Wikispooks
Tool Description: An independent, collaboratively edited research wiki focused on people, organisations, events, documents and alleged networks of power, influence and covert activity.
Wikispooks
Quick Overview
What it does
Maps people, organisations, events, documents and alleged networks and relationships.
How to use it
Search a name, organisation, event or topic, then follow related pages, references and documents.
Cost
Free.
Account required
No for browsing/reading. Yes to contribute/edit.
Cookies
Matomo cookies for web analytics, plus a separate cookie for a human-verification/anti-bot mechanism.
Ownership
Founded by Peter Presland in 2010, UK and is a collaboratively edited project.
Use in Reporting
Particularly useful for generating investigative leads and identifying connections that can be researched and corroborated elsewhere.
What does Wikispooks do?
Wikispooks is a collaborative research wiki covering people, organisations, events, documents and relationships connected to what it describes as "deep politics", intelligence, covert operations, political influence and related subjects.
Its content is organised around interconnected pages, making it possible to move from an individual to an organisation, event, document or associated person. The site's categories include thousands of pages covering groups, organisations, employment, events, documents and concepts.
The lowdown: Its strength is the breadth of connections between pages. Individual entries can contain biographies, affiliations, employment histories, associated organisations, events, documents and references.
How to Use:
1. Search Wikispooks for the subject's name, organisation, event, operation or topic.
2. Review the page for affiliations, associated people, organisations, events, documents and references. Follow relevant internal links to identify potential connections and additional leads.
2. Take potentially useful claims outside Wikispooks and verify them independently using primary documents, official records, reputable journalism, academic sources or other reliable material. Record the Wikispooks page as the source of the lead, rather than automatically treating its claims as established fact.
Cost
Data Processing
Account Required:
No for browsing/reading. Yes to contribute/edit.
Cookies:
The site uses Matomo analytics cookies, including pk_id, _pk_ref and _pk_ses. These can be used to distinguish visitors, maintain session information and record referral sources. The site also sets a HUMAN_VERIFIED cookie, apparently to record successful human/anti-bot verification.
Use in Reporting
Wikispooks can be useful for:
Identifying people, organisations, events, documents and relationships relevant to an investigation.
Providing investigative leads and background context for reports, briefings and analytical assessments.
Mapping potential connections between individuals, organisations, political networks and historical events.
Identifying documents, references and external sources that may warrant further investigation.
Developing investigative hypotheses and identifying lines of enquiry for subsequent research.
Supporting findings by directing investigators towards underlying sources that can then be independently verified and cited.
The platform has also been used as a research and document-hosting source in investigative and academic material as its pages and hosted documents can provide useful leads, references and access to source material. However, investigators should distinguish between citing Wikispooks itself and citing the original document or source hosted/linked by Wikispooks.
Capabilities
Limitations
Identifies connections between people, organisations, events and documents.
Content is collaboratively produced and should not automatically be treated as authoritative.
Provides a useful starting point for researching obscure or historical subjects.
Some claims may be disputed, speculative, interpretive or inadequately sourced.
Internal hyperlinks allow investigators to pivot rapidly between related subjects.
Editorial framing can reflect the site's particular perspective and terminology.
Contains links to historical documents and external sources that can provide further investigative leads.
Coverage is uneven; absence of a person, organisation or relationship does not establish that it does not exist.
Can help generate hypotheses about networks, affiliations and relationships for further investigation.
Information can change as pages are edited, so users should preserve relevant page versions/evidence where appropriate.
Summary
Wikispooks is best used in the discovery, triage and link analysis stages of the OSINT workflow and is particularly useful when an investigation involves complex networks of people, organisations, historical events or alleged covert relationships.
Note: There are concerns of bias so its findings should be treated as investigative leads rather than verified facts. The strongest reporting approach is to use Wikispooks to identify a claim or connection, then locate and cite the underlying primary documentation or independent authoritative source.
Ownership
Wikispooks was founded in the UK in 2010 by retired UK businessman and Deep Politics Forum Administrator, Peter Presland.
Ethical Considerations
Treat allegations and interpretations as allegations unless independently substantiated.
Do not infer wrongdoing merely because a person or organisation appears on a Wikispooks page.
Verify significant claims against primary or authoritative sources.
Consider the potential reputational impact when reporting information about identifiable individuals.
Distinguish clearly between documented fact, allegation, inference and investigative hypothesis.
Preserve relevant source material and timestamps where a Wikispooks page materially informs an investigation.
Related Tools:
Internet Archive
Google Scholar
Official Government Archives.
Sources
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