What is WikiLeaks?
[[File:Wikileaks logo.svg|thumb|150px|The WikiLeaks logo. It shows some leaking water from one [[Earth]] (top), dropping into another Earth (bottom)]] '''WikiLeaks''' is a [[non-profit]] [[Organization of American States|organization]] which uses its website to [[publish]] [[government]]al, private data, [[business|corporate]] or [[religious]] documents that had previously been secret. The website was started in 2006 by [[Julian Assange]]. It had over 1.2 million documents in its [[database]] by the time one year had passed. Usually, it does not give out the names and addresses of people who post documents. The site is based in [[Sweden]]. Though its name is similar to [[Wikipedia]], it is not related to Wikipedia or the [[Wikimedia Foundation]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://blog.wikimedia.org/blog/2010/12/09/what%E2%80%99s-in-a-name-in-the-case-of-%E2%80%98wiki%E2%80%99-lots-of-things/ |title=Wikimedia Blog:What's in a name? In the case of 'wiki', lots of things |access-date=2011-02-12 |archive-date=2011-02-08 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110208162549/http://blog.wikimedia.org/blog/2010/12/09/what%e2%80%99s-in-a-name-in-the-case-of-%e2%80%98wiki%e2%80%99-lots-of-things/ |url-status=dead }}</ref> The name was chosen because WikiLeaks used a [[wiki]] model at first, where people could edit the site, but it has since changed and is no longer open for editing. ==History== In July 2010, WikiLeaks was in the news for publishing over 76,900 documents related to the [[War in Afghanistan]]. In October that same year, WikiLeaks posted almost 400,000 documents that were about the [[War in Iraq]]. This was the largest ever leak of documents about the US Army. It reported mainly on deaths of civilians, soldiers, and sightings of homemade bombs or armed civilians.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.davidicke.com/forum/showthread.php?t=139838 |title=WikiLeaks to release 400,000 Iraq war files |author=David Icke |accessdate=7 December 2010 |archive-date=18 October 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/2010101