Wikileaks - Kuwait Style

And what The Arab Times does not tell you is this:

http://www.kuwaitwikileaks.org/

Have @ it!

From the Arab Times:


Kuwait Wikileaks was officially launched on Monday with the publishing of the whistleblower website’s first group of classified documents pertaining to the State of Kuwait.



The eight documents published on the site include reports by the state’s Audit Bureau on the purchases of His Highness the Prime Minister, Sheikh Nasser Al-Mohammed Al-Sabah, using public funds. The purchases amount to more than KD 1 million and include watches and other miscellaneous items for unknown Arab, Turkish and African women as well as foreign governmental officials.

Founder of Kuwait Wikileaks, environmental activist Khaled Al-Hajeri, said that new documents will be uploaded regularly within one week or two week intervals. Al-Hajeri, who is also the head of environmental NGO Green Line, described the site as a social entity that monitors all authorities while aiming to establish transparency in the country and put a stop to corruption.

“Some people perceive that the site aims to publish scandalous information and that is not true. What we aim to do through this site is to promote an independent monitoring culture so that Kuwaiti society is able to be fully aware of what is happening in their reality. We also aim to curb any unsubstantial rumors that have harmful effects on Kuwaiti society,” stressed Al-Hajeri at a press conference on Monday.

Access


The website is easy to access and is simply chronicled into six sections of documents: historical, judicial, legislative, executive, private sector and civil society intuitions. Al-Hajeri said that document needed for public awareness will be published, not only ones that reveal violations and corruption.

Other documents on Kuwait Wikileaks reveal correspondence between the US military and the Kuwait Municipality, the Ministry of Health and the Public Authority for Industry. The Kuwaiti authorities warn the US Army that their food supplies are stored in heavily polluted sites at Abdullah Industrial Port.


The site alleges that the US military in Kuwait provided its soldiers with food supplies that were stored in the heavily polluted sites, despite warnings from the Kuwaiti entities.

Furthermore, there are documents on Lebanese President Michel Suleiman’s authorization to hand over a Kuwaiti citizen to Iraqi security authorities for prosecution. This is despite of a security agreement between the State of Kuwait and the Republic of Lebanon, which sets the basics of exchange of nationals belonging to both countries.

Moreover, there are reports on Kuwait Petroleum Corperation (KPC) alleging that the company burns natural gas amounting to KD 1 billion, then claiming scarcity of gas in Kuwait.


“The documents are protected from forgery and the site is protected from hacking as the documents are uploaded and saved in independent sites,” Al-Hajeri said, noting that there were unsuccessful attempts to hack the site.






He added that the website will provide documents by the Audit Bureau and the legislative and executive authorities after they have been checked for authenticity by volunteer experts of Kuwait Wikileaks to prevent the publishing of any forgeries.






“It is not expected that the website becomes the only website of its kind in Kuwait or the Arab region and we urge that there be other wikileaks websites that make officials within important entities cautious, thereby forcing them to take responsibility for their actions and performances,” said Al-Hajeri.






The activist expressed support for truth-seeking and sincere Arab youth and encouraged them to promote the culture of wikileaks within the Arab region.






He added that the non-profit organization of Kuwait Wikileaks was surprised to find that there were four similar websites set to launch without the names of the sites’ founders. He explained that one of the conditions of a wikileaks website is its credibility, and that is established between the site and the users when the founders are in full public view.






Al-Hajeri stressed that the website is designed to protect Kuwaiti society, not to harm it, as it is the right of all citizens to be aware of the actions of officials in various authorities.