Showing posts with label free speech. Show all posts
Showing posts with label free speech. Show all posts

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Internet Censorship Alert! Alex Jones exposes agenda to shut down the web

Aaron Dykes & Alex Jones
Infowars.com
February 9, 2010

The Western world, from Australia to the United States, UK and parts of Europe, are moving in a unified front toward dictatorial Internet censorship. Australia has led the way, despite outcry from its populace, by “filtering” out certain banned content. In the United States, Sen. Jay Rockefeller, in continuing his family’s tradition of oppressing free humanity, has pushed forward Cybersecurity legislation that has already passed the House. He has done so in the name of warding off ghastly cyber “attackers” conceivably fronting for al Qaeda while ushering in a means to restrict free speech and expression online for the general population.

With Obama’s support, most of the developed world has accepted plans for government-approved online activity and Pentagon-monitored internet traffic. The U.S. and UK are facilitating the hijacking of what has, until now, been a highly-democratic Internet. Overall, it has been a technological God-send for bringing together communication and strongly expressing thought outside of the mainstream information available on television and in print.

Now, people are being forced onto the corporate-dominated Internet2– once again, in the name of “security.” (Internet) Freedom sacrificed at the same false alter of (Internet) Security. Independent blogs, news sites and online businesses will all be financially disadvantaged by access fees not demanded of dominant entities. What is today outside the ‘norm’ but well within free speech will tomorrow be evaluated by politically-correct criteria that will be used to identify sites to block and users to deny access.

Already, government “blacklists” have been exposed. On its lists? The usual suspects– Infowars.com, PrisonPlanet.com, Wikileaks.org and the like. Referrals to sites like Infowars.com and PrisonPlanet.com are being denied not only in Australia, but in places like New Zealand– who have not adopted the same policies, but do share ISPs who have ordered a block. All across the world, wherever internet “filtering” and outright censorship has been phased in– via libraries, businesses, airports, and so forth, sites that are critical of government are consistently blocked first. This has been true not only of Alex Jones’ several websites, but also of sites like Wikileaks, Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), Cryptome and etc, etc. The common theme is not operating outside of law or of speaking in extremities, but challenging the power establishment through distribution of information and/or shedding light on its otherwise little known unscrupulous activities.

This Orwellian scheme has already been branded by the outrages of Cass Sunstein, one of the Obama ‘Czars’, who has called for governments to ban “conspiratorial theories” and identified thought-crimes including a disbelief in man-made global warming and a belief in the basic goodness of “sunshine.” In considering how to eradicate ‘outlawed’ beliefs, Sunstein posits the benefits of using bloggers to engage and counter ‘disinformation.’ A very similar version of this strategy has already been adopted by the Pentagon in its “infowars” campaign. Further, campaigns are underway to convince the public to accept “driver’s licenses” for the once-free Internet.

Alex uses his most-recent experience in an outright ban to sound a warning that the enemy is already among us. Internet censorship threatens to stifle out a recent phenomenon of free thought and widespread information that has flourished on the Internet / world wide web. Only by standing up to undue constraints on our rights and by saying no to efforts to chill speech on the web can we save a stronghold of free humanity.

Frightening Taste Of Internet Censorship As Major Free Speech Websites Blocked

- Death Of The Internet: Censorship Bills In UK, Australia, U.S. Aim To Block “Undesirable” Websites

- Obama Information Czar Calls For Banning Free Speech

- Conspiracy Theories (Cass R. Sunstein, Harvard Law School; Adrian Vermeule, Harvard Law School — January 15, 2008)

- Proposed Web video restrictions cause outrage in Italy

- Joining China and Iran, Australia to Filter Internet

- Leaked Australian blacklist reveals banned sites

- Internet Censorship: Major Truth-Providing Websites Blocked By Asia Netcom To New Zealand Users

- New Zealand blocks two websites selectively

- Online Kiwis maybe feeling Oz censor trickledown

- Australia’s compulsory internet filtering ‘costly, ineffective’

- Australia Censors Wikileaks Page

- WikiLeaks Exposes Australian Web Blacklist

- Gates backs China in Google censorship spat

- Gates calls China censorship ‘limited’

- Microsoft’s Mundie calls for ‘internet driving licence’

- UN agency calls for global cyberwarfare treaty, ‘driver’s license’ for Web users

- Internet ‘driver’s license’? Microsoft’s Mundie wants it

- House Passes Cybersecurity Bill

- S. 773: Cybersecurity Act of 2009

- Bill would give president emergency control of Internet

- Military Report: Secretly ‘Recruit or Hire Bloggers’

- Lt. Col. Ralph Peters Calls For Military Killing Of War Journalists

- U.S. Web-Tracking Plan Stirs Privacy Fears

- AOL Time-Warner Censors Alex Jones Websites

- My ISP (Internode) has blocked infowars.com!!!

