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Indymedia Server Raided by FBI
jaromil writes "Today at about 18:00 CET FBI raided the indymedia servers hosted by Rackspace both in US and England. At present, the italian indymedia and numerous other local IMC websites are obscured, while the reasons why the hard drives were taken are still unknown."
The NYC Indymedia site is still up and has coverage of their own downtime.
Nobody's exactly sure why or how the FBI got warrants to take Indymedia's HDs, but their speculation tends to center around the fact that the Feds were spooked by the fact that Indymedia was able to publish RNC delegate names. This unfortuantely means political motivations are going to be questioned no matter what reasoning is brought forward.
Not much we can do at this hour but hold our breath and wait for more info to be released.
Suspicious indeed....Possibly linked to RNC delegate identification? See this link from the Pittsburgh Post Gazette
3 .php
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/04264/382137.stm
This in from Argentina Indymedia, which has a different view -
FBI took the hard drives of IMC servers in the UK
por Mat ((!)) Thursday October 07, 2004 at 06:10 PM
-
The US authorities issued a subpoena to Rackspace's office in the US ordering them to physically remove Indymedia hardware located in London. Rackspace is one of Indymedia's web hosting providers with offices in the US and London. Rackspace complied and turned over Indymedia's hard drives/servers in the UK. This affects some 20+ Indymedia sites worldwide.
Since the subpoena was issued to Rackspace and not to Indymedia, the reasons for this action are still unknown to Indymedia.
At the same time a second server was taken down at Rackspace which provided streaming radio to several radio stations, BLAG (linux distro), and a handful of miscellanous things.
The last few months have seen numerous attacks on independent media by the US Federal Government. In August the Secret Service used a subpoena in an attempt to disrupt the NYC IMC before the RNC by trying to get IP logs from an ISP in the US and the Netherlands, last month the FCC shut down comunity radio stations around the US, and now the FBI is shutting down IMCs around the world.
The list of affected local media collectives includes Ambazonia, Uruguay, Andorra, Poland, Western Massachusetts, Nice, Nantes, Lilles, Marseille (all France), Euskal Herria (Basque Country), Liege, East and West Vlaanderen, Antwerpen (all Belgium), Belgrade, Portugal, Prague, Galiza, Italy, Brazil, part of the Germany site, UK Radio, and the global Indymedia Radio site.
Micah Anderson of the global imc-tech collective said, "We suspect it has to do with an FBI request that we take down a post on the Nantes IMC that had a photo of some undercover Swiss police. They claimed there was threats and personal information, but there was nothing of the sort. The undercover police that were photographed on the page were photographing protesters. Rackspace is a US company, but have colocation in the UK where these servers are (err, were) located. So this is about Swiss police, on a French site, on a server in England, taken away by American federal police."
However, according to information from IMC Nantes the pictures in question were already removed a week ago.
Link to Argentina Indymedia
http://argentina.indymedia.org/news/2004/10/22769
and one more to NYC Indymedia, which is still up
http://nyc.indymedia.org/
My MythTV HowTo
Who the heck is indymedia?
---
ECHELON is a government program to find words like bomb, jihad, plutonium, assassinate, and anarchy.
I guess that's what Rackspace means by Fanatical Support(TM)
...but I thought the servers were RAIDed already?
Alcohol and Calculus don't mix. Don't drink and derive.
... Nobody's exactly sure why or how the FBI got warrants to take Indymedia's HDs, but their speculation tends to center around the fact that the Feds were spooked by the fact that Indymedia was able to publish RNC delegate names.
Yeah that freedom of speech thing is a real pain, isn't it?
The dangers of knowledge trigger emotional distress in human beings.
Because it wasn't "some website raided by the FBI". It was an independant media source that was taken down by the FBI for reasons unknown....
The regular media doesn't get taken down so easily...Sounds suspicous....Politically motivated? Possibly...
But kiddy porn ring, no....
My MythTV HowTo
The Independent Media Center, also called Indymedia or the IMC, is a network of media organizations and journalists. It was started in late November, 1999, to cover the protests of the anti-globalization movement against the World Trade Organization in Seattle, Washington. By 2002, there were 89 local IMCs around the world spread between 31 countries plus the West Bank and 6 continents. The country with the most IMCs is the United States with 39, followed by Canada with 11.
(Source: Wikipedia.org. Released under the GFDL. See article)
Grr! Arg!
Indymedia goes down in an FBI raid and the best /. can muster are a bunch of asshat trolls who have their heads so far buried in the sand they don't even know what indymedia.org *is*.
It's intellectual porn. Damn those free-thinkers trying to get news from an independent media source!
Press Release
7 October 2004
FBI Seizes IMC Servers in the UK
US authorities issued a federal order to Rackspace's office in the US ordering them to provide Indymedia's hardware located in London to the requesting agency. Rackspace is one of Indymedia's web hosting providers with offices in the US and London. Rackspace complied, without first notifying Indymedia, and turned over Indymedia's server in the UK. This affects some 20+ Indymedia sites worldwide.
Since the subpoena was issued to Rackspace and not to Indymedia, the reasons for this action are still unknown to Indymedia. Talking to Indymedia volunteers, Rackspace stated that "they cannot provide Indymedia with any information regarding the order." ISPs have received gag orders in similar situations which prevent them from updating the concerns parits on what is happening.
It is unclear to Indymedia how and why a server that is outside the US jurisdiction can be seized by US authorities.
At the same time a second server was taken down at Rackspace which provided streaming radio to several radio stations, BLAG (linux distro), and a handful of miscellanous things.
