WikiLeaks just released almost twenty thousand emails of the Democratic Party, just as Hillary Clinton was about to announce her 2016 running mate.
The leaked, known as “Hillary Leaks,” followed a report last month made by The Washington Post, stating that Russian government hackers have got into the computer network of the Democratic National Committee.
WikiLeaks released 19,252 emails with 8,034 attachments. Communications Director Luis Miranda goes first on the list, with 10,770 leaked emails. Then comes National Finance Director Jordon Kaplan with 3,797 emails and Finance Chief of Staff Scott Comer with 3,095 leaked emails. Also Finance Director Allen Zachary with 1,611 emails, Finance Director of Data & Strategic Initiatives Daniel Parrish with 1,472 emails, Senior Advisor Andrew Wright with 938 leaked emails and Northern California Finance Director Robert Stowe with 751 emails.
In one of the emails, a staffer proposes questioning at Bernie Sanders’ faith. Brad Marshall, who is the Committee chief financial officer, wrote in an email stating that “it might may no difference, but for KY and WVA can we get someone to ask his belief […] Does he believe in a God. He had skated on saying he has a Jewish heritage. I think I read he is an atheist. This could make several points difference with my peeps. My Southern Baptist peeps would draw a big difference between a Jew and an atheist.”
Other emails gave away the party donors’ identification. The tiers can be from of $467,600 to $66,800 or $1.25 million to $250,000. The emails carry a lot of personal information, from credit card payment details to card numbers, full names, addresses, passport number, social security numbers and phone numbers.
‘Help! I think I appear on ‘Hillary Leaks’!’
For citizens who have made any donations or reached out to any members of the Democratic National Committee from January 2015 to May 25, 2016, this leak means their private information may appear as part of the Hillary Leaks. These citizens can check their private information through the WikiLeaks website.
Once there, the citizen can use a simple search like “contribution” to bring up the leaked emails.
After that, using the CTRL+F search, and putting their information or email address, citizens can confirm if they appear in the leaks or not.
What is WikiLeaks?
WikiLeaks describes itself as an international, non-profit, journalistic organization. The group’s primarily objective is to publish information, news leaks and classified media information from anonymous sources.
The organization has released many documents including the Collateral Murder video, a gunsight footage from the 12 July 2007 Baghdad airstrike in which Iraqi journalists were among those killed by an AH-64 Apache helicopter. It also released a compilation of more than 76,900 documents about the War in Afghanistan, the case known as Afghan War Diary.
In April 2011, WikiLeaks leaked 779 secret files relating to the Guantanamo Bay detention camp’s prisoner and in September of that same year, it leaked a vast archive of U.S. State Department cables became public in an encrypted version available via BitTorrent for months. The incident was very controversial since the information released could endanger innocent lives.
The organization also leaked 77,000 classified military documents, publishing personal information. In that occasion, HR groups like Amnesty International and Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission tried to take down the documents, to avoid any repercussions.
On July 19, WikiLeaks leaked the so-called ‘Erdoğan Emails,’ 294,548 emails coming from AKP, Turkey’s ruling political party, and the president party Erdoğan-led before he was elected president. It is still not if the emails are what the organization claims they are or the information they contain.
Julian Assange
Julian Paul Assange was born on 3 July 1971. He is Australian, a journalist, publisher, and computer programmer. In 2006 he founded the organization WikiLeaks and is still editor in chief of the organization.
U.S. Attorney-General Eric Holder stated in November 2010 that there was “an active, ongoing criminal investigation” regarding WikiLeaks. A month later, it was found that Assange was being investigated by a federal grand jury in Alexandria, Virginia.
Assange has been subject to extradition to Sweden since the same date WikiLeaks was being investigated in the US. He is wanted in the country regarding a rape case. Assange denies the allegations and believes it is just a trick to extradite him from Sweden to the United States.
Assange failed to surrender for extradition, choosing instead to seek asylum in Ecuador. In 2012 he was granted the asylum, and since that date, he has been living in the Embassy of Ecuador in London, unable to leave.
The United Nation’s Working Group on Arbitrary Detention has found by a majority, that Assange has been “arbitrarily detained” and that his confinement and persecution should be brought to an end.
Source: Washington Post