Wikileaks portrait: an analysis of the perception by the Obama White House and Pentagon.

Abstract

Throughout the year 2010, a recently established website called Wikileaks under the direction of the Australian hacker Julian Assange released a considerable number of classified documents obtained thanks to a network of whistleblowers. Such secret documents revealed policies and strategies, diplomatic networks, exchanges of opinion, and foreign relations dynamics, which mainly featured the United States as protagonist. The present dissertation aims at analyzing the Wikileaks scandal from the point of view of the United States. By studying primary sources belonging to the Pentagon and the White House under the Obama administration, this research will shine a light on the perceptual portrait that was built around Wikileaks releases. Such analysis will start with an overview of the amount and content of the leaks of 2010, with a special focus on its main actors Bradley Manning and Julian Assange. For a better understanding of the impact of 2010 releases, they will be put in comparison with the previous most famous release of classified information: the 1971 leaked Pentagon Papers. The research will then continue with a focus on the transparency of the White House and Pentagon and an analysis of the impact Wikileaks had on it. It will ultimately conclude with an evaluation of the grounds on which the perception of the leaks was created by the White House and Pentagon, according to which Wikileaks is the offender and the United States the injured party.