Syria Files

Last updated

On 5 July 2012, WikiLeaks began publishing what it called the Syria Files, a collection of more than two million emails from Syrian political figures and ministries and from companies including Finmeccanica [1] [2] and Brown Lloyd James [3] [4] dating from August 2006 to March 2012. [5] The emails were hacked by Anonymous before being given to WikiLeaks for release. [6]

Contents

The Syria Files mainly embarrassed the U.S. and Assad and highlighted the ties between the two, which WikiLeaks saw as proof of Western hypocrisy. [7] [8] WikiLeaks was criticised in 2016 for allegedly excluding an email about a money transfer to Russia. [9]

Release

The release of the files began on 5 July 2012. [5] The database comprises 2,434,899 emails from 680 domains. [5] [10] At least 400,000 files are in Arabic and 68,000 files in Russian and 42,000 emails were infected with malware. [11] [12] According to Sarah Harrison, the goal of the release was to generate a series of in-depth stories about "the inner workings of the Syrian government and economy" and how the West and Western companies "say one thing and do another." [7]

Media organisations working with WikiLeaks on the release include the Lebanese daily Al Akhbar , the Egyptian daily Al-Masry Al-Youm , the Italian weekly L'espresso , the German public radio and television broadcaster Norddeutscher Rundfunk (NDR) of the ARD consortium, the French information website OWNI and the Spanish website Público. [13] The Associated Press (AP) news agency was initially announced by WikiLeaks to be helping with the release. The claim was withdrawn by WikiLeaks and an AP spokesperson stated that AP was "reviewing the emails for possible coverage [and] did not have any advance agreement on how [it] might handle the material." [14] WikiLeaks was criticised for sharing the emails with Al Akhbar , because Al Akhbar had been accused of bias towards Syrian President Bashar Assad. Others said the choice would act as a balance against coverage by Western media outlets that were expected to play up Syrian crimes. [15]

WikiLeaks released a statement sayng that "In such a large collection of information, it is not possible to verify every single email at once; however, WikiLeaks and its co-publishers have done so for all initial stories to be published. We are statistically confident that the vast majority of the data are what they purport to be". [16] [17] [18] Al Akhbar wrote that it was confident that "the emails are authentic, that the senders and receivers are mainly who they say they are". [19]

WikiLeaks leader Julian Assange said that the Syria Files "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." [20] Some reporters saw the Syria Files as taking a more neutral approach, without the ideology or politics associated with previous releases, but Sarah Harrison rejected the suggestion that WikiLeaks was going "mainstream". [7] After the first 25 emails out of an expected 2.4 million were released, Foreign Policy wrote that it believed Syrian's on the fence would be the most affected by the release, and any instances of Syrian officials opening channels with rebels could get someone killed. Foreign Policy wrote that it expected Western officials and companies to be affected by the release, but that the Syrian government was an "open book" and the emails would confirm what was already known. [21]

Data retrieval

Before the Syria Files release, in February 2012, the Haaretz published excerpts of what it said were emails hacked from Syrian servers by Anonymous. The next month, The Guardian published emails it sourced to Syrian opposition activists. [14] [19] [22]

In the weeks following the Syria Files' release in July 2012, a hacktivist group of the Anonymous collective claimed credit for obtaining the emails and providing them to WikiLeaks. Anonymous stated that it had "worked day and night" in order to access computer servers in Syria and that "the data available had been so massive that downloading it had taken several weeks." Anonymous gave the data to WikiLeaks because it judged WikiLeaks to be "supremely well equipped to handle a disclosure of this magnitude". Anonymous stated that as long as Bashar al-Assad remains in power, it will continue "to assist the courageous freedom fighters and activists in Syria". [6]

In 2016, an interview between a member of the hacktivist group RevoluSec and Al Jazeera English [23] and 500 pages of United States sealed court records viewed by The Daily Dot [9] gave credit to RevoluSec, whose membership overlaps with Anonymous, [23] for the data retrieval and for its transmission to WikiLeaks. RevoluSec claimed to have had complete access to all Syrian internet routers and switches, including those of the Syrian Computer Society's SCS-Net. [9] RevoluSec described the aims of its project as exposing censorship and human rights abuses and supporting Syrians' human rights. [23] RevoluSec's attacks against the Syrian government lasted for about a year. [9]

