AlterNet.org

AlterNet / By Julianne Escobedo Shepherd

The 13 Best Hacker Attacks Against Military Security Companies, the FBI, the Kochs ... and Arizona

Hackers have declared war on anyone or anything that threatens to censor the Internet or its citizens. Here are some of their wildest targets.

July 16, 2011 |

Photo Credit: Twitter.com/AnonymousIRC

"Anonymous" is a nebulous collective of hackers who, for several months, have been waging a campaign against institutions and governments that seek to censor the web and hinder free expression. Their brand of cyber activism—"hacktivism," as it were—has engaged in various types of protest and civil disobedience; they have pulled down websites, unleashed documents, and challenged the security of various sites. And, since brother group "LulzSec" launched its politically minded "AntiSec" initiative in June, their targets have been increasingly purposeful, and often executed in solidarity with real-life protesters on the ground and in the streets.

For instance, on July 12, in what Anonymous called “Military Meltdown Monday,” they released documents obtained by hacking into Booz Allen Hamilton, a company providing apparently pallid web security for major government and military agencies—a breach that resulted in its stock dropping 2.3 percent. After unleashing 90,000 logins and passwords from the Army, the Navy, the Department of Justice and NASA, Anonymous tweeted out their caveat: “We are not your enemy. Here is just a fraction of what we decided to not publish: http://imagebin.org/162370 | Silent No More. #Antisec.”

Anonymous tweets and public statements are generally rife with mischief, often ribbing their targets for failing to provide the super-tight security they promise their high-level clients. But the bigger picture is that, even though most of Anonymous’ leaks over the past month have consisted of passwords and email addresses, as they’ve run with the now-defunct LulzSec’s #AntiSec torch, their actions and public statements are increasingly conscientious and pointed. As #AntiSec was initially spurred by WikiLeaks—mirroring their hero Bradley Manning’s concept that “Information Should be Free”—so too they’ve picked up that site’s original moral mission.

Here, possibly the most explosive and/or useful hacks since Anonymous and LulzSec became "hacktivists."

1. HBGary’s WikiLeaks Target Document For Bank of America

As the Atlantic pointed out in its solid timeline of the current hacktivist generation, Anonymous’ hacking into web security group HBGary was a turning point. In their hack of nearly 70,000 emails—made in retaliation for a staff member who threatened to go public with their identities to the FBI and others—they discovered a Powerpoint file that explored various ways of countering and discrediting WikiLeaks. The document was compiled for Bank of America, which feared a large dump of potentially incriminating cables, though as of last month, Wikileaks still hadn’t loosed the information and BoA was still reportedly in the dark as to what the leaks might be.

But it was proof-positive that major corporations were looking into ways to discredit and take down WikiLeaks and Julian Assange. In conjunction with Palantir Technologies and Berico Technologies, analytics companies with government clients and counter-terrorism pedigrees, HBGary proposed to “combat the WikiLeaks threat” and to profile journalists supportive of WikiLeaks. Salon’s Glenn Greenwald, BradBlog's Brad Friedman, the New York Times’ Jenny 8. Lee, and the Guardian’s James Ball were categorized on the Powerpoint as WikiLeaks “volunteers,” and were apparently monitored, as detailed in Friedman's piece on AlterNet here.

Greenwald, in particular, was a target; on his own dedicated slide, the firms pointed out that “without the support of people like Glenn, WikiLeaks would fold.” This was, of course, the idea behind it, and the strategists seemed to believe that, given the choice of career vs. personal cause, the journalists would preserve their careers. From an internal email: “it is this level of support we need to attack.”

As for the general public, ironically, one of the HBGary strategies mirrors those of hackers: creating “doubt about their security”—the prime pressure point hacktivists use against web-censoring governments.

(And for the patient observer willing to trawl through 3,500 pages of emails, there were still plenty of cheap laffs.)

2. Koch Brothers

In late February, at the height of the tug-of-war between the people of Wisconsin vs. Scott Walker, Anonymous decided to aim for the big guns: the Koch brothers, who were not only found to have put money and love into Walker’s anti-union agenda, but who were setting up counter-camps in Madison in order to squelch the public protest. In Operation Wisconsin, they knocked down the website of Americans for Prosperity, and beseeched all followers to not only explore vulnerabilities in Koch security, but also to physically boycott all of its products.

“Anonymous hears the voice of the downtrodden American people,” said a press release, “whose rights and liberties are being systematically removed one by one, even when their own government refuses to listen or worse -- is complicit in these attacks. We are actively seeking vulnerabilities, but in the mean time we are calling for all supporters of true Democracy, and Freedom of The People, to boycott all Koch Industries' paper products. We welcome unions across the globe to join us in this boycott to show that you will not allow big business to dictate your freedom.”

As Gawker pointed out at the time, this was one of the first instances in which hackers under the Anonymous umbrella really put forth such a blatantly political agenda, and in retrospect it marked a turning point that was further ignited by LulzSec, and continues to this moment.

3. Monsanto

Agricultural giant Monsanto is well known as one of the world’s biggest providers of genetically modified organisms (GMOs), and has a history of stamping out small farms in order to cheaply manufacture environmentally destructive frankenfoods. Most recently, ethical seed retailer FedCo was forced to find alternative seed sources after Monsanto gobbled up one of its largest suppliers. Anonymous was on the case; in an action called #OpMonsanto, last month it hacked into Monsanto’s computer system and unleased 2,500 employee email addresses and passwords, a move acknowledged by the company last week. And #OpMonsanto was in fact part of a bigger operation: Project Tarmageddon, an action spearheaded by Anonymous subgroup Operation Green Rights, which in a release also promised to go after big oil companies like Exxon and Conoco.

4. Montana

Another branch of Project Tarmageddon: the protest of Montana governor Brian Schweitzer’s corruption of greenspace with concessions to big oil. Anonymous’ Tarmageddon press release: “This week, activists are gathering along U.S. Highway 12 in Montana to protest the transformation of a serene wilderness into an industrial shipping route, bringing "megaloads" of refinery equipment to the Alberta Tar Sands in Canada... Anonymous now joins the struggle against ‘Big Oil’ in the heartland of the US. We stand in solidarity with any citizen willing to protest corporate abuse. Anonymous will not stand by idly and let these environmental atrocities continue. This is not the clean energy of the future that we are being promised.” As Anonymous launched its own cause, Abhaxas—a high-profile hacker in the #AntiSec movement—unleashed databases from Montana’s state website, MT.gov, and appeared exasperated at how easy it was, tweeting, “Coders, please stop exposing your databases it’s not even fun anymore.”