- MySpace Admits Censorship Of Prison Planet.com

- Major International Transport Hub Censors Political Websites

- ISPs to record all emails and calls

Friday, January 1, 2010

PsyOp Internet Battle for Hearts, and Minds

Sancho Jones
SHTF411
January 1, 2010

The Internet revolution has changed the face of our planet. Over the last 20 years there’s been a complete transformation of the way we live, conduct business, and share information. In the same amount of time, information technology has helped bring countless atrocities committed by governments, and global corporations into view. We’ve seen the rise of groups like “We Are Change”, and birthing of the “Truth Movement”; which has kicked off a viral, and grassroots information wave. The Internet’s been in many regards a saving grace of mankind, and in the same likeness the greatest threat to the establishment!

featured stories   PsyOp Internet Battle for Hearts, and Minds

computer



The FBI now is installing super spyware on people’s personal computers.


Recently, we had the Global Warming talks in Copenhagen; they were a failure! What else could come from the exposure of emails showing fudged data on Global Warming? Nothing is what. Climate Gate[1] changed what would have been global “Cap, & Trade” agreements, and other carbon tax legislation from an assured victory at Copenhagen, to an embarrassment. Al Gore decided it’d be better not to show up at all, after having to run from angry mobs, and being pelted by snow balls due to the leaks. The only thing that came of the conference, was a poor attempt at “saving face” through a non binding resolution.

Those hiding behind governments, and global corporations have long known the necessity of owning the Hearts, and Minds[2] of the people; in order to further their agendas. We’ve learned catchy phrases which embody the techniques. Some of these would include; “Divide, and Conquer”, “Smoke, & Mirrors”, “Order out of Chaos”, “Problem, Reaction, Solution”. Through the usage of these tools, perceptions can be changed, and goals can be accomplished. The US Govt. has actively sought to win the Hearts, and Minds of people openly since the Cold War.

During the height of the Cold War, and Civil Rights movement, the FBI created COINTEL[3]; which is an acronym of various programs the US Govt. used to deal with both issues. The methods used in COINTEL were inline with the techniques mentioned above. The overall goal was to control the information, and/or distort it so as to crush all legitimate opposition to the US Policy, or Hegemony of the time. This propaganda machine officially ended, but from the information presented below, it looks as though it is going stronger than ever before; and the Internet is the new battle ground.

There is subversion being committed across the World Wide Web on an ever increasing basis. The mainstream media has been very active in the shaping of our feelings, and thoughts, from the bottom up to meet current policy. We’ have MSM Journalists self censoring for advancement, or towing the party line. We see corporate MSM censorship through management, Government censorship of the MSM, and all culminating into supporting policies, such as war[4]. A recent article regarding a book by Nick Davies called, “How the spooks took over the news”, delves into how the world governments will insert stories at the community level, several years before a given agenda is needed.

“For the first time in human history, there is a concerted strategy to manipulate global perception. And the mass media are operating as compliant assistants, failing both to resist it and to expose it.”

“The sheer ease with which this machinery has been able to do its work reflects a creeping structural weakness which now afflicts the production of our news. I’ve spent the last two years researching books about falsehood, distortion and propaganda in the global media.”[4]

In the USA, we have several groups designated to shape, and alter perceptions. The U.S. Army Civil Affairs, and Psychological Operations Command (Airborne)[6], or USACAPOC(A), consists of 40 Army Reserve units, or around 10,000 soldiers, who are stationed across the USA, are among many leading the mission of COINTEL. They have two main components, Civil Affairs, which is largely made up of lawyers, judges, physicians, bankers, health inspectors, fire chiefs,[7] or other professionals who can deal directly with the Civil nature of shaping a communities perception. The other portion is Psychological Operations; both operate by sword, deed, and word to alter Hearts, and Minds.

Another tactic being used in the U.S. is to actually pay operatives to create havoc, or to further the fury of an average person, so they will attempt an act associated with a criminal, or terrorism element. Hal Turner is an example of an operative employed by the US Govt. to further agendas, and policies. In his own words,”I was not some street snitch”[8]; in fact in his own words,”I was a deep undercover intelligence operative”. According to the FBI,”Special Agent Stephen Haug wrote that “[Turner's] value outweighs the discomfort associated with source’s rhetoric. Source’s unique access provides important intelligence which, if lost, would be irreplaceable.” Another FBI memo cited that Turner “has proven highly reliable and is in a unique position to provide vital information on multiple subversive domestic organizations.”[8] Note the words subversive domestic organizations.

Do you feel left out, or would you like to get in on the gravy train; while at the same time selling out your fellow man? The US Govt. with 5 million US Dollars is promoting, and paying bloggers, texters, and building websites across the Middle East, and North Africa![9] The official purpose is to spread ideologies, and learning to embrace others ideas. Of course through the wreaking putrid of the rhetoric comes the truth; it’s to promote US Democracy through the Arab world. I can read the websites now,”Freedom is the freedom to comply with The Patriot Act!”

Countries like Israel implement direct subversion, or disinformation as well. [10]“Israel’s Foreign Ministry is hiring students and demobilized soldiers who will work around the clock writing pro-Israeli responses on Internet websites all over the world…. presenting themselves as ordinary surfers…

This is in addition to the existing Israeli volunteer internet task forces & propaganda applications like Megaphone & GIYUS – a chief Israeli propagandist is interviewed below….

