Threat to cyberactivism
30 March 2008
Southeast Asia will provide endless opportunities for research contrasting and comparing the use of the Internet in different socio-political climates, range of political change, the Internet as an instrument of civil society, and more, using examples from the past, present and future. There are so many variables to explore, not only cultural, economic, religious, censorship, governmental control, citizen apathy or activism, degree of autonomy of civil society, but also the fortunate (or not so fortunate) timing of events.
A bright spot for cyberactivism is that even in Burma where there is such severe control and harsh censorship, civil society organizations are being supported in the global cyberspace by independent press and opposition groups operating their websites from beyond that country’s borders.
Another shining ray is in Indonesia’s history – the Internet conveniently became available just before and during the Asian financial crisis. People could convey information about Suharto’s regime, which was ironic due to the fact that the Internet was brought in precisely as a measure to control the population. This is a good example of the Internet being used for political reform.
The Philippines (2001) also have an interesting story of cyberactivism when President Estrada seemed to escape impeachment by devious means. The Internet became a source of information that organized the resistance. But in their case, they extended the reach of the Internet using cell phones and text messaging, making if difficult for authorities to handle or respond in a timely manner. They could organize quickly and in large groups.
Malaysia in 1998 also used the Internet for “reformasi.” Though it did not have the huge impact Indonesia experienced, it did cause political change.
But what is frightening now, though, is the threat to cyberactivism by data mining and surveillance in the post 9.11 environment. Lawrence Lessig tells us what the difference is regarding surveillance in the computer age. It is the ease in which data is retrieved, stored, and available to be searched at a future time. This will increase in out daily lives as more interactions and transactions take place electronically and become embedded in our media.
These records stay inside the computers belonging to corporations and government agencies. Browsing on the web creates more and more information about you in which marketing service providers are using technology to keep a growing record on us. What could be more Big Brother when our financial transactions and website visits are permanently available, made possible by sophisticated software.
As like the Internet was funded by U.S. federal government research and development, so too is this capability, being built on similar concern for military capability or “strategic intelligence” from bits of data stored in computers around the world.
Oscar Gandy Jr, in his 2002 paper on Data Mining suggests data mining is an applied statistical technique. This extraction is increasingly being automated in ways that are less risk to labor and more risk to society. Global retail chains (he cites Wal-Mart as an example) have already invested in this development to catch the details and extract the value in data being generated daily through their network.
There is pressure on our health care system and government agencies to gather their data in standard form similar to the UPC code so there would be standardization and comparability across transactions.
Most upsetting is data mining efforts are directed towards the “generation of rules” in order to classify objects or people, assigning them to particular classes or categories which would facilitate economic discrimination.
Another form of analysis would be “associative rules” to find patterns of association between demographic characteristics and commercial behavior. “Discriminant analyses” enables contrasting high value with low value customers.
One of the most sophisticated forms of data mining result in neural networks which imitate how the brain processes information. These systems can “learn,” becoming more accurate as they go along because it uses a statistical learning model that applies different variables according to correct or incorrect predictions. One use for this is to support fraud detection, or perhaps data enabling help in choosing one strategy over another, whether in the marketing, political, or even personal arenas.
Gandy points out that while this seems incredible now, 5 years from now this “business intelligence” will have moved “to the average desktop” like Word and Excel have already done. The leaders of this technology digiMine, Accrue, NetGenesis and Personify which sell analytical services to web-based customers. This also includes familiar providers of statistical software like SPSS which include neural networks and rule induction features.
Also interesting to note, the U.S. government is not only providing incentives, but has launched a major effort to speed up this development so it can be “deployed” within 12-18 months – the goal being “ideas to identify and track down “suspected terrorists and predict their future behavior,” and an integrated information base, data mining tools, and analysis aids. (The U.S. military uses satellites for its Internet use.) This expense in the event they will be able to locate a terrorist who buys explosives and visits a website regarding building demolitions. So why do we care?
We will be identified and classified into distinct groups for the purpose of discrimination for the purpose of economic gain. Marsha Stepanek of Business Week refers to this technique as similar to redlining that courts and legislatures have banned when used as a tool by the banking and mortgage industry. But since we will not have access to our “status,” we are not likely to know whether we are being discriminated against. It would reinforce exclusive group membership and social status. If used by communication or information companies, it could increase the inequality of access to information.
