Given the huge amount of data made available by Wikileaks, we developed an application allowing you to review the files potentially revealing information about coalition forces. We need you !

Last Sunday, the whistle-blowing website Wikileaks – along with 3 major media outlets (The New York Times, UK’s Guardian and Germany’s Der Spiegel) – unveiled crucial documents about the war in Afghanistan. More than 90,000 classified military reports have been made available to the public and draw an unprecedented picture of how the war has been conducted by US and ally forces.

In short, it appears that on several occasions during the course of the Afghan War, US and allied military forces have covered up civilian casualties. The role of several paramilitary militias has also been revealed by the so-called “war diaries” (LINK). Among them, the Task Force 373 was charged of chasing and hunting down insurgent leaders : some reports led authorities to question the legality of such army corps.

The documents also shed light on the ambiguous role of the Pakistanese intelligence service, that is now said to provide weapons, funds and assistance to Taliban insurgents, despite the official support of Pakistani government to the allied coalition. Reports also pointed out that insurgents were better armed than reported by the US army.

Julian Assange and his collaborators are still holding back over 15,000 not yet published documents for security and double-checking purposes, that are likely to be published in the coming months.

But this leak is a groundbreaking event opening up a new path in the way news are reported. The so-called ‘joint venture’ between three major news organisation, who were able to perform “slow journalism” and data-journalism before breaking the news together at the same time, as well as the huge amount of data leaked are an opportunity that journalists from around the world have to seize.

The big issue now facing those from countries other than US and UK is that there is a massive amount of documents and of complex data to go through in order to get a picture of what is going on for each country. Wikileaks itself has only been able to check a small part of the whole amount of data.

That is why the OWNI crew decided to create and develop an online application enabling people to crowdsource the journalistic work. You will be provided a tool to review and assess the countless reports and documents remaining unclear. Once we will have collected enough data and analysis, we will be able to provide you with new insights and understandings of the situation.

Wanna get your hands dirty, exploring what your taxpayer’s money is used in Afghanistan and going through a huuuuge amount of data ? We are already waiting for you /-)

Pour les francophones, l’application en Français est disponible ici et l’article de cette application.

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FlickrCC Photo Credits : Dvdis.