The CIA has been accused of editing entries on the interactive encyclopedia Wikipedia.

 

Wikipedia Scanner, an online tool, allegedly shows that workers on the agency's computers edited the page of Iran's president, the BBC reported.

 

It also purportedly shows that the Vatican has edited entries about Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams and "massaged" entries on several Catholic Saints.

 

It is believed the Vatican removed a link to newspaper stories alleging Mr Adams's fingerprints and handprints were found on a car used during a double murder in 1971.

 

On the profile of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the tool indicates a worker on the CIA network reportedly added "Wahhhhhh!" before a section on the leader's plans for his presidency.

 

Though Wikipedia posted a warning on the profile of the anonymous editor saying: “You have recently vandalized a Wikipedia article, and you are now being asked to stop this type of behavior”, the CIA denied confirming whether the Internet traffic came from any of the agency computers.

 

“I cannot confirm that the traffic you cite came from agency computers.

 

"I'd like in any case to underscore a far larger and more significant point that no one should doubt or forget: The CIA has a vital mission in protecting the United States, and the focus of this agency is there, on that decisive work,” an agency spokesman said.

 

A user at the US Democratic party headquarters was responsible for editing American right-wing radio DJ Rush Limbaugh's entry to describe him as a "racist" and a "bigot", while describing his audience as "legally retarded".

 

Other, more innocuous, changes include tweaks to celebrities such as Oprah Winfrey.

 

According to SBS.com, it seems the most widespread changes have been made by the Diebold company, supplier of the infamous voting machines at the centre of the storm surrounding the 2000 US presidential elections.

 

Wikipedia Scanner shows company employees have removed up to 15 paragraphs of content describing its involvement in the controversial 'hanging chad' votes that were not counted in the poll.

 

 

 

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,23599,22259259-2,00.html

Looks like they put there fingers where they dont belong!

Credibility Of Wikipedia Takes a Dive After Wired Exposé

Online encyclopedia outed as bias tool of intelligence agencies, corporations by new Wikipedia Scanner database

 

The credibility of the online encyclopedia Wikipedia has taken another dive after a newly developed software program exposed how the CIA, corporations like Diebold and others routinely edit entries to bury criticism and manipulate the truth.

 

previous investigations revealed how a group of trolls were engaged in a concerted campaign to erase the 9/11 truth movement, along with a host of other controversial subjects, out of cyber existence by voting to delete pages about subjects and individuals that obviously warrant a page on Wikipedia.

 

Examples we cited included such manifestly provable "conspiracy theories" as "List of Republican sex scandals," "People questioning the 9/11 Commission Report" and "Movement to impeach George W. Bush".

 

Trolls were even allowed to delete the Wiki page for Dylan Avery, who has appeared on Fox News, CNN and in hundreds of newspaper reports. Avery is the producer of the most watched documentary film in Internet history, he clearly merits a biography page on an online encyclopedia, but Wikipedia had no qualms in letting Morton Devonshire and other trolls deep six the entry.

 

 

Devonshire and his cohorts have exhibited extreme bias and agenda driven tactics in organizing to purge Wikipedia of material about the 9/11 truth movement, but Wikipedia hasn't done a damn thing to stop it.

 

 

Now a CalTech graduate student has developed a software tool that threatens to slam the final nail in the coffin of any credibility Wikipedia had left.

 

 

"Wikipedia Scanner -- the brainchild of CalTech computation and neural-systems graduate student Virgil Griffith -- offers users a searchable database that ties millions of anonymous Wikipedia edits to organizations where those edits apparently originated, by cross-referencing the edits with data on who owns the associated block of internet IP addresses,"

reports Wired News.

 

"On November 17th, 2005, an anonymous Wikipedia user deleted 15 paragraphs from an article on e-voting machine-vendor Diebold, excising an entire section critical of the company's machines. While anonymous, such changes typically leave behind digital fingerprints offering hints about the contributor, such as the location of the computer used to make the edits."

 

"In this case, the changes came from an IP address reserved for the corporate offices of Diebold itself. And it is far from an isolated case. A new data-mining service launched Monday traces millions of Wikipedia entries to their corporate sources, and for the first time puts comprehensive data behind longstanding suspicions of manipulation, which until now have surfaced only piecemeal in investigations of specific allegations."

