WikiLeaks deleting and editing cables – you can’t trust them

Something’s not right here… WikiLeaks has deleted 13 cables from their site, and modified several others. I can’t think of an obvious reason for this – WikiLeaks is very popular, and their site has been unofficially mirrored quite a bit, so the information that they deleted is still out there. It’s not like deleting cables has that much effect on hiding them; in fact, it’s raising more eyebrows as to whether or not WikiLeaks can be trusted.

Note that 171 cables are known to exist, via newspaper articles, but have not been added to the Cablegate pages for the time being. This makes me wonder: Is WikiLeaks selling cables to the media? I think that both the media and the public should have access to the same released cables at the same time… it’s wrong to create preferential access to, or exclude certain individuals from this kind of information, especially if it’s being leaked. A leak is supposed to cast light on something secret or underhanded… being secret about a leak is underhanded in itself. That’s just… a form of extortion. Stealing information from someone who may be doing something morally wrong is one thing, but stealing that information and then selling it is morally wrong too.

WikiLeaks is definitely withholding the cables on purpose, otherwise we’d have access to all 251287 of them by now. They’ve only released 1618 so far. I understand that they have to spend time redacting information from the cables to protect the identities of individuals, but it’s taking them way too long to do just this. The response to this that most people are probably thinking of is that they’re simply using the cables as a device to protect themselves from being shut down. However, there is something more to it than this. Consider the position that WikiLeaks is in. The cables themselves are obviously a very important bargaining chip, in more ways than you might know. They’re a dealer of information; they have the dirt on everybody. It seems rather similar to the power that a social networking corporation (i.e. Facebook) wields. Someone must be using WikiLeaks for their own purposes.

See “A few notes on technology, WikiLeaks, data mining, and privacy” for more information about manipulating information.

Also see “Wikileaks Streams of Hidden Money” at Cryptome.

Going off on a tangent for a moment, I wonder how feasible it would be for WikiLeaks to start an actual war. The world’s political situation does seem pretty tense at the moment – perhaps the stage is set for war, and all it needs is a certain trigger to upset a country or two from the ‘nuclear club’ and start a large-scale conflict. That trigger could very well be leaked classified documents. If actual nuclear war were to break out, it would be bad news for everybody… But getting back on topic…

Let’s not forget that if WikiLeaks was truly dedicated to complete information freedom, then there would not be any reason for WikiLeaks to engage in the commercialization, deletion and censorship of information. If WikiLeaks is doing any of these things, it’s either a ‘necessary evil’ on their part, or it’s hypocrisy.

This situation makes me think that we’re all being used for someone’s benefit; it feels like some kind of manipulation, and I don’t like it.

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