March 2009 Archives

One of the WikiLeakS.org cover domain names, is wikileaks.de.

This a German domain name, registered to a 32 year old student called Theodor Reppe, who lives near Jena, near Dresden.

Yesterday, his home was raided by the German Police, apparently only because of his supposed connection with the WikiLeakS.org servers, over which he obviously has no control.

Hausdurchsuchung bei WikiLeaks.de Domaininhaber

March 24, 2009

EDITORIAL (Wikileaks)

Um kurz nach 21 Uhr wurden am heutigen Dienstag den 24. Maerz 2009 die Wohnorte von Theodor Reppe, dem Domaininhabers von Wikileaks.de durch die saechsische Polizei, vertreten durch sieben Polizeibeamte in Dresden und vier Beamte in Zivil in Jena, durchsucht. Grund fuer die Durchsuchung sind laut Protokoll die "Verbreitung pornographischer Schriften" und das "Auffinden von Beweismitteln" in diesem Zusammenhang. Die Durchsuchung erfolgte aufgrund seines Status als Domaininhaber der Wikileaks.de Domain.

Die Polizei wollte dem Durchsuchten gegenueber keine weitere Angaben machen und es wurde kein Kontakt zu Wikileaks aufgenommen.

[...]

You can download a (.pdf) of one of the Police Search forms / receipts, which mentions a laptop computer, from Wikileaks.de police raid documentation, 24 Mar 2009

The assumption being made is that this raid has something to do with the recent publication of Australian or Thai or other countries alleged internet censorship lists, which although they mostly contain links to porn websites, are also being perverted for political censorship purposes as well.

However, since WikiLeakS.org are saying that they were not actually contacted about the raid, it may perhaps also have something to do with the legal dispute between WikiLeakS.org and the German Federal Foreign Intelligence Service, the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND)

Alternatively, the German Police in Jena and Dresden could just be inept and ignorant of the fact that the actual WikiLeakS.org web servers are physically, logically and legally in Sweden, not in Germany.

We hope that people rally to support Theodor Reppe, since he also runs the high bandwidth https://morphium.info anonymising web proxy server and the morphiumPherrex Tor Exit node and Directory server (91.143.81.107 pherrex.tor.morphium.info), which you may have used knowingly or, more likely, unknowingly, to help to protect your own privacy and security.

Both of these systems are still currently in operation, but some people will now no longer trust them, as they may have been contaminated by the Police, although, for, say a Chinese dissident trying to access the censored BBC Chinese language news website in the UK, that should not make much difference.

The wikileaks.DE domain name (which resolves to IP address 88.80.6.179) is still currently pointing to a webserver at the same Swedish co-hosting facility (PRQ.net) as the main wikileaks.org website (88.80.13.160), but this is on a different subnet.

We hope that the WikiLeakS.org legal team provides Theodor Reppe with all the necessary legal support and media publicity in Germany - he deserves at least as much of their support as any whistleblower does.

WikiLeakS.org may appear to be unavailable to you due to the very high demand for the recently published, purported Australian internet censorship list.

Given the very large numbers of people connecting here to this WikiLeak.org (no "S") discussion blog from Australian IP addresses, it may very well be true that WikiLeakS.org is itself being partly, or totally, censored by the Australian Government, putting them in the same league as Communist China and the United Arab Emirates who are also currently censoring WikiLeakS.org, or other repressive regimes like Burma or Zimbabwe or Saudi Arabia etc.

Remember that there are no copies of WikiLeakS.org leaked document to be found here on this blog, which discusses the ethical and technical issues raised, but which is entirely independent and not affiliated with the WikiLeakS.org project.

25C3 video: Wikileaks vs. the World

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The 25th annual Chaos Computer Congress, was held in Berlin between Christmas and New Year 2008, and featured a session about the WikiLeakS.org project.

An mp4 video (needs Quicktime or similar player) is now available in English, of the session entitled Wikileaks vs. the World (.mp4) with Julian Assange, investigative editor, and Daniel Achberger (spelling ?), writer and analyst:

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Julian and Daniel appealed for the critical involvement of this technically adept audience,of computer experts and "hackers", to help with the aims of the WikiLeakS.org project.

Daniel claimed that there was no bias in the WikiLeakS.org project, but that is something which many people, ourselves included, would dispute.

Julian mentioned a few of the project's successes, and some of the legal threats against it.