 

 

Griffith has compiled a list of different corporations and branches of government that have abused the so-called impartiality of Wikipedia to essentially edit the truth out of existence, replacing it with a PR friendly facade favorable not to the facts or any sense of neutrality, but only to the interests of the parties concerned.

 

Virgil Griffith, creator of a software program that allows users to track who is editing Wikipedia entries.

 

The Wikipedia Scanner (http://wikiscanner.virgil.gr/) also allows users to type in an IP range and find out which organizations are editing what pages on Wikipedia.

 

"The result: A database of 5.3 million edits, performed by 2.6 million organizations or individuals ranging from the CIA to Microsoft to Congressional offices, now linked to the edits they or someone at their organization's net address has made. Some of this appears to be transparently self-interested, either adding positive, press release-like material to entries, or deleting whole swaths of critical material," concludes the Wired report.

 

Unless Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales (pictured top) acts immediately to completely restructure Wikipedia's entire operating system, the online encyclopedia will gradually combust and degenerate into nothing more than a laughing stock.

 

From many quarters, the giggles are already being heard.

 

"I'm going to log on to Wikipedia here and I am going to change it," said comedian Stepehen Colbert. "You see, any user can change any entry. And if enough other users agree with them, it becomes true."

 

Though Wikipedia's raison d'etre is obviously based around allowing users to edit the content, the checks to prevent abuse and organized partisan attack campaigns against certains subjects or ideas are non-existent and the absence of any kind of reasonable moderation is destroying Wiki's reputation.

 

Wikipedia is fast becoming a complete anathema to reliable research and will see its wavering reputation as a trustworthy source for information quickly evaporate if it continues to allow itself to be abused by intelligence agencies, corporations and dedicated trolls.

An even more worrying story about the CIA and Facebook is around too.....

 

I'd seriously consider looking at it. And don't just read people saying it's nutty and think it is.....there's some reasonable ties that people my wish to make their own minds up about.

 

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/section/story.cfm?c_id=5&objectid=10456534&ref=emailfriend#Scene_1

:o:o:o:o

CIA, FBI Edited Wikipedia Entries On Iraq, Guantanamo

 

Randall Mikkelsen

Reuters

Friday Aug 17, 2007

 

People using CIA and FBI computers have edited entries in the online encyclopedia Wikipedia on topics including the Iraq war and the Guantanamo prison, according to a new tracing program.

 

The changes may violate Wikipedia's conflict-of-interest guidelines, a spokeswoman for the site said on Thursday.

 

The program, WikiScanner, was developed by Virgil Griffith of the Santa Fe Institute in New Mexico and posted this month on a Web site that was quickly overwhelmed with searches.

 

The program allows users to track the source of computers used to make changes to the popular Internet encyclopedia where anyone can submit and edit entries.

 

WikiScanner revealed that CIA computers were used to edit an entry on the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. A graphic on casualties was edited to add that many figures were estimated and were not broken down by class.

 

Another entry on former CIA chief William Colby was edited by CIA computers to expand his career history and discuss the merits of a Vietnam War rural pacification program that he headed.

 

Aerial and satellite images of the U.S. prison for terrorism suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, were removed using a computer traced to the FBI, WikiScanner showed.

 

CIA spokesman George Little said he could not confirm whether CIA computers were used in the changes, adding that "the agency always expects its computer systems to be used responsibly."

 

The FBI did not have an immediate response.

 

Computers at numerous other organizations and companies were found to have been involved in editing articles related to them.

 

Griffith said he developed WikiScanner "to create minor public relations disasters for companies and organizations I dislike (and) to see what 'interesting organizations' (which I am neutral towards) are up to."

 

It was not known whether changes were made by an official representative of an agency or company, Griffith said, but it was certain the change was made by someone with access to the organization's network.

 

It violates Wikipedia's neutrality guidelines for a person with close ties to an issue to contribute to an entry about it, said spokeswoman Sandy Ordonez of the Wikimedia Foundation, Wikipedia's parent organization.

 

However, she said, "Wikipedia is self-correcting," meaning misleading entries can be quickly revised by another editor. She said Wikimedia welcomed the WikiScanner.

If you edit a page in the German Wikipedia, a WikiMod has to agree to the changes before they go live.

Yeah,why not have that in the english version?