5. Florida

Abhaxas was also responsible for hacking into Florida’s voting database—twice—in an effort to show how easily votes can be compromised. The first time he posted his efforts to Paste2, writing, “So, this is a little ironic. Here is inside details of florida voting systems. Now.. who still believes voting isn't rigged? If the United States Government can't even keep their ballot systems secure, why trust them at all?”

Voting officials assured citizens they were on top of it:

“Altering ballots, changing ballots, or anything like that — right off the bat is a third-degree felony with prison time,” [Collier County Chief Department Supervisor of Elections Tim] Durham explained.

Officials say they’re now getting law enforcement involved.

Meanwhile, state and county election workers say Florida elections are now more secure than ever.

But... Abhaxas proved they’ve still got a way to go before completely securing voter info, after he hacked the "more secure" database for a second time on July 7. S/he posted a file directory of the database on Pastebin and wrote, “Glad you cleaned things up, pretty secure now guys.” Ouch.

6. Westboro Baptist Church

In February, the vile, self-proclaimed “God Hates Fags” Westboro Baptist Church claimed to have been threatened by Anonymous in what was widely regarded as a hoax the congregation crafted for PR purposes. Anonymous denied the statement, so after they refused to respond to the “threat,” the publicity-hungry WBC released a typically inflammatory statement essentially challenging Anonymous to actually hack them, saying if they didn’t, they were cowards. So you could almost hear the hackers’ collective yawn when the Westboro Baptist Church website was pulled down during a live debate, replaced with an Anonymous symbol and a statement that read, “your continued biting of the Anonymous hand has earned you a swift and emotionless bitchslap... The world (including Anonymous) disagrees with your hateful messages, but you have the right to voice them. This does not mean you can jump onto Anonymous for attention... Gods hates fags: assumption. Anonymous hates leeches: fact.” The simple hack was later attributed to a single person going by the name of th3J35t3r (The Jester). Touche.

7. Chinga La Migra (Arizona)

In late June, LulzSec launched “Chinga La Migra,” an attack on Arizona government (specifically, police) websites in retaliation for “SB1070 and the racial profiling anti-immigrant police state that is Arizona.” LulzSec released email addresses and passwords of employees of the Arizona Department of Public Safety for their first dump, and when the group disbanded after 50 days, Chinga La Migra continued under the leadership of Anonymous. In “Part Dos,” the group leaked the emails of 12 Arizona state police, which included “seductive girlfriend pictures... internal police reports, cops forwarding racist chain emails, K9 drug unit cops who use Percocets, and a convicted sex offender who was part of the FOP Maricopa Lodge Five.”

This is where the morality of the actions get a little sticky. Releasing email addresses to prove a website is vulnerable is one thing, but unleashing employees' personal emails is another... even if they're locating damning and potentially illegal activities of state employees, more of which they found in part three of Chinga La Migra, launched July 1, targeting the Arizona Fraternal Order of Police. “We found more racist email chain emails,” read the release, “including Springerville's police chief Mike Nuttal forwarding jokes about torturing 'ragheads.' FOP president Brandon L Musgrave was also forwarding anti-muslim emails while also purchasing large amounts of guns, so we're dumping his paypal and credit card information as well.”

With Anonymous’ strong stance against SB1070 and racism in Arizona (let this ”third and crushing blow against Arizona police send a strong message to the ruling class around the world”), they aren’t likely to stop there.

8. Military Meltdown Monday

The aforementioned Booz Allen hack, and the concept of military emails and passwords, may seem vaguely innocuous—there’s always the chance someone will try to falsely use a military email to gain other information or use them for nefarious means, but there’s an equal chance that that person will have changed their password by the time they’ve tried. More damning is the fact that the security company the military used was so easily breached—ironically, Booz Allen is the same company that provides online firewalls for the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Defense and the “intelligence community,” among other branches of government.

Said Anonymous’ statement on the Pirate Bay, "In this line of work, you'd expect them (to have a) state-of-the-art battleship, right? Well you may be as surprised as we were when we found their vessel being a puny wooden barge. We infiltrated a server on their network that basically had no security measures in place." It was this specific breach that lead Senator John McCain to appeal Congress for a special Committee on web security:

"As you know, cyber security legislation has been drafted by at least three committees and at least seven committees claim some jurisdiction over the issue," McCain wrote in a letter to Senate leaders. "The White House put forward a legislative proposal in May and the Department of Energy put forth requirements and responsibilities for a cyber security program that same month. Earlier this month, the Department of Commerce sought comment on its proposal to establish voluntary codes of behavior to improve cyber security and the Department of Defense issued its strategy for operating in cyberspace. "With so many agencies and the White House moving forward with cyber security proposals, we must provide congressional leadership on this pressing issue of national security." In short, there are too many cooks in the kitchen.

"I write to renew my request that the Senate create a temporary Select Committee on Cyber Security and Electronic Intelligence Leaks. I feel this Select Committee is necessary in order to develop comprehensive cyber security legislation and adequately address the continuing risk of insider threats that caused thousands of documents to be posted on the website Wikileaks," McCain wrote.

9. Infragard

The first real government hack in the #AntiSec movement occurred in early June, when now-defunct collective LulzSec brought down FBI-hired agency Infragard in protest of the Pentagon’s then-imminent decision to classify hacks as an act of war—and more specifically, to launch LulzSec’s “war” on government institutions they viewed as hostile to a free society. Infragard, “a partnership between the FBI and the private sector to share security information,” brought down its own website after the hack as a “safety precaution,” but the real damage was already done. LulzSec fired off a warning to government employees everywhere: “Stop aiding the corporations and a government which uses unethical means to corner vast amounts of wealth and proceed to flagrantly abuse their power. Together, we have the power to change this world for the better.” They followed it with an admin password and a Martin Luther King quote: “He who passively accepts evil is as much involved in it as he who helps to perpetuate it.”

