A website provides a new way to leak incriminating information without getting caught. Wikileaks.org combines the wiki-interface, which gives users control of the content of the site, with “cutting-edge cryptographic technologies” that are aimed to prevent tracing and censorship.

According to the site, Wikileaks is targeting “oppressive regimes in Asia, the former Soviet bloc, Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East,” and has already received over one million documents, despite the fact that it hasn’t officially opened for business yet. It was unveiled prematurely when its existence was leaked in a blog.

When Wikileaks does go live, how will you know whether the posted material is legitimate? The site-to-be will rely on “the global community” to police the material, prompting questions about whether Wikileaks will do more harm than good. Steven Aftergood, an analyst at the Federation of American Scientists and author of newsletter Secrecy News, told the Washington Post, “Indiscriminate disclosure can be as problematic as indiscriminate secrecy.”

But Wikileaks has high hopes: “Wikileaks may become the most powerful ‘intelligence agency’ on earth,” the site says, “—an intelligence agency of the people.”

-Flora Lichtman

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