“Our people will not say: ‘Hello, I am from the policy-explanation department of the Israeli Foreign Ministry and I want to tell you the following.’ Nor will they necessarily identify themselves as Israelis. They will speak as net-surfers and as citizens, and will write responses that will look personal but will be based on a prepared list of messages that the Foreign Ministry developed.”[10]

Amongst the many groups on the Net fighting the struggle for Israel, is the Jewish Internet Defense Forces[11]. From their homepage,”leading the fight against antisemitism, and terrorism on the web, coordinating concerned citizens around the globe, and promoting jewish pride, knowledge, and unity.” A striking quality about any of these different groups, or the controlled MSM, who are sent out to propagandize the Hearts, and Minds of the people, is that they always cite Anonymous sources, or don’t cite who the “officials” are who said “what”. These kinds of propaganda articles are now common place[12].

Other countries around the world are implementing strategies to combat the information wave of the Internet; which is destroying their hold on the Hearts, and Minds of people worldwide. Australia’s Government has instituted their new Cyber Security Strategy[13]. It’s goals are of course always painted in a nice shiny, and clean picture. They’ll be focusing on legitimate cyber crimes, and of course they’ll have to monitor *possible* terrorist activities. They have created their own Computer Emergency Response Team, or CERT as the main crime fighter; the program will begin operation January 2010, and will coordinate their activities with other National CERT’s across the globe to combat Internet crimes, or as is becoming abundantly clear, to infiltrate, and use propaganda to halt the Information revolution.

The saying goes something like, if at first you don’t succeed, then try, try again; right? Well, that’s exactly what the US Govt. is doing. The FBI now is installing super spyware on people’s personal computers. They are using “Computer, and Internet Protocol Address Verifiers”, or CIPAV to infiltrate personal computers, or systems, download all files, and upload to government servers in Virginia[14] It sounds somewhat “1984ish”, but imagine with everything covered so far, and taking into context what COINTEL did by replacing words, or meanings, imagine what they can upload to your own computer without the users ever knowing.

It’s not just the FBI with their fancy CIPAV, but the actual giant Internet companies who’ve been bought out are complicit with this ever increasing war for our Hearts, and Minds; through information. Google is catering to the CIA, NSA, FBI, and to most other Government agencies by offering the tools necessary to scavenge stored data, and other electronic media. They are also offering a closed “Intellipedia, a Wikipedia knock off for spooks.[15] Not only Google, but most US social networks have been caught selling private chats, photos, and emails to Governments.

The Internet is proving to be a real hassle for the corporate, and government elites. Leaked evidence that Yahoo is selling all documents for a given user to the U.S. Government for between $30 to $80 has surfaced recently. Not only are they selling the contents of what we feel is our private area, but also the IP addresses of where we sign on.[16] This is not limited to Yahoo, and Google, but again spans the innertubes of the Internet. The U.S. Federal Government, and other government’s are actively trying to not only use subversive means to control information, but also to mark those who present a problem; apparently so as to isolate them in the future.

It’s a massive amount of data to be stored, and would almost seem impossible. However, we must remember the U.S. Govt., and the Federal Reserve print money 24 hours a day. They are building Fusion Centers across the country, and implementing computer systems such as Maincore. In Utah, the “National Security Agency is constructing a colossal $1.9 billion information storage center at Camp Williams which could be considered a power trip. But it’s not the sort of power trip that keeps civil libertarians lying awake at night. No, this power grab is for the stuff of Thomas Edison and Nikola Tesla — the juice needed to keep acres of NSA supercomputers humming and a cyber eye peeled for the world’s bad guys.”[17] The problem is, that what the government considers as the bad guys is becoming the average American people, and in a hurry!

The deal is that people behind, or in control of governments, and global corporations realize the Internet is the one single threat that can create over night awareness into their ominous plans. They are attacking it, and people who are spreading information at every turn. Besides the leaks of Climate Gate, or Personal Data Gate, now there is the Secret Copyright Gate![18] See exert below:

“* That ISPs have to proactively police copyright on user-contributed material. This means that it will be impossible to run a service like Flickr or YouTube or Blogger, since hiring enough lawyers to ensure that the mountain of material uploaded every second isn’t infringing will exceed any hope of profitability.

* That ISPs have to cut off the Internet access of accused copyright infringers or face liability. This means that your entire family could be denied the internet — and hence to civic participation, health information, education, communications, and their means of earning a living — if one member is accused of copyright infringement, without access to a trial or counsel.

* That the whole world must adopt US-style “notice-and-takedown” rules that require ISPs to remove any material that is accused — again, without evidence or trial — of infringing copyright. This will be a disaster in the US and other countries, where it provides an easy means of censoring material, just by accusing it of infringing copyright.