Advertisers pay for access to consumer (and voter) information. Once we are placed into a group by a data mining company using neural net technology, we would be unable to challenge our “score”.
Perhaps the best we can hope for is to limit the amount of time transaction data may be stored. But how likely would it be that we could enforce that? It is also frightening that the U.S. Attorney General wants even more sharing between the U.S. and foreign governments. I feel this boils down to a decision based on economics, and bodes dangerous for our social welfare.
It is disappointing to know that in my country, the U.S., where internet began, laws about interception of online traffic do not provide enough privacy for users. Also, that firms I used to respect, Yahoo!, Cisco Systems and Microsoft are working with censorship authorities in China. This does not bode well for our freedom on speech. The home of the First Amendment, the Internet and blogs, should set the example for other countries on how they should be respected as part of free speech and democracy.
Reporters without Borders reports that since the U.S. led the invasion of Iraq five years ago, there have been hundreds of journalists forced into exile. On the eve of the 5th anniversary of the start of U.S. invasion, many journalists ran to Jorday or Syria after being threatened with or surviving murder attempts.
China 3/21 – The government tightens net on online video sharing.
Russia 3/21 – TV journalist murdered in his Moscow apartment.
Turkey 3/21 – Two Trabzone gendarmes accuse superiors of doing nothing to stop Dink murder.
Nigeria 3/21 – Lagos-based daily’s cartoonist attacked at home by armed intruders.
Argentina 3/21 – Investigators think journalist’s murder was a crime of passion
Zimbabwe 3/21 – A week ahead of elections, African observers urged not to minimize im
portance of government control of media.
Bangladesh 3/21 – Cartoonist released after 6 months in prison
Jordan 3/21 – 3-month jail sentences for 5 journalists
Iraq 3/21 – Al-Arabiya and Al-Sumariya journalists attacked by prime minister’s bodyguards.
China’s internet filtering system is the most sophisticated in the world. It has multiple levels of legal regulation and technical control, involves many agencies, putlic and private personnel. China censors material transmitted by web sites, logs, online discussion forums, university bulletin boards, and emails. The filtering takes place at the “backbone” level of network and individual service providers block using their own filters. Blog service providers block certain posts or editing and removing them. Chin’s intricate filtering system is supported by a complex set of laws and policies that control publication of material online. These are a vague and broad range of laws to protect “state secrets”, the “dignity” of the state, and rights of protection for the citizen are unclear and more likely to by considered inapplicable by the state. News testing performed in 2004/05 showed China has blocked the Voice of America service, and the BBC. In every site related to the Falun Gong movement, it was block. Clearly China’s filtering regime is one of the most sophisticated. Other sites also blocked were anti-Communist content pages, with material related to the Tiananmen Square incident, The Human Rights in China site, and other pro-democracy Web sites. There was a high level of blocking also on Taiwan and Tibet sites.
It is important to understand how politics shapes the Internet, and also understand the dynamics of technology and Civil Society. Comparing e-Civil Society with e-Government and e-Commerce in China, it is shown that the Internet matters for Chinese civil society in many ways, and that Civil Society and the Internet energize each other in China today. The implications mean that political control of the Internet will have to take the form of control of civil society as well, and also the other way around. Civil Society development will further the democratic uses of the Internet as much as the diffusion of the Internet will shape Civil Society. This is the long-term consequences for developing of the Internet and Civil Society in China.
WHY US THINKS IRAN HAS WMD – US GAVE THEM BLUEPRINTS
12 March 2008
The Bush administration is prolonging the hunting season against journalists. The latest victim is James Risen, The New York Times reporter for national security and intelligence affairs. About three months ago, a federal grand jury issued a subpoena against him, ordering Risen to give evidence in court. A heavy blackout has been imposed on the affair, with the only hint being that it has to do with sensitive matters of “national security.” But conversations with several sources who are familiar with the affair indicate that Risen has been asked to testify as part of an investigation aimed at revealing who leaked apparently confidential information about the planning of secret Central Intelligence Agency and Mossad missions concerning Iran’s nuclear program.
