Post by QuestionHair1 on Dec 13, 2005 14:07:55 GMT -5
From: Richard Menec <menec@mts.net>
To: menecraj@shaw.ca
Subject: Choking the Internet: How much longer will your favorite sites be on line?
Date: Dec 12, 2005 11:50 PM
www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?
context=viewArticle&code=MAD20051212&articleId=1448
December 12, 2005
Lancement du nouveau site Mondialisation.ca
Choking the Internet: How much longer will your favorite sites be on
line?
by Wayne Madsen
December 12, 2005
Internet censorship. It did not happen overnight but slowly came to
America's shores from testing grounds in China and the Middle East.
Progressive and investigative journalist web site administrators are
beginning to talk to each other about it, e-mail users are beginning to
understand why their e-mail is being disrupted by it, major search
engines appear to be complying with it, and the low to equal
signal-to-noise ratio of legitimate e-mail and spam appears to be
perpetuated by it.
In this case, “it,” is what privacy and computer experts have long
warned about: massive censorship of the web on a nationwide and global
scale. For many years, the web has been heavily censored in countries
around the world. That censorship continues at this very moment. Now it
is happening right here in America. The agreement by the Congress to
extend an enhanced Patriot Act for another four years will permit the
political enforcers of the Bush administration, who use law enforcement
as their proxies, to further clamp censorship controls on the web.
Internet Censorship: The Warning Signs Were Not Hidden
The warning signs for the crackdown on the web have been with us for
over a decade. The Clipper chip controversy of the 90s, John
Poindexter’s Total Information Awareness (TIA) system pushed in the
aftermath of 9-11, backroom deals between the Federal government and
the Internet service industry, and the Patriot Act have ushered in a
new era of Internet censorship, something just half a decade ago
computer programmers averred was impossible given the nature of the
web. They were wrong, dead wrong.
Take for example of what recently occurred when two journalists were
taking on the phone about a story that appeared on Google News. The
story was about a Christian fundamentalist move in Congress to use U.S.
military force in Sudan to end genocide in Darfur. The story appeared
on the English Google News site in Qatar. But the very same Google News
site when accessed simultaneously in Washington, DC failed to show the
article. This censorship is accomplished by geolocation filtering: the
restriction or modifying of web content based on the geographical
region of the user. In addition to countries, such filtering can now be
implemented for states, cities, and even individual IP addresses.
With reports in the Swedish newspaper Svensa Dagbladet today that the
United States has transmitted a Homeland Security Department "no fly"
list of 80,000 suspected terrorists to airport authorities around the
world, it is not unreasonable that a "no [or restricted]
surfing/emailing" list has been transmitted to Internet Service
Providers around the world. The systematic disruptions of web sites and
email strongly suggests that such a list exists.
News reports on CIA prisoner flights and secret prisons are
disappearing from Google and other search engines like Alltheweb as
fast as they appear. Here now, gone tomorrow is the name of the game.
Google is systematically failing to list and link to articles that
contain explosive information about the Bush administration, the war in
Iraq, Al Qaeda, and U.S. political scandals. But Google is not alone in
working closely to stifle Internet discourse. America On Line,
Microsoft, Yahoo and others are slowly turning the Internet into an
information superhighway dominated by barricades, toll booths,
off-ramps that lead to dead ends, choke points, and security checks.
America On Line is the most egregious is stifling Internet freedom. A
former AOL employee noted how AOL and other Internet Service Providers
cooperate with the Bush administration in censoring email. The Patriot
Act gave federal agencies the power to review information to the packet
level and AOL was directed by agencies like the FBI to do more than
sniff the subject line. The AOL term of service (TOS) has gradually
been expanded to grant AOL virtually universal power regarding
information. Many AOL users are likely unaware of the elastic clause,
which says they will be bound by the current TOS and any TOS revisions
which AOL may elect at any time in the future. Essentially, AOL users
once agreed to allow the censorship and non-delivery of their email.
Microsoft has similar requirements for Hotmail as do Yahoo and Google
for their respective e-mail services.
There are also many cases of Google’s search engine failing to list and
link to certain information. According to a number of web site
administrators who carry anti-Bush political content, this situation
has become more pronounced in the last month. In addition, many web
site administrators are reporting a dramatic drop-off in hits to their
sites, according to their web statistic analyzers. Adding to their woes
is the frequency at which spam viruses are being spoofed as coming from
their web site addresses.
Government disruption of the political side of the web can easily be
hidden amid hyped mainstream news media reports of the latest
"boutique" viruses and worms, reports that have more to do with the
sales of anti-virus software and services than actual long-term
disruption of banks, utilities, or airlines.
Internet Censorship in the US: No Longer a Prediction
Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, and Cisco Systems have honed their skills at
Internet censorship for years in places like China, Jordan, Tunisia,
Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Vietnam, and other countries.
They have learned well. They will be the last to admit they have
imported their censorship skills into the United States at the behest
of the Bush regime. Last year, the Bush-Cheney campaign blocked
international access to its web site -- www.georgewbush.com -- for
unspecified "security reasons."
Only those in the Federal bureaucracy and the companies involved are in
a position to know what deals have been made and how extensive Internet
censorship has become. They owe full disclosure to their customers and
their fellow citizens.
