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WikiLeaks History
The WikiLeaks website with domain name wikileaks.org was registered on 4 October
2006.The website published its first document in December 2006. The Australian have called
Julian Assange as the "founder of WikiLeaks". As of June 2009, the site had over 1,200 registered
volunteers with an an advisory board comprising Assange and others.
WikiLeaks states that its "primary interest is in exposing oppressive regimes in Asia, the former Soviet bloc, Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East, but we
also expect to be of assistance to people of all regions who wish to reveal unethical behaviour in their governments and corporations."
In January 2007, the website stated that it had over 1.2 million leaked documents that it was preparing to publish.
WikiLeaks only revenue stream is donations, but WikiLeaks is planning to add an
auction model to sell early access to documents. As of June 2010, WikiLeaks was a finalist for a grant of more than half a
million dollars from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation.
WikiLeaks is hosted by PRQ, a Sweden-based company providing "highly secure, no-questions-asked hosting services".
Who is WikiLeaks founder
* Assange was born in Townsville, Australia, in July 1971, to parents who were
involved in theatre and travelled frequently. Assange's mother runs a puppet theatre.
* In his teens, Assange gained a reputation as a sophisticated computer programmer.
* In 1995 he was arrested and pleaded guilty to hacking. He was fined, but avoided prison on condition he did not reoffend.
* In his late 20s, he went to Melbourne University to study mathematics and physics.
* Assange has no permanent home and was often seen carrying a rucksack, moving
from city to city and staying with friends in countries from Iceland to Kenya.
* He is described by those he has worked with as highly intelligent, determined, intense and at times paranoid.
* He is known for being highly secretive. He carries several mobile phones and at one point believed he was being followed.
* Assange is wanted in Sweden for questioning about allegations of rape, sexual
molestation and unlawful coercion, and an arrest warrant was received by
London's Metropolitan Police. Authorities in Sweden, were seeking to have him detained to investigate the allegations by two Swedish women.
* Assange began WikiLeaks in 2006, creating a web-based "dead letter drop" for would-be leakers.
* His website has five full-time staff, several dozen active volunteers and 800 part-time volunteers.
* Assange said he thinks there is still a place for investigative journalism and
hoped that WikiLeaks could complement traditional media. He said that WikiLeaks has never compromised a source.
* Assange is an avid user of social media networks such as Facebook and Twitter
and is known for his sometimes sharply worded tweets. WikiLeaks' pages have some 300,000 to 400,000 followers.
The WikiLeaks on Facebook
WikiLeaks claimed in April 2010 that Facebook deleted their fan page, which had
30,000 fans. However, as of 7 December 2010 the group's Facebook fan page was available and had grown by 100,000 fans daily since 1
December, to more than 1,300,000 fans. It is also the largest growth of the week. Regarding the presence of WikiLeaks on Facebook, Andrew Noyes, the
company's D.C. based Manager of Public Policy Communications has stated "the
Wikileaks Facebook Page does not violate our content standards nor have we encountered any material posted on the page that violates our
policies."[
The WikiLeaks on India
Biological weapons: WikiLeaks on December 17, 2010: U.S. officials fear lax security at Indian laboratories could make the
facilities targets for terrorists seeking biological weapons to launch attacks across the globe, according to comments in a leaked U.S. diplomatic cable made
public on December 17, 2010. The cable was part of a trove of documents sent from the U.S. Embassy in New
Delhi that was obtained by the secret-spilling website WikiLeaks and published December 16, 2010 by the British newspaper The Guardian.
India's surveillance system and its public health system were ill-prepared for the possibility of such an attack, the cable said.
Rahul Gandhi concerns : The cables dealt with accusations of Indian torture in Kashmir and the concerns
of Rahul Gandhi - seen as India's prime-minister-in-waiting - that Hindu extremists posed a greater danger to India than Islamist militants.
On December 17, 2010 responding to the WikiLeaks cable in which he is quoted as saying that 'radicalised Hindu groups' may be a
bigger problem than Islamist terrorists, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said Friday that both 'terrorism and communalism of all kinds' posed major threats to India.
Muslims within India: India's over 150 million Muslim population is largely unattached to extremism,
US diplomatic cables have said, endorsing India's vibrant democracy, inclusive culture and nationalistic nature of the minority community. "Separatism and
religious extremism have little appeal to Indian Muslims, and the overwhelming majority espouses moderate doctrines," Former US envoy to India, David Mulford
said in a cable released by whistle blower website WikiLeaks. "India's growing economy, vibrant democracy, and inclusive culture, encourage
Muslims to seek success and social mobility in the mainstream and reduces alienation.
With Indian Muslim youth increasingly comfortable in the mainstream, the pool of
potential recruits is shrinking, while Muslim families and communities provide little sanction or support to extremist appeals," the cable said.
The vast majority (of Muslims) remain committed to the Indian state and seek to
participate in mainstream political and economic life, it said. |
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