PrivacyFinder.org: Search, but with Privacy (Peter Eckersley, The Electronic Frontier Foundation, March 25, 2008) The level of privacy offered by search engines is generally woeful. Last year, the three big players (Google, Yahoo! and MSN) made some improvements by limiting the duration for full retention of logs about who has searched and what they've searched for. That means that after a year or two, it would be harder — though probably not impossible — for the major search engines and their advertising partners to reconstruct a complete history of your searches. . . . Ask.com went further with their AskEraser feature, which allows users to have their logs deleted and to opt-out of being tracked (Ask.com could have done better by finding a way for opt-out to be available without a cookie). . . . Despite these improvements, the average Internet user still has very little privacy for their search history. We have documented the measures you can take to protect yourself, but they aren't all that simple. . . . So it's exciting to report that one small search engine is experimenting with ways to be an aide, rather than a threat, to privacy. PrivacyFinder is a research project at the CMU Usable Privacy and Security Laboratory (full disclosure: Lorrie Cranor, who heads the lab, is also on the EFF Board). It offers an interface to Yahoo! and Google, but with two notable improvements: an excellent logging/data retention policy, and a feature that shows the user information about sites' privacy policies along with the search results. That way, if two sites offer the same service but one of them is better from a privacy point of view, the user will see that quickly. The PrivacyFinder researchers tell us they've observed that people will, for instance, pay more for an item from an online store if they can see that it has an excellent privacy policy. . . . PrivacyFinder seems to be making productive use of P3P, an old privacy standard that has, in many other respects, fallen short of expectations. If you run a search on the site, you can quickly see when one result matches your standards and others don't. . . . Privacyfinder's logging policy is amongst the best in the industry (Ixquick is also first-rate). Privacyfinder only keeps search records for a week, unless the user explicitly opts in to being tracked. Because the CMU Laboratory wants to do research on the use of search engines, it's offering prizes for people who are willing to be tracked for research purposes. That's the way we like to see it done. . . . Meanwhile, several other developments are in the works. New York State legislators have been talking about taking parts of the search privacy problem into their own hands. There are rumors of new startups planning to enter the "privacy search" market. And EFF is working on a scorecard for systematically evaluating the effectiveness of various privacy measures at search engines. Stay tuned to Deeplinks for future developments!
posted by Lorenzo 3:56 PM
Pentagon Censors Internet Combat Videos (Oliver Poole, The Telegraph, 26 July 2006) The Pentagon is asking US soldiers in Iraq to stop posting private combat videos on to the internet amid fears that they could be regarded as anti-Arab. . . . Many of the digital clips feature explosions, gunfire and even dead bodies, [COMMENT by Lorenzo: Hey, it's a fucking WAR. What they expect to see in these videos.] with the images often set to a soundtrack of rock ballads, rap or heavy metal music. . . . Defence officials believe they could be interpreted as portraying the military as unsympathetic to Arabs and obsessed with barbarism. . . . [COMMENT by Lorenzo: The U.S. military IS barbaric . . . just watch some of the videos and you'll see what I mean.]
Hundreds of Iraq War Videos Online at YouTube.com In case you missed the announcement, that evil bastard Rumsfeld is doing his best to keep cameras away from the front lines of the Bush Crime Family's attack on the civilian population of Iraq. But if you go to YouTube.com and search on "Iraq combat" (no quotes) you'll find hundreds of videos posted by U.S. troops.
Here is one clip that shows how the U.S. tax dollars are being used to destroy the once lovely city of Fallujah:
India bloggers angry at net ban (BBC News, 19 July 2006) India's burgeoning blogging community is up in arms against a government directive that they say has led to the blocking of their web logs. . . . The country's 153 internet service providers (ISP) have blocked 17 websites since last week on federal government orders. . . . Some of these sites belong to Google's Blogspot, a leading international web log hosting service. . . . Indian bloggers say that the decision is an attack on freedom of speech. . . . A number of them have started filing petitions under the country's new landmark freedom of information law which gives citizens the right to access information held by the government. . . . Bloggers say the ban has meant that people do not even have access to blogs like the one set up to help the relatives of the victims of the recent train bombings in Mumbai (Bombay), www.mumbaihelp.blogspot.com. . . . Internet professionals and lawyers believe that blocking sites really serves no purpose in a large country like India with an increasingly thriving blogging community. . . . "The ISPs can block a specific site, but the person who runs it can easily tweak its name a bit and return," says Mr Tiwari. . . . There are an estimated 50 million internet users in India, according to ISP industry estimates. . . . Only seven million people subscribe to the internet, of whom 1.5 million receive broadband services.
