Can WikiLeaks be Found Guilty of a Crime for Its Release
Of the Iraq War Materials, Afghanistan War Materials and Diplomatic Cables?
In 2010, WikiLeaks released three large groups of information – classified documents concerning the Iraqi war, classified Pentagon documents concerning the conflict in Afghanistan, and U.S. State Department diplomatic cables. There was an outcry from members in the U.S. government, U.S. lawmakers, and U.S. citizens as they questioned how WikiLeaks could have legally obtained and released this information. There were also those who applauded WikiLeaks and saw them as part of the new media, simply carrying on the struggle between the people’s right to know versus national security. In this new Internet age, where data can be immediately published to an enormous audience from anywhere in the world with the simple push of a button, and where wars are no longer declared on a country but on generalized “terror,” is a site like WikiLeaks protected?
WikiLeaks Background
WikiLeaks states on its website:
WikiLeaks is a non-profit media organization dedicated to bringing important news and information to the public. We provide an innovative, secure and anonymous way for independent sources around the world to leak information to our journalists. We publish material of ethical, political and historical significance while keeping the identity of our sources anonymous, thus providing a universal way for revealing of supposed and censored injustices.
WikiLeaks, founded in 2006 by Australian Julian Assange and a small group of activist and computer experts, is a whistle-blowing website which “aims to bring to light secret information about governments and corporations” (“Times Topics”). “[I]t is the world’s first stateless news organization, because it belongs to the Internet rather than to the laws and culture of any one country” (Peters).