Many might not have heard of Wikileaks before this week, when it published nearly 91,000 American documents on the war in Afghanistan.

The United States knew about this potential leak for months and Wikileaks hinted about this three months ago, just before releasing video clips of US soldiers killing civilians.

Wikileaks is the new generation media at work. The site allows whistleblowers to submit sensitive documents or files without the fear of being traced back.

Banned in China and harassed by the Germans, Wikileaks has had some huge headline-grabbing leaks.

It published Sarah Palin’s email inbox during the presidential election, 9/11 pager messages, toxic dumping in Africa and the British National Party membership list, which incidentally included a Maltese resident.

In an age of constant monitoring and governmental intrusion, you would think Wikileaks would be glorified as the modern anti-1984. It has the potential to bring anyone to its knees.. from large corporations to the biggest governments.

But it isn’t. The site faces financial breakdown due to lack of donors. They have received huge files concerning the BP spill fiasco, but don’t have enough journalists to go through them.

The war in Afghanistan is close to being lost. Attacks on military personnel are constantly increasing, and the situation is out of control. Wikileaks didn’t need to tell us that with US official documents.

But what it will do is increase the pressure on all politicians to face the music.

And nothing may be as damning for the past US government and others as their own words which have been stored in their own filing cabinets?