Latest Wikileaks Prize for Sale to the Highest Bidder - Update

Latest Wikileaks Prize for Sale to the Highest Bidder - Update

blog.wired.com

The secret-spilling site Wikileaks announced this week that it's acquired thousands of e-mails belonging to a top aide to Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez. But don't look for them online. In a departure from its full-disclosure past, Wikileaks is auctioning off the cache to the highest bidder.

Wikileaks began soliciting bids from media organizations on Tuesday, for what it describes as thousands of e-mails and attachments from 2005 to 2008 that provide insight into Chavez's management, CIA activities in Venezuela and the Bolivarian revolution.

(visit the link for the full news article)

I would love to have a squiz at some of these documents…With the right detail and some know how, some of these emails could lead to other sources and blow any numbers of conspiracies open.

"Ethically speaking, why don't they just publish it?" Kirtly asked. "They pride themselves on being a new breed of news delivery."

My guess is they won’t publish it, because they know that several governments will be bidding for it. The final sell price will be interesting to find out.

Maybe this is something the amigos could look into for a investing their money.


blog.wired.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

I have been looking for some more info on this.
It seems to be buzzing everywhere, but no teasers as to the content.....yet....

Ta for the info VIKINGANT
If you find anymore update us. I will see what i can find too. It will be great to see what is in the emails.
They say it will be released eventually but advaned reading would be worth paying for.

reply to post by VIKINGANT


1. Wikileaks is leaving its original mission of providing information to the masses. Charging for it? Disgusting.

2. Why don't they just skim through it and find if there is any incriminating evidence, then run the story themselves, instead of simply selling it to someone to find out for themselves.

3. Commercial copyright infringement is a criminal offense in the US, which is exactly what this is.

Wikileaks has sold out. It's disgusting.

Originally posted by dave420

 

1. Wikileaks is leaving its original mission of providing information to the masses. Charging for it? Disgusting.

Wikileaks has sold out. It's disgusting.

I thought the same thing. They have tried to justify it with

But Wikileaks' most public figure -- Julian Assange, a former hacker and journalist -- told Wired.com earlier this year that the wiki model had failed and that the site would be experimenting with new economic models, though he did not mention plans to ask media organizations to bid on leaked documents.

The auction is just an experiment, and carries too much overhead to be employed for every leak, Assange said by e-mail Tuesday.

2. Why don't they just skim through it and find if there is any incriminating evidence, then run the story themselves, instead of simply selling it to someone to find out for themselves.

They probably did have a skim, and my guess is that they decided the info in there was worth something to them.

Experiment or not it is against what they were originally about.

Wikileaks has had some quality dirt in the past, so this stuff must be gold to want to go down this track.

Looks like they plan on double dipping as well.

The winner gets exclusivity and embargoed access to the documents, though Wikileaks will publish all of them eventually.

[edit on 28/8/2008 by VIKINGANT]

This is WIKILEAKS we are talking about here. I'm sure the CIA isn't going to have any issues finding a buyer for the material. Come on this makes perfect since. NOBODY leaks 8000 emails to __._. This is information warfare. I'm sure the information is authentic, embarrassing to the Chavez regime and will create diplomatic havoc.

Let's have an applause for the spooks, wikileaks is untouchable, non-suable, transparent, untraceable and professional. I really doubt the documents will go anywhere other than in an Intelligence report. This is most likely a plan to detract the Chavez government from making accusations that Wikileaks is a cover for CIA.

Another way to look at it is that this single sale will make wikileaks self-sufficient in terms of funding. It should allow them to continue their work almost indefinitely.

However if they ever do another auction such as this, then we know they have definitely sold out.

This rather harks their own death knell actually... surely nobody is going to give them intel if theyre just going to auction it off!

Originally posted by 44soulslayer
This rather harks their own death knell actually... surely nobody is going to give them intel if theyre just going to auction it off!

Especially if they are going to end up publishing it themselves.
If they do continue down this track, they would have to set some pretty unchangeable guidlines to maintan credibility and do this with only certain sensitive types of info.

After a little thought on this, I would say it is either
a) a pubicity tactic,
b) a way of letting the governments know the kind of contacts they have,
c) intended to start bidding war between goverments.
d) all of the above.