posted by Lorenzo 4:21 PM
Hacktivists mount counter-offensive to Internet censorship (Nestor E. Arellano, ITWorld Canada, 08 Jun 2006) The arms race over Internet censorship is escalating. . . . A new weapon is being developed to help dissidents gain free access to the Web. . . . A team of Toronto-based "hacktivists" – hackers with a commitment to social responsibility – is beta-testing software that can circumvent Internet censorship by repressive governments. . . . Dubbed Psiphon, the software enables a third-party computer to act as a proxy that allows Internet users to access banned content. . . . Psiphon was developed by the Citizen Lab at the University of Toronto's (U of T) Munk Centre for International Studies. Described as a "hothouse that brings together social scientists, filmmakers, computer scientists, activists, and artists," the Citizen Lab explores hypermedia technologies and grassroots social movements, civic activism, and democratic change within an emerging planetary polity. . . . The Citizen Lab is part of a larger coalition that includes Harvard and Cambridge Universities called the OpenNet Initiative (ONI), which investigates global Internet filtering. Each university has a distinct role: Harvard researches the legal aspects of the issue, Cambridge organizes activists in censored locations to conduct research and the Citizen Lab handles technical research and development. . . . The coalition has identified cyber-censorship in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Iran, Iraq, Burma, Tunisia, Yemen, India, and Pakistan – but China tops the list. . . . Psiphon employs a hub-and-spoke scheme to link dissidents to Internet activists outside a censored country's borders. An activist located in an uncensored country such as Canada installs the software on his computer. He then creates a list of trusted Internet users in censored countries, and sends his Internet Protocol (IP) address to the people on the list. These people can then link to his computer and use it to access banned sites. . . . To hide this traffic to banned sites from state surveillance, Psiphon data is encrypted and travels on a network reserved for financial transactions. . . . "The activity is masked. Censors won't see what the person is accessing because as far as they're concerned, the user could be making a Visa purchase," says Hull. . . . As an added safety feature, no software is actually installed on the censored computer. Should a crackdown occur, authorities would not be able find anything on the user's computer.
posted by Lorenzo 5:11 PM
Bush Caught Planting Fake News Stories (Andrew Buncombe, The Independent, 29 May 2006) Federal authorities are actively investigating dozens of American television stations for broadcasting items produced by the Bush administration and major corporations, and passing them off as normal news. Some of the fake news segments talked up success in the war in Iraq, or promoted the companies' products. . . . The report, by the non-profit group Centre for Media and Democracy, found that over a 10-month period at least 77 television stations were making use of the faux news broadcasts, known as Video News Releases (VNRs). Not one told viewers who had produced the items. . . . "We know we only had partial access to these VNRs and yet we found 77 stations using them," said Diana Farsetta, one of the group's researchers. "I would say it's pretty extraordinary. The picture we found was much worse than we expected going into the investigation in terms of just how widely these get played and how frequently these pre-packaged segments are put on the air." . . . "They have got very good at mimicking what a real, independently produced television report would look like," . . . Among items provided by the Bush administration to news stations was one in which an Iraqi-American in Kansas City was seen saying "Thank you Bush. Thank you USA" in response to the 2003 fall of Baghdad. The footage was actually produced by the State Department, one of 20 federal agencies that have produced and distributed such items.
posted by Lorenzo 8:46 AM
Judges Challenge Internet Wiretap Rules (Ted Bridis, Associated Press, May 5, 2006) A U.S. appeals panel sharply challenged the Bush administration Friday over new rules making it easier for police and the FBI to wiretap Internet phone calls. A judge said the government's courtroom arguments were "gobbledygook." . . . The skepticism expressed so openly toward the administration's case encouraged civil liberties and education groups that argued that the U.S. is improperly applying telephone-era rules to a new generation of Internet services. . . . "Your argument makes no sense," U.S. Circuit Judge Harry T. Edwards told the lawyer for the Federal Communications Commission, Jacob Lewis. "When you go back to the office, have a big chuckle. I'm not missing this. This is ridiculous. Counsel!" . . . At another point in the hearing, Edwards told the FCC's lawyer that his arguments were "gobbledygook" and "nonsense." . . . The court's decision was expected within several months. . . . In an unrelated case last year affecting digital television, two of the same three judges determined the FCC had significantly exceeded its authority and threw out new government rules requiring anti-piracy devices in new video devices. Lewis was also the losing lawyer in that case, and Edwards also was impassioned then in his criticisms of the FCC. . . . The panel appeared more inclined to support the FCC's argument that Internet-phone services _ which allow users to dial and receive calls from traditional phone numbers _ may be covered under the 1994 law and required to accommodate court-ordered wiretaps. The technology, popularized by Holmdel, N.J.-based Vonage Holdings Corp., is known as "voice over Internet protocol," or VOIP. . . . "Voice-over is a very different thing," U.S. Circuit Judge David B. Sentelle said. He said it offered "precisely the same" functions as traditional telephone lines. . . . Edwards told the lawyer for the civil liberties groups, Matthew Brill, that on his challenge that VOIP services aren't covered under the surveillance law, "I didn't think you have it." . . . Education groups had challenged the FCC rules because they said the requirements would impose burdensome new costs on private university networks.
