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WikiLeaks

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Internet Website

The Resume

    (2006- )
    Headquartered in Iceland
    Created/Edited by Julian Assange
    Publishes classified information/news leaks from anonymous sources
    Started with a database of over 1.2 million documents
    Collaborated with 3-5 major international media outlets to release US State Department diplomatic 'cables' in redacted format (Feb. 2010)
    Released over 30,000 emails/files related to the Presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton during the 2016 Presidential cycle
    Slogan is 'We Open Governments'

Why WikiLeaks might be annoying:

    No, they aren't at all affiliated with Wikipedia (despite the 'Wiki' in their title).
    Their conduct has been denounced by military leaders as a national security risk.
    The DNC alleged it colluded with the Russian government to undermine the outcome of the 2016 election.
    Their release of the Afghan War Diaries were raw battlefield intelligence reports which contained sensitive wartime information.
    The documents detailed how the military hunted down Taliban commanders and their methods in disarming improvised explosives.
    The 'Diaries' also included the names of the Afghan informants who were providing intelligence to American forces (The Taliban later vowed to pour over the documents to locate and kill the civilians).
    When Assange was asked if he felt culpable in the deaths of any informants, he referred to them as ‘collateral damage,’ nonchalantly admitting that the site ‘might get blood on their hands.’
    They released a raw video of a 2007 U.S. airstrike on an Iraqi village, declaring the U.S. Black Hawk pilots guilty of ‘collateral murder’ for shooting ‘journalists and civilians’ from above.
    It was later discovered that the ‘journalists’ and ‘civilians’ were actually insurgents operating in the region (and close examination of the video showed that those weren’t video cameras they were carrying but RPGs used to shoot down helicopters).

Why WikiLeaks might not be annoying:

    Its release of an expose of extra-judicial assassinations in Kenya earned it and Assange an Amnesty International New Media Award (2009).
    Its knock-off competitors, 'OpenLeaks' and 'PubLeaks,' failed miserably.
    It was named the Readers' Choice for TIME's Person of the Year in 2010.
    It was ranked #1 in The New York Daily News' listing of websites 'that could totally change the news' (2010).
    They published 779 secret files related to prisoners detained in the Guantanamo Bay detention camp.
    They were criticized by Edward Snowden, whom they had helped flee Hong Kong in 2013, for for what he termed 'wholesale leakage of data' (pot meet kettle).
    It was dropped faster than Cindy Sheehan by Left-wing media outlets when it started targeting the Democrats.
    They timed their release of emails related to the Democratic National Committee's favoritism for Hillary Clinton over Bernie Sanders to happen days before the National Convention (July 22, 2016).
    Their slow 'Chinese water torture' style release of thousands of emails/files related to Hillary Clinton's private speeches and positions have posed a nightmare for her campaign (no wonder she wanted to drone Assange back in 2010...)
    Among the revelations from the 'Podesta emails' was her expression that she needed to have 'a private and public position' as a candidate, that she had accepted money from Saudi Arabia with the knowledge that it had directed funds to ISIS, that she reportedly 'hates everyday Americans,' and that she had hoped the GOP would nominate Donald Trump in 2016.

Credit: BoyWiththeGreenHair


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    For 2024, as of last weekly ranking, Out of 4 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2023, Out of 23 Votes: 60.87% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 12 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 44 Votes: 47.73% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 114 Votes: 55.26% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 32 Votes: 56.25% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 66 Votes: 60.61% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 36 Votes: 52.78% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 98 Votes: 65.31% Annoying