Here’s an interesting concept. An “uncensorable version of Wikipedia for untraceable mass document leaking and analysisâ€. It combines the protection and anonymity of cutting-edge cryptographic technologies with the transparency and simplicity of a wiki interface. Elected on a “whiter-than-white†platform, Mr. Blair’s dying regime now seems just as sleazy as anything that previous governments have been up to. Recent lowlights include the dropping of an enquiry into claims of bribery against the large British defence company BAE Systems that even the US Department of Justice seems to find hard to swallow.
Then we have the quiet conviction a few days ago of David Keogh and Leo O’Connor under the Official Secrets Act for leaking a memo detailing talks on Iraq between Bush and Blair. According to a November 22, 2005, report by the Daily Mirror, the memorandum purportedly states that Bush told Blair he wanted to bomb the Doha headquarters of Al Jazeera television and was opposed by the prime minister. The court was told the four-page document was so sensitive that much of the trial had to be heard behind closed doors in the interests of national security. Keogh, who thought the memo exposed the US president as a “madman”, believed it could raise questions in Britain’s lower chamber House of Commons and wanted it passed on to US presidential hopeful John Kerry, the court was told.
We still don’t know – and may never learn – the exact contents of this memo. I wonder how things would have played out if the document had been posted on Wikileaks.
