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FBI Looks Into Chinese Role in Darfur Site Hack
Amy Bennett writes "This past weekend we discussed an increasing level of attacks online, targeting Tibetan-based NGOs. Now the BBC is reporting that the Save Darfur Coalition has called in the FBI on what appears to be a similar matter. Allyn Brooks-LaSure, a spokesman with the group, doesn't know who is behind the attacks, but he said the IP addresses of the computers that had hacked his organization were from China. Save Darfur has been trying to get China, one of Sudan's largest trading partners, to pressure Sudan's government into stopping the mass killings in Darfur's ongoing civil war. 'Someone in Beijing is trying to send us a message,' Brooks-LaSure said. Probably the same message they're sending by continuing to shut down video sites covering the Tibetan unrest."
And what do they do? They proceed to show the world that they are still a backwards oppressive country with no common sense, jeopardizing much of the progress that they've made over a bunch of piss-ass monks and to avoid some bad press that 99.9% of the world would have ignored if they hadn't tried so hard to supress it.
Is there no Chinese term for "Bad PR" or are they just that stupid?
Don't get me wrong, I'm no fan of the Dali Lama (like Penn Gillette, I think his intentions are a lot less pure than he lets on). But jeez China, USE YOUR HEAD. At least wait until AFTER the Olympics to start busting heads.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
So what if the IP came from China? Are there not a billion people there, who probably do have computers with default exploitable installations of Linux or Windows that could be used to launch attacks elsewhere? Not everything has to read like a Tom Clancy novel when it comes to international events.
Lately the world's been trying to undermine China who is looking like the next superpower. Western leaders are continually meeting with the Dalai Lama to make them mad. Soon there will be Olympic boycotts.
Analytic & algebraic topology of locally Euclidean meterization of infinitely differentiable Riemmanian manifold
"Save Darfur has been trying to get China, one of Sudan's largest trading partners, to pressure Sudan's government into stopping the mass killings in Darfur's ongoing civil war."
First, Sudan's north-south civil war is a separate matter from the Darfur genocide. Second, it has not only been Save Darfur, but also the entire UN, that has been trying to pressure China to stop funding the genocide. However, China has refused to budge, and likewise have the powers of the world. The only real progress that has been made is for individual states, universities, and organizations to remove all of their investments in companies that do business with the Sudanese government and indirectly profit from the genocide. Sudanese divestment has influenced many companies to pull out of contracts with Sudan and it is definitely having some effect.
For an excellent introduction to China's role in the Darfur genocide, watch Frontline's special for free online.
To see how much your state congressmen are doing to divest contracts from Sudan, see DarfurScores.Org. The Sudan Divestment Task Force has info on which states and organizations are divesting, and which ones are sitting on their hands.
that is the real question. I think they don't.
Why? Because even with all the previous threats and actual atrocities they committed they were granted the Olympics. Every time they threaten Taiwan and the US responds in the political arena its the US who is chastised for being the war mongers.
The real question is, what is the fate of places like Tibet and Taiwan during and AFTER the Olympics?
* Winners compare their achievements to their goals, losers compare theirs to that of others.
OK, so don't open the emails. Really, does it need the FBI to tell you this?
Better, maybe use a platform that isn't susceptible to Word/OS viruses and trojans.
Better yet, how about some anti-virus software?
politicians are like babies' nappies: they should both be changed regularly and for the same reasons
You have to realize that many Chinese youth today feel China is wronged by the West by a double standard, I won't go into the details as you can read them yourself (ex. the fb group "Tibet WAS,IS,and ALWAYS WILL BE a part of China"). But the point is, the attack is more likely to be caused by a Chinese citizen than the government itself.
In another story I read this comment by Digestromath (1190577) and it pretty much nails it.
Like the parent said, the Chinese government would be stupid to attack these sites right before the Olympics. I read a book called "China Shakes the World" By James Kynge and in one chapter in mentioned how the Chinese government has "nurtured nationalism in the youth into so potent a force that they are about to loose control of it."(remembering from the top of my mind...)For example, Only recently are the Japanese portrayed in a semi-positive light in WWII TV series, which probably explains the large amount of people that participate in anti-Japanese riots.
Of course the Chinese government could do more to stop these attacks, but the political climate in China prevents it from happening. No, I'm not talking about the dictatorship of the people. See, anyone that stands up and say these actions are wrong would be labeled a traitor by both politicians and majority of the citizens alike. So politicians tries to avoid denouncing anti-foreigner actions for the sake of their own skin.
'Someone in Beijing is trying to send us a message,' Brooks-LaSure said. What happened to just writing a letter?
That's not Picasso, that's Kandinsky!
Chinese hackers have the blessing of their government to hone their skills against political enemies. Someday these skills will be needed for military enemies.
...but in the last 10 years I can hardly think of a war started by china. So maybe the US reputation of warmonger isn't so overrated.
C. Sagan : A demon haunted world:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345409469/
visit randi.org
Actually, I still think we could hurt them far more than they can hurt us, for the following reasons:
I will agree with you on one thing though: our multinationals are selling us out. They are building factories there so that they can sell in that market and avoid duties, but that really sucks for us because it pumps up the economy of a repressive regime. Still, though, at least that reason is better than the more common reason, which is that they want cheap labor to make goods they will ultimately sell not in China, but in the US. That's almost treason to humanity, because there are many countries in the world that aren't so repressive and that have people who would be desperate for those jobs and would work just as cheap. But no, we give their jobs to the repressive nation.
Beware of bugs in the above code; I have only proved it correct, not tried it.
You might feel it as a flamebait... But sadly this is the feeling which is most probably shared by a lot of people right now. In the last 10 years the US has waged more war than China did (zero for China as far as I can tell). As such the US has earned a reputation of warmonger, whereas China, however how bad at human right is, has made no war in the last 10 years, and thus is not a warmonger.
C. Sagan : A demon haunted world:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0345409469/
visit randi.org
there are huge botnets in China. Just because the IP address was Chinese does not prove China is the origin of the attack.
See, anyone that stands up and say these actions are wrong would be labeled a traitor by both politicians and majority of the citizens alike. So politicians tries to avoid denouncing anti-foreigner actions for the sake of their own skin.
It's more than that; that kind of nationalism (such as the "eternal dominance" claims over Tibet and Taiwan) serves directly to legitimize the power and prestige of the existing government. They're not just scared to denounce it; they actively encourage it because it helps promote their power. People who are passionately committed to their existing government and to what they see it as standing for don't much care if they technically can't vote or publicly disagree with policy; and it's much easier to convince a mob that they're The Best, from The Longest Cultural Tradition, with a Manifest Destiny Over Everything, etc. than to convince them that they don't need a public sphere because Things Are In Good Hands. Especially in the sticks, where there's no other distraction because they won't get rich and live fat, dumb, and happy.
If you think about it, it's exactly the same tactics that function very effectively in (ferinstance) conservative politics in the US.
Freedom isn't free; its price is the well-being of others.
Not to mention that many of those factories are owned by the Chinese military. They might have something to say about the government closing off markets for trade.
... and that's when the C.H.U.D.'s came at me.