What is Wikileaks?

In July 2010 Wikileaks released confidential documents that shed light
on the war in Afghanistan. Wikileaks has posted online almost 400,000
documents detailing events in Iraq after the 2003 invasion.
JulianAssange is the founder of Wikileaks , one of the biggest
whistle-blowing sites on the web The news that the largest leak in
American military history came via the website Wikileaks will not
surprise long-term watchers of the controversial, multi-award-winning
site. Despite a period of near-bankruptcy, it consistently released
information that major corporations and governments wanted to conceal
– the Abu Ghraib "torture manual", footage from American jets
allegedly committing war crimes, the secrets of Scientology and even
Sarah Palin's private emails have all been published by the site.
Founded by secretive Australian Julian Assange, Wikileaks was
originally based in Sweden and garnered 1.2 million leaked documents
in time for its launch in January 2007. It taps in to the world's web
users' desire either for justice or revenge on former employers or
acquaintances, but its most significant stories have been held up as
largely in the public interest. The Abu Ghraib revelations resulted in
international condemnation of American methods and arguably
contributed to political commitmentsfrom Barack Obama to close down
the detention centre. Assange claims that by using the global
community of internet users, his site is able to promote accuracy,
scrutiny and discussion of sensitive information. Anybody with web
access can submit a story to Wikileaks . The site, however, 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."
Wikileaks has now evolved an editorial policy by which only documents
"of political, diplomatic, historical or ethical interest" are in fact
published.