Who Should Worry About Syria Leaks?
WikiLeaks has struck again. The self-professed whistleblower site announced this morning that it would release a whopping 2.4 million emails from Syrian political figures, ministries, and the companies with which they interacted. Founder Julian Assange promised that the document dump would prove “embarrassing to Syria, but… also embarrassing to Syria’s opponents.”
WikiLeaks is working with a few select newspapers to get the news out, and will release the entire trove gradually on its website. At the time of this writing, only 25 emails have been released — but here’s a look at who may be affected by the release.
Syrians on the fence: This is the most important category. Syria, by President Bashar al-Assad’s own admission, is in a “state of war” — and any instances of Syrian officials opening channels with rebels, or vice versa, could get someone killed.
WikiLeaks’ record of protecting sources is already checkered: It was unable to prevent the release of unredacted versions of the 250,000 State Department cables it released as part of “Cablegate,” potentially endangering those named in the memos. The stakes are even higher in Syria — here’s hoping WikiLeaks does the right thing and protects those mentioned in these emails.