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Voice of America Site Forced Offline By 'Iranian Cyber Army'
angry tapir writes with this excerpt from TechWorld: "The pro-Iran hacktivist group that defaced the Baidu and Twitter Web sites a year ago has hit another target: the US Government's Voice of America news site. Voice of America was knocked offline temporarily after hackers were able to change the organization's DNS (Domain Name System) settings, redirecting Web traffic hitting Voice of America sites to another site controlled by the hackers."
Here they are raging against the great satan intervening in Islamic countries all the time, to little effect and then voila, couple of weeks and their Muslim brothers put the entire region on fire and overthrow government after government. Some in Iran must be pissing their pants by now. The world is changing and so far NOT to the extreme. All those cries for democracy in Muslim nations, that just ain't right is it. No burning of US flags, no cries for battle against Zionists. Just cries for democracy. Crazy stuff AND it is working.
The changes of it all working out okay are... well lets face it, nobody knows what the fuck is going to happen, if you had created a scenario in which North Africa would be in one big movement to overthrow local leaders last year, people would have told you to stop being a hollywood fantast and get a grip on reality. Just look at the map, a ribbon of rebellion and the end is not in sight. If Libya also falls... well then even outrageous violence doesn't work anymore or for that matter giving at least some of the oil wealth to the general public (Gadafhi might (now) be completely insane, but he was not as corrupt as some of his counter parts and at least the west of the country generally benefitted a bit from the oil income)
So, lets give the Iran cyber army its last few twitches before this guy will be in front of the firing squad for his allegiance to a overthrown regime.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
Funny. If anything, VoA has been criticized for not being American enough. The running gag is that throughout its existence, VoA hadn't even created an English language version of its broadcast. Just imagine if the BBC broadcasted programs in anything but English...
Freedom is drinking a beer in the park when you're supposed to be at work.
nice one, Iran.
you guys are next in this revolution wave thing...
Next? Nope. The Iranian people tried "next" in 2009. They didn't get "wave". They got "dead". The Iranian government... much like the Chinese government... proved that it's willing to go to pretty much any lengths to put down uprisings. It has a huge apparatus built for just such control, literally a religious army separate from the "regular" army, well armed, trained, and equipped. And they're fanatically devoted to preserving the Islamic revolution. Think Waffen SS, only dedicated to helping protect the Islamic Republic while it awaits the coming of the 12th Imam.
No, I don't think we're going to see any Berlin Walls falling in Iran.
Life is hard, and the world is cruel
For this reason, i dont thing anything will happen in Iran unless due subversive foreign activity. A theocracy canot be overthrow for as long idiots believe that cult.>
Arguably, subversive foreign activity(at least the sort that the CIA tends to favor) is actually a boon for theocrats and would-be theocrats. When it comes to foreign puppets, we have a hard-on for repressive right wingers that just won't quit. As long as they are tractable toward us, not commies, and keep the resources flowing, they can expect more or less free reign domestically. Rule by a repressive right wing government tends to, over time, erode the institutions(rule of law, votes that aren't farces, etc.) and demographics(a middle class, the educated, political activists) on which democratic governance largely depends. However, as a pragmatic move to avoid being assassinated or deposed for being infidel American puppets(which they are), they frequently end up coddling the worst sort of nutjobs, just so long as said nutjobs will politely ignore them in exchange for some cash and/or repression of women and booze and homosexuals and stuff(see also Saudi Arabia...)
The end result is a puppet tyrant with minimal local legitimacy(and generally a taste for corruption an cronyism) who has cleaned house of all "civil society" elements; but has been paying protection, in the form of assorted domestic policies, to the worst sort of religious fanatics. When our puppet's strings eventually tangle, there is no civil society up on which to build a non-authoritarian government, and secular authoritarianism is widely discredited as corrupt, feckless, and an imperialist tool. Boom. Theocratic totalitarianism it is!
A lot can happen in 31 years, including an entirely new generation that is very pissed off.
Gone!
BBC was subjected to the same criticism. The difference is, UK no longer has imperial ambitions, and BBC ended up being superior to commercial services due to the massive whoredom of the latter far outweighing bureaucracy and bias of the former.
Contrary to the popular belief, there indeed is no God.
The BBC is a legitimate and well respected news organization. VoA is about as close to a news organization as that Fox News Parody with Chris Wallace.
Funny. If anything, VoA has been criticized for not being American enough. The running gag is that throughout its existence, VoA hadn't even created an English language version of its broadcast.
That's because, as the GP accurately said, VoA is propaganda.
Even the US government considers it so and, as such, it is illegal to disseminate to a US audience.
Here's the relevant law: Smith-Mundt Act of 1946
There was an article in Foreign Policy magazine (a year or two ago) talking about how VoA turned down a US radio station that wanted to rebroadcast some of the VoA's foreign language programs.
I can't say for sure what, if any, law constricts the Dept of Defense, but they operate under the same "not for domestic consumption" policy.
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
"Just imagine if the BBC broadcasted programs in anything but English..."
They do, it's called BBC Arabic, Farsi, etc.
oops: Smith-Mundt Act of 1948
The short version is that information and psychological operations directed at foreign audiences are illegal to disseminate within the United States.
[Fuck Beta]
o0t!
Everything you said has been said before to explain why North African countries won't rebel. And then they did.
New game, new rules. Why do you think western leaders allowed themselves to be photographed hugging the Libyan leader whatever his name is (see comment below) and indeed the British PM is on a weapon selling trip while the weapons sold in the previous trip are busy killing civilians? A bit embarrassing?
You also seem to have forgotten the violent repression of the earlier uprising in Iran. These are not the actions of a government willing to change. Neither are there continued attempts at making nukes. It was Libya that stopped, not Iran.
Really, LOOK at what is happening. Something has changed. Even if Iran stays the same for now, the Middle East has changed. The power balance is gone. If Egypt and Tunesia truly become democratic they would side far closer to Turkey then dictatorships. That is going to leave the remaining dictatorships far more isolated. Rewatch the fall of the Soviet Union. Once dominoes start falling,it is hard to stop.
I think all bets are off and considering Iran's reaction so far, they think the same thing. Why else block access to these events if they are sure their own people will stand behind the government?
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
Rule by a repressive right wing government tends to, over time, erode the institutions(rule of law, votes that aren't farces, etc.) and demographics(a middle class, the educated, political activists) on which democratic governance largely depends.
Somehow, that all sounds SO familiar...
How come Slashdot never gets Slashdotted?
At least now they jump into the country AFTER the leaders are gone.
Contrary to the popular belief, there indeed is no God.
Repeatedly saying "Paedophile prophet" makes it look like you've got some kind of agenda.
It pays to be obvious, especially if you have a reputation for being subtle.
Bravely defending liberty and lulz from the frontlines of Mom's basement.
But not for more than an hour on school nights.