Thet raised a laugh from the audience when they revealed that the email sent from the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND), the German Federal Foreign Intelligence Service, asking for documents to be censored, and threatening legal action, was originally sent to the wikileaks@jabber.se email address, which is to do with instant messaging chats, but which,for some reason still, is the only email address on the WikiLeakS.org contact page, which can be cut and pasted, as all of the others are displayed as graphical images, to annoy email spambots.

That does not reflect well on the internet analytical skills and competence of the BND.

Julian repeated his controversial dismissal of blogs, that their authors never generate any original content or do any original research (a false generalisation) and highlighted the decline in the number of international media organisations and in the number of full time, paid investigative newspaper journalists. In the USA, apparently, there are now as few as 40 of them, 10 on the staff of the New York Times.

Julian also made the important point about how easily centralised online newspaper archives can and are being censored, usually by threats of expensive legal action (often using the United Kingdom's appalling "libel tourism" laws) . He also mentioned their habit of not drawing attention to the fact that an article, which has already been published and printed, has now been removed. and has not only ceased to exist, but appears never to have existed - a truly Orwellian re-writing of history aspect of modern censorship.

Daniel hinted at some future technical develops with the WikiLeakS.org project, possibly including the bundling of a WikilLeakS.org generated SSL/ Digital Certificate (since they do not trust commercial certificate authorities) with WikiLeakS.org customised Tor / browser software bundles and (linux) Live CDs etc.

He also hinted at some sort of "intelligent routing" of documents and website content, to cope with legal problems in different countries. This is something which sounds remarkably like selective self censorship by WikilLeakS.org itself.

Apparently not enough people know about, and use things like the hard to censor Tor Hidden Services or Freenet, to publish enough interesting things things which can be picked up by the media. Perhaps the mainstream media simply does not understand what a .onion URL is, or are too impatient with the inevitable slow download speed.

This video presentation gives an interesting glimpse about the WikiLeakS.org project and its future plans, which is not obvious from the website itself.

About this blog

This blog here at WikiLeak.org (no "S") discusses the ethical and technical issues raised by the WikiLeakS.org project, which is trying to be a resource for whistleblower leaks, by providing "untraceable mass document leaking and analysis".

These are bold and controversial aims and claims, with both pros and cons, especially for something which crosses international boundaries and legal jurisdictions.

This blog is not part of the WikiLeakS.org project, and there really are no copies of leaked documents or files being mirrored here.

Email Contact

Please feel free to email us your views about this website or news about the issues it tries to comment on:

email: blog@WikiLeak[dot]org

Before you send an email to this address, remember that this blog is independent of the WikiLeakS.org project.

If you have confidential information that you want to share with us, please make use of our PGP public encryption key or an email account based overseas e.g. Hushmail

LeakDirectory.org

Now that the WikiLeakS.org project is defunct, so far as new whistleblower are concerned, what are the alternatives ?

The LeakDirectory.org wiki page lists links and anonymity analyses of some of the many post-wikileaks projects.

There are also links to better funded "official" whistlblowing crime or national security reporting tip off websites or mainstream media websites. These should, in theory, be even better at protecting the anonymity and security of their informants, than wikileaks, but that is not always so.

New whistleblower website operators or new potential whistleblowers should carefully evaluate the best techniques (or common mistakes) from around the world and make their personal risk assessments accordingly.

Hints and Tips for Whistleblowers and Political Dissidents

The WikiLeakS.org Submissions web page provides some methods for sending them leaked documents, with varying degrees of anonymity and security. Anybody planning to do this for real, should also read some of the other guides and advice to political activists and dissidents:

Please take the appropriate precautions if you are planning to blow the whistle on shadowy and powerful people in Government or commerce, and their dubious policies. The mainstream media and bloggers also need to take simple precautions to help preserve the anonymity of their sources e.g. see Spy Blog's Hints and Tips for Whistleblowers - or use this easier to remember link: http://ht4w.co.uk

BlogSafer - wiki with multilingual guides to anonymous blogging

Digital Security & Privacy for Human Rights Defenders manual, by Irish NGO Frontline Defenders.

Everyone’s Guide to By-Passing Internet Censorship for Citizens Worldwide (.pdf - 31 pages), by the Citizenlab at the University of Toronto.

Handbook for Bloggers and Cyber-Dissidents - March 2008 version - (2.2 Mb - 80 pages .pdf) by Reporters Without Borders

Reporters Guide to Covering the Beijing Olympics by Human Rights Watch.

