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Telecom Outages Now a State Secret
Saeed al-Sahaf writes "In the past, before negotiating important or large telecommunications contracts, you could check out the detailed network outage reports that large telecommunications carriers file with the FCC. By knowing where carriers had experienced problems, buyers can negotiate better service contracts and know where to plan on redundant services. As recently as last summer, the FCC championed the marketplace benefits of making outage data available to the public. But after more than a decade of making such carrier outage reports available to the public, the FCC in August ruled that the information will be kept secret, lest it fall into the hands of terrorists."
DHS Says Cellular Outage Reporting is Terrorist Blueprint
Hello, information? I'd like the numbers for G. David Shine and Roy Cohn.
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
"Can you hear me now? What do you mean you can't tell me that?"
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
Lets see..
Helps business. check
Hurts people. check
Has terrorist excuse. check
It must be from the Republican administration.
Why negotiating lower prices on their evil global communication networks of course.
Conversely, if the public doesn't know, then it wasn't a very successful attack on the telecom infrastructure, was it? :)
The fcc did not go so far as to prohibit all network vulnerability data from reaching the public--only that the information won't reach the public via the FCC.
Telco's are still free to provide the information and apparently they have competitive reasons to do so:
Lawyers who negotiate contracts for large enterprises agreed carriers that face meaningful competition will not be inclined to stop providing relevant data, including the cause of outages, to enterprises. Some said that even where competition is not robust, carriers have an interest in being candid with their largest customers.
http://www.busyweather.com/
Isn't it scary that I thought the bit about terrorism was a joke? But no, I RTFA and sure enough, they really are putting this down to terrorism. Will future generations laugh at how easily the masses were seduced by this strawman? This is like the German Jews all over again...
apterous.org
Perfect markets (the ones conservatives crow about incessantly) require perfect information. Think about that the next time you hear them blather on about wonders of the free market. Anyone who truly believes in the true capitalist ideals and still votes republi-can't needs their head examined.
Who are you? The new #2 Who is #1? You are #617565. I am not a number, I am a free man! Muhahaha.
Terrorists are hiding under every rock, and behind every Bush. It's the new excuse for taking away our rights - "We can't let you see that because the terrorists could use it!"
Recently on Now with Bill Moyers (PBS, Friday nights, great show) there was a story about a major natural gas pipeline that would be passing near towns and populated areas. Problem is that no one could find out exactly what the route would be because of terrorism concerns. So it could pass under a school and no one would be allowed to know that. It was a great deal for the company building the pipeline because they didn't have to fight any protests over it running too close to someone's house.
So much FUD.
Why is this necessary?
Can someone give an example of terrorists striking the phone system? Anywhere, ever?
(Need I remind people that terrorism isn't new or unique to the US.. )
Is there any indication that Al-Quaida even wants this information?
This is just ridiculous to the extreme, no matter how you look at it. Just to play devil's advocate, I'll go along with the fact that the US is engaged in a 'War on terror'.
Is this 'war on terror' a conventional war?
Is the goal of Al-Quaida (or whatever terror group you want) to disable the US military and its supporting infrastructure through strategic attacks? Why? Do they plan to invade?
Hell, no. The goal of terrorist organizations is to create terror. That is best done through spectacular things like hijackings, bombings and the slaughter of civilians.
Terrorists kill people. They don't bomb bridges, bust dams and destroy communications networks. They kill people, as many and as violently and as publicly as possible. The purpose is to create fear and publicitity. Actual military-strategic damage is far less important.
So why can't we know when our phone systems are down? Why are bridges being guarded? Why are people being harassed for photographing locks?
The USA has managed to inflict more fear on itself than Osama ever could.
[/rant]
Hurts business. Check.
/. political thread.
Hurts discourse. Check.
Has terrorist excuse. Check.
Must be another
Lately democracy seems to be based on the skybox, the Happy Meal box, the X-box, and the idiot box.
I am not American, Australian actually and live primarily in the UK, but is seems to me that our countries (including the US) are missing the point!
What the hell is the point defending things, preventing information falling into the hands of terrorists etc if you are destroying the very way of life you are trying to protect.
Flame away, but, it does strike me that Sep 11 was a tremendously "successful" terrorist action in terms, not so much of the event itself (although, from the instigators perspective, that can hardly be seen as a failure), but in terms of our reaction to it. It is now almost a matter of routine that more and more of our public and private rights are taken away from us and information is restricted to us.
(The recent bombing of the Australian embassy in Jakarta has been used to refuel the flames in Aussie politics).
Who is doing the most damage to our way of life? Us or them?
These aren't of course unique ideas, but they are ones that should never be forgotten.
Small disclaimer: I of course abhor terrorism in all its forms, when I refer to "success" I simply refer to the level to which the instigators objectives have been met.
Small note on disclaimer: It does bother me the level of paranoia is such at the moment that I feel the need to have the write the last paragraph and basically declare myself to be a reasonable human being who wishes no harm to anyone lest anybody make the assumption otherwise.
Now if they can just ban access to that nasty election and recount data, the terrorist will really be screwed.
Yahh, hiii haaaaa! -Major Kong, from Dr. Strangelove
TEH TERRISTS R CUMMING, TEH TERRISTS R CUMMING
QUICK -- GRAB ANKLES, BEND N INSERT HED INTO ASSSSSS!!!@#@#!~!!!
Ohhhh fux0r -- it's so dark -- there must be black ops in here!!!!
This story is yet another prime example of why I am seriously considering expatrioting myself from this fear mongering society of irrational and doctrines of hysteria enfored by skittle colored terror alerts.
I had a conspiracy theory that I made as a "joke" back in the 9/11 days that the twin towers attack was "allowed" in the same way that the British allowed Nazi airstrikes because they didn't want the Nazi's to know that they could see them coming via a new tech called "radar" Only this time, instead of strategizing against an outernationalist enemy, they are strategizing against US citizens by inciting a state of controlled panic to leverage measures to restrict our liberties and nullify the constition.
You see... the constitution has loopholes that allow for secrecy of public information and "temporary" revocation of rights in the event of "war time" needs. So the obvious exploit is to start a never ending war and exploit those holes in our national charter to rootkit the entirity of the constitution.
At the time I considered it an item that would make you laugh then make you think... but as time has gone on, I'm laughing less and thinking more.
Just because an insane thing happened (9/11), does the whole world have to go insane?
I think it's more along the lines of the U.S. government and corporations using the constantly news-media-fanned flames of mass hysteria to push their own agendas, which normally would be met with much resistance by the people (who, reasonably, don't want to give up their freedoms without sufficient cause). I don't know which is the worst:
- The government and corporations taking advantage of the sheeple's ignorance and mass hysteria,
- The media stoking the hysteria to keep people watching the news instead of pro wrestling and reality shows, or
- The fact that people really are stupid enough to buy into all these scare tactics used by the government, corporations, and the news media to take advantage of us.
I've heard multiple people recently talk about how they're afraid to fly or work in the air transportation industry because of "all the terrorists in airports and on airplanes these days."
Arguing about vi versus Emacs is like arguing whether it's better to make fire by rubbing sticks or banging rocks.
If I were to disrupt the random network, I would watch the 1st responders and know what the effect was.
This is all about the Bush admin. using terrorism as their excuse for all policy. Can't say it's because Bush got $4.7 million from the Communic/Electronics industries. In the last month I've seen that we can't import drugs from Canada because they might be spiked by terrorists. Bush is promising to privatize Social Security again, he couldn't get it done 1st term because he was too busy fighting terrorists. All policy is now terrorist related.