~Wikileaks~

Age: Three.

Appearance: Feared by the bad, loved by the good.

It's the modern equivalent of Robin Hood? Sort of, yes. Today's most valuable currency is information and Wikileaks' raison d'etre is to take the stuff our politicians, financiers, religious leaders and other powerful yet shadowy types don't want us to know and share it out as widely as possible. It is run by The Sunshine Press and was founded by journalists, mathematicians, techies and Chinese dissidents.

And what has it done for me lately?

It has posted a secret video showing footage of a US aircrew falsely claiming they had encountered a group of armed insurgents and opening fire on them, killing 12 people.

I imagine the US government wasn't too happy about that? Indeed not. It has labelled the whistleblowing site a threat to national security.

I meant, not happy about the trigger-happy inhumanity of its soldiers. They don't seem too bothered about that.

How do we know about such a report anyway? Surely that's the kind of thing they like to keep secret too? It is. But it's also exactly the kind of thing Wikileaks likes to get hold of, and so . . .

It's posted up on the site along with everything else? Last month, yes.

Where do they get all this information from? The public.

But who in the public? Nobody, obviously, really knows. The Pentagon – in keeping with its unofficial motto "Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean they're not out to get you" – thinks the CIA may be responsible.

And we know they think this because . . . ? Yes. Wikileaked it.

And where do they get the money to perform this international service of speaking truth to and about power? From the public. Ish. It relies on donations and had to close down earlier this year in order to build up funds.

It was worth the wait. Not if you work for the US government, it wasn't.

Do say: "I've got this tape in the attic – it's of this grassy knoll in Dallas, Texas, in 1963. Crazy thing, but this guy comes up and . . ."

Don't say: "It's all run by lizards really."