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“We do not know who
is giving us the documents and we do not want to know.” These were the
words of Daniel Schmitt (not his real surname), the co-founder of
Wikileaks, the whistle-blower on-line media portal that has exposed
national secret files on the Internet.

Call it a bluff, but one cannot help but wonder at the driving force behind this organization.

Addressing young
journalists participating in the 2010 International Institute of
Journalism (IIJ) Summer Academy in Hamburg, Mr Schmitt – the only known
identity associated with the website, aside the founder of the
organization, John Assange – commanded rapt attention from everyone
present at the meeting; even as he boasted that his organization is
“the most aggressive press agency in the world.”

“We publish the
unpublishable documents and are ungagging the media,” he said. “We have
no political agenda, not right nor left or anywhere. We are just a
relay for neutral sources. What we do is to disclose what creates
transparency.”

Wikileaks has, in
the last two years, published classified documents released to it by
unknown sources on the ongoing war in Iraq and Afghanistan. This
highlights crimes committed by the coalition forces in the war-torn
countries. It has also published a number of documents that revealed
details of corruption in governance and the financial sector in several
countries.

The latest of such
publication, the ‘Afghanistan war log,’ a 90,000 page document released
a fortnight ago, detailed how the coalition forces in Afghanistan were
responsible for the deliberate killings of civilians in the war with
the Talibans. It also revealed how the Pakistani Intelligence service
(ISI) is funding the Taliban insurgency in the country. Wikileaks gave
a new twist to its model and journalism with this release by liaising
with three leading media organization: The Guardian, The New York Times
and Der Spiegel to analyze and publish the report on the same day.

The US government
claimed that Mr Assange now has “blood on his hand” by revealing names
of US secret agents in Pakistan in the report. However, Mr Schmitt told
the audience that the US is the guilty one if anything happens to the
secret sources.

“Prior to our
release of the documents, we approached the US authority and asked to
check the document so that they can take care of their agents, but they
told us they have no interest,” he said. “We are no more responsible
than the US government which says that they are not interested in
removing the names. It is very unfortunate. We did our absolute best to
minimize any possible harm that was there.”

Mr Assange; the founder of the website, has alleged that “crimes against humanity are clearly being committed in the war.”

Focus on human interest

When questioned on
the risk of threats to national security via the publication of
government secrets, Schmitt, who described himself as having a
background in information technology, responded that it is time the
world focuses on human interest and not on national interest. “We all
operate on a basis that is sick and seeks the welfare of just a few in
the name of national security while lots suffer,” he said. “Never in my
life, have I slept so well. I am happy and free and started the project
because I believed I am involved in a good project and doing anything
to me will not change anything.”

Ridiculing the information act

Interestingly, Mr
Schmitt has little regard for the Information Act, which is gaining
grounds in more countries. “Wikileaks has showed how useless the
freedom of information law/act is, which claims to provide a lot of
information but still strongly holds down information with the
different styles of laws in various countries which impedes the
validity of the law,” he said. “What is best kept secret… if
revealed, has the most potential to reform.” He also called on
journalists not to waste time on something everyone knows already.
“Help us publish history, as history is the only guidebook civilization
has,” he said. “Every good story is always controversial as it gets
people talking.” He further stated that the organization will be
building more collaboration with other media organization on how to
build a new system of information dissemination.

Donation from terrorist

As a non-profit
making publishing portal, donations are received by a German foundation
from anonymous donors whose identity they “don’t want to know”. NEXT
asked Mr Schmitt if the organization feels justified to spend donations
that might come from terrorist groups or drug cartels.

“What better thing
will they be spending their money on?” he asked. “I will feel good if
donations come from terrorist groups. That will be the best thing for
them to spend their money on. We cannot control who gives us money, but
we are going to use the money on something very good.” Asked what
Wikileaks wanted the world to do with the information it’s releasing,
the bespectacled man, took a deep breath and said: “in the long run, we
want people to take information seriously and focus more on information
than infotainment. To determine what to do with this information as a
people is very imperative because we have to learn how to deal with the
deluge of information out there. That is why we provide for the public
to decide.” A member of the audience then asked Mr Schmitt, on the
state of emotion of the whistle-blower who earns no glory whatsoever.
“We urge anyone submitting documents to Wikileaks not to talk to
anyone, but we absolutely understand the natural urge for recognition
and that is why we have the chat box on Wikileaks for people to talk
about whatever they want to talk about anonymously.” Citing the example
of a US soldier arrested for the leaking of the Iraqi collateral damage
video, Mr Schmitt said the soldier’s cover (which he said Wikileaks
cannot ascertain) was broken because he confided in a friend. “We have
never lost a source on a mistake that we made,” he said.

Leaks on Nigeria

NEXT asked Mr
Schmitt why nothing tangible is yet to be leaked on Nigeria, despite
the massive level of corruption that pervade the country. He assured
the audience that, pretty soon, the website will be releasing a lot of
information on the African continent. He also explained that the
website, in 2007, published a document on the Kenyan government, which
affected the nation’s election.

Mr Schmitt was also asked why the Wikileaks website looks so much
like the popular on-line search website: Wikipedia. “We decided to use
the same layout because Wikipedia is the most popular website in the
world and easily navigable for anyone, so we copied this format for
easy navigation for everyone” he said. “Aggressive nature of news
publishing is in humanity’s interest.”