posted by Lorenzo 10:17 AM
Bush junta attempts to destroy evidence of its crimes (Christopher Lee, Washington Post, April 12, 2006) The National Archives helped keep secret a multi-year effort by the Air Force, the CIA and other federal agencies to withdraw thousands of historical documents from public access on Archives shelves, even though the records had been declassified. . . . In a 2002 memorandum, obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request and released yesterday by the National Security Archive, a nonprofit research library housed at George Washington University, Archives officials agreed to help pull the materials for possible reclassification and conceal the identities of anyone participating in the effort. The Associated Press reported yesterday that it had requested a copy of the memo three years ago. . . . Thomas S. Blanton, executive director of the National Security Archive, said the memo "shows that the National Archives basically aided and abetted a covert operation that whited out the nation's history by reclassifying previously released documents." . . . Independent historian Matthew M. Aid uncovered the reclassification program last summer when his requests for documents formerly available at the Archives were delayed or denied. In February, the Archives acknowledged that about 9,500 records totaling more than 55,000 pages had been withdrawn and reclassified since 1999. But historians who previously obtained copies of records have said many date to the 1940s and 1950s and pose no conceivable security risk. . . . The program dates to the Clinton administration, when the CIA and other agencies began recalling documents they believed were improperly released under a 1995 executive order requiring declassification of many historical records 25 years old and older. The pace of the removal picked up after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
posted by Lorenzo 2:19 PM
Internet telephones threaten NSA's ability to spy on Americans (Shane Harris, National Journal, April 10, 2006) Among the threats facing the National Security Agency are Al Qaeda, the Iraqi insurgency, and eBay. . . . Yes, eBay, the online auction house. Not because its members sell state secrets, but because of a company that eBay purchased last year -- Skype. . . . Skype is an online service that lets people converse through their computers. Its 75 million users place voice calls over the Internet. The calls sound clear. They're free, because phone carriers aren't used. And because of the Internet's diffused architecture and its facility for privacy, Skypesters' identities, their locations, and the substance of their conversations can be undetectable. This is not what the NSA's worldwide eavesdroppers want to hear. . . . For more than four years, without warrants and by order of President Bush, the agency has hunted for terrorists by intercepting communications between people in the United States and people abroad possibly connected to terrorism. . . . "Thirty years ago ... it made sense to speak exclusively about the interception of a targeted communication -- one in which there were usually two known ends and a [phone line] that could be 'tapped,' " Taipale writes in an upcoming essay for the New York University Review of Law and Security. Phone calls travel over a dedicated circuit, in easily traced paths. . . . But Internet communications are broken down into discrete units, called packets, that swirl through the global network along different, sometimes circuitous routes before being reassembled at their destination. If placing a phone call can be likened to mailing someone a letter, sending an e-mail is like cutting that letter into 50 pieces and dividing them among several couriers, and then asking the couriers to reassemble the letter upon delivery. . . . To intercept packets, devices called "sniffers" are placed at various communication nodes to scan traffic as it passes, looking for interesting packets and, hopefully, reassembling them coherently. If the NSA has an e-mail address to target, catching the message is relatively simple -- put a sniffer near the user's Internet service provider. . . . But the NSA's warrantless eavesdropping program also involves looking for suspicious patterns in a sea of communications. The NSA might not know what it's looking for, so it has to examine a lot of data. . . . It's unclear to what extent Internet service providers are cooperating with the NSA. [ALSO SEE: AT&T Forwards ALL Internet Traffic Into NSA]
[COMMENT by Lorenzo: For about six months now I've been using SunRocket Internet Phone Service and have been very pleased with the service. What I like best is that during my current move to a new apartment I was able to take my number with me and even install their "Gizmo" at a friend's house where I'm living temporarily. I just plugged it into their high speed Net connection, and without any hassle at all my phone was up and working again. In a week, when I move to my new place, all I need to to is take my little Gizmo with me and plug it into my new Internet connection. It's really amazing technology . . . and I get unlimited long distance in the U.S. and Canada and 100 free minutes of international calling for only $15 per month . . . with every imaginable calling feature. . . . BTW, I'm just a happy customer of SunRocket, not one of their salespeople . . . even though it sounds like it :-).]
posted by Lorenzo 12:19 PM
Federal Jury Indicts Mentally Ill Patient For Threatening Bush (Yvonne Lee, All Headline News, April 7, 2006) East St. Louis, IL (AHN) - A Palestinian mental health patient has been indicted on two felony counts of "knowingly and willfully" threatening to harm President George W. Bush. . . . The Associated Press reports federal grand jurors indicted Arafat Nijmeh on March 23. But it was only made public this week. . . . He is accused to telling two employees at the Alton Mental Health Center that he wants to castrate Mr. Bush. The next day, he repeated his threats to Secret Service agents contacted by the center. . . . . . . According to the indictment Nijmeh 26, told agents that his threat "is not too harsh, considering what he has done to my country. If not that than maybe something else, you know?" . . . Nijmeh said later that he was joking about the threats. . . . J. Steven Beckett, a University of Illinois law professor, says to the AP that Nijmeh's threats may only be the "delirious rantings of a mental patient." . . . He says, "It's national security gone berserk." . . . He speculated that some details of the case have been kept secret, but added, "My immediate reaction here is, 'Who's nuts?'" . . . Randy Massey, the acting U.S. attorney for southern Illinois, did not immediately return a message seeking comment Friday. . . . Eric Pingolt, head of the Secret Service's Springfield office, says the Secret Service takes all threats seriously and considers the suspect's mental state before deciding the threat's validity. . . . He says, "Everything is judged case by case."
