Wikispooks:About

The name

WikiSpooks acknowledges a certain plagiarism of both 'Wikipedia' and 'WikiLeaks' - but we're sure they can live with it. 'Wiki' - something, has become a sort of naming convention for many successful wiki-based projects, notably the Wikimedia Foundation sites and WikiSpooks hopes to emulate that success.

The term 'Spooks' is an anglicisation of the Dutch word for 'Ghosts', used colloquially as a synonym for 'Spies' (as for example in the BBC series 'Spooks'). So far as WikiSpooks is concerned, both meanings are apposite. Historically, it is often only the ghosts of deep political motivations that remain once the official narrative has been accepted as gospel - the Gunpowder Plot of 1605 in England is a solid example. As for the 'Spies' meaning; anyone who studies deep political events for long is bound to conclude that Secret Intelligence Services are ALWAYS deeply involved one way or another and more often than not as the puppet-masters.

So, after Wiki-This and Wiki-that, This-Wiki and That-Wiki - WikiSpooks it is.

Site Purpose

The purpose of WikiSpooks is to build a repository of documents about deep political structures and events, together with development of the information they contain through user contributed articles, additions, edits and discussion. Emphasis is on the period from about 150 years ago to the present, although analysis of events in earlier times, by way of illustration and understanding of how deep politics operates, is encouraged - a classic example would be the Gunpowder Plot of 1605 in England. Popular perception of that event remains in accord with the "official narrative". In this case the good brave authorities were caught off-guard by a dastardly popish conspiracy to blow up Parliament whilst in session. The plot was uncovered and foiled it in the nick of time - sound familiar? That is also the way it is presented in the Wikipedia main article on the subject where accusations of 'State conspiracy' are relegated to a single paragraph and the copious evidence of agent-provocateuring and facilitating by the authorities of the day do not even warrant a mention. It is a good illustration of how WikiSpooks and Wikipedia editorial policies differ (see below and WikiSpooks editorial policy)

Language

The site is English Language only for now. The MediaWiki platform has comprehensive multi-language facilities but operating them effectively uses both scarce resources and currently unavailable language resources. In other words "English-only" is a resources issue. It does mean that Non-English language documents and articles are not suitable candidates for the site unless competently translated and applicable to the English-speaking world. It is acknowledged that this does restrict the site's scope.

Wikipedia

There are many examples where Wikipedia does a good job of marshaling facts relative to deep political issues. However, it's editorial policies, in keeping with pretty well all mainstream media, mean that analysis of them can never be more than superficial in the sense that the Sun will always be seen to revolve around the Earth per the example of Gallileo's dispute with the Authorities of the day over 'Heliocentrism'.

The "Gunpowder Plot" example above is a good illustration of marshaling copious undisputed facts but nonetheless missing or minimising what is clearly a higher probability interpretation of the episode than "the official narrative"

WikiSpooks editorial policy - assumption

Anything that is deemed a threat by and to Authority is always more or less successfully opposed by that Authority - and with resources which, by-definition, are likely to be disproportionately weighted in its favour. A good reference source of this syndrome in action is the small media-monitoring site Media Lens

• This assumption is fundamental to the WikiSpooks editorial policy

and one which is seen as rendering Wikipedia relatively Power/Authority/Wealth friendly.

It is nonetheless expected that many articles on WikiSpooks will take major parts of corresponding Wikipedia articles as their starting point since content licensing on both sites is similarly open and there is no point in re-inventing the wheel.

Site model

The site runs on the 'MediaWiki' software platform which is basically the same platform used by Wikipedia and many other major 'Wiki'-type projects. It adopts a model which combines elements of the editorial and content policies of

• Wikileaks
• Cryptome and
• The Deep Politics Forum.

a debt to all three for inspiration, education and much initial content is duly acknowledged

Site owner

The owner of WikiSpooks is Peter Presland and the site is hosted in the Irish Republic ...