Topics

The Syria Files mainly embarrassed the U.S. and Assad and highlighted the ties between the two, which WikiLeaks saw as proof of Western hypocrisy. [7] [8]

Finmeccanica

According to emails published by WikiLeaks on 5 July 2012, [24] the Italian conglomerate Finmeccanica increased its sale of mobile communications equipment to Syrian authorities during 2011, delivering 500 of these to the Damascus suburb Muadamia in May 2011, [1] [25] after the Syrian Civil War had started, and sending engineers to Damascus in February 2012 to provide training in using the communications equipment in helicopter terminals, [26] while the conflict continued. [2]

Brown Lloyd James

In May 2011, the public relations firm Brown Lloyd James sent an email to Syrian authorities "on how to create the appearance it is pursuing reform while repressing the uprising", in Ynetnews' description of an email [27] published by WikiLeaks on 6 July 2012. [3] Brown Lloyd James recommended a public relations campaign to "create a reform 'echo-chamber' by developing media coverage outside of Syria that points to the President's difficult task of wanting reform" so that the "coverage [would] rebound into Syria". [4] [28] Brown Lloyd James also recommended "countering ... the daily torrent of criticism and lies" by "[a] 24-hour media monitoring and response system [that] should be in place with assets in UK and US markets; [monitoring] social media sites and [challenging and removing] false sites; and a steady, constantly updated messaging document that contains talking points geared to latest developments." [4] [28]

Brown Lloyd James stated that the document was not paid for, was a "'last-ditch' effort 'to encourage a peaceful outcome rather than violence', [4] and that it was sent to Asma al-Assad, the wife of President Bashar al-Assad. [3]

Bashar and Asma al-Assad

On 8 July 2012, Al Akhbar presented an analysis of emails by President Bashar al-Assad and his wife Asma al-Assad. Al Akhbar stated,

"Syria’s first couple appear to be occupied with their representative capacities, with ample time devoted to the state of the palatial gardens, renovations, the stationary needs of low-level employees, but also issues related to bolstering the couple’s image, be it via charitable efforts or through political favors.... But there is no real sense of tangible power on behalf of the First Couple present within the 'Syria Files.' What is revealed is only a façade, or perhaps fittingly, a brand calculated to cloak another system: the military-security machine, which remains as of yet tightly in control and far from prying eyes." [19]

Rami Makhlouf

Syria Files examined by Al Akhbar show that after businessman Rami Makhlouf publicly claimed to respond to protestors' demands by "repenting" from business, selling shares and investing his money and time in charity and development projects, he continued to invest in several banks during 2011 and 2012. In late January 2012, he bought about 15 times as much shares (by value) as he sold, buying £S  127,000,000 and selling £S  8,670,000 of shares, mostly in Qatar National Bank–Syria and Syria International Islamic Bank. [29] [30]

Omitted documents

On 9 September 2016, reporters from The Daily Dot , using information from sealed American court documents, stated that the released version of the Syria Files omitted records of a 2,000,000,000 transfer from the Central Bank of Syria to the Russian government-owned VTB Bank. The reporters were skeptical about the omission being a coincidence. Wikileaks stated that it published all of the Syria files that it had obtained and made an apparent threat against the reporters, saying that if they pursued the story, "you can be sure we will return the favor one day.". [9] [31] [32]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hacktivism</span> Computer-based activities as a means of protest

Internet activism, hacktivism, or hactivism, is the use of computer-based techniques such as hacking as a form of civil disobedience to promote a political agenda or social change. With roots in hacker culture and hacker ethics, its ends are often related to free speech, human rights, or freedom of information movements.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bashar al-Assad</span> President of Syria since 2000

Bashar al-Assad is a Syrian politician who is the current and 19th president of Syria since 17 July 2000. In addition, he is the commander-in-chief of the Syrian Armed Forces and the secretary-general of the Central Command of the Arab Socialist Ba'ath Party, which nominally espouses a neo-Ba'athist ideology. His father and predecessor was General Hafiz al-Assad, whose presidency in 1971–2000 marked the transfiguration of Syria from a republican state into a de facto dynastic dictatorship, tightly controlled by an Alawite-dominated elite composed of the armed forces and the Mukhabarat, who are loyal to the al-Assad family.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Leonardo (company)</span> Italian defense and aerospace company

