WikiLeaks publishes Syria Files

Photo credit: New Media Days / Peter Erichsen

Continuing to fulfill its self imposed mandate to expose global corruption, WikiLeaks began publishing the Syria Files today. These Files contain some two million emails from Syrian political figures, ministries and associated companies, dating from August 2006 to March 2012.

Stories derived from the files will appear in Al Akhbar, Al Masry Al Youm, ARD, L’Espresso, Owni, and Publico.es. The Associated Press was removed from the list last month.

"The material is embarrassing to Syria, but it is also embarrassing to Syria’s opponents," said WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange. "It helps us not merely to criticise one group or another, but to understand their interests, actions and thoughts. It is only through understanding this conflict that we can hope to resolve it." 

"This extraordinary data set derives from 680 Syria-related entities or domain names, including those of the Ministries of Presidential Affairs, Foreign Affairs, Finance, Information, Transport and Culture," WikiLeaks stated on its site.

The organization maintains that as many as 15,000 people could have been killed in Syria in the last 18 months. "The Syria Files shine a light on the inner workings of the Syrian government and economy, but they also reveal how the West and Western companies say one thing and do another."

WikiLeaks is an investigative journalism media outlet which accepts and publishes information from anonymous sources. It provides breaking news on torture, transparency in government, and abuses by cults and religious organizations.

WikiLeaks claims that as a result of its journalism, "aggressive retaliation" from Bank of America, VISA, MasterCard, PayPal and Western Union has ensued. Founder Julian Assange is presently seeking refuge inside the Ecuadorian Embassy, and Bradley Manning has been detained without trial for two years.

To learn more about the publishing of files, go: http://wikileaks.org/syria-files/

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