*There will be mandatory prohibitions on breaking DRM, even if doing so for a lawful purpose (e.g., to make a work available to disabled people; for archival preservation; because you own the copyrighted work that is locked up with DRM)[/quote] Visit link for full text.”[18]

Welcome to the world of the DMCA’s, and censorship![19] They are creating these treaties in combination with other censorship policies designed to limit access to undesirable websites; of course the policy maker’s will decide what is “undesirable”[20], or which websites aren’t fit to help foster the correct environment for the people in their country. It goes back to the beginning of this article; it is about winning, controlling, or owning the Hearts, and Minds of the people. Without owning those, the people behind the corporations controlling the policy makers who run governments cannot succeed. The Internet will be turned shortly, or the attempt will be made to turn it into an Orwellian hell of pay per click, or pay by minute. Followed with skewed, and distorted information.

It will take all of us to stop these people from censoring the Internet in their battle to win control our hearts and minds.

[1] http://www.google.com/#hl=en&q=Climate+ … 32dbb01be6

[2] http://www.foreignpolicy.com/articles/2 … ing_slogan

[3] http://www.icdc.com/~paulwolf/cointelpro/cointel.htm

[4] http://georgewashington2.blogspot.com/2 … ia-is.html

[5] http://www.independent.co.uk/news/media … 80672.html

[6] http://www.usacapoc.army.mil/

[7] http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ … -psyop.htm

[8] http://rawstory.com/2009/11/report-fbi- … placeable/

[9] http://desertpeace.wordpress.com/2009/1 … ney-at-it/

[10] http://www.muzzlewatch.com/2009/07/14/t … overnment/

[10] http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=2f1_1247746861&c=1

[11] http://www.thejidf.org

[12] http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id … _article=1

[13] http://www.arnnet.com.au/article/327642 … hting_team

[14] http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/0 … yware-pro/

[15] http://www.infowars.net/articles/march2 … Google.htm

[16] http://www.mathaba.net/news/?x=622292

[17] http://www.deseretnews.com/article/7053 … .html?pg=1

[18] http://dprogram.net/2009/11/04/secret-c … -very-bad/

[19] http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/11/le … rikes-and-

[20] http://www.infowars.com/death-of-the-in … -websites/

Thursday, December 31, 2009

TSA Agents Visit Travel Writers Who Posted Security Directive

Kurt Nimmo
Infowars.com
December 30, 2009

featured stories   TSA Agents Visit Travel Writers Who Posted Security Directive
tsa agent featured stories   TSA Agents Visit Travel Writers Who Posted Security Directive


TSA Special Agent John Enright, left, speaks to Steven Frischling outside the blogger’s home in Niantic, Connecticut, after returning Frischling’s laptop Wednesday. Photo: Thomas Cain/Wired.com


Wired reports today that two bloggers who posted new airport search procedures in the wake of the exaggerated underwear bomber fiasco received home visits from Transportation Security Administration agents.

“Special agents from the TSA’s Office of Inspection interrogated two U.S. bloggers, one of them an established travel columnist, and served them each with a civil subpoena demanding information on the anonymous source that provided the TSA document.” writes Kim Zetter on the Threat Level section of the Wired website.

“They’re saying it’s a security document but it was sent to every airport and airline,” blogger Steven Frischling told Wired. “It was sent to Islamabad, to Riyadh and to Nigeria. So they’re looking for information about a security document sent to 10,000-plus people internationally. You can’t have a right to expect privacy after that.”

TSA official Suzanne Trevino said security directives “are not for public disclosure.”

Frischling said the agents who showed up at his home were armed and threatened him with a criminal search warrant if he didn’t provide the name of his source. He said they threatened to get him fired from his KLM Royal Dutch Airlines job and also said they would get him designated as a security risk, which would make it difficult for him to travel. Frischling is a photographer and freelance writer.

Infowars posted the document on December 28 after it appeared on the Gizmodo website. The Department of Homeland Security memo instructs TSA employees to perform pat-downs “concentrating on upper legs and torso” of all passengers at airport boarding gates. “Physically inspect 100 percent of all passenger accessible property at the boarding gate prior to boarding, with focus on syringes being transported along with powders and/or liquids.” Heads of State or Heads of Government are exempt from the measures, according to the document.

TSA agents also visited Chris Elliot, a travel journalist who writes a regular column for The Washington Post. “Chris is the other journalist who received and published a copy of the TSA’s Security Directive SD-1544-09-06,” writes Frischling on his blog.

“Chris and I have conversed many times before, however this phone call began by him asking me if any Federal Agents had visited me from the Department of Homeland Security this evening, as he had just been visited by a TSA Special Agent,” Frischling explains. “Moments after my call with Chris ended a sedan pulled in front of my house and two US Transportation Security Administration Special Agents were at my door with some questions and paperwork for me. I sent two of my kids upstairs, and like Chris I was served a subpoena by the Department of Homeland Security to disclose who sent me the contents of SD-1544-09-06.”

“We had just put the kids in the bathtub when Special Agent Robert Flaherty knocked on my front door with a subpoena. He was very polite, and used ’sir’ a lot, and he said he just wanted a name: Who sent me the security directive?” explains Elliot on his blog.

The subpoena commands Elliot “to produce and permit inspection and copying of the records” in his possession related to “TSA Security Directive 1544-09-06 dated December 25, 2009.”

“Any person who neglects or refuses to produce records in obedience to this subpoena is subject to fines under Title 18, United States Code, imprisonment for not more than one year, or both, 49 U.S.C § 46313,” the subpoena concludes.