10. Fuck FBI Friday

As with Booz Allen and Infragard, the Anonymous action July 8 entitled “Fuck FBI Friday” begs the question, Why is the FBI’s hired security company, IRC Federal, so easily breached? However, this dump was slightly more serious than emails and passwords. In a statement posted on Pastebin following a rather cheeky type graphic of a mushroom cloud, Anonymous wrote, “In their emails we found various contracts, development schematics, and internal documents for various government institutions including a proposal of the FBI to develop a ‘Special Identities Modernization (SIM) Project’ to ‘reduce terrorist and criminal activity by protecting all records associated with trusted individuals and revealing the identities of those individuals who may pose serious risk to the United States and its allies.’ We also found fingerprinting contracts for the DOJ, biometrics development for the military, and strategy contracts for the ‘National Nuclear Security Administration Nuclear Weapons Complex.’”

11. Oregon Tea Party

Last year, Anonymous attacked the Oregon Tea Party Facebook Page, but not necessarily for political reasons. At that time, the group was upset the Tea Party was using the slogan “We are Anonymous. We are Legion. We do not forgive. We do not forget. Expect us,” which is 1) scary; and 2) a slogan Anonymous invented upon its inception. This year, though, with the surprising amount of organization among a nebulous, leaderless group, it looks like the national Tea Party might be in for some strikes. In February, a message was posted to the Tea Party Patriots site that included the following warning:

“The time for us to be idle spectators in your inhumane treatment of fellow Man has reached its apex, and we shall now be moved to action. Thus, we give you a warning: Cease & desist your protest campaign in the year 2011, return to your homes & close your public Web sites. Should you ignore this warning, you will meet with the vicious retaliatory arm of ANONYMOUS: We will target your public Websites, and the propaganda & detestable doctrine that you promote will be eradicated; the damage incurred will be irreversible, and neither your institution nor your activists will ever be able to fully recover. It is in your best interest to comply now, while the option to do so is still being offered, because we will not relent until you cease the conduction & promotion of all your bigoted operations & doctrines.”

So far no dice, but we’re curious to see what happens as we near the election.

12. Viacom and Universal Music

They might seem like soft targets in comparison to, say, the Department of Defense, but the Anonymous dump of email addresses and passwords gleaned from Viacom and Universal Music represents a crucial element to the agenda: that information should be free. Of course this includes the concept of “piracy,” but one wonders if Anonymous would have set these companies in its targets if their lawyers had not been so aggressive in prosecuting “little guys” who engage in low-level downloading. In their “Open Letter to Viacom,” they decry what they call “falsely claimed copyright infringements” and “totalitarian-like actions”:

After Viacom lost their lawsuit against YouTube, they continued to exploit YouTube for money. Viacom's justification of "creator's rights" seems only to mean making money for the sake of money. Their hypocritical action of uploading fake videos to YouTube in order to furnish their own court case is transparent...

Anonymous demands from Viacom a public press release to admit and apologize for the fraud and crimes that they have commited. Anonymous also demands that Viacom allows everyone thoughout the internet full rights to be able to express themselves. Lastly, we, the citizens of the world, demand that Viacom stops their attempts to gather personally identifying information such as IPs, which are of no relevance to them.

13. The Church of Scientology

While ostensibly Scientology hadn’t committed any major crimes in 2008 (that we know about), one of Anonymous’ earliest actions was directed toward the mysterious religious organization, in response to its “propaganda.” In late January of that year, the Church was attempting to censor YouTube videos of Tom Cruise going off about the evils of psychiatry, which prompted Anonymous to release an equally creepy, though more righteous video in protest of their “campaigns of misinformation, suppression of dissent, and litigious nature.” (It’s worth a peek, if only for the shadowy robot voice and clouds footage.)

They then proceeded to launch a series of small-scale attacks against the site, including Google bombing, spreading anti-Scientology information across the web, and pulling down their sites. Scientology classified the attacks as “hate crimes,” but the action served to solidify Anonymous as a viable coalition in the media, and was the first organized attack alluding to what would come.

As for what’s next? AnonNews, a site compiling press releases and news about the group, is calling for solidarity with Turkey, actions against Indiana to “overturn Barnes v. Indiana” (the ruling that basically overturned the Second Amendment in that state), more WikiLeaks solidarity, and a coalition with artists doing work in support of #AntiSec. We wait with bated breath. Even if you don’t agree with their actions, you can surely agree that they’re making things way more interesting in the cyberuniverse.

Julianne Escobedo Shepherd is an associate editor at AlterNet and a Brooklyn-based freelance writer and editor. Formerly the executive editor of The FADER, her work has appeared in VIBE, SPIN, New York Times and various other magazines and websites.

#OCCUPYWALLSTREET

Adbusters Blog

#OCCUPYWALLSTREET

A shift in revolutionary tactics.


Adbusters , 13 Jul 2011

Alright you 90,000 redeemers, rebels and radicals out there,

A worldwide shift in revolutionary tactics is underway right now that bodes well for the future. The spirit of this fresh tactic, a fusion of Tahrir with the acampadas of Spain, is captured in this quote:

"The antiglobalization movement was the first step on the road. Back then our model was to attack the system like a pack of wolves. There was an alpha male, a wolf who led the pack, and those who followed behind. Now the model has evolved. Today we are one big swarm of people."

— Raimundo Viejo, Pompeu Fabra University
Barcelona, Spain

The beauty of this new formula, and what makes this novel tactic exciting, is its pragmatic simplicity: we talk to each other in various physical gatherings and virtual people's assemblies … we zero in on what our one demand will be, a demand that awakens the imagination and, if achieved, would propel us toward the radical democracy of the future … and then we go out and seize a square of singular symbolic significance and put our asses on the line to make it happen.

The time has come to deploy this emerging stratagem against the greatest corrupter of our democracy: Wall Street, the financial Gomorrah of America.

On September 17, we want to see 20,000 people flood into lower Manhattan, set up tents, kitchens, peaceful barricades and occupy Wall Street for a few months. Once there, we shall incessantly repeat one simple demand in a plurality of voices.

Tahrir succeeded in large part because the people of Egypt made a straightforward ultimatum – that Mubarak must go – over and over again until they won. Following this model, what is our equally uncomplicated demand?

The most exciting candidate that we've heard so far is one that gets at the core of why the American political establishment is currently unworthy of being called a democracy: we demand that Barack Obama ordain a Presidential Commission tasked with ending the influence money has over our representatives in Washington. It's time for DEMOCRACY NOT CORPORATOCRACY, we're doomed without it.