Risen included this information in his book, “State of War: The Secret History of the CIA and the Bush Administration,” which was published in 2006. In the book, he discusses a number of ideas which he says were thought up jointly by CIA and Mossad operatives to sabotage Iran’s nuclear capabilities.
One of these ideas was to build electromagnetic devices, smuggling them inside Iran to sabotage electricity lines leading to the country’s central nuclear sites. According to the plan, the operation was supposed to cause a series of chain reactions which would damage extremely powerful short circuits in the electrical supply that would have led to failures of the super computers of Iran’s nuclear sites.
According to the book, the Mossad planners proposed that they would be responsible for getting the electromagnetic facilities into Iran with the aid of their agents in Iran. However, a series of technical problems prevented the plan’s execution.
Another of the book’s important revelations, which made the administration’s blood boil about James Risen, appeared in a chapter describing what was known as Operation Merlin, the code name for another CIA operation supposed to penetrate the heart of Iran’s nuclear activity, collect information about it and eventually disrupt it.
Operation Merlin
The CIA counter proliferation department hired a Soviet nuclear engineer who had previously, in the 1990s, defected to the United States and revealed secrets from the Soviet Union’s nuclear program. His speciality was in the field of what is called weaponization, the final stage of assembling a nuclear bomb.
The scientist was equipped with blueprints for assembling a nuclear bomb in which, without his knowledge, false drawings and information blueprints were planted about a nuclear warhead that was supposedly manufactured in the Soviet Union. The plan’s details had been fabricated by CIA experts, and so while they appeared authentic, they had no engineering or technological value.
The intention was to fool the scientist and send him to make contact with the Iranians to whom he would offer his services and blueprints. The American plot was aimed at getting the Iranians to invest a great deal of effort in studying the plans and to attempt to assemble a faulty warhead. But when the time came, they would not have a nuclear bomb but rather a dud.
However, Operation Merlin, which was so creative and original, failed because of CIA bungled planning. The false information inserted into the blueprints were too obvious and too easily detected and the Russian engineer discovered them. As planned, he made contact with the Iranian delegation to the International Atomic Energy Agency in Vienna and handed over to them, also as planned, the blueprints.
But contrary to the CIA’s intention, he added a letter to the blueprints in which he pointed out the mistakes. He did not do this with ill intent or out of a desire to disrupt the operation and harm his operators. On the contrary, he did so out of a deep sense of mission and in order to satisfy his American operators. He hoped that in this way he would simply increase the Iranians’ trust in him and encourage them to make contact with him for the good, of course, of his American operators.
The result was disastrous. Not only did the CIA fail to prevent the Iranians in their efforts to enhance their nuclear program, this operation may also have made it possible for them to get their hands on a plan for assembling a nuclear warhead.
Freedom of the press
In Israel, military censorship would have prevented the publication of details such as these. But in the U.S., where the principle of freedom of the press is sacred and anchored in the constitution, there is no compulsory and binding censorship. There is, however, an expectation there that the press will show responsibility. This expectation has increased in recent years, particularly with the conservative Bush administration and in the wake of the events of September 11, 2001 and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Risen is not the first journalist to have been subpoenaed to give evidence before a grand jury and reveal his sources. According to the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, some 65 journalists have been summoned for such investigations since 2001. Some agreed, cooperated and testified. Most refused, so that they would not have to reveal their sources. In this way, they exposed themselves to being charged with contempt of court.
There were some who even preferred to be jailed so long as they were not forced to reveal their source. The best-known case was that of Judith Miller, another New York Times writer. The background to her 85-day imprisonment was her refusal to reveal who had leaked the name of Valerie Plame, a CIA agent, to the media.
“It is true that there is tension between the Bush administration and the media,” says Steve Aftergood, director of the Project on Government Secrecy on behalf of the Federation of American Scientists, an independent body which aims at analyzing the activities of government with a critical eye, “but I would not go so far as to say that the administration is waging war against the media.”