“So if I’m reading this correctly, the TSA wants me to tell them who gave me the security directive,” writes Elliot. “I told Flaherty I’d call my attorney and get back to him.”

“We are a free society, knowledge is power and informing the masses allows for public conversation and collective understanding,” Steven Frischling notes. “You can agree or disagree, but you need information to know if you want to agree or disagree. My goal is to inform and help people better understand what is happening, as well as allow them to form their own opinions.”

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

MSNBC Host: Calling Obama Socialist Is Code For N-Word

Neil Comment: A perfect example on how the Obamanoidz plays the race-card against any criticism of the President. If you don't like his health-care bill because it's too socialistic: you're a racist. If you do not like his bailout: You're a racist. If you point out the similarities between Obama and Mussolini's politics: You're a racist. If you don't like his private (ss-like) armies that pledge allegiance to the President instead of the Constitution: You're definitely a racist.
I've always been a dedicated anti-fascist, but now that obviously means that I'm a racist.
What's wrong with this picture?

Paul Joseph Watson
Prison Planet.com
Tuesday, August 11, 2009

MSNBC Host: Calling Obama Socialist Is Code For N Word 110809top

After bizarrely claiming that the Obama Joker posters were somehow racist, despite the fact that George W. Bush was also characterized as the comic book villain during his presidency, the establishment media is now floating the wacky conspiracy theory that calling Obama a “socialist” is a secret code which really means the n-word.

Is there really no end to this madness? How can people criticize Obama if every time they so much as question the great leader, they are smeared in the media as racists?

MSNBC’s Carlos Watson introduced a segment on his show yesterday by wondering whether calling Obama a “socialist” was “becoming a code word, whether or not socialist is becoming the new n-word for some angry upset birthers and others.”

Watson then said there was a “line of responsibility” that had to be drawn which extended to “the words we choose, including how we use even legitimate words like socialist.”

Watson’s guest then agreed with the host that “the political dialogue has certain boundaries”.

The Orwellian move to reduce our vocabulary by effectively frowning upon the use of words that in reality have no racial connotations at all is another example of how political correctness and the race card is being used to eviscerate free speech while shielding the Obama administration from growing fury over his big government agenda.

Calling Obama a socialist relates to the fact that his administration is introducing an agenda that is infinitely more closely aligned with the political philosophy of socialism and communism than it is with the ideology of the founding fathers, it has nothing to do with racism.Calling Obama a socialist has all the racial undertones of calling George W. Bush a fascist – ie none whatsoever.

The vast majority of those protesting Obamacare are doing so because of what is contained in the different versions of the health care bill, not because Obama, a mixed-race child born of a white mother and raised by white grandparents in a privileged environment, is a “black” man.

Pro-Obama apologists in the media and their brownshirt enforcers on the streets are attempting to crush freedom of speech at every turn by playing the race card over and over again.

You Tube recently censored Alex Jones videos which contained the Obama Joker poster, depicting Obama as the comic book villain in Batman, despite the fact that George W. Bush had also been portrayed as the Joker on many previous occasions.

As we reported on Friday, pro-Obamacare union thugs last week assaulted Kenneth Gladney, who was handing out Gadsen flags outside an event in in Mehville, Missouri that opponents of the health care bill were barred from entering. The fact that Gladney is a black man is a fitting rebuttal to claims that Obamacare protesters are motivated by racism. The only aggression amidst the whole town hall rebellion has been on behalf of pro-Obama supporters and a black man was the victim.

Watch the clip from MSNBC below.


Monday, July 27, 2009

The Hamburg Declaration: Another ‘Big Brother’ to the Internet

John ‘J’ Trinckes
NewsWithViews
July 25, 2009

It appears that everyone is feeling the effects of the economy even news publishers. With the decrease of advertising dollars, the news industry needs to find ways to survive. The way in which these publishers feel they need to survive is by blaming the Internet for their troubles. A total of 166 European publishers as members of the European Publishers Council (EPC) have recently signed the “ Hamburg Declaration to Protect Intellectual Property Rights” in an attempt to enforce legislation that would somehow require readers to ‘pay’ for their news.

The Hamburg Declaration begins by saying: “The Internet offers immense opportunities to professional journalism – but only if the basis for profitability remains secure throughout the digital channels of distribution. This is currently not the case.” My interpretation of this is that to be a professional journalist you have to be a profit maker. Although I guess this would make sense, literarily, the declaration goes on to say that using works of others [authors, publishers, and broadcasters] without paying for it “threatens the production of high-quality content and the existence of independent journalism.” I don’t know about you, but I love reading the articles fromNewsWithViews.com and believe they are of very ‘high-quality content’ and from multiple ‘independent’ journalists. There is no profit motive for these writers; they love to write and to get information out in the public domain. Isn’t this what ‘true’ journalism is all about? Get the truth out?

