Elliott School Warning About Wikileaks

The Elliott School’s Graduate Student Career Development office sent out an email on Monday warning students against using Wikileaks information as citations in academic papers. Wikileaks is a site run by Julian Assange that has become well known for its release of classified intelligence information in documents, videos and more. Due to the still classified nature of the information being released by Wikileaks, the school stated that using the information could complicate any attempt to get a job or internship with security clearance.

The email cited Presidential Executive Order 13526 in saying that the documents, though released “shall not be declassified automatically as a result of any unauthorized disclosure."

The office said that it is not trying to “infringe on rights to access information,” but rather to advise students of a potential risk. Columbia University sent out a similar email on December 2nd, saying they received a call from an alumnus at the State Department. However, Columbia did not warn about citing Wikileaks, but rather posting links to the documents on social networking sites. According to Columbia's email, the belief was that such action would “call into question your ability to deal with confidential information." However, this position was later reversed when Dean Coatsworth sent out an email on Monday stating that “students have a right to discuss and debate any information in the public arena."

Wikileaks has been part of a media firestorm in recent weeks, both due to its controversial nature and the purported illegal activities of its founder. Assange, who turned himself in to London police yesterday on a Swedish arrest warrant related to sex crimes, has also been under intense scrutiny for founding the site in the first place.