Wednesday 25 November 2009

9/11 Wikileaks - An indecent release?



Today, wikileaks began releasing "pager intercepts" gathered from over 500,000 individually sent messages before, during and after the 9/11 attacks in North America in 2001. Indeed, since 0300 (US Eastern Time) this morning pager records as the day unfolded in New York prior to and following the first plane striking the world trade centre on 9/11 have been released. Furthermore, they're being released in "real-time", in 5-minute intervals, so viewers can follow events as they happened. I must admit to release such information publicly in this fashion seems a little perverse and objectionable. I guess there's no better way to describe this "real-time" leak from wikileaks and the reporting surrounding it than as "morbid voyeurism".

Of course, wikileaks probably justifies its decision to release such information on the grounds of public importance. Apparently, we need to know what really happened that day so we can have a better understanding of how the tragedy occurred and how mankind responded. One thing is certain - you cannot describe their leak as sympathetic. The tone surrounding the release seems to be one of a group that is relishing in their own controversy:
"Due to popular demand we provide a new block of pager data every 5 minutes, synchronized to the actual time of day the message was sent.

This way the world has a chance to objectively see how the tragedy progressed."
"Due to popular demand" - this crudely sounds like they've just released a few extra tour dates for their sold out venture. Indeed, why does the world need a chance to objectively see how the "tragedy progressed" in another form when it already has once before.

Wikileaks can be useful as a medium for the release of valuable information from 'super-grasses' and 'whistleblowers'. However, the release of this data seems to add little to any debate surrounding 9/11 (besides perhaps countering a few conspiracy theories surrounding the days events). Surely in this case, the sensitive issue of releasing personal data from both public and private citizens outweighs any advantages of its release in this format.

An example of some of the data being released:
2001-09-11 08:54:44 Skytel [00455____] B ALPHA opsunit@nypd.org|1 PCT WORLD TRADE CENTER|--- 1 PCT - WORLD TRADE CENTER - POSSIBLE EXPLOSION WORLD TRADE CENTER BUILDING. LEVEL 3 MOBILIZATION TO CHURCH AND VESSY.


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Arguably some data, such as the above which may illustrate the exact time at which NYPD units were paged to the scene of the incident under the WTC, may be useful in piecing together the days events. However, other data coinciding in this release includes private messages from worried children, partners and family who have relatives inside a building or vice versa. For the sake of decency and my argument I will not be repeating examples of some of these messages.

In reality, many spectators to this data release are revelling in discovering messages which record horrific personal details from the incident. In my opinion, these messages should have remained unread and resided with the ashes of the tower itself rather than being churned up for the world to have "a chance to objectively see how the tragedy progressed". The world has already "objectively" witnessed this tragedy in one form or another and this argument cannot be used to defend the release of private information.

You can follow #911txts on twitter as the day progresses if you want. You can witness as the spectacle progresses in "real-time" courtesy of Wikileaks and Tweets.


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