The declaration continues with “universal access to websites does not necessarily mean access at no cost. We disagree with those who maintain that freedom of information is only established when everything is available at no cost.” I don’t know about you, but I do pay a substantial monthly fee to have access to the Internet and as such, I expect to visit any website I want. Are there sites out there that charge a membership fee to join? Absolutely, but I usually don’t bother since there is another site out there that may offer the same information that I’m looking for, but for ‘free’ or with minimal advertising. And as far as freedom of information is concerned, more times than not, the information that comes to us free of charge are often times better than the information that we may pay for. Besides, those individuals that have the money can influence what is said or how something is presented to other individuals. How many times or examples can I site on how our news media cover (or doesn’t cover) a certain story because of the advertising dollars that come in to the news station. We couldn’t possibly want to run a story that is negative against one of our sponsors just to get the ‘facts’ out about that particular story.

Read entire story

Racist Web Posts Traced to Homeland Security

KIRK SEMPLE
The New York Times
July 25, 2009

After federal border agents detained several Mexican immigrants in western New York in June, an article about the incident in a local newspaper drew an onslaught of vitriolic postings on its Web site. Some were racist. Others attacked farmers in the region, an apple-growing area east of Rochester, accusing them of harboring illegal workers. Still others made personal attacks about the reporter who wrote the article.

Most of the posts were made anonymously. But in reviewing the logs of its Internet server, the paper, The Wayne County Star in Wolcott, traced three of them to Internet protocol addresses at the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees border protection.

Homeland Security started an investigation into the posts this month, according to the reporter, Louise Hoffman-Broach, and Richard M. Healy, the Wayne County district attorney. A spokeswoman for the federal agency’s inspector general said she could neither confirm nor deny an investigation; department rules prohibit the use of office equipment for the personal transmission of material that could offend fellow employees or the public.

Read entire article

CEO Says Free Internet Content is a Myth

Brett Pulley and Andy Fixmer
Bloomberg
July 26, 2009

Barry Diller, chairman and chief executive officer of IAC/InterActiveCorp, said Web users will have to pay for what they watch and use, joining the refrain of media moguls who say an era of free Internet content is ending.

The media and technology executive, whose company runs the Ask.com search engine and the Match.com dating service, said it’s “mythology” to view the Internet as a system of free communications.

“It is not free, and is not going to be,” Diller said today at the Fortune Brainstorm conference in Pasadena, California. In addition to IAC, he is chairman of Expedia Inc., the online travel service, and Ticketmaster Entertainment Inc.

Diller, 67, joined a group of media chiefs, from Liberty Media Corp.’s John Malone to Walt Disney Co. CEO Robert Iger, who are challenging the accepted model that consumers pay for Internet access and then content is free. Diller predicted there will be three revenue streams: advertising, subscriptions and transactions.


Friday, July 10, 2009

World Wide Wiretap

Recent cyber attacks provide pretext for sweeping internet snooping by US government



Global Research, July 10, 2009

Last Friday, while most Americans were preparing for a weekend of fireworks and hot dogs, the Obama Administration had an ominous message: they are going ahead with a Bush-era plan to allow the NSA even more power to invade, intercept and analyze the data of anyone visiting a government website, ostensibly to help prevent a major cyber attack.[1] The timing of the announcement, the day before a holiday long weekend, seemed unusual, but less than 24 hours later just such an attack began to unfold on a series of websites in America and South Korea, including those of the White House, Pentagon, New York Stock Exchange, Treasury Department, Secret Service and The Washington Post, amongst others.


The attack itself turns out to have been fairly innocuous[2]--a run of the mill DDOS (distributed denial of service) attack that did not even employ the latest malware--but you wouldn't know that from reading the sensational reporting in the controlled corporate media. The VOA reports that the 'internet attackers' have struck again.[3] "US State Department under cyberattack for fourth day" blares a headline from the AFP.[4]


Blame for the attack is now falling on North Korea, but what North Korea has to gain by taking down The Washington Post's website is anybody's guess (perhaps Kim Jong-il was giving his own pronouncement on the recent revelation that the Post was selling access to high-level politicians to lobbyists for $250,000 a pop[5]). The big winner in this attack, it seems, is the federal government, which has been preparing to unveil an Internet surveillance spy grid for years, but have virtually no mandate to do so from a public that has become tired of invasive government snooping.


Various government stooges have been trying to drum up support for their Orwellian police state fantasy for years by warning of the coming 'cybergeddon' at the hands of 'cyber terrorists.' In 2003, former National Security Agency (NSA) director Mike McConnell was going on international fearmongering trips warning of attacks "equivalent to the attack on the World Trade Center in New York" unless a new agency were created to deal with the threat.[6] The'cyber 9-11' meme has carried on ever since, with hysterical coverage of Chinese cyber warriors[7] and teenage hackers[8] attempting to rally the public into supporting a new front in the "War on Terror:" cyberspace.


Of course, exactly as was the case of 9/11, which was used as a pretext for tabling and passing (before anyone had time to read it) the voluminous, labyrnthine constitution-destroying Patiot Act, so too will the 'cyber 911' be used to justify an iPatriot Act that will destroy any vestige of legal red tape preventing the government from tracking, tracing and controlling every movement of every citizen in cyberspace forever. That this legislation exists and is in fact merely waiting for a large cyberterrorist incident to justify rushing it into law was actually admitted last year by former Counter Terrorism Czar Richard Clarke to Lawrence Lessig.[9] "I was having dinner with Richard Clarke and I asked him if there is an equivalent [to the Patriot Act]," Lessig recounted to a technology conference in California last year."'Is there an i-Patriot Act just sitting waiting for some substantial event as an excuse to radically change the way the internet works?' He said 'of course there is'."


