On July 5, 2012, WikiLeaks began publishing the Syria Files, a trove of 2,434,899 emails obtained by hacktivists and covering 680 domains from August 2006 through March 2012. The records indicated that Italian conglomerate Finmeccanica increased sales of mobile communications equipment to Syrian authorities after the uprising began: 500 units were delivered to the Damascus suburb of Muadamia in May 2011, and engineers traveled to Damascus in February 2012 to train officials in using the equipment at helicopter terminals. The disclosures raised questions about exporting communications technology to a government accused of violently repressing opponents.
The files also included a May 2011 proposal from Brown Lloyd James advising Syrian authorities on how to create the appearance of reform while countering criticism. The plan recommended a 24-hour media-monitoring and response operation, social-media surveillance, challenges to supposedly false sites, and coordinated messaging in U.S. and U.K. markets. Brown Lloyd James said the document was an unpaid, last-ditch effort to encourage a peaceful outcome, but its contents illustrated how commercial communications and influence services could support an authoritarian government’s information-control strategy. WikiLeaks acknowledged that the enormous archive could not initially be verified in full; subsequent reporting confirmed specific emails while disputes remained over whether a €2 billion Syria-to-Russia transfer had been omitted from the published material.
