WikiLeaks has started publishing 2.5 million emails from Syrian political figures, ministries and associated companies.
The emails date from August 2006 to March 2012 and come from 680 “Syria-related entities”, including the Ministries of Presidential Affairs, Foreign Affairs, Finance, Information, Transport and Culture, WikiLeaks said.
“The material is embarrassing to Syria, but it is also embarrassing to Syria’s opponents,” said WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who is believed to still be living at the Ecuadorian embassy in London.
“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.”
WikiLeaks claimed “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”.
The group got its hands on a database of 2,434,899 emails from 680 domains belonging to Syrian-related organisations. It did not say how it managed to get that database.
In the database, there were 678,752 email addresses related to sent messages, and another 1,082,447 belonging to different recipients, Assange’s group said. Around 42,000 emails were infected with viruses or trojans, it added.
“To solve these complexities, WikiLeaks built a general-purpose, multi-language political data-mining system which can handle massive data sets like those represented by the Syria Files,” WikiLeaks added.
“In such a large collection of information, it is not possible to verify every single email at once; however, WikiLeaks and its co-publishers have done so for all initial stories to be published. We are statistically confident that the vast majority of the data are what they purport to be.”
Assange is hoping to gain asylum to Ecuador, after he lost his final appeal against extradition from the UK to Sweden, where he is wanted for questioning over allegations that he raped a woman and sexually molested and coerced another in Stockholm in August 2010.
Are you a security guru? Try our quiz!
Oracle's huge AI, Cloud investment in Japan will meet growing local demand and address digital…
People who create sexually explicit ‘deepfakes’ of adults will face prosecution under a new law…
Protest at cloud contract with Israel results in staff firings, in addition to layoffs of…
Microsoft warns of Russian influence campaigns have begun targetting upcoming US election, albeit at a…
Microsoft to avoid an EU investigation into its $13 billion investment in OpenAI, after EC…
As President Biden 'considers' request to drop Julian Assange extradition, US provides assurances to prevent…
View Comments
Mr. Brewster,
I appreciate you writing an article about the subject and informing people about the release of new info regarding Syria, however I am very disappointed with how you ended it.
I will quote here: "allegations that he raped a woman and sexually molested and coerced another in Stockholm in August 2010."
If you are going to write about Mr. Assange, at least do a fact check. He was never accused of rape or sexual molestation. The 2 women filed a complaint against Mr. Assange because he had sex with both of them (in separate occasions), without wearing a condom. Once the two women found out about one another, they got upset that they had had sex with Mr. Assange without protection.
[MARKED AS SPAM BY ANTISPAM BEE | Spam IP]
Ms. Bok,
Here's your fact check: the actual warrant, including allegations of rape and sexual molestation.
http://www.bailii.org/uk/cases/UKSC/2012/22.html
Take your lies elsewhere, learn to read, and don't pretend to be a fact-checker when you've done no such thing yourself.
Thanks
-Everyone else
In reply to Camilla Bok:
There are four charges:
that on 14 August 2010 he committed "unlawful coercion" when he held complainant 1 down with his body weight in a sexual manner;
that he "sexually molested" complainant 1 when he had condom-less sex with her after she insisted that he use one;
that he had condom-less sex with complainant 2 on the morning of 17 August while she was asleep;
and that he "deliberately molested" complainant 1 on 18 August 2010 by pressing his erect penis against her body.
Camilla, the third item is classified as "minor rape" according to Swedish law, so you're wrong on both counts - he was accused of rape and he was accused of sexual molestation and coercion.
How in the world can you post what you did knowing that the truth is a google search away?
"How in the world can you post what you did knowing that the truth is a google search away?"
Well first of all, a police complaint is HARDLY considered the truth which is why we still have trials (how quaint). Secondly, perhaps because the terms being used to describe the acts alleged are ludicrous. Yes, we all know that Sweden is an uber feminist state that is intolerant of the males in its own society but to use terms like rape and molestation to describe the acts alleged are ludicrous. Unless of course, you also happen to believe that people with fly swatters commit "murder" against flies and should be tried the same as those accused of murdering individuals. Ms. Bok is correct in so far as both women didn't make a claim UNTIL they found out about each other and then still some time after that.
Its only a complaint and he has not been charged, which does beg the question why all the cost and legal wrangling to get him back to Sweden just to answer questions? A video call or a Swedish police officer could fly here to interview him.
Assange is right to suspect another motive, certainly given what he as seen with regard the lies and dishonesty of certain countries.
Maybe more effort should be placed on investigating the information Wikileaks has released that indicates corruption and lies at the highest level of governments. No wonder they want him silenced!
GT66 - She didn't claim that he hadn't *done* those things. Bok claimed that he hadn't even been *accused* of them, which is plainly false. And her final paragraph omits several key facts (he wasn't accused just of sex without a condom - he's accused of doing so without permission while the woman slept, etc.)
In short, whether or not Assange actually raped those women, Camilla Bok is unquestionably a liar.