The last few months have seen numerous attacks on independent media by the US Federal Government. In August the Secret Service used a subpoena in an attempt to disrupt the NYC IMC before the RNC by trying to get IP logs from an ISP in the US and the Netherlands. Last month the FCC shut down community radio stations around the US. Two weeks ago the FBI requested that Indymedia takes down a post on the Nantes IMC that had a photo of some undercover Swiss police and IMC volunteers in Seattle were visited by the FBI on the same issue. On the other hand, Indymedia and other independent media organisations have been successful with their victories (thanks to the EFF), for example against Diebold and the Patroit Act. Today however, the US authorities shut down IMCs around the world.
The list of affected local media collectives includes Ambazonia, Uruguay, Andorra, Poland, Western Massachusetts, Nice, Nantes, Lilles, Marseille (all France), Euskal Herria (Basque Country), Liege, East and West Vlaanderen, Antwerpen (all Belgium), Belgrade, Portugal, Prague, Galiza, Italy, Brazil, UK, part of the Germany site, and the global Indymedia Radio site.
The regular media doesn't get taken down so easily
Today's moral of the story is to keep offsite backups...
obody's exactly sure why or how the FBI got warrants to take Indymedia's HDs, but their speculation tends to center around the fact that the Feds were spooked by the fact that Indymedia was able to publish RNC delegate names.
Another theory is around some pictures of undercover Swiss police (photographing protesters) that were posted on an IMC site (IMC Nantes) - Indymedia got a request to remove 'identifying information' from the site (apparently the FBI got involved 'as a courtesy' to the Swiss authorities). Since there were no identifying details, Indymedia didn't do anything in response.
It would seem strange for an American agency to get a warrant to seize information relating to Swiss undefcover police from a French website, but it's the most solid theory I've heard so far.
Those sites were run by anti-american leftist liberals. The FBI needs to crack down on ANY and ALL leftist web sites that spread pro-terrorist, anti-american messages all over. We need more action, not more talk. Go FBI!
... just needed hard drives, Government budgets are tight.
Not everything is a conspiracy.
Actually, according to nyc.indymedia.com, the request originated from the Swiss police.
And according to another article, they recently published a bunch of photos identifying undercover swiss policemen. It starts to make sense, I have no idea what Swiss laws against exposing undercover law enforcement agents say.
But I guess the knee-jerk "It's a Bush comsperacie!" crap is appropriate for slashdot.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
Given that Rackspace seemed reasonably communicative about the Swiss Secret Service issue, I wonder if the "no comment" implies some invocation of the Patriot Act.
Rackspace was given no time to defend against the order before it was acted upon and turned over the hard drives from the nyc imc server
now i'm no legal expert, but i was under the distinct impression that, with a few exceptions like threatening the president, you were innocent until proven guilty and had the right to defend yourself. have i missed something?
also by law aren't federal agents, any agents for that matter, required to show the warrant? so *some*body must know what's going on, right?
The only way to get rid of a temptation is to yield to it.
-Oscar Wilde
has more information, they suspect it is related to the posting of pictures of undercover police officers. Oddly enough the officers were photographing protesters.
I realise that if it just happened there may not be a huge amount of information available yet, but surely you could link to something a little better than well...nothing.
And I have to question what little info you have given... after all, I'm pretty sure the FBI (an AMERICAN organization) can't directly raid a rackspace location in ENGLAND... don't they have to arrange with their friends in the relevant British agencies to do something like that?
My supposition is the following:
Diebold threatened the italian indymedia website, along with other
IMC hosted there, one year ago, for hosting documents discussing
the numerous scandals about their voting system.
This case was taken up by the EFF and they WON in court.
Now, just before the elections in USA, Diebold is coming back
under cover to strike back.
Of course they will never declare Diebold is behind all this.
Then who would be next, slashdot? just search "Diebold" in the archives if you
don't remember well wassup...
of course, just my 2 cents
Blaming the RNC sounds like something a rabid anti-bush website would do.
But, TFA that I read on nyc.indymedia.com has a quote from Rackspace saying the request came from Swiss authorities.
I read elsewhere that they got in some shit for publishing photos and identities of undercover swiss cops.
I'm sure they know what they did, but they won't say anything so long as they can lead everyone to believe it's "evil Bush" behind it all.
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
This event will legitimize IndyMedia in a way that none of their reporting ever has.
Irritable, left-wing and possibly humorous bumper stickers and t-shirts
IndyMedia doesn't claim to be unbiased... the site admits that it leans left.
Umm....can someone please remind me how this is the greatest and most free country in the world?
(No fair modding me down based on your warped "political" leanings...).
eat shiat and bark at the moon
i mean if they published names is that really wrong? its a public event, its on telly so by default you could be recognised in the audience, by going you agree your privacy is compromised in some way, your details will probably go onto some list of people to call back.
if you stood outside the entrance, took photos of the people going in and published them, would that be the same thing? if its a public place whats the problem?
has there been intimidation? or is this just fear because its the republicans in power?
there are plenty if privacy concerns just by being a voter, your details are available to be seen locally (speaking as a UK citizen myself). and if you don't tick the right box then hell its available to anybody who wants it, anywhere, possibly for cross referencing with the phone book so burglars can find your phone number if if looks like you are out. well having a pretty rare name and being involved in something where a lot of people know i've got a load of expensive gear - i don't register to vote. I know people who have been repeatedly hit and vanloads of equipment nicked.
as another point, really is there any need to go? its on the telly. like all political conferances its just preaching to the converted and you are just there to applaud on cue to make the pictures look good.
Hmm... the archive.org page only goes to January of 2004.
Better than nothing, though.
Cheez, you're as bad as Dick Cheney.