This demand seems to capture the current national mood because cleaning up corruption in Washington is something all Americans, right and left, yearn for and can stand behind. If we hang in there, 20,000-strong, week after week against every police and National Guard effort to expel us from Wall Street, it would be impossible for Obama to ignore us. Our government would be forced to choose publicly between the will of the people and the lucre of the corporations.

This could be the beginning of a whole new social dynamic in America, a step beyond the Tea Party movement, where, instead of being caught helpless by the current power structure, we the people start getting what we want whether it be the dismantling of half the 1,000 military bases America has around the world to the reinstatement of the Glass-Steagall Act or a three strikes and you're out law for corporate criminals. Beginning from one simple demand – a presidential commission to separate money from politics – we start setting the agenda for a new America.

Post a comment and help each other zero in on what our one demand will be. And then let's screw up our courage, pack our tents and head to Wall Street with a vengeance September 17.

for the wild,
Culture Jammers HQ

Address the Jobs Crisis, Build a Movement

Published on Monday, July 11, 2011 by Demos

Address the Jobs Crisis, Build a Movement

by Robert Kuttner

Does anyone care about the American middle class? The working middle class -- especially its younger members -- now faces a prolonged period of high unemployment, declining wages, and diminished public services.

Meanwhile, the cost of things that you need to enter the middle class, like college tuition and affordable health care, keep outstripping paychecks. The housing crisis is somehow stripping asset values from those who do own homes without offering many bargains to aspiring young homebuyers, because banks belatedly have tightened credit requirements.

As unemployment keeps rising and the economy faces a period of prolonged stagnation, political elites of both parties can only yammer about debts and deficits. But reducing the deficit before we get a recovery going will only worsen joblessness, cut back essential public services, and deny government the needed tools to produce an economic recovery.

What's needed is a mass movement to shake the dominance of the austerity lobby. Here's a start: the Change to Win labor federation has begun a 12-city organizing tour, working with the House Progressive Caucus, to throw a spotlight on continuing joblessness combined with the failure of government to clean up banking abuses.

While the US Chamber of Commerce prepares for another "Jobs Summit" this afternoon, featuring GE CEO Jeff Immelt, who heads President Obama's competitiveness initiative, and emphasizing tax and budget cutting and more deregulation, Change to Win is partnering with the AFL-CIO, Demos, and the Economic Policy Institute on a pre-emptive Monday morning summit on the jobs crisis and the future of the middle class. This counter-event, moderated by former New York Times columnist Bob Herbert, will try to break through the austerity storyline.

For the straight scoop, you can't do better than this three-minute video produced by Change to Win.

The leaders of the unions make three core points. The creation of the American postwar middle class didn't just happen. It was socially constructed during the postwar boom, built on public investment, low-interest rates combined with right regulation of finance, and a strong labor movement which assured that as productivity rose, wages would rise with it. The postwar middle class went to public universities, could buy affordable homes, enjoyed rising wages, and could afford to raise kids often on one income.

The June jobs report could not have come out at a worse time for those on the political right and center who are obsessing about the deficit and the debt. Every key indicator is down, and we face prolonged economic stagnation.

The Republican story is that cutting public spending, deregulating, and refusing to raise taxes on the wealthy are the keys to job creation. That did not work so well for George W. Bush. Indeed, if low taxes and light regulation were all that it took to create jobs and sustain prosperity, John McCain would be president.

The political center -- Obama, the Bowles-Simpson Commission, the Peter G. Peterson Foundation -- offers essentially the same austerity medicine, but wants tax hikes as well as spending cuts. So eager is Obama to make a deal that he is now willing to throw Social Security and Medicare, as well as trillions in other spending cuts, into the pyre. But that centrist austerity formula won't work any better than the right-wing version. It won't restore jobs or prosperity.

In the short run, Obama may be saved from himself by two factors -- the right and the left. With each passing day, the Republicans become more in thrall to the know-nothings of the Tea Party. The White House keeps offering them the family jewels, but they won't accept. Meanwhile, Democrats in both houses are growing more and more wary of the kind of deal Obama seems all too willing to make.

The budget of the Congressional Progressive Caucus produces a surplus within 10 years, but does so by increasing taxes on the rich, plowing the money into social investment, increasing jobs and social programs, cutting back spending on military adventures, and safeguarding social programs. This should be the White House budget.

Until we get a recovery going, austerity will only breed more austerity. With consumer demand flat, business hesitant to invest, and banks reluctant to lend, there is only one economic force that can jump-start a recovery and that is government investment.

We need a massive public investment program, of the kind that finally ended the Great Depression. That was called World War II. Imagine if we put all that money to peaceful public purposes like rebuilding our communities and converting to clean energy.

With Republicans increasingly intransigent on any budget bargain that raises revenues, a deal would depend heavily on Democratic votes. But the Democratic caucuses in both houses, which have been largely ignored by the White House in Obama's evidently futile courting of Republican House Speaker John Boehner, are now refusing to vote for cuts in Social Security or Medicare.
The Republican stance is such bad economics and so irresponsible as budget politics that a president with strong convictions and a feel for how you use the bully pulpit to move public opinion would be eating their lunch. But we have long since realized that this is not the president we have.

Even commentators who have been willing to give Obama the benefit of the doubt are now out of patience. "I've been stunned, both in the spring during the government shutdown negotiations and now, that Obama has hardly ever gone to the American people to insist firmly that there are some things he would never abide," writes my former colleague Michael Tomasky in Daily Beast/Newsweek. Though Republicans are practically inviting Obama to define a new progressive center, he just won't deliver.

There are two ways progressives can prevent this economic calamity from turning into a deeper political catastrophe -- an inside game and an outside game. Progressives in Congress can refuse to cave in. That part of the fight is going better than one might have feared. Democrats in the House and Senate are resisting the capitulation impulses of a Democratic president. The other way is to build a movement. Better yet, we need to do both, and it is encouraging to see the two labor federations coming together and working with the Congressional Progressive Caucus.

There are far worse fates for this Republic than to miss the nominal deadline of August 2 for raising the debt ceiling. One would be to capitulate to Republican blackmail and give away the fruits of 40 years of struggle. The other would be to fail to seize this moment to build a movement of our own.
© 2011 Robert Kuttner
Robert Kuttner

Robert Kuttner is co-founder and co-editor of The American Prospect magazine, as well as a Distinguished Senior Fellow of the think tank Demos. He was a longtime columnist for Business Week, and continues to write columns in the Boston Globe and Huffington Post. He is the author of A Presidency in Peril: The Inside Story of Obama's Promise, Wall Street's Power, and the Struggle to Control our Economic Future, Obama's Challenge, and other books.

