Norway’s largest newspaper, Aftenposten, claims to have access to all 250,000 of Wikileaks’ diplomatic cables. Until this point, no news organization had more than a sample sent by the whistle-blower organization.
Norwegian business publication Dagens it reported the claim today. Aftenposten editor Ole Erik Almlid refused to explain who had leaked the leaks, but BoingBoing theorizes, “one guess could involve the database being stored on a server within Norway.”
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Unlike The New York Times, El Pais, The Guardian, Le Monde and Wikileaks’ other media partners in past leaks, Aftenposten has no agreement requiring the organization’s sign-off prior to publishing the leaks, said Almid.
“We have worked long to get the documents, but it would be wrong of me to tell who is the source. We have not paid for the material, which we have gained access to no conditions. It is we who decide what to publish and how we should handle it.”
All bets are off, in other words, and control is out of the hands of Wikileaks. Given Wikileaks’ abiding dedication to information control, you have to wonder three things.
- How many more leaks (of these leaks and others) will happen?
- How will they effect what Wikileaks does in the future?
- How will it complicate the relationships, both partnerships and antagonisms, that have flowered around these leaks?
How many stories are likely to issue from the leaked leaks is uncertain, as is the timeline for their release. But we anticipate a great interest at news organizations around the world in “that one intern from Tromsø.” Hold on to your hat, Vebjørn!
Here is a link to most of the stories they’ve written so far based on the unreleased cables. (Google Translate version in English.)
Longship photo by William Murphy
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