That was a civil case where the anti-abortion group had a site had the doctor's pictures in targets and when each doctor was killed, they crossed off the dead doctor. This was a civil suit holding them responsible for the results of their speech which encouraged the murders of the doctors. This is different from just posting the information on the delgates -- without targets, without orders to kill, etc.
Fight Spammers!
"The US authorities issued a subpoena to Rackspace's office in the US ordering them to physically remove Indymedia hardware located in London"
They wouldn't be obliged to take down the server in a foreign country. Believe it or not, UK soil is subject to UK law, not American law.
"It's not your information. It's information about you" - John Ford, Vice President, Equifax
The best theories are so far that they either (a) posted photos of undercover swiss police officers or (b) posted publicly available info concerning members of the RNC.
If (a), what on earth does this have to do with terrorism or indeed the FBI. If (b), this is public info, they just collated it. Again, what does this have to do with the FBI, or indeed terrorists.
---- Den ene knappen er powerknapp, den andre er Bender voice knapp "Bite My Shiny Metal Ass"
It's called terrorism because the reason isn't to kill people, but to make them fear. But it seams that while people are all for it to make "war on terror", they don't want to fight their own fear.
Analogies don't equal equalities, they are merely somewhat analogous.
Its not "just" the current US administration, its a general western centre-right policy: note the servers were not all located in the USA and therefore other governments were implicit in the "crime" though one wonders why the FBI rather than the law enforcement agencies of said governments seized the HDs. And its "your rights online" because it appears you cant maintain a legal website expressing views contrary to the political establishment (of several nations) without it getting taken down.
How do we know it was the police anyway, if they were supposedly undercover? If they were, and someone photographed them, the undercover police shouldn't have had identifying marks. If they're that easily identifable, they're not really undercover, are they? And if they aren't identifiable, then the Swiss themselves gave away the whole shebang by raising a stink about it, no? If the police wanted to remain anonymous, maybe they should have taken the pictures from a long way away with a telephoto lens the size of Hubble, or from behind a one-way mirror in a van or something.
Sorry, this just all seems really messed up to me in general.
Do not touch -Willie
Do you still think that ELECTIONS are the targets? The targets are commercial, not political. Why would anyone that hates the US (or more specific parts of it) enough to kill civilians care about our democratic procedures? Anyone that is angry at the US is angry at groups already in power.
Playing pornographics games during the day is evil! Play at night!
So don't give me this garbage about how I would feel. I don't like the idea that someone could post my address and phone number on the net so that a group of dicks could harass me, but I like even less this whole 'nanny state' censorship issue. And I hate the idea that something like this can be done for a reason that isn't even actually illegal. What's good for the goose is damn well good for the gander.
Now, that said, I think the likelihood that 'RNC' appears in any way on the warrant is vanishingly small. If, in fact, this is in retaliation for the RNC names thing, it's going to have some actual legal basis that is nearly or wholly unrelated.
(And may well be fictional.)
-fred
Sign #11 of Slashdot overdose: You see the phrase 'moderate Republican' and you wonder if that would be a +1 or a -1.
Earlier last month, the Secret Service requested visitor logs from Indymedia to determine who posted personal info about GOP delegates. It looks like Big Brother really wanted that info.
See link for more info.
jesus dude, think about what you are saying. You support police action over people having retarded views? I support police action if people break laws. Being anti-american is not illegal. I take hope in my faith that the FBI had real cause. That is a cause other than what you've stated.
-Nuke the moon
coup de gras. The 'P' is silent. "Coup" means blow, "cou" means neck.
'... On Aug. 18, an anonymous poster to nyc.indymedia.org published the names, addresses, phone numbers and email addresses of 1,600 delegates to the Republican National Convention in New York City along with a message for anti-RNC groups to use the information "in whatever way they see fit."
[As noted in this previous post, 10464479 ]
Kiddies this is pretty much the quickest way to get your hardware confiscated.
peterrenshaw ~ Another Scrappy Startup
Once hardware is seized like this, it and everything on it will never be returned. Whether you are guilty or not.
Why do I suspect that IM's drives will be returned to them wiped clean? Shutting down any nationwide media outlet is a pretty scary thing. Agree or disagree with them, they still qualify for "freedom of the press". Or atleast they did. I serious hope this is not a trend before the November Elections.
"I hate to advocate drugs, alcohol, violence or insanity but they've always worked for me" - HST
It is a sad reality that government organisations use bully tactics for political purposes. If I were running, say, an independent media company, I wouldn't be running my website, the main distribution method off a rack server with 19 other countries' IMCs.
In fact, this is what Freenet is designed for.
Decentralise and conquer!
IMCs are like the guerillas of news media. They should start (contuinue) using this to their advantage.
The first amendment guarantees the right to hold stupid, idiotic political opinions. If you don't like it, there are other countries with different constitutions, feel free to emigrate. Personally, I like the Bill of Rights just fine, thank you.
Have you read my blog lately?
You Righties see America as something to which you owe loyalty, and you see and the President, Senators, et al as demigods. However, we Lefties see America as the property of its citizens, and its leaders as our employees.
I think the difference in perspective may be better understood by seeing those on the Right as composed of two classes--the alpha leaders and the followers. Really, it is a timeless pack-animal, social-animal hierarchy.
We on the Left see humans as something above animals, and to a great extent we reject animal tradition, and seek a new organization, one that minimizes hierarchy, and one that sees a nation as a tool for the citizens. You on the Right seek comfort in a stable society where you and everyone else "know your own place" in society.
eat shiat and bark at the moon
I think that says it pretty well. :-/
Someone put a black hole in my pocket and now I'm broke.
