October 26, 2010

Wiki Leaks War Logs: Weak Search Capability

Wiki Leaks War Logs search capability disappointing. They invest untold time into combing thru the documents and making them searchable, then have a very weak search tool.

I wanted to search for Colonel James Steele, the guy who brought death squad methods from Central America to Iraq. I search for "Steele" and get "steel" too (and steal miss spelled as steel, Go USA!). I want to search for "James and Steele," and the search tool can't handle boolean logic.

Also, the public version is pretty heavily redacted. Compare Guardian UK report:

"Only the severed head was found. A wire was run through the ear with the corpse's ID attached to the wire. 3rd bn [battalion] commander identified the remains as Ahdel Abu Hussain, he was an officer in the NP [national police] Wolf Brigade."

compared with what is available on line:

: //-___ REPORTS IP'___ FROM ___ FOUND A CORPSE IPE___ AND E___ FROM JSS ___ THE RECOVERY AND DISPOSITION OF THE REMAINS; NO BODY FOUND, NO OTHER WOUNDS VISIBLE, ONLY THE SEVERED ___ WAS FOUND. A WIRE WAS RUN THROUGH THE EAR WITH THE CORPSEE___ ID ATTACHED TO THE WIRE.
___ Battalion COMMANDER IDENTIFIED THE REMAINS AS
___ , HE WAS AN OFFICER IN THE ___ WOLF BRIGADE ___ Battalion, ID SERVICE NUMBER IS ___.

And we hear all of this racket from the US establishment about how wiki leaks exposes people to threats of reprisal. The material is pretty sanitized. Typical establishment spin.

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