[COMMENT by Lorenzo: If this wasn't so serious it would be really funny, at least in a "Brave New World" kind of way. We are told that 95% of the shipping containers coming into this country are NOT inspected. But Petty Tyrant Bush's homeland security storm troopers use their umpressive resources to save us from a madman making a joke about our Benevolent Dictator. It seems we are quickly moving even beyond mere fascism. . . . "And what rough beast, its hour come round at last, Slouches towards Bethlehem to be born?] <
posted by Lorenzo 7:17 AM
U.S. Joins Cuba, Uzbekistan, and Myanmar in Jailing Journalists (Dharam Shourie, December 14, 2005)
China, Cuba, Eritrea, and Ethiopia were the world's leading jailers of journalists in 2005, together accounting for two-thirds of the 125 editors, writers, and photo journalists imprisoned around the world, while US was for the first time listed among the top 10, the Committee to Protect Journalists has said. . . . The United States, which is holding journalists in detention centers in Iraq and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, rose to sixth among countries jailing journalists, just behind Uzbekistan and tied with Myanmar, it said. . . . "Anti-state" allegations, including subversion, divulging state secrets, and acting against the interests of the state, were the most common charges used to imprison journalists worldwide. . . . Twenty-four countries imprisoned journalists in 2005, reflecting an increase from the 20 nations included in the 2004 census. . . . "We're disturbed to see the number of jailed journalists rise, and we're particularly troubled that the list of the worst abusers includes new countries such as Ethiopia and the United States," CPJ executive director Ann Cooper said. . . . "Journalists covering conflict, unrest, corruption, and human rights abuses face a growing risk of incarceration in many countries, where governments seek to disguise their repressive acts as legitimate legal processes," Ann added. . . . Uzbekistan ranked fifth among countries, with six journalists in prison. Myanmar and the United States followed, with five each. US detention centers in Iraq were holding four journalists, while the US Naval Base at Guantanamo held one. . . . Forty-one journalists whose work appeared primarily on the Web or in other electronic forms were in jail, accounting for just under one-third of imprisoned worldwide.
posted by Lorenzo 10:18 AM
NOT GUILTY of 51 criminal counts - Free Speech Prevails (Eric Lichtblau, Washington Post, December 7, 2005)
In a major defeat for law enforcement officials, a jury in Florida failed to return guilty verdicts Tuesday on any of 51 criminal counts against a former Florida professor and three co-defendants accused of operating a North American front for Palestinian terrorists. . . . The former professor, Sami al-Arian, a fiery advocate for Palestinian causes who became a lightning rod for criticism nationwide over his vocal anti-Israeli stances, was found not guilty on eight criminal counts related to terrorist support, perjury and immigration violations. . . . "This was a political prosecution from the start, and I think the jury realized that," Linda Moreno, one of Mr. Arian's defense lawyers . . . "They looked over at Sami al-Arian; they saw a man who had taken unpopular positions on issues thousands of miles away, but they realized he wasn't a terrorist. The truth is a powerful thing." . . . Federal officials in Washington expressed surprise at the verdict in a case they had pursued for years. . . . The trial, lasting more than five months, hinged on the question of whether Mr. Arian's years of work in the Tampa area in support of Palestinian independence crossed the threshold from protected free speech and political advocacy to illegal support for terrorists. . . . Prosecutors, who had been building a case against Mr. Arian for 10 years, relied on some 20,000 hours of taped conversations culled from wiretaps on Mr. Arian and his associates. Officials said he had helped finance and direct terrorist attacks in Israel, the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, while using his faculty position teaching computer engineering at the University of South Florida as a cover for his terrorist activities. . . . But ultimately, the jury in Tampa that heard the case found him not guilty of the charge of conspiring to kill people overseas, and it deadlocked on three of the other most serious terrorism charges. . . . In bringing the case against Mr. Arian in 2003, the department relied on the easing of legal restrictions under the antiterrorism law known as the USA Patriot Act to present years of wiretaps on the defendants in a criminal context. . . . Several legal analysts and law professors said Tuesday that the government appeared to have overreached in its case. . . . Mr. Arian is to remain in jail on an immigration matter, but Ms. Moreno said the defense would probably file a motion next week asking to have him released on bond. . . . For the local Muslim community, the verdicts are "a huge relief, and people are just jubilant," said Ahmed Bedier, director of the Tampa chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations. . . . Mr. Bedier, who attended much of the trial, said he had doubted whether Mr. Arian could receive a fair trial in Tampa, especially in light of the publicity his case had generated, but "the jury proved us wrong," he said in a telephone interview. . . . "This was a very important case for us in that it tested both the Patriot Act and the right to political activity," Mr. Bedier said. "The jury is sending a statement that even in post-9/11 America, the justice system works, the burden of proof is on the prosecution, and political association - while it may be unpopular to associate oneself with controversial views - is still not illegal in this country."