REVOLUTION: An Overthrow or Repudiation: AN EXAMPLE

Jedword

REVOLUTION: an overthrow or repudiation and the thorough replacement of an established government or political system by the people governed.

by Jed

There have been all kinds of euphemisms employed over the past two weeks to describe the activity in the central square of Cairo and in the other cities of Egypt. But the reality has pushed through those euphemisms: what is happening is a revolution. The people of Egypt have lived under the organized dictatorship of President Mubarak for thirty years, suffering poverty, lack of proper resources for living, and the suppression of truth and freedom. For the most part they have been passive. But over the past 18 days the people of Egypt, led by young people with an energized passion, have demonstrated a new resolve.

Now that President Mubarak has resigned and the government of Egypt is in flux, the hard part begins. The result of the revolution is opportunity. The people of Egypt have the opportunity to bring into existence a government that responds to their dreams. Those of us who think optimistically about democracy have the ability to envision a government which is “of the people, by the people and for the people.”

The reality we face is that the product of the Egyptian Revolution is less likely to resemble our western vision of an established democracy. There will be threads of it interwoven with cultural, religious, and economic realities which are vastly divergent from our own. The tendency may be to bemoan the differences. What will be more fortunate will be our ability to accept the differences and celebrate them with the Egyptian people.

This revolution affects the United States, but it is not about the United States.

There is much we are able to offer the Egyptian people as they struggle with their newly-realized freedom. But it will be important not to foist our expectations upon Egypt and undermine their ability to shape their own democracy.

The Egyptian people are intelligent and well educated. Much of their education has been in the United States and in western nations. There is an intellectual segment of their population which is capable of “thinking outside the box” because they have been taught in systems which embrace that kind of thinking. In a sense, they have a unique opportunity to design and establish a government which is better suited to the 21st century than those we have inherited from prior centuries.

The role of social media in the lives of young Egyptians is beyond measurement. Some have said that it has been the glue of the revolution. The ability of young Egyptians to mold and shape a government which utilizes 21st century technology is a gift. It is also a feature which establishes Egypt as a nation in the midst of a global economy, an international intelligence, a civilization without borders.

While there is much to celebrate in Cairo and the cities and villages of Egypt, there is a balancing characteristic of anxiety as a leaderless nation struggles to overcome its poverty, unemployment, and sometimes contentious religious partisanship and to shape it into a collaborative form of governance. It is too early to hang the “Mission Completed” banner. The struggle for peace and success has just begun.

Illustration Credit: LeanneGraeff

Tagged as: democracy, Egypt, governance, President Mubarak, United States

More About Wikileaks from Wikileaks

About

What is Wikileaks ?

WikiLeaks is a not-for-profit media organisation. Our goal is to bring important news and information to the public. We provide an innovative, secure and anonymous way for sources to leak information to our journalists (our electronic drop box). One of our most important activities is to publish original source material alongside our news stories so readers and historians alike can see evidence of the truth. We are a young organisation that has grown very quickly, relying on a network of dedicated volunteers around the globe. Since 2007, when the organisation was officially launched, WikiLeaks has worked to report on and publish important information. We also develop and adapt technologies to support these activities.

WikiLeaks has sustained and triumphed against legal and political attacks designed to silence our publishing organisation, our journalists and our anonymous sources. The broader principles on which our work is based are the defence of freedom of speech and media publishing, the improvement of our common historical record and the support of the rights of all people to create new history. We derive these principles from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In particular, Article 19 inspires the work of our journalists and other volunteers. It states that everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers. We agree, and we seek to uphold this and the other Articles of the Declaration.

1.2 How WikiLeaks works

WikiLeaks has combined high-end security technologies with journalism and ethical principles. Like other media outlets conducting investigative journalism, we accept (but do not solicit) anonymous sources of information. Unlike other outlets, we provide a high security anonymous drop box fortified by cutting-edge cryptographic information technologies. This provides maximum protection to our sources. We are fearless in our efforts to get the unvarnished truth out to the public. When information comes in, our journalists analyse the material, verify it and write a news piece about it describing its significance to society. We then publish both the news story and the original material in order to enable readers to analyse the story in the context of the original source material themselves. Our news stories are in the comfortable presentation style of Wikipedia, although the two organisations are not otherwise related. Unlike Wikipedia, random readers can not edit our source documents.

As the media organisation has grown and developed, WikiLeaks been developing and improving a harm minimisation procedure. We do not censor our news, but from time to time we may remove or significantly delay the publication of some identifying details from original documents to protect life and limb of innocent people.

We accept leaked material in person and via postal drops as alternative methods, although we recommend the anonymous electronic drop box as the preferred method of submitting any material. We do not ask for material, but we make sure that if material is going to be submitted it is done securely and that the source is well protected. Because we receive so much information, and we have limited resources, it may take time to review a source’s submission.

We also have a network of talented lawyers around the globe who are personally committed to the principles that WikiLeaks is based on, and who defend our media organisation.

1.3 Why the media (and particularly Wiki leaks) is important

Publishing improves transparency, and this transparency creates a better society for all people. Better scrutiny leads to reduced corruption and stronger democracies in all society’s institutions, including government, corporations and other organisations. A healthy, vibrant and inquisitive journalistic media plays a vital role in achieving these goals. We are part of that media.

Scrutiny requires information. Historically, information has been costly in terms of human life, human rights and economics. As a result of technical advances particularly the internet and cryptography - the risks of conveying important information can be lowered. In its landmark ruling on the Pentagon Papers, the US Supreme Court ruled that "only a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose deception in government." We agree.

We believe that it is not only the people of one country that keep their own government honest, but also the people of other countries who are watching that government through the media.

In the years leading up to the founding of WikiLeaks, we observed the world’s publishing media becoming less independent and far less willing to ask the hard questions of government, corporations and other institutions. We believed this needed to change.

WikiLeaks has provided a new model of journalism. Because we are not motivated by making a profit, we work cooperatively with other publishing and media organisations around the globe, instead of following the traditional model of competing with other media. We don’t hoard our information; we make the original documents available with our news stories. Readers can verify the truth of what we have reported themselves. Like a wire service, WikiLeaks reports stories that are often picked up by other media outlets. We encourage this. We believe the world’s media should work together as much as possible to bring stories to a broad international readership.

