The radical transparency organization WikiLeaks is commemorating its 10th anniversary of leaking classified documents that had surprised the world, since it revealed the secret actions and decision of many governments, that almost everyone wouldn't know if it wasn't for Julian Assange´s group. Given this situation, here are the most groundbreaking high-profile revelations that WikiLeaks has published so far.
US War On Iraq And Afghanistan
The war in Iraq and Afghanistan were two of the most controversial moments in the U.S. foreign policy in this century, considering the political consequences that had in the Middle East and the world. Although both wars weren't exactly unpopular among the American people at the beginning, eventually it became an operation that almost everyone criticized.
The controversy among these wars escalated to a whole new level when WikiLeaks started to leak classified information regarding the U.S. military presence in Iraq and Afghanistan, since it was revealed the way in which the American soldiers killed thousands of innocent people between 2004 and 2009.
WikiLeaks operation was called the "Iraq War Logs", and it was extremely controversial and groundbreaking, given the fact that the leaks helped to include 15,000 new civilian casualties to the U.S. public death count. Eventually, it was known that the person who provided the information to WikiLeaks was the U.S. Army Private Chelsea Manning, who were sentenced to 35 years in prison because of this.
The Controversial Foreign Activities Of The US Intelligence
If there´s one thing that almost every single U.S. government since the 20th century has been blamed of, is the way in which intelligence agencies as the CIA or the NSA has infiltrated and spied foreign nations politicians, in order to make sure that these fulfill the American interests and doesn't negotiate with the wrong nation.
Although this has happened in several occasions, some of the most controversial in the last 10 years were published by WikiLeaks, since the whistleblower organization released in May 2014 classified documents in which it was proved how the NSA recorded almost every single domestic and international phone calls from some target nations as of 2013.
In fact, also published in 2015 several documents that indicated how the NSA kept under surveillance some French presidents as Jacques Chirac, and engaged in economic espionage against some French companies. However, the most controversial revelation was the way in which the NSA spied Germany´s top officials for years, including Angela Merkel.
WikiLeaks Changed The American Politics With The Podesta Emails
This was probably the most groundbreaking high-profile revelations that WikiLeaks has leaked since it was founded, considering the consequences that these actions had on the American political sphere. We´re talking about the publication of the John Podesta´s emails, the man who worked as the campaign chairman of the Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton in the 2016 U.S. presidential elections.
Over 55,000 classified documents were released, revealing the inner workings of Clinton campaign, in which it was known her relationship with the press, with Wall Street, Goldman Sachs, and how Saudi Arabia and Qatar donated $1 million to her foundation. Naturally, these revelations were endorsed by many and strongly criticized by others, who believed that WikiLeaks was making the leaks in order to get Donald Trump elected as the U.S. president.
Although is not known which could be WikiLeaks motivations behind these actions, the truth is that in addition to how the concerns that many Americans had for the political system, the Podesta emails played a huge role in the elections' outcome, considering how damaging these publications were for Hillary Clinton.