Well, do you know what the Swiss laws against even mentioning undercover law enforcement agents are? Perhaps you're violating them now, and the FBI should raid slashdot.
That's the problem with the argument that every internet content provider is subject to the laws of every country on Earth.
And, yes, to the extent that the FBI has decided that its job is to protect foreign secret police rather than American citizens, it does reflect negatively on the Bush administration. Considering how often they oversimplify terrorism ("they hate us because we're free"), they sure don't seem very interested in actual freedom of the press. At least not when the press is anti-establishment... even against foreign establishments.
Cheers
-b
If I wanted a sig I would have filled in that stupid box.
If TV has taught me nothing (and it hasn't), this shit happens all the time in the US; but to get a company in the UK to bend over for a US agency is something, even if it does have an american parent.
I guess the moral of the story is if you're worried about this thing happening to your servers make sure you host with a non-US company, even outside the US.
501(c)3 organizations are prohibited by the tax exempt tax laws from making any endorsement of, or any published statement against any candidate for an upcoming election.
/.'ers portray indymedia in posts, it seems possible to me that indymedia has made or published direct support for or direct statements against candidates for election.
This all could be related to IRS suspecting a violation of tax law.
Not being too informed about indymedia in particular, this is just a guess on my part. However, the way that other
This is the type of thing that makes me really embarassed to be an American.
These people should have been shown a warrant and that warrant should be public.
We should know the EXACT reason those hard disks were taken for NOW. This type of crap really, really disturbs me.
What's left to prevent fishing expeditions against people the gov't doesn't like?
They show up search the place, find something illegal, and make up the warrant afterwards?
This is lunacy. The executive branch has been breaking constitutional law left and right and no one is on trial.
Life is too short to proofread.
Indymedia... that name vaugely rings a bell...
Indymedia...
Google is my friend. Google Group search for Indymedia in news.admin.net-abuse.* (email and sightings especally)...
64 threads (some with hundreds of examples of related spam) sight some examples.
What does SPEWS, SPAMHAUS, and other DNS RBL's say? Nothing. Take it with a grain of salt.
--
# Canmephians for a better Linux Kernel
$Stalag99{"URL"}="http://stalag99.net";
Indymedia isn't directing its audience to kill Republican electors. Antichoice terrorist direct their audience to kill abortionists, pass around their contact info, and then some in their audience actually kill abortionists. What is this demented obsession with "balance" when the rightwingers are so totally unbalanced, that balance just drags us all to the right?
--
make install -not war
Breakfast served all day!
Coup de grace, please! It has nothing to do with being fat.
-- Soruk
They liked to live on the edge of annoying the establishment... they were the ones that broke the story of the statue of saddam hussen falling being a put-up job for the assembled press (there were only about half a dozen people there, there rest were reporters/press).
A conspiracy theory is not a story... there were plenty of other photo angles from that same day that showed a vastly different "story" than IndyMedia posited.
I've dealt firsthand with many of the hacks and idiots involved in Indymedia. They grab on to the coat-tails of any media event or protest they can and then act as extreme as possible to garner press even if it harms the original vision of the event or protest. They are revolting, dishonest and a sad excuse for a "media".
--- I do not moderate.
The sooner OPEC switches to the Euro and isolation of the US world bully begins, the better IMHO.
Who the F**k is there it consultant? Didn't he ever hear of an off-site backup? The search warrant did not revoke their right to operate, just that they turn over the RACKSPACE drives. An off-site back up, and a few hundred dollars could have gotten them back up in a jiffy. It would be very advantageous to have the off-site back-up to be read only to prevent the argument that it too had to be seized in order to do forensic analysis to detect erased material. Learn from this ye who yearn to cry in the dark.
why didn't they post both DNC and RNC delegate names?
indymedia uses an open publishing system - if someone wanted to post (and had) the DNC names, they could have posted them.
Yeah, the Rev. Moon's Washington Times would never investigate those reports to see if they're just another Rove frame job:
In the 1996 Alabama Supreme Court race between Democratic incumbent Kenneth Ingram and Republican challenger Harold See, Rove printed anonymous fliers attacking See, his own client. The purpose was "'to create a backlash against the Democrat,' as Joe Perkins, who worked for Ingram, put it to me," Green writes.
I find it totally predictable that a Bush apologist would get behind this Republican terrorism. Have you taken all the shots you can?
--
make install -not war
In case you were wondering why we need independent media, take a look at this AP newswire article that "slipped out" today, claiming that Bush has already won the election:
TV station reports that Bush has been elected President
Whether this is in regards to Swiss Undercover Agent, or the Posting of RNC delegates information you may rest absolutely assured that had any of the Big 5 derivatives ( you know viacom, time-warner, murdoch , disney and that german company ) done the same thing their assets would have been seized as well.
One only has to look at the sesuire of CNN's equipement after Robert Novack revealed that Valerie Plame was an undercover CIA agent to conclude that indymedia is being treated equally.
Oh hold on... that never happend! Oh well So much for Freedom of Press!
That any media organization whatever would have it's harddrives, presses, or any other method of publication seized without explaination or public discourse is an afront to a free society and should be seen as a crime against the people.
Bush 1895!
-- force and mind are opposites; morality ends where a gun begins ayn rand
If 20 people call the police and Say I'm a bookie, and the police get a warrant. They can ask for a warant to take my records and computers and examine them. This isn't the same as being convicted.
(If at first you don't succeed, do it different next time!)