posted by Lorenzo 2:05 AM
Help EFF Bust the Clear Channel Patent As many of you know, EFF has gone into the Patent Busting business. We're closing in on our first target -- the Clear Channel Live Recording patent, but we need your help. We've written up a description of the killer prior art needed to take this patent down; now you need to help us find it. Take a look at the description and send it around to any friends or colleagues you might know who are familiar with sound or video recording technology, especially pre-year 2000 technology that could record multiple copies of media simultaneously. In particular, we are interested in any information about a system called "EDAT" from the Minnesota-based Telex Communications, Inc., but any information on pre-2000 multiple-media recording system can help.
EFF's Legal Guide for Bloggers [NOTE: If you are a fan of bloging and aren't already connected with the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), you owe it to yourself to take a look at the section of their Web site devoted specifically to blogs. There is a wealth of trustworthy information there. EFF is our first line of defense in the battle to retain freedom in cyberspace. . . . Lorenzo]
Whether you're a newly minted blogger or a relative old-timer, you've been seeing more and more stories pop up every day about bloggers getting in trouble for what they post. . . . Like all journalists and publishers, bloggers sometimes publish information that other people don't want published. You might, for example, publish something that someone considers defamatory, republish an AP news story that's under copyright, or write a lengthy piece detailing the alleged crimes of a candidate for public office. . . . The difference between you and the reporter at your local newspaper is that in many cases, you may not have the benefit of training or resources to help you determine whether what you're doing is legal. And on top of that, sometimes knowing the law doesn't help - in many cases it was written for traditional journalists, and the courts haven't yet decided how it applies to bloggers. . . . But here's the important part: None of this should stop you from blogging. Freedom of speech is the foundation of a functioning democracy, and Internet bullies shouldn't use the law to stifle legitimate free expression. That's why EFF created this guide, compiling a number of FAQs designed to help you understand your rights and, if necessary, defend your freedom. . . . To be clear, this guide isn't a substitute for, nor does it constitute, legal advice. Only an attorney who knows the details of your particular situation can provide the kind of advice you need if you're being threatened with a lawsuit. The goal here is to give you a basic roadmap to the legal issues you may confront as a blogger, to let you know you have rights, and to encourage you to blog freely with the knowledge that your legitimate speech is protected. . . . Please note that this guide applies to people living in the US. We don't have the expertise or resources to speak to other countries' legal traditions, but we'd like to work with those who do. If you know of a similar guide for your own jurisdiction or feel inspired to research and write one, please let us know. We can link to it here.
[NOTE: The link above will take you to the Table of Contents page and links to each section.]
posted by Lorenzo 5:15 PM
Sony music CD's install a tracking virus on your PC (John Borland, CNET News.com, November 1, 2005)
Mark Russinovich was doing a routine test this week of computer security software he'd co-written, when he made a surprising discovery: Something new was hiding itself deep inside his PC's guts. . . . It took some time for Russinovich, an experienced programmer who has written a book on the Windows operating system for Microsoft, to track down exactly what was happening, but he ultimately traced it to code left behind by a recent CD he'd bought [from Sony's BMG music service] and played on his computer. . . . The SonyBMG-produced Van Zant album had been advertised as copy-protected when he'd bought it on Amazon.com, and he'd clicked through an installation agreement when he put the disc in his computer. What he later found is that the software had used a sophisticated cloaking technique that involves a "rootkit" -- a tool often used by virus writers to hide all traces of their work on a computer. . . . Russinovich posted a detailed step-by-step account of his findings on his blog, drawing immediate criticism of SonyBMG's technology from some inside the security software community. . . . A handful of security companies weighed in on the issue, saying the rootkit could present a possible risk to computers. [COMMENT by Lorenzo: Even if this isn't an immediate threat, I find it unacceptable for a MUSIC CD to load tracking software on my PC. . . . FUCK SONY! They are fair game now, as far as I'm concerned.] . . . A SonyBMG representative said the software could be easily uninstalled, by contacting the company's customer support service for instructions. [COMMENT by Lorenzo: The word on the street is that Sony's "fix" is worse than the rootkit itself. If you want your computer to continue running properly it is best that you NEVER use a Sony CD on your machine. BUT there is a temporary work-around if you still want to support Sony's fascist tactics: When you insert a CD in your PC, hold down the SHIFT key. This will disable the autorun feature, where the rootkit virus is hiding.] . . . Rootkit software has been around for over a decade but has recently come to increased prominence as more writers of viruses and the like adopt it for their purposes. Essentially, rootkits are tools for digging deep into a computer's operating system to hide the fact that certain software files exist or that the computer is performing certain functions. . . . Unlike other, less-powerful means of hiding files on a hard drive, rootkits are created to be extraordinarily difficult to uninstall without specific instructions, rooting themselves in an operating systems' deepest recesses in order to prevent their deletion. . . . In the case of the SonyBMG software, trying to remove it manually could shut off access to the computer's CD player, researchers said.
