Wikileaks to auction Hugo Chavez aide's e-mail trove

When Wikileaks opened for business, the site proclaimed its mission to publish secretive documents from "oppressive regimes in Asia, the former Soviet bloc, Sub-Saharan Africa and the Middle East." What it has been best known for, though, has been taking on a Swiss bank, Mormons, Scientologists, and now, Venezuelan strongman Hugo Chavez. But selling the site's secrets at auction may turn out to be the most controversial decision of all.

Various news outlets like The Guardian and Wired (like Ars, Wired is owned by Condé Nast) are reporting this week that Wikileaks hopes to raise a little cash and attract more analytical researchers to its secret documents by auctioning them off. According to the plan, news outlets would have a set period of time to make use of the documents, which would be freely published for everyone to see at some point down the road.

In this case, the leak in question is an e-mail trove alleged to be from a senior aide to Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, which may or may not contain tasty information. Wikileaks hopes to attract news organizations with the resources needed to dig through the e-mails, and the exclusivity arrangement would allow the winner to capitalize on the investment.

Buying this kind of information is generally frowned upon in reputable news circles, as it can encourage both forgery and lawbreaking in an effort to attract cash. It also turns secrets into just another form of currency, something that might seem at odds with the high-minded ideals behind Wikileaks.

But, as Julian Assange of Wikileaks told Wired, news outlets won't devote the time needed to sift such document caches since there's no guarantee of a scoop when anyone else might be looking through them at the same time. In a way, then, the auction is designed more as a mechanism to ensure an exclusivity period for the buyer than it is as a way to send the secretive Wikileaks backers on trips to the Bahamas.