You may not have heard of Wikileaks until today or you may still have no idea what it is. Well for those who don't know. It's basically a whistling blowing website which leaks secret government files to the public in order to provide some transparency in diplomacy and so we know what the sneaky Ba*****s in Downing Street and the White House are up to.
The website gained a certain amount of notoriety and publicity when it published 'the war logs' a series of shocking exposés on the state of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan but the website was still relatively unknown in the mainstream.
But now it has gone worldwide undoubtedly sealed its fate as home of one of the biggest political disasters of our generation. 'The 9-11 of diplomacy' as it has called by one journalist.
Here's the story so far:
-Thousands of cables were leaked onto the site (cables being private emails and messages from person to person within the US government)
-The Guardian and its international partners have chosen to host the leaked cables
-Wikileaks was hit by a denial of service attack by 'hackers'
-From the thousands of documents it has been unveiled that (apparently): The US government have been spying on the UN
-Arab leaders have urged a US attack on Iran
-Rumours of ‘inappropriate behaviour’ by a member of the British Royal Family.
– A global campaign of computer sabotage by China carried out by government operatives, private security experts and “internet outlaws”
More news on the leaked cables is expected in the coming days and the repercussions are going to be seen for weeks and months.
So is this once virtual unknown website a key figure in human rights and public awareness or as many politicians have warned, a 'threat to national defence'?
Source: Skynews