Archive.org Defeats FBI's Demand For User Information

eldavojohn writes "Although we don't know what they were after due to the settlement, a gag order was just released that kept Internet Archive member Brewster Kahle quiet. The FBI had issued a national security letter to them under the Patriot Act. Kahle fought it. Hard. The EFF came to the aid of his lawyers and what resulted was one of the only three times an NSL has been challenged: all three have been rescinded. The FBI agreed to open some of the court files now for it to be public. The ACLU added, 'That makes you wonder about the the hundreds of thousands of NSLs that haven't been challenged.'"

Comments

Re:It's time for Civil Disobedience and Regime Cha

[Curunir_wolf]

Not hate speech, it just marks you as a retard, unfit to defend our country against the likes of Timothy McVeigh and others [trinicenter.com].

I've heard a lot of conspiracy theories lately, but Tim McVeigh as a white supremacist was not one of them. I wonder why it never came up during the trial and execution.

McVeigh, of course, was actually a dupe. After the Waco compound was invaded and demolished by Washington's armed bureaucracies, the ranks of the various Militia groups around the country swelled to record numbers. The incident pointed to a government out of control and ready to crush all resistance with overwhelming force. Militia groups were a way to demonstrate that the free people were not going to make that easy for them.

Militias have an old and entrenched tradition in the US and their organizations are well protected by common law. The 2nd amendment, while rarely giving private citizens carte blanc to heavily arm themselves, has real teeth when used to defend the regular militia. They are the last best defense of American soil.

The armed bureaucracies saw them as a threat, and desperately wanted to discredit them, since they couldn't just go after them outright. Along comes Tim McVeigh. (There were probably many candidates ignorant and twisted enough to fit their needs. Tim McVeigh was the one that became their patsy, though, for whatever reason).

It was probably very easy to manipulate this guy. He already had a dislike and mistrust of the government. He had little to lose, was militarily trained, and had the will to carry out the misguided plan they set up for him. They made sure he could get the materials, and their moles made sure he selected the target that would provide the effect wanted.

He probably knew as soon as the reports came over the radio about the day care center that he had been duped. Far from the rallying counter-strike he was hoping for, it was a devastating blow. The attack was vicious, malign, and horrendous. What McVeigh had hoped would be a warning to the Feds against their heavy-handed military tactics turned into a wholly unjustified terrorist attack on innocent children. Not even the most vehement of the anti-federalist crowd would defend him.

Of course it had the effect that the planners wanted. Within a few months the ranks of the militia groups dropped precipitously. Public opinion turned soundly against them. Many disbanded and broke up. Others shrunk and went underground, their members were targeted and their weapons caches seized.

And the Feds continue to disarm the citizenry. Many of the weapons seized in Mississippi and Louisiana during the Katrina disaster were never returned. Bush has effectively rescinded the posse comitatus act (not that anybody paid much attention to it before). Anyone buying a gun today goes into the database. SCOTUS is now considering whether it's OK for Washington D.C. to essentially ban gun ownership entirely. What do you think they'll decide?