The alternative whistleblower site created by WikiLeaks defectors may launch sooner than later, according to Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter (DN). The project is being referred to as "OpenLeaks" and is reportedly on track to launch this coming Monday. Though the newspaper didn't name its sources, it's clear from the group's goals that the founders essentially want to be the anti-WikiLeaks.

"Our long-term goal is to build a strong, transparent platform to support whistleblowers—both in terms of technology and politics—while at the same time encouraging others to start similar projects," an anonymous person told DN. "As a short-term goal, this is about completing the technical infrastructure and ensuring that the organization continues to be democratically governed by all its members, rather than limited to one group or individual."

That "one group or individual" is a clear reference to WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who is becoming increasingly known as a Steve Jobs-like control freak when it comes to managing the organization.

As such, the revelation that former WikiLeaks staffers might be starting up their own site is unsurprising. Last month, a report surfaced saying that former WikiLeaks hotshot Daniel Domscheit-Berg was heading up the (at the time) unnamed project. Domscheit-Berg and a handful of others had unceremoniously left WikiLeaks earlier this year due to disagreements with Assange, and a WikiLeaks spokesperson confirmed then that the defectors were working on something new.

Aside from being run like a democracy, OpenLeaks has other operational differences in mind. The group hopes to act as a neutral party "without a political agenda," aside from the goal of disseminating information to the public, that is. The group doesn't even plan to leak the documents to the public directly—instead, it hopes to create a system wherein nonprofits, the media, and important trade groups can access the info in order to process and publish it as appropriate.

The sources didn't discuss how OpenLeaks plans to limit access, though they did discuss developing new technology to deal with the leaked documents. It's possible that OpenLeaks will require organizations to apply for their own log-ins that can be used to access the site, or approved organizations will get access on an IP-limited basis.

Such a strategy seems appropriate if OpenLeaks wants to avoid some of the backlash that WikiLeaks and Assange has seen thus far. Instead of thrusting itself into the limelight, OpenLeaks would simply act as a document repository for news organizations to pillage, putting the editorial control and hard decision-making (such as which details to censor and which to publish) into the hands of actual journalists.

"[I]t is quite interesting to see how little of politicians' anger seems directed at the newspapers using WikiLeaks sources," one of DN's sources pointed out.

In an attempt to keep US military stuff off of leak sites, the military has issued a blanket ban on all removable media from accessing its network, SIPRNET. The "Cyber Control Order" was issued at the beginning of this month (and leaked to Wired), and states that those caught making unauthorized data transfers to removable media, servers, or standalone computers could face punishment by court-martial.

The obvious goal is to stop insiders from grabbing documents to send to the likes of WikiLeaks or OpenLeaks, but several military members have acknowledged that the ban will only make their everyday jobs harder. Of course, flash drives and the like have caused problems for the military before—in fact, a previous ban on removable disks was recently lifted—so the fact that it's cracking down again at the expense of convenience comes as no surprise.