Are you denying that there is a forced rigid heirichy in the government system with lots of "i scratch your back, you scratch mine" people and lots of ass kissing and fakers out there with back stabbing gallore. Pack animals, yes, ask any socialigist/biologist and they will concur the similarity, you cannot deny it dude. Maybe we cannot avoid that, but we can add extra logical none currupt decision processes into it to make it fair and transparent, not contract based and locked in a safe.
Liberty freedom are no1, not dicks in suits.
They are a global organisation, use a global filesystem, replicated servers. Hell, the software is even free, all they have to do is set it up:
OpenAFS or Coda.
As long as a single server survives your sites stay up.
Deleted
than by removing the very reason they hate us!
It's a brilliant move on President Bush's part and I for one support him 100%!
I think there's another important possibility: that the slashdot crowd is significantly anti-Bush. No, that's not the same thing as being pro-Kerry, pro-Democrat, or pro-Liberal, though of course some people will be those things as well.
So far as I've ever been able to determine, Bush is so sodding incompetent that I would expect the range of anti-Bush people to approximate "everyone". Even if you happen to have exactly the same set of goals, values, and priorities which Bush claims, I would imagine that you'd at least want a remotely intelligent and competent person to pursue them.
Federal law enforecement does not have to explain what is on the warrent. Feds just need to say we have probable cause that item X has evidentary value of violating Y. IF its a _sealed_ warrent they do not have to show you anything, you can ask if they have one, they might show you it but you cannot see it. To get a sealed warrent takes a lot of effort and it puts the officer, his/her department AND the judge who signed the order in a position of responsibility, its an attempt at checks and ballances. You have to name what you want to get on the warrent, and it gives them the right to enter your place.
http://www.sealandgov.com/m /
http://www.havenco.co
Freedom: "I won't!"
Check out the Infoshop story (found via Google News). Turns out Rackspace has indeed been instructed not to comment on this.
It was a group called American Coalition of Life Advocates (ACLA). A good description is at Gigalaw.
Fight Spammers!
Why is it that a site so proudly "independant" is so rigidly uniform in it's content?
If the National Post (rigidly right wing Canadian paper) will publish Linda McQuaig and others, why aren't there any divergent viewpoints on Indymedia?
Given that the demographics behind Indymedia and behind various open-source projects overlaps to significant degree, it's the virtually only possible reaction to the mounting pressure.
Apples and oranges.
Indymedia definitely has an agenda. There is no question about this, and that agenda is to tell those stories which the National Post will never, ever touch. Linda McQuaig, as admirable as her socialist/Marxist thinking is, remains little more than a showpiece to give a lousy paper some legitimacy. (They call it, 'controversy' and they use it in a large part to sell ad spots.) Indymedia doesn't need to do this. Their primary concern is not money-making or winning false legitimacy.
Linda McQuaig is also carried in the National Post for another reason; so that people can ask exactly the question you asked; so that they can feel as though there is a legitimate reason to scorn and ignore alternative news sources.
But I think that this is unwise. Linda McQuaig will not, for instance, be allowed to report on the true events happening in Israel. Canwest Global, (which owns the National Post), has been caught re-wording stories about the war on Palestine so that unaware readers will want to favor the Israelis.
Indymedia and other alternative news sources are needed exactly because they do not fall beneath the control of such influences. Or, at least, that was true until the FBI entered the scene.
-FL
No. The FBI, among other things, is in the business of following the president's and their director's orders. This can, and historically has, included blatantly illegal acts from the faking of subversive activities to discredit "leftists" in the 1960's to their handling of Whitey Bulger as both a Boston gangleader and mob informant, done so badly that the FBI actually helped convict innocent people of murder to protect Whitey. Many FBI agents are competent investigators dedicated to fighting bad people who commit crimes. Their directors often are not.
Actually, they are independent in nearly every sense of the word.
They are also biased in at least one sense of the word.
Fox News is certainly not independent in most senses of the word. Their degree of bias will be left as an exercise to the reader.
-fred
Sign #11 of Slashdot overdose: You see the phrase 'moderate Republican' and you wonder if that would be a +1 or a -1.
If these are the people who ultimately elect my President why do I not have a right to know exactly who they are? And why would my (the represented's) knowledge serve as a threat in any form or fashion?
The next thing you know, someone will be explaining why we shouldn't release the President's name to the public for security reasons.....
hey, i'm not going to take a side, except to say that it'd be awesome if we knew what was going on here. a prominent critic of a sitting president has been silenced, setting a bad precedent. furthermore, they did not charge the critic, but subpeona'd the ISP. that's not good.
so, let's force the people with access to start asking questions.
nytimes
newsweek
o'reilly
msnbc
plus you can go to various other websites and fill out their forms--CNN, for example.
again, no sides taken, but let's try and cause a stink--this is a big deal. I'll even make it easy for you--copy'n'paste!
The FBI has effectively shut down Indymedia.org (IMC) by issuing an order to RackSpace US to hand over server hard drives located in London. As a result, over 20 local Indymedia sites have been shut off. At this time, no one knows why the FBI wants the drives or what they are investigating. It is also unclear why Rackspace US complied with a demand for materials held by Rackspace UK. Indymedia is a vocal critic of the Bush Administration, and also of the mass media. There is some history of this administration's dislike of Indymedia: before the RNC, there was a Secret Service order to shut down nyc.indymedia.org, which was organizing protests. More information can be found at the general Indymedia site, http://www.indymedia.org.
london is drowning and i live by river
And owner of 4/5 of the IMC UK, DNS and mail servers, I'm quite startled to get back from the pub to this. Couple of interesting links: The global view The local view
Tim Brown
The Declaration of Independence
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
Constitution
Preamble to the Bill of Rights
Bill of Rights
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.