[COMMENT by Lorenzo: IMHO, Sony is engaging in criminal activity by secretly installing this tracking and locking software on our machines. So I ask you, is it immoral to steal from criminals? . . . interesting question, huh?]
posted by Lorenzo 1:46 PM
Fascist propaganda chief quits public broadcasting board (Reuters, November 4, 2005) Kenneth Tomlinson, the former board chairman of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting [COMMENT by Lorenzo: This is PBS, the Propaganda Broadcasting System.] accused by critics of trying to politicize public television and radio, has resigned from the board, it said on Thursday. . . . Tomlinson, a Republican, quit shortly before CPB Inspector General Kenneth Konz was to publish a report after investigating his activities, including paying outside researchers to check public programing for liberal bias. . . . Critics, including broadcasters and congressional Democrats, accused Tomlinson of trying to advance his own conservative agenda in public broadcasting, which is supposed to be non-partisan. . . . Details of the investigation have not yet been reported. It also looked into the selection of a former co-chair of the Republican National Committee as CPB president. . . . CPB is a federally funded nonprofit corporation and the largest single source of money for U.S. public television and radio programing, including PBS and National Public Radio. It is governed by a presidentially appointed board. . . . Center for Digital Democracy Executive Director Jeff Chester, a critic of Tomlinson, said his departure was unlikely to stop what he described as behind-the-scenes programing pressure on PBS [Propaganda Broadcasting System] and NPR [National Propaganda Radio]. . . . "Board chair Halpern and vice chair Gaines will continue Tomlinson's legacy to reshape public broadcasting more to the liking of conservatives," Chester said in a statement.
posted by Lorenzo 8:55 AM
Bush Teleconference With Soldiers Staged (Deb Riechmann, Associated, Oct 13, 2005)
It was billed as a conversation with U.S. troops, but the questions President Bush asked on a teleconference call Thursday were choreographed to match his goals for the war in Iraq and Saturday's vote on a new Iraqi constitution. . . . "This is an important time," Allison Barber, deputy assistant defense secretary, said, coaching the soldiers before Bush arrived. "The president is looking forward to having just a conversation with you." . . . As she spoke in Washington, a live shot of 10 soldiers from the Army's 42nd Infantry Division and one Iraqi soldier was beamed into the Eisenhower Executive Office Building from Tikrit — the birthplace of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein. . . . "I'm going to ask somebody to grab those two water bottles against the wall and move them out of the camera shot for me," Barber said. . . . A brief rehearsal ensued. [COMMENT by Lorenzo: I happened to catch the rehearsal on cable and heard Ms. Barber say, "Now if he asks a question not on script, who is going to handle it?"] . . . "OK, so let's just walk through this," Barber said. "Captain Kennedy, you answer the first question and you hand the mike to whom?" . . . "Captain Smith," Kennedy said. . . . "Captain. Smith? You take the mike and you hand it to whom?" she asked. . . . "Captain Kennedy," the soldier replied. . . . And so it went. . . . "If the question comes up about partnering -- how often do we train with the Iraqi military -- who does he go to?" Barber asked. . . . "That's going to go to Captain Pratt," one of the soldiers said. . . . "And then if we're going to talk a little bit about the folks in Tikrit -- the hometown -- and how they're handling the political process, who are we going to give that to?" she asked. . . . Less than 40 percent in an AP-Ipsos poll taken in October said they approved of the way Bush was handling Iraq. Just over half of the public now say the Iraq war was a mistake. . . . White House press secretary Scott McClellan said Thursday's event was coordinated with the Defense Department but that the troops were expressing their own thoughts. [COMMENT by Lorenzo: How does McClellan expect us to believe anything he says when this is such a bold faced lie? Just listen to the speech pattern of these officers. They sound like high school students reciting something they had barely memorized the night before.] . . . The soldiers all gave Bush an upbeat view of the situation. . . . The president also got praise from the Iraqi soldier who was part of the chat. . . . "Thank you very much for everything," he gushed. "I like you." . . . Paul Rieckhoff, director of the New York-based Operation Truth, an advocacy group for U.S. veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan, denounced the event as a "carefully scripted publicity stunt." Five of the 10 U.S. troops involved were officers, he said. . . . "If he wants the real opinions of the troops, he can't do it in a nationally televised teleconference," Rieckhoff said. "He needs to be talking to the boots on the ground and that's not a bunch of captains."
