Thursday, July 8

What The Hell Did I Just Find?

Holy crap.

OK, so you're off in some far-flung corner of the web, searching for something - anything - maybe a bit arcane, but you just know you have to find it.

And finally, there, you found it. It has exactly the meaning, the range of emotions is just right, and you begin to absorb it in its entirety. But there's something a bit amiss. Because as you read, you realize that this document isn't exactly something that the general public should be reading.

Confidentiality just went out the window with the baby.

As an example, I'd found, years ago, that a simple search for "Top Secret" might bring up a few references to a movie from the '80's by the same name. Or a blogger with a wild hair about something going on in some high-level cluster... well, you get the idea. Oh, and add "filetype:pdf" to that search and check out the stuff from the "dot gov's" and "dot mil's".

REALLY SCARY SH!T.

Am abusing the hell out of doing seaches like this? Not really. "It's their own fault for not protecting their information behind a major firewall" may not hold up too well in court, but I'm not the one they should be worried about.

It's not like I'm the only one who has figured this out. Besides, anyone interested in getting "secrets" isn't going to be doing it on the web.

Or are they?

WONDERFUL (sarcasm abounding in those caps) little website I became aware of last night makes one wonder just how much we're letting out, and to whom. It's called WikiLeaks. From their website's about page:

"WikiLeaks is a multi-jurisdictional public service designed to protect whistleblowers, journalists and activists who have sensitive materials to communicate to the public. Since July 2007, we have worked across the globe to obtain, publish and defend such materials, and, also, to fight in the legal and political spheres for the broader principles on which our work is based: the integrity of our common historical record and the rights of all peoples to create new history."

Oh, wow.

Grab any subject from today's - or yesterday's or yesteryear's headlines, and you'll be surprised at what you find.

Like, for instance, a microfilm entry from 1961 announcing one Barack Obama to the world from the Honolulu Advertiser newspaper.

Birthers be damned.

Anyway, I won't bore you with more details. You'll just have to experience it for yourself.

Oh, and one might wonder how this site has flown under so many levels of radar since July 2007 - from CNN's website:

"...The site gained international attention in April when it posted a 2007 video said to show a U.S. helicopter attack in Iraq killing a dozen civilians, including two unarmed Reuters journalists."

So go spend some time seeing what's NOT being reported in mainstream media. You'll be captivated, I'm sure.

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