A Practical Security Handbook for Activists and Campaigns (v 2.6) (.doc - 62 pages), by experienced UK direct action political activists

Anonymous Blogging with Wordpress & Tor - useful step by step guide with software configuration screenshots by Ethan Zuckerman at Global Voices Advocacy. (updated March 10th 2009 with the latest Tor / Vidalia bundle details)

WikiLeakS Links

The WikiLeakS.org Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page.

WikiLeakS Twitter feeds

The WikiLeakS.org website does not stay online all of the time, especially when there is a surge of traffic caused by mainstream media coverage of a particularly newsworthy leak.

Recently, they have been using their new Twitter feeds, to selectively publicise leaked documents to the media, and also to report on the status of routing or traffic congestion problems affecting the main website in Stockholm, Sweden.

N.B.the words "security" or "anonymity" and "Twitter" are mutually exclusive:

WikiLeakS.org Twitter feed via SSL encrypted session: https://twitter.com/wikileaks

WikiLeakS.org unencrypted Twitter feed http://twitter.com/wikileaks

Internet Censorship

OpenNet Initiative - researches and measures the extent of actual state level censorship of the internet. Features a blocked web URL checker and censorship map.

Temporary Autonomous Zone

Temporary Autonomous Zones (TAZ) by Hakim Bey (Peter Lambourn Wilson)

Cyberpunk author William Gibson

Campaign Button Links

Watching Them, Watching Us, UK Public CCTV Surveillance Regulation Campaign
UK Public CCTV Surveillance Regulation Campaign

NO2ID Campaign - cross party opposition to the NuLabour Compulsory Biometric ID Card
NO2ID Campaign - cross party opposition to the NuLabour Compulsory Biometric ID Card and National Identity Register centralised database.

Gary McKinnon is facing extradition to the USA under the controversial Extradition Act 2003, without any prima facie evidence or charges brought against him in a UK court. Try him here in the UK, under UK law.
Gary McKinnon is facing extradition to the USA under the controversial Extradition Act 2003, without any prima facie evidence or charges brought against him in a UK court. Try him here in the UK, under UK law.

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FreeFarid.com - Kafkaesque extradition of Farid Hilali under the European Arrest Warrant to Spain

Peaceful resistance to the curtailment of our rights to Free Assembly and Free Speech in the SOCPA Designated Area around Parliament Square and beyond

Parliament Protest blog - resistance to the Designated Area restricting peaceful demonstrations or lobbying in the vicinity of Parliament.

Petition to the European Commission and European Parliament against their vague Data Retention plans
Data Retention is No Solution Petition to the European Commission and European Parliament against their vague Data Retention plans.

Save Parliament: Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill (and other issues)
Save Parliament - Legislative and Regulatory Reform Bill (and other issues)

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Open Rights Group

The Big Opt Out Campaign - opt out of having your NHS Care Record medical records and personal details stored insecurely on a massive national centralised database.

Tor - the onion routing network
Tor - the onion routing network - "Tor aims to defend against traffic analysis, a form of network surveillance that threatens personal anonymity and privacy, confidential business activities and relationships, and state security. Communications are bounced around a distributed network of servers called onion routers, protecting you from websites that build profiles of your interests, local eavesdroppers that read your data or learn what sites you visit, and even the onion routers themselves."

Tor - the onion routing network
Anonymous Blogging with Wordpress and Tor - useful Guide published by Global Voices Advocacy with step by step software configuration screenshots (updated March 10th 2009).

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Amnesty International's irrepressible.info campaign

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BlogSafer - wiki with multilingual guides to anonymous blogging

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NGO in a box - Security Edition privacy and security software tools

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Home Office Watch blog, "a single repository of all the shambolic errors and mistakes made by the British Home Office compiled from Parliamentary Questions, news reports, and tip-offs by the Liberal Democrat Home Affairs team."

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Reporters Without Borders - Reporters Sans Frontières - campaign for journalists 'and bloggers' freedom in repressive countries and war zones.

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Committee to Protect Bloggers - "devoted to the protection of bloggers worldwide with a focus on highlighting the plight of bloggers threatened and imprisoned by their government."

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Wikileaks.org - the controversial "uncensorable, anonymous whistleblowing" website based currently in Sweden.

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Recent Comments

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