The three prongs of the attack on Internet freedom and privacy come from the military, the NSA and the Executive/Legislative branches of government. In 2003, the military labeled the Internet itself an enemy weapons system[10] and ever since then there has been growing momentum behind various military, intelligence and governmental schemes to track and trace all movements of all Internet users, American or foreign. Last year, the Air Force attempted to establish its own cyber command[11], resulting in military turf wars that last month spawned a new U.S. Cyber Command and the further militarization of cyberspace.[12] The military has even threatened a military responsea gainst any would-be hackers of government systems[13] (unless you are North Korean, evidently).


At the same time, the NSA is jockeying to launch a new system dubbed Einstein that would see all telecoms route data traveling to or from government networks through an NSA monitoring box.[14] This is on top of existing programs like pinwale[15] and Stellar Wind[16] which have already given them legal access to secretly spy on billions of communications records. Now Mike McConnell is back on the fearmongering trail telling anyone who will listen that if the NSA doesn't have the authority to examine everyone search history, private emails and file transfers, then there will be a (you guessed it) "cyber 9/11."[17]


The third prong of the attack comes from America's own elected representatives. Even back in 2007 the powerful thinktank known as the Center for Strategic and International Studies was already preparing for the coming Obama presidency, convening a year-long panel that issued a report called "Securing Cyberspace for the 44th Presidency"[18] which contained the following chilling passage under the heading "Regulate cyberspace:"


"Voluntary action is not enough. The United States must assess and prioritize risks and set minimium standards for securing cyberspace in order to ensure that the delivery of critical services in cyberspace continues if the United States is attacked."


Now, Jay Rockefeller is attempting to do just that with a bill that would kick start this process of setting 'minimum standards' for cybersecurity over to an advisory panel filled with globalists, corporate chieftains and hand-picked academics[19]. Rockefeller tried to drum up his own support for the bill by reaching new heights of hysterical fearmongering over the net, even going so far as to say the Internet should never have existed.[20] Obama is getting in on the act as well, threatening to pick a new 'Cyber Czar' who is conspicuous for having taken every opportunity during his time in Congress to vote for the expansion of NSA spying programs and authorities.[21]


The entire cyberterror hysteria seems to have reached a peak in the last month, with the announcement of U.S. cyber command, the impending vote on Rockefeller's bill and the naming of Obama's cyber czar expected to occur in the near future. Up until this week, there has only been one problem: there has been no clear mandate for any of this hysterical rush toward increased government snooping and regulation on the Internet. The American public is becoming disgusted with Obama's continuation of the NSA spying program[22] and have been unwilling to get behind giving up their online liberties in exchange for protection from the threat of teenage hackers and Russian spambots. The former head of the National Cybersecurity Center resigned this March citing "threats to the democratic process from the NSA's attempts to dominate all governmental cybersecurity efforts.[23] Wired even ran a story detailing how the U.S. Cyber Command is an agency without a purpose, function or mission that has been trying to find a reason for existing.[24]


Now along comes a relatively unsophisticated DDOS attack from what may or may not be North Korea (there is no proof for the origin of the attack other than the government's say-so) and suddenly it all seems justified: the creation of new branches of the military to deal with cyber warfare and even create sophisticated new cyberweapons for destroying hackers and rogue governments; the NSA programs to track and trace all searches, file transfers and communications of seemingly everyone on the planet; Rockefeller's legislation to appoint big business and globalists to advise on mandatory communications regulations. It seems that Obama and the NSA have more to gain from these attacks than do the North Koreans.


Of course, the capability (and presumably the intention) to monitor every electronic communication passing through the United States in real time has long existed. What we are seeing now is the revelation of long-established policies and technologies to a public that may have rejected them before. The Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act (CALEA) of 1994[25] already mandated that every communications device in the country be accessible by law enforcement, and it has now been mainstream news for years that the FBI can (and has) dialled into cellphones to listen in on any conversations taking place within reach of the microphone...even if the power is turned off.[26] In 2006, an AT&T whistleblower revealed an NSA spy room directly in the data hub monitoring every email, every phone call and every fax traveling through that hub.[27] In 2008, it was admitted that part of the NSA's efforts to catch Al-CIAda included agents passing around particularly humorous phone sex conversations between US military overseas and their wives back home.[28]


No, the capability of spying on all communications of all Americans is not being developed now; that has already happened. Right now we are witnessing the implementation of the phase in which the capability to track and trace all communications are being introduced to the public and justified on the grounds of national security. Expect to see an increasing number of media-hyped 'cyber attack' stories before the cyber 9/11 makes the iPatriot Act a reality.


