WikiLeaks Publishes Secret Information From Around the World
WikiLeaks is an internet platform that publishes secret documents from many different sources . The website started in 2006 and today has about 1.2 million documents in its database . Wikileaks was founded by journalists and other media experts. An Australian, Julian Assange , is its head .
In 2010 WikiLeaks became known all over the world by publishing over 400,000 secret documents about the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. It also released a video of an American helicopter attack on Iraqi citizens .
At first, WikiLeaks’ aim was to show how dictatorships and other oppressive governments work by showing people how they behave towards citizens . The internet platform also wants to bring important news, that otherwise may never be published, to the public .
WikiLeaks gets its money from private citizens and other organizations. The people who work there are volunteers . It has its documents on computers in many countries, including Sweden and Iceland, where Internet laws are not so strict . Servers are changed often so that it is very difficult to track where the information comes from.
Assange and his team get information from all over the world. They include private emails of politicians , CIA reports, surveillance videos and other information. They carefully look through and examine it and then decide if they can publish it or not. WikiLeaks says it never reveals its sources. During the 2008 presidential campaign it published Sarah Palin’s personal emails. She was the Republican Vice Presidential candidate at that time.
Most of the information comes from people inside government organizations that collect secret information and then send it to WikiLeaks. The site also tells people how to send information without giving away their identity .
The organization has attacked governments around the world and published information that is embarrassing to them.
Assange has announced that WikiLeaks wants to publish sensitive information about big corporations and banks in the near future .
Politicians in America and other countries have criticized WikiLeaks for publishing secret information. Many want to shut down the website, but, up to now have not succeeded .
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Words
- aim = goal
- announce = to say officially
- attack = when you use weapons against someone in a war
- behave = treat
- campaign = movement, fight
- candidate = a person who wants to be elected to a job
- citizen = a person who works in a country and has rights there
- corporation = a big, powerful business or company
- database = a lot of information is stored on a computer system so that you can search through it and find what you want
- embarrassing = something that makes you feel nervous or ashamed
- found – founded = start
- head = boss
- identity = to say who you are
- including = also
- inside = from within
- law = rule
- near future = soon
- oppressive = powerful, cruel and unfair to the people
- otherwise = what will happen if something is not done
- platform = here: website
- politician = a person who works in the government or politics
- public = the people
- publish = bring out to the people
- release = publish; show to the people
- reveal = to say who someone is
- secret = only a few people know about something
- sensitive = here: secret
- shut down = close
- strict = harsh; something that does not always have to be obeyed or done
- succeed = to make it happen
- surveillance = if someone observes or watches you closely
- track = follow, find out
- volunteer = someone who does a job without getting money for it