Syrians Using Donkeys Instead of DSL After Gov't Shuts Down Internet

abhatt writes "Rebelling Syrians are using all possible alternate methods to pass information to the world amidst a total blackout on the internet by the Government. Believe it or not, Donkeys are a part of the revolution now. From the article: 'To get the news out, activists have been smuggling videos to Jordan through the desert and across a nearly 80-kilometer border Jordan shares with Syria. Some risk approaching the border with Jordanian cellphones to report to the outside world and send clips. It's a dangerous task because the Syrian and Jordanian armies traditionally have the area under heavy surveillance to prevent the smuggling of drugs and weapons into the kingdom or further to the Gulf states.'"

Comments

I have only one question

[countertrolling]

When does the invasion start? Has the UN already drawn up the paperwork?

Okay.. two questions.. Sue me..

Re:I have only one question

[Hazel Bergeron]

Hey, Operation Make Lazy Westerners Think That Pushing A Few Bits Is Contributing To Freedom comes first.

Your Twitter account needs you!

Re:I have only one question

[blind biker]

When does the invasion start? Has the UN already drawn up the paperwork?

Never. Somehow, the politicians of the world have somehow convinced the public that it's A-OK to bomb Libyan troops and hardware for attacking civilians, but it's totally NOT OK to bomb the Syrian troops and hardware, even though they are doing exactly the same things as Libyan troops.

And all the while, the world public opinion is completely fine with North Korean regime's massive torture and murder in concentration camps, of their own civilian population.

"Double standards" doesn't even begin to describe the hypocrisy. We do live in a hugely fucked up world.

Re:I have only one question

[Intrepid imaginaut]

And all the while, the world public opinion is completely fine with North Korean regime's massive torture and murder in concentration camps, of their own civilian population.

World opinion isn't completely fine with it, however world opinion recognises that using force to free the prisoners will probably result in a vastly greater loss of innocent life than pursuing a course of brinkmanship and slow embargoes with NK.

Re:I have only one question

[LurkerXXX]

And if the UN attacks North Korea, the batshit insane leader will start lobbing nukes.

Unfortunately the world is a little more complex than you'd make out. Yes, leaders of both places are evil. The consequences for attacking one can be vastly different than that for another. It sucks, but that's reality.

Re:I have only one question

[he-sk]

Welcome to the world of politics. The West intervened in Libya because Gaddafi somehow [1] managed to alienate everybody (who counts) in the world. He had no friends left. OTOH, Syria is allied with Iran. And while China isn't exactly a friend of North Korea, they'd still object to Western intervention so close to home (as they did 60 years ago).

It has nothing to do with double standards or hypocrisy. It's all about choosing the battles you can win and avoiding those you'll lose, so you can fight another time.

[1] Which was quite a feat, if you think about it.

Re:I have only one question

[countertrolling]

It became ok to bomb Libya when a replacement was found that would honor all the weapons contracts.. And the cost/benefit ratio doesn't yet justify invading Korea.. It's not about hypocrisy.. It's about the money.. I do see a strategic/economic interest in Syria though for keeping Iraq (and thus Iran) under control, and basically destabilizing the region for the benefit of our real 'friend'.. and opening up the land route to Europe for Afghanistan's heroin (See Iran/contra for a related scenario) The opium wars never ended..

Re:I have only one question

[andydread]

Not exactly the same thing. The Syrian army just started using tanks THIS WEEK. They have not razed entire cities to the ground with rocket trucks and Jet aircraft like Colonel Qaddafi has done There is no call from the Syrian people for a NO-FLY-ZONE because they are not getting bombed to oblivion like Qaddafi was doing to his people. So no its not the same thing not even close.

Also there is not infinite resourses to go after every dictator that turns small arms and light armor at their people. I don't see North Koreans calling for a NO-FLY-ZONE over N-Korea. Nor are they threating to raze entire cities to the ground.

The dynamics of each and every situation in each country are totally different. There is not a one size fit all approach that will work for every single situation.

Re:I have only one question

[Black Parrot]

Doesn't even seem to be enough NATO planes to stop Gaddafi

It baffles me that the Western Powers would think that "a little bit" of intervention would work. What's the end game for this scenario?

Or is this another one that's intended to last forever?

Re:I have only one question

[hedwards]

When the US invaded we could have won. However, Bush wasn't willing to expend the resources and troops necessary to make it happen instead siphoning them off for that stupid crusade in Iraq. The US was winning until the government took its eye off the ball and allowed the insurgents to regain their footing.

You don't win wars based upon strategy, you win them on logistics, and here in the US we pretty much gave it away by stretching ourselves too thing based purely upon arrogance.

Re:I have only one question

[cold fjord]

Please explain Afghanistan...

What is it you don't understand?

