Syria is in a bad place right now. The violence has been terrible for quite some time, but the countless deaths of civilians has only recently captured the attention of the West. To help expose what’s been happening in the country, a group of revolutionaries shared leaked emails with Western press back in March. Wikileaks is now finishing the job.
The latest release from Wikileaks is called the Syria Files and it hopes to shed some light not only on the current conflict, but the politics and decisions that led up to the violence that now consumes the country. Over 2 million emails from over 680 Syria-related domains cover the history of the region from August 2006 to March 2012.
Wikileaks is once again partnering with press outlets around the world to share the information contained in the documents. Wikileaks themselves will be presenting much of the information, but the AP, alongside other international press outlets, will be publishing their own stories based on the leaks over the next two months.
Julian Assange, currently fighting extradition to Sweden and seeking asylum in Ecuador, said that the material in the leaks is not only relevant to Syria:
“The material is embarrassing to Syria, but it is also embarrassing to Syria’s opponents. 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.”
What Assange means is that the emails reveal the part that other countries have been playing in the conflict. It was only until recently that people started to pay attention to the conflict, but it has been going on for over a year now. It’s not beyond the realm of reason to assume that one or two of the major powers have had a hand in the conflict. We won’t know for sure until the emails start getting published though.
Wikileaks also revealed that 42,000 of the leaked emails were infected with viruses or trojans. Those emails may have been traps set by the Syrian Electronic Army, the group that targeted Syrian protesters with fake Facebook phishing attacks. Weirdly enough, the same group also attacked the LinkedIn blog. Maybe the emails will provide further clarification on why the Syrian government hates social networks so much.
If you want to take a look at the Syria Files, just head over to Wikileaks to check them out. Here’s hoping that these leaks will have a positive impact and help stop hostilities in Syria.