1.4 How WikiLeaks verifies its news stories

We assess all news stories and test their veracity. We send a submitted document through a very detailed examination a procedure. Is it real? What elements prove it is real? Who would have the motive to fake such a document and why? We use traditional investigative journalism techniques as well as more modern rtechnology-based methods. Typically we will do a forensic analysis of the document, determine the cost of forgery, means, motive, opportunity, the claims of the apparent authoring organisation, and answer a set of other detailed questions about the document. We may also seek external verification of the document For example, for our release of the Collateral Murder video, we sent a team of journalists to Iraq to interview the victims and observers of the helicopter attack. The team obtained copies of hospital records, death certificates, eye witness statements and other corroborating evidence supporting the truth of the story. Our verification process does not mean we will never make a mistake, but so far our method has meant that WikiLeaks has correctly identified the veracity of every document it has published.

Publishing the original source material behind each of our stories is the way in which we show the public that our story is authentic. Readers don’t have to take our word for it; they can see for themselves. In this way, we also support the work of other journalism organisations, for they can view and use the original documents freely as well. Other journalists may well see an angle or detail in the document that we were not aware of in the first instance. By making the documents freely available, we hope to expand analysis and comment by all the media. Most of all, we want readers know the truth so they can make up their own minds.

1.5 The people behind WikiLeaks

WikiLeaks is a project of the Sunshine Press. It’s probably pretty clear by now that WikiLeaks is not a front for any intelligence agency or government despite a rumour to that effect. This rumour was started early in WikiLeaks’ existence, possibly by the intelligence agencies themselves. WikiLeaks is an independent global group of people with a long standing dedication to the idea of a free press and the improved transparency in society that comes from this. The group includes accredited journalists, software programmers, network engineers, mathematicians and others.

To determine the truth of our statements on this, simply look at the evidence. By definition, intelligence agencies want to hoard information. By contrast, WikiLeaks has shown that it wants to do just the opposite. Our track record shows we go to great lengths to bring the truth to the world without fear or favour.

The great American president Thomas Jefferson once observed that the price of freedom is eternal vigilance. We believe the journalistic media plays a key role in this vigilance.

1.6 Anonymity for sources

As far as we can ascertain, WikiLeaks has never revealed any of its sources. We can not provide details about the security of our media organisation or its anonymous drop box for sources because to do so would help those who would like to compromise the security of our organisation and its sources. What we can say is that we operate a number of servers across multiple international jurisdictions and we we do not keep logs. Hence these logs can not be seized. Anonymization occurs early in the WikiLeaks network, long before information passes to our web servers. Without specialized global internet traffic analysis, multiple parts of our organisation must conspire with each other to strip submitters of their anonymity.

However, we also provide instructions on how to submit material to us, via net cafes, wireless hot spots and even the post so that even if WikiLeaks is infiltrated by an external agency, sources can still not be traced. Because sources who are of substantial political or intelligence interest may have their computers bugged or their homes fitted with hidden video cameras, we suggest that if sources are going to send WikiLeaks something very sensitive, they do so away from the home and work.

A number of governments block access to any address with WikiLeaks in the name. There are ways around this. WikiLeaks has many cover domains, such as https://destiny.mooo.com, that don’t have the organisation in the name. It is possible to write to us or ask around for other cover domain addresses. Please make sure the cryptographic certificate says wikileaks.org .

2. WikiLeaks’ journalism record

2.1 Prizes and background

WikiLeaks is the winner of:

the 2008 Economist Index on Censorship Freedom of Expression award
the 2009 Amnesty International human rights reporting award (New Media)

WikiLeaks has a history breaking major stories in major media outlets and robustly protecting sources and press freedoms. We have never revealed a source. We do not censor material. Since formation in 2007, WikiLeaks has been victorious over every legal (and illegal) attack, including those from the Pentagon, the Chinese Public Security Bureau, the Former president of Kenya, the Premier of Bermuda, Scientology, the Catholic & Mormon Church, the largest Swiss private bank, and Russian companies. WikiLeaks has released more classified intelligence documents than the rest of the world press combined.

2.2 Some of the stories we have broken

War, killings, torture and detention
Government, trade and corporate transparency
Suppression of free speech and a free press
Diplomacy, spying and (counter-)intelligence
Ecology, climate, nature and sciences
Corruption, finance, taxes, trading
Censorship technology and internet filtering
Cults and other religious organizations
Abuse, violence, violation

War, killings, torture and detention

Changes in Guantanamo Bay SOP manual (2003-2004) - Guantanamo Bay’s main operations manuals
Of Orwell, Wikipedia and Guantanamo Bay - In where we track down and expose Guantanamo Bay’s propaganda team
Fallujah jail challenges US - Classified U.S. report into appalling prison conditions in Fallujah
U.S lost Fallujah’s info war - Classified U.S. intelligence report on the battle of Fallujah, Iraq
US Military Equipment in Iraq (2007) - Entire unit by unit equipment list of the U.S army in Iraq
Dili investigator called to Canberra as evidence of execution mounts - the Feb 2008 killing of East Timor rebel leader Reinado
Como entrenar a escuadrones de la muerte y aplastar revoluciones de El Salvador a Iraq - The U.S. Special Forces manual on how to prop up unpopular government with paramilitaries

Government, trade and corporate transparency

Change you can download: a billion in secret Congressional reports - Publication of more than 6500 Congressional Research Reports, worth more than a billion dollars of US tax-funded research, long sought after by NGOs, academics and researchers
ACTA trade agreement negotiation lacks transparency - The secret ACTA trade agreement draft, followed by dozens of other publications, presenting the initial leak for the whole ACTA debate happening today
Toll Collect Vertraege, 2002 - Publication of around 10.000 pages of a secret contract between the German federal government and the Toll Collect consortium, a private operator group for heavy vehicle tolling system
Leaked documents suggest European CAP reform just a whitewash - European farm reform exposed
Stasi still in charge of Stasi files - Suppressed 2007 investigation into infiltration of former Stasi into the Stasi files commission
IGES Schlussbericht Private Krankenversicherung, 25 Jan 2010 - Hidden report on the economics of the German private health insurance system and its rentability