After the 9/11 attacks, the US issued an ultimatum to the Taliban government - hand over Bin Laden, or else.
The Taliban refused, so the US assisted the Northern Alliance and others in the country to overthrow the Taliban government by providing Special Forces and air support. The Taliban withdrew and began a low level guerilla insurgency while Al Qaeda eventually fled. When the US invaded Iraq in 2003 and overthrew Saddam's government, Al Qaeda rallied and funneled their forces to fight in Iraq. Events in Iraq began to come unhinged after some spectacular attacks by Al Qaeda and other Sunni groups. The US revamped its counter-insurgency doctrine and strategy, and began turning around Iraq. By 2007-2008, the insurgency in Iraq was being crushed, and Al Qaeda began to flee Iraq, with many returning to Afghanistan and Pakistan. At this point, the war in Afghanistan began heating up again. Pakistan too began to see a significant increase in terrorism and insurgencies in the tribal areas that aren't under direct government control. By 2009 the US was ready to start drawing down in Iraq and prepared to reinforce Afghanistan. Pakistan started to move against the Taliban in Pakistan to reduce the threat they posed. By 2010, the US was rapidly drawing down in Iraq, significantly reinforcing Afghanistan, and Pakistan was engaging in significant campaigns in the tribal areas again Al Qaeda and the Taliban. In 2011, the US got Bin Laden while the Taliban spring offensive has been floundering. The Taliban and Al Qaeda have both been resorting more and more to outright conventional criminal activity over the last five years, including aligning with drug gangs, and that is undermining their appeal as pure Islamic extremists. Progress is training the Afghani police and army have been slow due to poor pay, illiteracy, and corruption, but the situation is improving. The Afghan government, is a challenge as well. The customs of the Afghan people do them few favors, but giving them a chance to rebuild their society and reestablish traditional social controls will help.

It generally take 10-20 years to defeat an insurgency. Everyone paying attention at the beginning of the various insurgencies, or for that matter 9/11, knew that this would a problem that was going to last at least 10-20 years, and more likely close to 50. Statements to that effect were made many times.

Although there is still a long, hard fight ahead in Afghanistan, the key to the war may in fact turn out to be the victory in Iraq. Al Qaeda expended considerable resources and men in Iraq, rendering them vulnerable to detection, capture, or killing. Many financial arrangements were discovered and neutralized. And, perhaps most importantly, Al Qaeda lost enormous amounts of support after Arabs and Muslims began to turn away from them after seeing the wanton way in which they killed fellow Muslims and Arabs. That turn almost certainly wouldn't have happened if the war had remained in Afghanistan, which is remote from Arab & Muslim lands and minds. If Iraq continues on its current path to becoming a prosperous, peaceful Arab Muslim democracy, things are far worse for Al Qaeda.

Re:I have only one question

[Tacvek]

The most likely case is that he is sane, although sheltered from some of the harsh realities of civilian life. He also most likely does not actually have absolute control, and at times, especially when ill, decisions have been made by other people, and may be inconsistent with the decision he actually makes.

The government is also excessively secretive about him, helping to fuel rumors and conspiracy theories. The end result could easily be the appearance of insanity, despite being perfectly sane.

Really only somebody who has had extended interaction directly with him, could have much hope of knowing for sure.

OK...

[gestalt_n_pepper]

What ass thought up that idea? C'mon. Don't be stubborn, just tell us.

The Digital Donkey

[greylion3]

When I read the headline, this old story came to mind:
http://thedailywtf.com/Articles/Best_of_2006_0x3a__The_Virtudyne_Saga.aspx

I was actually a bit disappointed to find that the donkeys were just for smuggling videos :/

Re:IP over donkey

[Tridus]

This is the broadband version of IP over Avian Carrier, given the much higher payload capacity of a donkey.

Bandwidth

[SilverHatHacker]

After all, never underestimate the bandwidth of a series of donkey carts loaded with tapes...

RFC1149 Needs an update

[lightyear4]

Now RFC1149 for 'IP over avian carriers' needs an addendum. IETF go!

Re:The internet

[migla]

More than Internet revolutions, all these revolutions are Al Jazeera revolutions.

Just good old fashioned journalism now available (much more so than internet connectivity) in the region.

Or so I've heard.

MPAA

[ebs16]

I thought eMule was shut down!

Imagine

[Anonymous Coward]

a cluster of jackasses on the Information Superhighway. Shouldn't be too hard for anyone that ever sat an open channel on IRC.

Oh wait,,,

Re:IP over donkey

[Seumas]

And I thought my ISP was a real jack ass.

Bandwidth of an motorcycle

[140Mandak262Jamuna]

My friend owns a company in Chennai, India that does some kind of very heavy video processing/analysis for a major sports league. He ends up collecting hard disks full of video-data fro the ISP's undersea-fiber optic link office and transporting them on a motrocycle across town. He estimates the bandwidth of the motrocycle works out to some 1 DVD per second!

eDonkey?

[BlueScreenO'Life]

Hey, not such a bad idea.

(TFA says "Cut off from the World Wide Web", not from the Internet)

Syrian DSL is...

[sribe]

Donkey Subscriber Line

... is for porn

[sourcerror]

If the internet is for porn, I don't even dare to think about what happened to these poor animals.

Re:Better than bongo drums

[MacGyver2210]

I believe it was in the UK that they determined that Pigeons had better bandwidth than some rural internet connections.

Re:Oh, please

[Wyatt Earp]

You mean France and the United Kingdom. Germany is staying out of this, Italy only jumped in later because France and the UK pushed them.

Re:Oh, please

[Attila Dimedici]

Personally, I think U.S. involvement in this was a mistake. My real problem with Obama's actions on this was his commitment of U.S. forces without even consulting Congress. This from a man who said, "The President does not have power under the Constitution to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve stopping an actual or imminent threat to the nation."

YES!

[Scoldog]

The Digitial Donkey Lives!

http://thedailywtf.com/Articles/Best_of_2006_0x3a__The_Virtudyne_Saga.aspx

(down the bottom of the page)

eDonkey

[thygrrr]

Wouldn't it be nerdishly awesome to tunnel eDonkey2k using those donkeys? Just sayin'... :)

Required: One mp3 file, 2000 donkeys, and a tunnel across the border.

Re:Like the old adage goes...

[BCGlorfindel]

I was going to go with:

Never underestimate the bandwidth of an ass load of backup tapes.

But you've beat me to it, well played good sir.