Wikileaks.org was created as a haven for anonymous whistle-blowers seeking to expose government and corporate secrets.

On Tuesday, the U.S. military announced that it would press criminal charges against 22-year-old Pfc. Bradley Manning for allegedly transferring classified military information to his personal computer and "delivering national defense information to an unauthorized source." The charges appear to be connected to the leak of a classified video that Wikileaks released to the public.

The...