Suppression of free speech and a free press
The Independent: Toxic Shame: Thousands injured in African city, 17 Sep 2009 - Publication of an article originally published in UK newspaper The Independent, but censored from the Independent’s website. WikiLeaks has saved dozens of articles, radio and tv recordings from disappearing after having been censored from BBC, Guardian, and other major news organisations archives.
Secret gag on UK Times preventing publication of Minton report into toxic waste dumping, 16 Sep 2009 - Publication of variations of a so-called super-injunction, one of many gag-orders published by WikiLeaks to expose successful attempts to suppress the free press via repressive legal attacks
Media suppression order over Turks and Caicos Islands Commission of Inquiry corruption report, 20 Jul 2009 - Exposure of a press gagging order from the Turks and Caicos Islands, related to WikiLeaks exposure of the Commission of Inquiry corruption report
Bermuda’s Premier Brown and the BCC bankdraft - Brown went to the Privy council London to censor the press in Bermuda
How German intelligence infiltrated Focus magazine - Illegal spying on German journalists

Diplomacy, spying and (counter-)intelligence

U.S. Intelligence planned to destroy WikiLeaks, 18 Mar 2008 - Classified (SECRET/NOFORN) 32 page U.S. counterintelligence investigation into WikiLeaks. Has been in the worldwide news.
CIA report into shoring up Afghan war support in Western Europe, 11 Mar 2010 - This classified CIA analysis from March, outlines possible PR-strategies to shore up public support in Germany and France for a continued war in Afghanistan. Received international news coverage in print, radio and TV.
U.S. Embassy profiles on Icelandic PM, Foreign Minister, Ambassador - Publication of personal profiles for briefing documents for U.S. officials visiting Iceland. While lowly classified are interesting for subtle tone and internal facts.
Cross-border clashes from Iraq O.K. - Classified documents reveal destabalizing U.S. military rules
Tehran Warns US Forces against Chasing Suspects into Iran - Iran warns the United States over classified document on WikiLeaks
Inside Somalia and the Union of Islamic Courts - Vital strategy documents in the Somali war and a play for Chinese support

Ecology, climate, nature and sciences

Draft Copenhagen climate change agreement, 8 Dec 2009 - Confidential draft "circle of commitment" (rich-country) Copenhagen climate change agreement
Draft Copenhagen Accord Dec 18, 2009 - Three page draft Copehagen "accord", from around Friday 7pm, Dec 18, 2009; includes pen-markings
Climatic Research Unit emails, data, models, 1996-2009 - Over 60MB of emails, documents, code and models from the Climatic Research Unit at the University of East Anglia, written between 1996 and 2009 that lead to a worldwide debate
The Monju nuclear reactor leak - Three suppressed videos from Japan’s fast breeder reactor Monju revealing the true extent of the 1995 sodium coolant disaster

Corruption, finance, taxes, trading

The looting of Kenya under President Moi - $3,000,000,000 presidential corruption exposed; swung the Dec 2007 Kenyan election, long document, be patient
Gusmao’s $15m rice deal alarms UN - Rice deal corruption in East Timor
How election violence was financed - the embargoed Kenyan Human Rights Commission report into the Jan 2008 killings of over 1,300 Kenyans
Financial collapse: Confidential exposure analysis of 205 companies each owing above EUR45M to Icelandic bank Kaupthing, 26 Sep 2008 - Publication of a confidential report that has lead to hundreds of newspaper articles worldwide
Barclays Bank gags Guardian over leaked memos detailing offshore tax scam, 16 Mar 2009 - Publication of censored documents revealing a number of elaborate international tax avoidance schemes by the SCM (Structured Capital Markets) division of Barclays
Bank Julius Baer: Grand Larceny via Grand Cayman - How the largest private Swiss bank avoids paying tax to the Swiss government
Der Fall Moonstone Trust - Cayman Islands Swiss bank trust exposed
Over 40 billion euro in 28167 claims made against the Kaupthing Bank, 23 Jan 2010 - List of Kaupthing claimants after Icelandic banking crash
Northern Rock vs. WikiLeaks - Northern Rock Bank UK failed legal injunctions over the ¡Ì24,000,000,000 collapse
Whistleblower exposes insider trading program at JP Morgan - Legal insider trading in three easy steps, brought to you by JP Morgan and the SEC

Censorship technology and internet filtering

Eutelsat suppresses independent Chinese-language TV station NTDTV to satisfy Beijing - French sat provider Eutelsat covertly removed an anti-communist TV channel to satisfy Beijing
Internet Censorship in Thailand - The secret internet censorship lists of Thailand’s military junta

Cults and other religious organizations

Church of Scientology’s ’Operating Thetan’ documents leaked online - Scientology’s secret, and highly litigated bibles
Censored Legion de Cristo and Regnum Cristi document collection - Censored internal documents from the Catholic sect Legion de Cristo (Legion of Christ)
US Department of Labor investigation into Landmark Education, 2006 - 2006 investigative report by the U.S. Department of Labor on Landmark Education

Abuse, violence, violation

Report on Shriners raises question of wrongdoing - corruption exposed at 22 U.S. and Canadian children’s hospitals.
Claims of molestation resurface for US judo official
Texas Catholic hospitals did not follow Catholic ethics, report claims - Catholic hospitals violated catholic ethics

3. Short essays on how a more inquiring media can make a difference in the world

3.1 The Malaria Case Study: the antidote is good governance born from a strong media

Malaria is a case study in why good governance not just good science is the solution to so much human suffering. This year, the mosquito borne disease will kill over one million people. More than 80% of these will be children. Great Britain used to have malaria. In North America, malaria was epidemic and there are still a handful of infections each year. In Africa malaria kills over 100 people per hour. In Russia, amidst the corruption of the 1990s, malaria re-established itself. What is the difference between these cases?

Why does Malaria kill so many people in one place but barely take hold in another? Why has malaria been allowed to gain a foothold in places like Russia where it was previously eradicated? We know how to prevent malaria epidemics. The science is universal. The difference is good governance.

Put another way, unresponsive or corrupt government, through malaria alone, causes a children’s "9/11" every day. [1]

It is only when the people know the true plans and behaviour of their governments that they can meaningfully choose to support or reject them. Historically, the most resilient forms of open government are those where publication and revelation are protected. Where that protection does not exist, it is our mission to provide it through an energetic and watchful media.

In Kenya, malaria was estimated to cause 20% of all deaths in children under five. Before the Dec 2007 national elections, WikiLeaks exposed $3 billion of Kenyan corruption, which swung the vote by 10%. This led to changes in the constitution and the establishment of a more open government. It is too soon to know if it will contribute to a change in the human cost of malaria in Kenya but in the long term we believe it may. It is one of many reforms catalyzed by WikiLeaks unvarnished reporting.