Leonardo S.p.A., formerly Leonardo-Finmeccanica and originally Finmeccanica, is an Italian multinational company specialising in aerospace, defence and security. Headquartered in Rome, Italy, the company has 180 sites worldwide. It is the 12th largest defence contractor in the world based on 2020 revenues. The company is partially owned by the Italian government, which holds 30.2% of the company's shares and is its largest shareholder.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maher al-Assad</span> Syrian general and commander of the 4th Division

Maher al-Assad is a Syrian general and commander of the Syrian Army's elite 4th Armoured Division, which together with Syria's Military Intelligence form the core of the country's security forces. He is also a member of the Central Committee of the Ba'ath Party's Syrian Regional Branch.

Fawas Akhras is a Syrian–English cardiologist known for being the father-in-law of Bashar al-Assad and chairman of the British Syrian Society.

Al Akhbar is a daily Arabic language newspaper published in a semi tabloid format in Beirut. The newspaper's writers have included Ibrahim Al Amine, As'ad AbuKhalil, Amal Saad-Ghorayeb, Sharmine Narwani, Pierre Abi Saab, and Amer Mohsen. Until 2015, it also had an English version published on the Internet.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jeremy Hammond</span> American political activist and hacker

Jeremy Hammond, alias sup_g, is an American anarchist activist and former computer hacker from Chicago. He founded the computer security training website HackThisSite in 2003. He was first imprisoned over the Protest Warrior hack in 2005 and was later convicted of computer fraud in 2013 for hacking the private intelligence firm Stratfor and releasing data to WikiLeaks, and sentenced to 10 years in prison.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WikiLeaks</span> News leak publishing organisation

WikiLeaks is a non-profit media organisation and publisher of leaked documents. It is funded by donations and media partnerships. It has published classified documents and other media provided by anonymous sources. It was founded in 2006 by Julian Assange, an Australian editor, publisher, and activist. Since September 2018, Kristinn Hrafnsson has served as its editor-in-chief. Its website states that it has released more than ten million documents and associated analyses. WikiLeaks' most recent publication of original documents was in 2019 and its most recent publication was in 2021. From November 2022, numerous documents on the organisation's website became inaccessible. In 2023, Assange said that WikiLeaks is no longer able to publish due to his imprisonment and the effect that US government surveillance and WikiLeaks' funding restrictions were having on potential whistleblowers.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anonymous (hacker group)</span> Decentralized hacktivist group

Anonymous is a decentralized international activist and hacktivist collective and movement primarily known for its various cyberattacks against several governments, government institutions and government agencies, corporations and the Church of Scientology.

Rami Makhlouf is a Syrian businessman and the maternal cousin of president Bashar al-Assad. At the beginning of the Syrian Civil War in 2011, he was considered to be one of Syria's richest and most powerful men. According to Syrian analysts, he is part of al-Assad's inner circle and no foreign company could do business in Syria at the time without his consent and partnership.

WikiLeaks, a whistleblowing website founded by Julian Assange, has received praise as well as criticism from the public, hacktivists, journalist organisations and government officials. The organisation has revealed human rights abuses and was the target of an alleged "cyber war". Allegations have been made that Wikileaks worked with or was exploited by the Russian government and acted in a partisan manner during the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">LulzSec</span> Hacker group

LulzSec was a black hat computer hacking group that claimed responsibility for several high profile attacks, including the compromise of user accounts from PlayStation Network in 2011. The group also claimed responsibility for taking the CIA website offline. Some security professionals have commented that LulzSec has drawn attention to insecure systems and the dangers of password reuse. It has gained attention due to its high profile targets and the sarcastic messages it has posted in the aftermath of its attacks. One of the founders of LulzSec was computer security specialist Hector Monsegur, who used the online moniker Sabu. He later helped law enforcement track down other members of the organization as part of a plea deal. At least four associates of LulzSec were arrested in March 2012 as part of this investigation. Prior, British authorities had announced the arrests of two teenagers they alleged were LulzSec members, going by the pseudonyms T-flow and Topiary.