Of course, it should be obvious by now that those in charge of multi-billion dollar agencies are in positions to directly materially benefit from just such large, stunning cyber attacks, opening the door to the false-flag mentality by which attacks are to be welcomed for their transformative nature.[29] Certainly the NSA is not building a $1.6 billion-dollar data center to sit on their hands waiting for an attack[30], nor are the governments of the UK[31], Canada[32], Ireland[33] and many other countries suddenly considering draconian new e-spying legislation for the fun of it.


For those who are interested in how a cyber false-flag terrorist attack could be generated, the PTECH story[34] remains a crucial piece of the puzzle. The technology exists for those in the know to commit sophisticated, convincing and devestating attacks through the government's own cyber infrastructure. The only question is who has the means, motive and opportunity to use it.


Notes

[1]
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/02/AR2009070202771_pf.html
[2]http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=218401127
[3]http://www.voanews.com/english/2009-07-09-voa18.cfm
[4]http://rawstory.com/news/afp/US_State_Department_under_cyberatta_07092009.html
[5]http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0709/24441.html
[6]http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2003/04/21/1050777200225.html
[7]http://www.worldtribune.com/worldtribune/WTARC/2009/ea_china0377_05_12.asp
[8]http://www.securityfocus.com/columnists/38
[9] http://www.infowars.net/articles/august2008/050808i911.htm
[10] http://www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=7980
[11] http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2008/06/marlborough-mas/
[12] http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/dangerroom/2009/06/cybercommand.pdf
[13] http://www.presstv.ir/detail.aspx?id=94143&sectionid=3510203
[14] http://blog.executivebiz.com/nsa-at-chertoff-weighs-in/3134
[15] http://www.harpers.org/archive/2009/06/hbc-90005232
[16] http://www.thepeoplesvoice.org/TPV3/Voices.php/2009/05/11/a-8216-stellar-winda-8217-routinely-eave
[17] http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2008/01/feds-must-exami/
[18] http://csis.org/files/media/csis/pubs/081208_securingcyberspace_44.pdf
[19] href=http://www.nextgov.com/nextgov/ng_20090626_2244.php
[20] href=http://www.youtube.com/v/Ct9xzXUQLuY
[21] href=http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/06/cyber_privacy/
[22] http://antifascist-calling.blogspot.com/2009/04/obamas-justice-department-moves-to.html
[23] href=http://online.wsj.com/public/resources/documents/BeckstromResignation.pdf
[24] http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2009/06/foggy-future-for-militarys-new-cyber-command/
[25]http://www.askcalea.net/
[26]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0G1fNjK9SXg
[27]http://www.wired.com/science/discoveries/news/2006/04/70619
[28] http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/story?id=5987804&page=1
[29] http://www.corbettreport.com/articles/20090706_scheuer_false_flag.htm
[30] http://www.datacenterknowledge.com/archives/2009/07/01/nsa-plans-16-billion-utah-data-center/
[31] http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/8087530.stm
[32] http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2009/06/19/tech-internet-communications-electronic-police-bills-surveillance-follo-privacy.html
[33] http://www.examiner.ie/Ireland/idsnausnmh/rss2/
[34] http://www.corbettreport.com/index.php?ii=88&i=Documentation

Thursday, July 9, 2009

Blitz of “Cyber Attacks” as Rockefeller Bill Approaches

Kurt Nimmo
Infowars
July 8, 2009

A determined propaganda blitz is well underway as the government sets the stage for the passage of Cybersecurity Act of 2009, introduced in the Senate earlier this year. If passed, it will allow Obama to shut down the internet and private networks. The legislation also calls for the government to have the authority to demand security data from private networks without regard to any provision of law, regulation, rule or policy restricting such access. In other words, the bill allows the government to impose authoritarian control over electronic communications.

Senator Rockefeller muses that we’d all be better off if the internet never existed

Earlier today, the corporate media reported on a “powerful attack that overwhelmed computers at U.S. and South Korean government agencies,” allegedly launched by North Korea. “South Korean intelligence officials believe the attacks were carried out by North Korea or pro-Pyongyang forces,” theAssociated Pressreported.

It should be noted that South Korea’s intelligence apparatus — known as the Korean Central Intelligence Agency — was formed under the auspices of the U.S. Army’s Counter Intelligence Corps during the Korean War and is notorious for intervening in that country’s politics and kidnapping Koreans living abroad and torturing them. In other words, anything South Korean intelligence tells the corporate media should be taken with a large grain of salt.

According to “security experts analyzing the attacks,” Obama’s White House, the Pentagon, the New York Stock Exchange, the National Security Agency, Homeland Security Department, State Department, the Treasury Department, Federal Trade Commission and Secret Service, the Nasdaq stock market and The Washington Post were targeted.

All of this is happening as Senate Commerce Chairman John (Jay) Rockefeller — who has said we’d all be better off if the internet was never invented — plans a committee vote on cybersecurity legislation he introduced in April with Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine.

Under Rockefeller’s bill, the White House would be required to create an Office of the National Cybersecurity Adviser within the Executive Office of the President as well as an advisory panel of experts from industry, academia and the globalist NGOs, according to Congress Daily.

In May, Obama pledged to personally select a cyber czar who would report to the National Security Council and National Economic Council.