or termination of employment of or legal actions against current or former insiders, leakers, or whistleblowers could damage or destroy this center of gravity and deter others from using Wikileaks.org to make such information public," it adds.
The report dates back to 2008 and was intended to spur an investigation in order to determine the source of the leaks from inside the Defense Department or the U.S. government. The idea was to find and prosecute the moles in order to discredit Wikileaks’ reputation when it came to protecting its sources. So far, the plan has clearly failed, as none of Wikileaks’ many sources have been outed. The site employs some sophisticated methods to ensure the anonymity and security of its sources, something mentioned in the report itself, which notes the "high level of sophistication in [the site's] efforts to provide a secure operating environment for whistleblowers." The report seems to have been spurred by several leaks of secret documents, especially related to the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, which ended up on Wikileaks.
Wikileaks has managed to make quite a name for itself in the few years it has operated, but that hasn't helped it with its struggle to stay afloat financially. It relies solely on donations from its users for revenue and it has said it needs to raise $600,000 to operate the site and pay its staff for 2010. Wikileaks has been running a fund-raising campaign and the site was offline for a while, while the money was raised. It has just now announced it reached two thirds of its required budget.