Anonymous is a decentralized virtual community. They are commonly referred to as an internet-based collective of hacktivists whose goals, like its organization, are decentralized. Anonymous seeks mass awareness and revolution against what the organization perceives as corrupt entities, while attempting to maintain anonymity. Anonymous has had a hacktivist impact. This is a timeline of activities reported to be carried out by the group.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Brown Lloyd James</span> Public relations firm

Brown Lloyd James is a public relations firm with offices in New York, Washington, D.C., London, and Doha.

WikiLeaks began publishing emails leaked from strategic intelligence company Stratfor on 27 February 2012 under the title Global Intelligence Files. By July 2014, WikiLeaks had published 5,543,061 Stratfor emails. Wikileaks partnered with more than 25 world media organisations, including Rolling Stone, L’Espresso and The Hindu to analyse the documents.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">WikiLeaks Party</span> Political party in Australia

The WikiLeaks Party was a minor libertarian political party in Australia between 2013 and 2015. The party was created in part to support Julian Assange's failed bid for a Senate seat in Australia in the 2013 election. The party won 0.62% of the national vote. At the time Assange was seeking refuge in the Ecuadorian embassy in London. The WikiLeaks Party national council included Assange, Matt Watt, Gail Malone, Assange's biological father John Shipton, Omar Todd and Gerry Georgatos.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Phineas Fisher</span> Hacktivist

Phineas Fisher is an unidentified hacktivist and self-proclaimed anarchist revolutionary. Notable hacks include the surveillance company Gamma International, Hacking Team, the Sindicat De Mossos d'Esquadra and the ruling Turkish Justice and Development Party three of which were later made searchable by WikiLeaks.

John Shipton, born circa 1944, is an anti-war activist and architect living in Sydney, Australia, and the father of Julian Assange. He founded the WikiLeaks Party and was involved with the creation of the website WikiLeaks and helped with WikiLeaks for years. He was criticised for meeting with President Bashar al-Assad during a visit to Syria as part of the WikiLeaks Party.