Amendment II
A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.
Amendment III
This "unknown" reason as to why the FBI took the hardrives/servers from Rackspace was more than likely given to Rackspace. However, probably due to some obscure clause to the Patriot Act that allows Britain and the US to work together or something to "fight terror" - the Feds can gag Rackspace from revealing that reason. Or even worse, the Fed's probably don't even need a reason other than "National Security - now shutup and hand over the hard drives".
Hey, those that make the rules and enforce the rules can, essentially, do what ever they want and there is not a damned thing "Joe Citizen" can do about it.
And to those of you that think the wheels of a brave new orwellian world aren't already in motion: nothing to see here, go back to sleep.
Authority questions you. Return the favor.
Would Karl Rove, the man George W. Bush nicknamed "Turd Blossom", do something destructive to get George W. Bush re-elected? The books say he would.
Books about those who designed
the Bush administration's deliberate dishonesty
There are many excellent people in the Republican political party in the United States. But there is are people who say they are Republicans who might be called "Re-money-cans". (There is no "public" in Remoneycan.) They are only interested in money and power and they achieve them by using dishonesty as a tool. For example, the Remoneycans have been running advertisements on U.S. television claiming that George W. Bush is a more experienced military leader than John Kerry, who opposes him for the 2004 presidential election. During times when people in the U.S. feel threatened, a large percentage of them feel that violence is the only answer, and the ads manipulate that feeling. The ads may be very convincing if the viewer does not know the truth, that John Kerry is much more experienced, as the Military Service Records for Bush and Kerry show. Also see the essay Bush's Military Records Show He Shirked.
Boy Genius: Karl Rove, The brains behind the remarkable political triumph of George W. Bush by Lou Dubose, Jan Reid, and Carl M. Cannon, 2003, PublicAffairs. Reviews: Powell's Barnes & Noble Amazon
The secret of Karl Rove's success is that U.S. voters don't want to believe there is widespread corruption in their government. Therefore, if lies are extreme enough, they will be accepted.
President George W. Bush has a habit of giving disrespectful nicknames to those with whom he works. "Boy Genius" is one of President Bush's nicknames for Karl Rove. President Bush also calls Karl Rove, "Turd Blossom". The term refers to a flower that grows in the feces of a cow.
Bush's Brain: How Karl Rove made George W. Bush presidential by James Moore and Wayne Slater, 2003, John Wiley & Sons, New York, New York, USA. Reviews: Powell's Barnes & Noble Amazon
An Amazon review about the present U.S. president, George W. Bush, quotes the book: "Karl Rove matters to all Americans, many who have never even heard his name. While the president chafes at the description of Rove as 'Bush's Brain,' he can hardly deny that every policy and political decision either goes through, or comes from, the consultant," write the authors, leading them to pose the question, "Who really runs this country?"
Bad Boy: The life and politics of Lee Atwater by John Brady, 1997, Addison-Wesley Publishing Company, Reading, Massachusetts. Reviews: Barnes & Noble Amazon
Lee Atwater and Karl Rove worked together, but Lee died of a brain tumor when he was 40. Mr. Atwater also had no interest in government policy, but only in how to get someone elected. For example, see the top of page 103 of the hardcover edition: "Indeed, Lee had no interest in the policy loop." Another quote, about his sexual involvement with women other than his wife, from page 151: "He [Lee Atw
Honestly, the consequence of the name release people showing up in various consumes and annoying the delegates:
t hree-ring-circus.html
. html
http://www.basetree.com/photos/no-rnc/republican-
Big deal, and in any case the list of names was reposted from the Tampa Tribune (and other sources):
http://www.tampatrib.com/FloridaMetro/MGBLDGQ6LXD
Disclosure: I occasionally post photos to Indymedia but I have nothing do with the day-to-day operations. In other words: I know nothing!
That is, I can see what it had to do with Germany, but I don't think it's at all fair to use that example to condemn socialist thinking. I very much doubt that the con-job which went down in Nazi Germany would have met with Marx's approval!
Basically, what I mean in regards to McQuaig is that she appears to abhor greed-motivated social policy. (See for example, this piece of hers on economics and the homeless.)
I think people who work against greed and injustice, deserve respect, and that those who deliberately ignore the lessons of kindergarten, (ie., how to share and play fairly; things we all instinctively know are right), are not worthy of respect. It seems to me that the primary thing which angers those of the conservative mind-set is simply their being told that they should not be allowed take and self-serve without limit, without regard to others or the world they live in.
I've yet to meet the diehard conservative who, with all else stripped away, is anything more than a selfish kid struggling to make-believe greed into something wholesome-sounding.
Anyway, with regards to Indymedia not being balanced in its view. . . This is true, but my thought is that Service-to-Self thinking is fundamentally structured in such a way that it is incompatible with Service-to-Other work, and after a point, it becomes in fact impossible for the two apporaches to accommodate each other at all.
--This is certainly a reflection of my own take on how reality works, and I don't expect everybody to agree with me. I see reality as a war zone between those who are seeking their higher selves and enlightenment, and those who are seeking their lower selves and the ultimate dissolution of the soul. I see the black hole as being the physical metaphor for self-service.
With these two types of people, as they say, "Never the twain shall meet".
-FL
If you want to know about what the media actually does, check out a documentary like "Independent Media In a Time Of War" (feat. Amy Goodman). It's filled with facts like this one, from FAIR:
A report about the war coverage reveals that "Nearly two thirds of all sources, 64 percent, were pro-war, while 71 percent of U.S. guests favored the war. Anti-war voices were 10 percent of all sources, but just 6 percent of non-Iraqi sources and 3 percent of U.S. sources. Thus viewers were more than six times as likely to see a pro-war source as one who was anti-war; with U.S. guests alone, the ratio increases to 25 to 1."