posted by Lorenzo 8:06 AM
AOL Time-Warner Censors Liberal Websites (Prison Planet, October 5, 2005) We were first alerted to this problem early this morning when several locals in Austin reported that they were unable to access Infowars.com, PrisonPlanet.com or Prison Planet.tv. . . . Austin Time Warner had previously shut down access to our websites on a whim, claiming they were 'hate material' but in all cases had quickly restored them after receiving complaints. . . . However, this latest attack on free speech is occurring nationwide, with Time Warner subscribers from New York to California reporting that their access to the websites is being blocked. . . . The last attempt to shut us down came shortly after the London Bombings, which saw our traffic go through the roof after we released a plethora of articles exposing government involvement. . . . The consequence of this is that Prison Planet.com alone on some days gets more hits than the Britney Spears website or Rush Limbaugh. . . . Previously we reported that UK ISPs like Tiscali were blocking their subscribers from accessing the website after the 7/7 bombings. . . . It is obvious that those in high places are showing their disapproval. This only vindicates all the information we have been putting out. . . . How can a website that merely reports and comments on mainstream media articles be described as 'hate' unless there's a different agenda afoot? How can Bill O'Reilly get on Fox News and call for assassinating Prime Ministers and Pat Robertson on the 700 Club do the same and yet we get censored for being hateful? We have never called for violence against anyone and actively encourage peaceful exchange of information. . . . This is part of a growing trend of authoritarian censorship of the Internet in preparation for the emergence of Internet 2, where only government approved websites will be allowed to exist and the old Internet will be shut down. . . . Monolithic corporations in lock-step with government are following the Chinese model, where any website mildly anti-establishment is immediately shut down and its owners arrested. The vast majority of Internet cafes in China were shut down in 2002 after the government started a fire in one Beijing cafe and then demanded all the rest be shut down for 'safety reasons'. . . . Under anti-terrorism laws in Italy, Internet cafe owners are forced to take photo ID's of all their customers and install key-logging and filter software which blocks any websites the government chooses. . . . Today's actions by Time Warner may fall into the same category. The First Amendment is continuously under siege by jack-booted totalitarians in suits that graciously lick the boots and follow the orders of the establishment lackey. . . . We are urging all our readers to boycott any Time Warner/Road Runner ISP service and cancel your subscription with them. They have proven themselves time and time again to be an anti-American freedom hating tool of the establishment. Even if this latest incident turns out to be a technical error, their past history of censorship should concern everyone.
posted by Lorenzo 12:02 PM
US forces 'out of control', says Reuters chief (Julia Day, Guardian Unlimited, September 28, 2005)
Reuters has told the US government that American forces' conduct towards journalists in Iraq is "spiralling out of control" and preventing full coverage of the war reaching the public. . . . The detention and accidental shootings of journalists is limiting how journalists can operate, wrote David Schlesinger, the Reuters global managing editor, in a letter to Senator John Warner, head of the armed services committee. . . . The Reuters news service chief referred to "a long parade of disturbing incidents whereby professional journalists have been killed, wrongfully detained, and/or illegally abused by US forces in Iraq". . . . At least 66 journalists and media workers, most of them Iraqis, have been killed in the country since March 2003. . . . US forces admitted killing three Reuters journalists, most recently soundman Waleed Khaled, who was shot by American soldiers on August 28 while on assignment in Baghdad. But the military said the soldiers were justified in opening fire. Reuters believes a fourth journalist working for the agency, who died in Ramadi last year, was killed by a US sniper. . . . "The worsening situation for professional journalists in Iraq directly limits journalists' abilities to do their jobs and, more importantly, creates a serious chilling effect on the media overall," Mr Schlesinger wrote. . . . "By limiting the ability of the media to fully and independently cover the events in Iraq, the US forces are unduly preventing US citizens from receiving information ... and undermining the very freedoms the US says it is seeking to foster every day that it commits US lives and US dollars." . . . Mr Schlesinger said the US military had refused to conduct independent and transparent investigations into the deaths of the Reuters journalists, relying instead on inquiries by officers from the units responsible, who had exonerated their soldiers. . . . He noted that the US military had failed to implement recommendations by its own inquiry into the death of award-winning Palestinian cameraman Mazen Dana, who was shot dead while filming outside Abu Ghraib prison in August 2003. . . . He said that Reuters and other reputable international news organisations were concerned by the "sizeable and rapidly increasing number of journalists detained by US forces". . . . He said detentions were prompted by legitimate journalistic activity such as possessing photographs and video of insurgents, which US soldiers assumed showed sympathy with the insurgency. . . . Earlier this week Reuters demanded the release of a freelance Iraqi cameraman after a secret tribunal ordered that he be detained indefinitely. . . . Samir Mohammed Noor, a freelance cameraman working for Reuters, was arrested by Iraqi troops at his home in the northern town of Tal Afar four months ago. . . . A US military spokesman has told the agency that a secret hearing held last week had found him to be "an imperative threat to the coalition forces and the security of Iraq". . . . The news agency has demanded that he be released or given a chance to defend himself in open court. . . . The US network CBS has raised concerns over the arrest of its cameraman, Abdul Amir Younes, who was arrested in hospital in April after he was shot by US troops. . . . CBS said it is concerned that he had no legal representation at the hearing and has had no chance to see the evidence against him.