References

  1. 1 2 Squires, Nick (5 July 2012). "WikiLeaks begins publishing tranche of Syria emails". The Daily Telegraph . Archived from the original on 6 July 2012. Retrieved 6 July 2012.
  2. 1 2 Mackenzie, James; Andrew Roche; Pravin Char (5 July 2012). "Finmeccanica sold radio equipment to Syria: report". Thomson Reuters. Archived from the original on 6 July 2012. Retrieved 6 July 2012.
  3. 1 2 3 Haas, Sa'ar (7 July 2012). "WikiLeaks: Western firm advised Assad on media spin". Ynetnews. Archived from the original on 9 July 2012. Retrieved 7 July 2012.
  4. 1 2 3 4 Rogin, Josh (6 July 2012). "Wikileaked: Lobbying firm tried to help Syrian regime polish image as violence raged". Foreign Policy. Archived from the original on 7 July 2012. Retrieved 7 July 2012.
  5. 1 2 3 "Syria files: Wikileaks releases 2m 'embarrassing' emails". BBC News. 5 July 2012. Archived from the original on 20 April 2013. Retrieved 5 July 2012.
  6. 1 2 Phneah, Ellyne (9 July 2012). "Anonymous, hacktivists helped WikiLeaks with 'Syrian Files'". ZDNet. Archived from the original on 12 July 2012. Retrieved 9 July 2012.
  7. 1 2 3 4 "Syria-gate? WikiLeaks' latest drop of secret files". NBC News. 5 July 2012. Archived from the original on 2 November 2023. Retrieved 8 October 2023.
  8. 1 2 "WikiLeaks' Motivations Aren't What You Think". HuffPost. 4 August 2016. Archived from the original on 2 October 2023. Retrieved 10 October 2023.
  9. 1 2 3 4 5 Cameron, Dell; O'Neill, Patrick Howell (9 September 2016). "WikiLeaks release excludes evidence of €2 billion transfer from Syria to Russia". The Daily Dot. Archived from the original on 25 June 2019. Retrieved 25 June 2019.
  10. "Syria Files". WikiLeaks. Archived from the original on 6 July 2012. Retrieved 5 July 2012.
  11. Greenberg, Andy (5 July 2012). "WikiLeaks Announces Massive Release With The 'Syria Files': 2.4 Million Emails From Syrian Officials And Companies". Forbes . Archived from the original on 10 July 2012. Retrieved 5 July 2012.
  12. "WikiLeaks starts publishing two million 'Syria Files' emails". CNET. Archived from the original on 7 December 2022. Retrieved 8 October 2023.
  13. "WikiLeaks begins publishing 2 million Damascus files". The Nation/AFP. 6 July 2012. Archived from the original on 7 July 2012. Retrieved 6 July 2012.
  14. 1 2 Calderone, Michael (5 July 2012). "WikiLeaks Removes Associated Press From List of Media 'Collaborators' On Syria Docs". HuffPost . Archived from the original on 7 July 2012. Retrieved 6 July 2012.
  15. "WikiLeaks sharing Syria emails with paper accused of Assad bias". Los Angeles Times. 5 July 2012. Archived from the original on 29 October 2023. Retrieved 8 October 2023.
  16. Greenberg, Andy. "WikiLeaks Announces Massive Release With The 'Syria Files': 2.4 Million Emails From Syrian Officials And Companies". Forbes. Archived from the original on 10 July 2012. Retrieved 9 September 2023.
  17. Abad-Santos, Alexander (5 July 2012). "WikiLeaks Might Not Even Know What's In 2.4 Million Syrian E-mails". The Atlantic. Archived from the original on 19 September 2023. Retrieved 9 September 2023.
  18. Somaiya, Ravi (5 July 2012). "WikiLeaks Releasing Trove of Syria Documents". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331. Archived from the original on 19 September 2023. Retrieved 9 September 2023.
  19. 1 2 3 "Asma and Bashar: Syria's British Royals". Al Akhbar (Lebanon). 8 July 2012. Archived from the original on 10 July 2012. Retrieved 9 July 2012.
  20. Goodin, Dan (9 July 2012). "Anonymous takes credit for hack that exposes 2.4 million Syrian e-mails". Ars Technica. Archived from the original on 8 January 2021. Retrieved 16 December 2020.
  21. Kenner, David (5 July 2012). "Who should worry about SyriaLeaks?". Foreign Policy . Archived from the original on 18 December 2014. Retrieved 24 October 2023.
  22. "WikiLeaks publishes 'embarrassing' Syrian emails". Canadian Broadcasting Corporation . Associated Press. 5 July 2012. Archived from the original on 15 May 2021. Retrieved 8 October 2023.
  23. 1 2 3 "Activists take battle for Syria online". Al Jazeera English. 26 September 2011. Archived from the original on 25 June 2019. Retrieved 25 June 2019.
  24. "List of documents – Release How the Finmeccanica technology is helping the Syrian regime". WikiLeaks. 5 July 2012. Archived from the original on 8 July 2012. Retrieved 6 July 2012.
  25. "RE: Delivery of 500 Vehicular Radio VS3000 ( 1000 box)". WikiLeaks. 9 May 2011. Archived from the original on 13 January 2013. Retrieved 6 July 2012.
  26. Moschonas, Ilias (2 February 2012). "SELEX reply on urgent requests". WikiLeaks. Archived from the original on 8 July 2012. Retrieved 6 July 2012.
  27. "Political Communications". WikiLeaks. 19 May 2011. Archived from the original on 8 July 2012. Retrieved 7 July 2012.
  28. 1 2 Brown Lloyd james (19 May 2011). "RE: Crisis Communications Analysis". WikiLeaks. Archived from the original on 22 July 2012. Retrieved 7 July 2012.
  29. "Rami Makhlouf: Buying Syria One Bank at a Time". Al Akhbar (Lebanon). 10 July 2012. Archived from the original on 14 July 2012. Retrieved 17 July 2012.
  30. "3rd Week of Jan 2012 Report" (PDF). Al Akhbar (Lebanon). 22 January 2012. Archived (PDF) from the original on 4 February 2013. Retrieved 17 July 2012.
  31. "Wikileaks May Have Withheld Key Russian Documents From 'Syria Files' Leaks". Gizmodo. 9 September 2016. Archived from the original on 29 September 2023. Retrieved 8 October 2023.
  32. Brandom, Russell (9 September 2016). "WikiLeaks threatens Daily Dot journalists over report on missing Syria emails". The Verge. Archived from the original on 30 November 2023. Retrieved 8 October 2023.