The five companies, for the record, are NewsCorp, Disney, Viacom, General Electric, and AOL TimeWarner- between them, 90% of the television news audience.
NewsCorp is easy to show (see: Fox), for Disney, take a look at the whole Eisner/Farhenheit 9-11 story, for Viacom, check out MTV refusing to air paid spots against the war, for General Electric- well, General Electric is a major arms manufacturer, so I shouldn't need to go any further than that- and for AOL TimeWarner and to reinforce all of the above, well, there's the FAIR source I already cited.
Then there's radio, where you have ClearChannel hosting pro-war rallies, and pressuring its stations not to air anti-war songs.
The reason why Republicans may get confused when I say the media is right-wing is because they assume that the Democrats are left wing. It's an unfortunate reality that both Republicans and Democrats are centrists, and the center of participating Americans is far to the right.
-bugg
While the server in the UK is subject to UK law, if a subpoena is served on a US corporation requesting information, and that information is located in some other country, the corporation is required to provide the information. Because Rackspace could not quickly locate the information, they decided to turn over the entire server.
The federal government has a LONG and storied history of illegal attempts to thwart political dissent. cointelprois only one of the most famous examples. The wars agaisnt political dissent continued through the 1990's and continues to this day.
To go from a few random acts of violence to soem conclusion that this justifies seizing IndyMedia's servers is more than a stretch. But luckily, under the Patriot Act, the feds don't actually have to go before a judge or produce any evidence or anything icky like that.
This entire country has recently been through a massive disinformation campaign (WMD's anyone?), most people should be more suspicious of an action of this kind, especially so close to national elections.
I'd wager that in a few months the Indymedia 'investigation' will quietly end with no charges being filed and no explainations given.
Unfortunately for whoever is coordinating this latest governmenteffort, dissent and public disbelief in Official Government Lies has pread far beyond the underground radical fringe. Heck, you can buy Fahrenheit 9/11 at WALMART... where they sell guns and everything.
If the Indymedia people are worth their salt as activists, they'll be able to parlay this government action into increased visibility and increased participation in their efforts.
-------- In Soviet Russia, "Soviet Russia" sigs hate Slashdot.
Very little hierarchy, no central control, collective volunteer efforts towards a central purpose. Is there a problem?
-------- In Soviet Russia, "Soviet Russia" sigs hate Slashdot.
I asked them what the US government's interest was in Swiss police and French websites. They informed me that no law had been violated but they were just requesting on behalf of the Swiss government that the identifying information be removed. I clarified that their concern was with the identifying information, and not with the photographs, because taking pictures of someone in a public forum is not objectionable. They agreed with me and said that their only concern was the identifying information.
I asked them for the URL of the offending post. They did not know what a URL was. I asked them what the address was for the post-- "the address you would type into your internet browser." They looked confused, consulted their notes, and stated that they weren't sure, but they thought it was http://natz.indymedia.org (in fact, the correct address is nantes.indymedia.org). I informed them that it would be very difficult to track down the post considering that there are thousands of posts on indymedia sites everyday.
I told them that the Seattle Indymedia Center has no authority regarding the Nantes Indymedia Center and that they should probably direct their request directly to the Nantes Indymedia Center. They left.
I pulled up the Nantes site. On the front page of the site, at the very top, was a large logo of the FBI, and an article regarding how their ISP (Rackspace) had received a request from none other than the FBI to remove a certain post...
Nothing happened for a few days, and then today the server is gone. This is what we know for a fact:
Indymedia is working on a press release on this matter and is working with EFF to assess its legal options.
fascist tendencies of the american left.
Am I reading you correctly?
One of the indicators of Psychopathic tendency is to blame others for what the psychopath is guilty of her/himself.
How many Israeli houses and olive groves have the Palestinians bulldozed? (None.) Have Palestinan snipers been shooting teenaged girls in the head recently? (No.) How about destroying civilian water wells? (No.) How many suicide bombings have the Palestinian secret service performed and blamed on Israeli rebels in order to generate chaos and excuses to continue the war on civilians? (None.)
Don't believe it's possible? Perhaps you need to read up on mind control. It's easy to create, 'suicide bombers'. Like the US, Israel has its own secret detention centers to supply unwilling subjects for such operations. It's obviously an effective ploy because it fools people who think, "But they would never DO that!"
If you compare the times when 'suicide bombings' happen, it nearly always during a point when peace talks are looming, or tensions are easing. And the end results of a bombing NEVER benefits the Palestinians.
One way or another, when four of Israel's own security service chiefs cry out against Sharon's megalomaniacal policies, it means that something is wrong. It means that most people who claim that Israel is in the right, probably don't know the subject matter well enough to make such claims.
-FL
.sigs: Just Say No!
Lots of people like Bush here in Taiwan. That's because he's publicly stated that he'll honor the US commitment to defend Taiwan if China attacks. After France made some weapon deals with China, China set up over 500 missles pointed RIGHT F*#&ING AT THIS CITY(), and China and France started doing joint military drills, Bush sent 7 aircraft carriers into the Taiwan straight as a deterent. Kerry, meanwhile has repeatedly promised China more cooperation on all issues and barely mentioned Taiwan at all. Taiwan is THE issue China has with everyone...
I don't know much about what's going on with Iraq, but if Kerry wins theres a good chance of having war here... China won't happily tolerate Chen Shui Bian () much longer. Mainland Chinese been threatening to attack for years, and if the US abandons, they will.
I'm a gnu world man.