posted by Lorenzo 4:19 PM
Barnes and Noble uses Nazi-like tactics to squelch opinion (Matthew Rothschild, The Progressive, August 19, 2005) She wanted to see Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum, who was promoting his book, "It Takes a Family." . . . The event was billed as a "book signing and discussion," Shaffer says. . . . But discussion was the last thing that the Senator's people wanted. . . . Shaffer, her friends, and two other young women were booted out of the store and threatened with imprisonment even before they had a chance to say a word to Santorum . . . A state trooper in full uniform, including hat and gun, was in the store, and, according to Shaffer and Galperin, he met with the person who didn't care for the Dan Savage joke, along with a few others, including members of the store and Santorum's people. . . . Galperin says she heard the trooper ask, "Do you want me to get rid of them?" . . . And then the trooper, Delaware State Police Sgt. Mark DiJiacomo, who was on detail as a private security guard, came over to the group of women. . . . Here is the conversation, as Galperin remembers it: "You guys have to leave." . . . "Why?" . . . "Your business is not wanted here. They don't want you here anymore. If you don't leave, you're going to be arrested. If you can't post bail, you'll go to prison. Those of you who are under 18 will go to Ferris [the juvenile detention center]. And those of you over 18 will go either to Gander Hill Prison or the woman's correctional facility. Any questions?" . . . Shaffer remembers the conversation basically the same way. . . . "I said, 'Sir, we're not doing anything wrong. We're sitting in a bookstore. On what grounds would we be arrested?' " . . . "He said, "This is private property. Are you going to leave on your own, or are you going to leave in cuffs?" . . . Shaffer decided to leave with her friends. . . . Galperin and Rocek decided to stay. . . . "That's it," he told them, according to Galperin. "You're under arrest. Give me your ID. You're going to prison." . . . Sgt. DiJiacomo led the two out to his police car. . . . "Six or seven of the braver kids got in the car and we drove back over to the parking lot of Barnes & Noble," she recalls. "We were standing outside in the parking lot and my mother went into the store. Just as she entered, the officer came out, and he saw us, and he drove over in his car very fast." . . . Here's her account. . . . "You're under arrest. Get into the car." . . . "But my mom took us over here and wanted to speak to you." . . . "Do I look like your mother? You're not wanted here. You had your chance. You showed up again. Now you're under arrest." . . . Shaffer said he then asked the ages of everyone in the group, and he used this information to further threaten her. . . . "Not only will you be arrested for trespassing, but I've got you on the counts for contributing to the delinquency of one, two, three, four, five minors,"” he said, according to Shaffer. "Those are serious charges. Is that really something you want on your record? Is that something that will make your parents proud?" . . . And he warned them, she says, that they would be arrested if they ever showed up at the bookstore or the mall again. . . . [COMMENT by Lorenzo: Welcome to Gulag Amerika . . . if you think the Storm Troopers won't be coming for you quite soon, you've got another think coming . . . the time for action is NOW . . . start mobilizing your friends today and get ready for the big lockdown called Marshall Law. It'll be here sooner than you think.] . . . "I actually tried to talk humanely to the policemen," she says. "He told me if I took any of the underaged kids in, I would be charged with contributing to the delinquency of a minor." . . . Heidi Schaffer says she is most upset about the strong-arm tactics of Sgt. DiJiacomo. "One of the girls came home and was hysterical for about two days," she says. "Some even were afraid to tell their parents. That this hired gun can say whatever he wants and terrorize these kids is very, very scary." . . . Sgt. DiJiacomo did not return my phone calls seeking comment. [COMMENT by Lorenzo:Mark DiJacomo, in my opinion, is in the same mold as the Nazi SS Troopers who intimidated people into keeping silent while the State continued its atrocities. You've forever cast an un-American pall over the name, DiJacomo, little sergeant with a big gun. I'm sure your immigrant ancestors are proud.] "From all indications that we have, he handled his duties and responsibilities appropriately," says Lieutenant Joseph Aviola, director of public affairs for the Delaware State Police. . . . Aviola says it is not uncommon for Delaware state troopers, in their official capacity, to work for private contractors, who later reimburse the state. . . . Drew Fennell, executive director of the Delaware ACLU, sees the incident in a larger context. "This is trickle down from Bush: Politicians are now keeping away, out of sight, anybody who disagrees with them," she says. "If the Senator's staff was so put off by the idea he might be asked a difficult question that they brought in the police, that’s a sad commentary on the state of political discourse." . . . Fennel is also particularly concerned about the participation of the Delaware state trooper. "That puts a different and far more disturbing face on this," she says. "Frankly, it's a great deal more intimidating to be asked to leave by an armed police officer threatening you with arrest than if the manager does it."
posted by Lorenzo 1:19 PM
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