--------
www.waynemadsenreport.com/
To: menecraj@shaw.ca
Subject: Choking the Internet: How much longer will your favorite sites be on line?
Date: Dec 12, 2005 11:50 PM
www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?
context=viewArticle&code=MAD20051212&articleId=1448
December 12, 2005
Lancement du nouveau site Mondialisation.ca
Choking the Internet: How much longer will your favorite sites be on
line?
by Wayne Madsen
December 12, 2005
Internet censorship. It did not happen overnight but slowly came to
America's shores from testing grounds in China and the Middle East.
Progressive and investigative journalist web site administrators are
beginning to talk to each other about it, e-mail users are beginning to
understand why their e-mail is being disrupted by it, major search
engines appear to be complying with it, and the low to equal
signal-to-noise ratio of legitimate e-mail and spam appears to be
perpetuated by it.
In this case, “it,” is what privacy and computer experts have long
warned about: massive censorship of the web on a nationwide and global
scale. For many years, the web has been heavily censored in countries
around the world. That censorship continues at this very moment. Now it
is happening right here in America. The agreement by the Congress to
extend an enhanced Patriot Act for another four years will permit the
political enforcers of the Bush administration, who use law enforcement
as their proxies, to further clamp censorship controls on the web.
Internet Censorship: The Warning Signs Were Not Hidden
The warning signs for the crackdown on the web have been with us for
over a decade. The Clipper chip controversy of the 90s, John
Poindexter’s Total Information Awareness (TIA) system pushed in the
aftermath of 9-11, backroom deals between the Federal government and
the Internet service industry, and the Patriot Act have ushered in a
new era of Internet censorship, something just half a decade ago
computer programmers averred was impossible given the nature of the
web. They were wrong, dead wrong.
Take for example of what recently occurred when two journalists were
taking on the phone about a story that appeared on Google News. The
story was about a Christian fundamentalist move in Congress to use U.S.
military force in Sudan to end genocide in Darfur. The story appeared
on the English Google News site in Qatar. But the very same Google News
site when accessed simultaneously in Washington, DC failed to show the
article. This censorship is accomplished by geolocation filtering: the
restriction or modifying of web content based on the geographical
region of the user. In addition to countries, such filtering can now be
implemented for states, cities, and even individual IP addresses.
With reports in the Swedish newspaper Svensa Dagbladet today that the
United States has transmitted a Homeland Security Department "no fly"
list of 80,000 suspected terrorists to airport authorities around the
world, it is not unreasonable that a "no [or restricted]
surfing/emailing" list has been transmitted to Internet Service
Providers around the world. The systematic disruptions of web sites and
email strongly suggests that such a list exists.
News reports on CIA prisoner flights and secret prisons are
disappearing from Google and other search engines like Alltheweb as
fast as they appear. Here now, gone tomorrow is the name of the game.
Google is systematically failing to list and link to articles that
contain explosive information about the Bush administration, the war in
Iraq, Al Qaeda, and U.S. political scandals. But Google is not alone in
working closely to stifle Internet discourse. America On Line,
Microsoft, Yahoo and others are slowly turning the Internet into an
information superhighway dominated by barricades, toll booths,
off-ramps that lead to dead ends, choke points, and security checks.
America On Line is the most egregious is stifling Internet freedom. A
former AOL employee noted how AOL and other Internet Service Providers
cooperate with the Bush administration in censoring email. The Patriot
Act gave federal agencies the power to review information to the packet
level and AOL was directed by agencies like the FBI to do more than
sniff the subject line. The AOL term of service (TOS) has gradually
been expanded to grant AOL virtually universal power regarding
information. Many AOL users are likely unaware of the elastic clause,
which says they will be bound by the current TOS and any TOS revisions
which AOL may elect at any time in the future. Essentially, AOL users
once agreed to allow the censorship and non-delivery of their email.
Microsoft has similar requirements for Hotmail as do Yahoo and Google
for their respective e-mail services.
There are also many cases of Google’s search engine failing to list and
link to certain information. According to a number of web site
administrators who carry anti-Bush political content, this situation
has become more pronounced in the last month. In addition, many web
site administrators are reporting a dramatic drop-off in hits to their
sites, according to their web statistic analyzers. Adding to their woes
is the frequency at which spam viruses are being spoofed as coming from
their web site addresses.
Government disruption of the political side of the web can easily be
hidden amid hyped mainstream news media reports of the latest
"boutique" viruses and worms, reports that have more to do with the
sales of anti-virus software and services than actual long-term
disruption of banks, utilities, or airlines.
Internet Censorship in the US: No Longer a Prediction
Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, and Cisco Systems have honed their skills at
Internet censorship for years in places like China, Jordan, Tunisia,
Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Vietnam, and other countries.
They have learned well. They will be the last to admit they have
imported their censorship skills into the United States at the behest
of the Bush regime. Last year, the Bush-Cheney campaign blocked
international access to its web site -- www.georgewbush.com -- for
unspecified "security reasons."
Only those in the Federal bureaucracy and the companies involved are in
a position to know what deals have been made and how extensive Internet
censorship has become. They owe full disclosure to their customers and
their fellow citizens.
--------
www.waynemadsenreport.com/