3.2 The importance of principled leaking to journalism, good government and a healthy society

Principled leaking has changed the course of history for the better. It can alter the course of history in the present, and it can lead us to a better future.

Consider Daniel Ellsberg, working within the US government during the Vietnam War. He comes into contact with the Pentagon Papers, a meticulously kept record of military and strategic planning throughout the war. Those papers reveal the depths to which the US government has sunk in deceiving the American people about the war. Yet the public and the media know nothing of this urgent and shocking information. Indeed, secrecy laws are being used to keep the public ignorant of gross dishonesty practised by their own government. In spite of those secrecy laws and at great personal risk, Ellsberg manages to disseminate the Pentagon papers to journalists and to the world. Despite criminal charges against Ellsberg, eventually dropped, the release of the Pentagon Papers shocks the world, exposes the government lying and helps to shorten the war and save thousands of both American and Vietnamese lives.

The power of principled leaking to call governments, corporations and institutions to account is amply demonstrated through recent history. The public scrutiny of otherwise unaccountable and secretive institutions forces them to consider the ethical implications of their actions. Which official will chance a secret, corrupt transaction when the public is likely to find out? What repressive plan will be carried out when it is revealed to the citizenry, not just of its own country, but the world? When the risks of embarrassment and discovery increase, the tables are turned against conspiracy, corruption, exploitation and oppression. Open government answers injustice rather than causing it. Open government exposes and undoes corruption. Open governance is the most effective method of promoting good governance.

Today, with authoritarian governments in power in much of the world, increasing authoritarian tendencies in democratic governments, and increasing amounts of power vested in unaccountable corporations, the need for openness and transparency is greater than ever. WikiLeaks interest is the revelation of the truth. Unlike the covert activities of state intelligence agencies, as a media publisher WikiLeaks relies upon the power of overt fact to enable and empower citizens to bring feared and corrupt governments and corporations to justice.

With its anonymous drop box, WikiLeaks provides an avenue for every government official, every bureaucrat, and every corporate worker, who becomes privy to damning information that their institution wants to hide but the public needs to know. What conscience cannot contain, and institutional secrecy unjustly conceals, WikiLeaks can broadcast to the world. It is telling that a number of government agencies in different countries (and indeed some entire countries) have tried to ban access to WikiLeaks. This is of course a silly response, akin to the ostrich burying its head in the sand. A far better response would be to behave in more ethical ways.

Authoritarian governments, oppressive institutions and corrupt corporations should be subject to the pressure, not merely of international diplomacy, freedom of information laws or even periodic elections, but of something far stronger - the consciences of the people within them.

3.3 Should the press really be free?

In its landmark ruling on the Pentagon Papers, the US Supreme Court ruled that "only a free and unrestrained press can effectively expose deception in government." We agree.

The ruling stated that "paramount among the responsibilities of a free press is the duty to prevent any part of the government from deceiving the people and sending them off to distant lands to die of foreign fevers and foreign shot and shell."

It is easy to perceive the connection between publication and the complaints people make about publication. But this generates a perception bias, because it overlooks the vastness of the invisible. It overlooks the unintended consequences of failing to publish and it overlooks all those who are emancipated by a climate of free speech. Such a climate is a motivating force for governments and corporations to act justly. If acting in a just manner is easier than acting in an unjust manner, most actions will be just.

Sufficient principled leaking in tandem with fearless reporting will bring down administrations that rely on concealing reality from their own citizens.

It is increasingly obvious that corporate fraud must be effectively addressed. In the US, employees account for most revelations of fraud, followed by industry regulators, media, auditors and, finally, the SEC. Whistleblowers account for around half of all exposures of fraud.

Corporate corruption comes in many forms. The number of employees and turnover of some corporations exceeds the population and GDP of some nation states. When comparing countries, after observations of population size and GDP, it is usual to compare the system of government, the major power groupings and the civic freedoms available to their populations. Such comparisons can also be illuminating in the case of corporations.

Considering the largest corporations as analogous to a nation state reveals the following properties:

The right to vote does not exist except for share holders (analogous to land owners) and even there voting power is in proportion to ownership.
All power issues from a central committee.
There is no balancing division of power. There is no fourth estate. There are no juries and innocence is not presumed.
Failure to submit to any order may result in instant exile.
There is no freedom of speech.
There is no right of association. Even romance between men and women is often forbidden without approval.
The economy is centrally planned.
There is pervasive surveillance of movement and electronic communication.
The society is heavily regulated, to the degree many employees are told when, where and how many times a day they can go to the toilet.
There is little transparency and something like the Freedom of Information Act is unimaginable.
Internal opposition groups, such as unions, are blackbanned, surveilled and/or marginalized whenever and wherever possible.

While having a GDP and population comparable to Belgium, Denmark or New Zealand, many of these multi-national corporations have nothing like their quality of civic freedoms and protections. This is even more striking when the regional civic laws the company operates under are weak (such as in West Papua, many African states or even South Korea); there, the character of these corporate tyrannies is unregulated by their civilizing surroundings.

Through governmental corruption, political influence, or manipulation of the judicial system, abusive corporations are able to gain control over the defining element of government the sole right to deploy coercive force.

Just like a country, a corrupt or unethical corporation is a menace to all inside and outside it. Corporations will behave more ethically if the world is watching closely. WikiLeaks has exposed unethical plans and behaviour in corporations and this as resulted in recompense or other forms of justice forms of justice for victims.

3.4 Could oppressive regimes potentially come to face legal consequences as a result of evidence posted on WikiLeaks?

The laws and immunities that are applied in national and international courts, committees and other legal institutions vary, and we can’t comment on them in particular. The probative value of documents posted on WikiLeaks in a court of law is a question for courts to decide.

While a secure chain of custody cannot be established for anonymous leaks, these leaks can lead to successful court cases. In many cases, it is easier for journalists or investigators to confirm the existence of a known document through official channels (such as an FOI law or legal discovery) than it is to find this information when starting from nothing. Having the title, author or relevant page numbers of an important document can accelerate an investigation, even if the content itself has not been confirmed. In this way, even unverified information is an enabling jump-off point for media, civil society or official investigations. Principled leaking has been shown to contribute to bringing justice to victims via the court system.