Unlike other countries, it's very rare for Americans to come together and work in a way that might be perceived a threat to the power of the powers-that-be, specifically the idle class that lives off the profit generated by American workers. This type of repression is uncommon because American workers so rarely come together to form our own media, organize in unions and so forth. One reason is because of a sort of Catch-22 that a society of isolated, individualized people has less of a foundation to come together to do so. Another is the massive machine - the world's largest army, prison system, intelligence system, military-industrial complex, lobbying efforts, corporate media, PR industry, fundamentalist churches, corporate law firms and so forth that attacks such efforts for workers to organize together and have their own voice. Faced with attacks by such, people become like Pavlovian dogs and go to their atomized lives of individualized exploitation, and buck the system less. Nonetheless, I think American workers will continue to try to organize together, but I pray that that the US machine continues to get foreign pressure, especially from workers organizing in foreign countries.
Indymedia is one of the few medias out there, one of almost the only medias out there that is not corporate owned and controlled, where anyone can file stories, and which is run and read by working people. Of course the corporate world and their government stooges would see that as a threat.
The charges are of course nonsense. If Chavez in Venezuela or Castro or Cuba or some other figure did this, Bush would be decrying the totalitarianism of their government right now and the rest of the corporate TV talking heads would nod their heads. Indymedia has open publishing but when "illegal content" is posted it erases it (unless it sues not to like in the Diebold case). I think that legally the idea that there is so much potential "illegal content" out there is ridiculous to begin with, and is something to be thought about. Most of the stuff posted was already floating around the net before someone posted it on Indymedia.
The problem I guess is Indymedia is a little too free for the corporate soft money bought stooges in Washington DC. They want Indymedia to be more self-censoring, letting any Tom Dick or John Q. Public have his unfiltered say is a little too dangerous. It's ironic that Indymedia is around the world, even in places like Palestine, Colombia and other places you'd expect these crackdowns, but it's the US security forces who are so often attacking this medium.
"I find it ironic that a bunch of anti-violence, anti-gun, peacemongers, like Democrats would behave this way. "
The man reporting it that gun shot was Phil Parlock (Republican campaigner).
http://www.truthout.org/docs_04/091804X.shtml
The same guy who was attacked (when he was with his daughter) by democrats and had his Bush poster tore up.
Trouble is he does the every election, so it seems about as fake as can be, this is the 3rd election in which he's done this stunt.
Maybe they were shut down because Indymedia has been pointing out lately how Bush may have been wired during the debates, and at previous press conferences.
a r. html
http://isbushwired.com/2004/10/voice-in-bushs-e
Theory is that Bush has a tiny mic (or dental implant) through which Karl Rove, Cheney or some other intelligent grown-up tells him what to say.
Sound crazy? Then what's that Power Unit with a thick wire doing under his coat during the 1st debate? (Note this was only noticed because the TV network disobeyed the Bush campaign's order not to show candidates from behind.)
I just heard a report on NPR this morning. A reporter went to a Bush appearance wearing a Kerry T-shirt. He was told by the secret service he would be arrested if he didn't leave. He went to a Kerry appearance wearing a Bush T-shirt. Nothing happened.
I thought - big whoop. They then went on to interview and describe many others who had been removed with the threat of JAIL from Bush appearances because they were "questionable". One woman had a small Kerry pin on her jacket. One guy had come from a Kerry rally and had a Kerry T-shirt on, which he had covered up with a long-sleeve shirt. At one high-school, several students were removed in tears by secret service officers for having Kerry items on. The list went on and on. One guy complied, and took off his Kerry item, and was still ordered to leave. Some people were put in jail for 2 hours, then charges dropped. The local police said they were following the orders of the secret service, and the secret service said they were following the orders of the white house.
So now you aren't allowed at a Bush event unless you support him? I guess it is all about the image of having support. It must be pretty easy to have a chanting mob of supporters if you pre-screen the crowd. It sounds kind of like a tent revival for an evangelical con-man.
I didn't see the report on NPRs website yet, so I can't link to it. But I did just hear it this morning on the way into work.
My beliefs do not require that you agree with them.
Really, FAIR is not the reason for my thesis, they merely provide convienent and timely evidence for it.
Would you like some other proof that no US media offers a leftist perspective? What US media sources rose in protest when the US armed forces were killing journalists in Iraq? In Spain, all journalists had a one-day boycott of government news (turned their backs to the President's press conference and layed their cameras and notebooks on the ground) after the spate of Army killing non-embedded journalists. In the US, you have people like Ann Garrells of NPR, who said that Tariq Ayyub "should have known better."
What US media has questioned whether the attack on the USS Cole is terrorism? What US media has questioned whether the attack on the Pentagon is terrorism? Neither fits the definition of terrorism under US Law, which requires that the target be civilian in nature.
What US media pointed out what people like Scott Ritter have been saying for years about Iraq? What US media, in 1991, pointed out that Saddam was willing to withdraw from Kuwait in exchange for an Israeli withdrawl from Lebanon and the Occupied Territories? I mean, that was an attempt at diplomacy, and we undercut it with a war. Yet the media doesn't portray it that way, they portray it as our President "standing firm."
Have you read Manufacturing Consent, by Noam Chomsky? Check it out- or the documentary if you're pressed for time. It is simply impossible to argue with his institutional analysis, and he has very striking evidence- of course, it's all very old now, but it's still real. Most famous is his comparison of coverage of Cambodia versus East Timor.
If the Democrats and Republicans do not reflect the center of American politics, how do you explain both of them getting roughly half of the votes? That's sort of proof that they represent the American center, is it not?
-bugg