In Aftergood’s assessment, the danger to the freedom of the press comes rather from private citizens and organizations, those who feel themselves harmed by journalistic publications and commentators and who would therefore like to limit the press’ freedom. The most conspicuous of these is Gabriel Schoenfeld, a senior editor at Commentary, who believes that liberal newspapers like The New York Times are not sufficiently patriotic. In his articles and in testimony before a Senate committee that discussed the issue, Schoenfeld claimed that
The New York Times reporters had revealed confidential material that weakened America’s struggle against Al-Qaida. He calls for relinquishing the soft approach which he says the administration has taken against journalists in whose publications, in his opinion, America’s security is harmed.
There are many others who take the opposite approach and believe that the right of journalists to keep their sources secret should be anchored in law. Two Congressmen, the Republican Mike Pence, and Rick Boucher, a Democrat, have proposed legislation to this effect – a law for the free flow of information. The House of Representatives has already approved their proposal but the legislation is being held up in the Senate, to the displeasure of the American Civil Liberties Union.
On the face of it, this is a sensitive issue that is intended to draw the lines between the freedom of information, freedom of the media, and the public’s right to know, against the right of a democracy to defend itself against enemies that are not democratic. But James Risen has no doubt that the correct and just moral act on his part has to be to defend his sources, even if this means he will lose his freedom.
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/961337.html
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<!–[endif]–>Who leaked the details of a CIA-Mossad plot against Iran? <!–[if gte vml 1]> <![endif]–><!–[if !vml]–>
<!–[endif]–>By Yossi Melman
The Bush Administration says it will try to use ‘diplomacy’ to resolve its problems with Iran, but will not rule out military action. The Bush Administration and countries it is involved with have tried to convince the American people that Iran is building weapons of mass destruction. While Iran says its program is to produce clean, efficient power like the U.S. and many other countries.
Now top MidEast commander Fallon, who oversees U.S. operations in 27 countries including Iraq and Afghanistan, resigns after an Esquire article escribed him as challenging the White House and urging restraint on Iran. I see Fallon as a genuine hero. Fallon gave his thoughts and opinions to the author during the article’s writing, but criticized it after it appeared in print. But Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the perception that Fallon was now at odds with the Bush Administration was not linked just to that article.
I think Commander Fallon is going to be a leader we can trust in the next administration coming up. He will certainly have my support. Fallon has also denied reports he has a testy relationship with Army Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. commander in Iraq. Democrats in the U.S. Congress charged that Fallon’s departure was another sign the Bush administration did not tolerate military commanders who spoke their mind.
Commander Fallon appears to me to be a man of integrity who cannot go along with what he feels is not right.
Childhood is Dying in Iraq – Does ANYONE care?
10 March 2008
BAQUBA – Iraq’s children have been more gravely affected by the U.S. occupation than any other segment of the population. The United Nations estimated that half a million Iraqi children died during more than 12 years of economic sanctions that preceded the U.S. invasion of March 2003, primarily as a result of malnutrition and disease.
But childhood malnutrition in Iraq has increased 9 percent since then, according to an Oxfam International report released last July.
A report from the non-governmental relief organisation Save the Children shows Iraq continues to have the highest mortality for children under five. Since the first Gulf War, this has increased 150 percent. It is estimated that one in eight children in Iraq dies before the fifth birthday: 122,000 children died in 2005 alone. Iraq has a population of about 25 million.
Iranmobile: Not another War in the Mideast! or anywhere!
10 March 2008
“Iran Mobile plans stops in Cincinnati”
Cincinnati.com, March 2, 2008
“Anti-war groups launch campaigns against ‘bomb Iran’ McCain”
Rawstory.com, February 29, 2008
“MCCAIN BECOMES TARGET ANTIWAR GROUPS”
Freemarketnews.com, March 1, 2008
“McCain IRANMOBILE “Launches” This Saturday In Columbus!”
nandigramunited.blogspot.com, March 2, 2008
“McCain target of anti-war protest”
Newsrecord.org, March 5, 2008
Douglas Todd is a Spirituality and Ethics Columnist
Communities.Canada.com/VancouverSun/blogs
Journalists often help create today’s culture of fear — the way we push hard on stories about crime, tragedy and warnings of how badly things could go wrong; from political corruption and terrorism to cancer-causing foods and global warming.
But journalists also have the power to help allay unnecessary fears — by offering reality checks and broader perspectives. Journalists, I think, have a duty to counter leaders who promote fear to control and manipulate the public. Those leaders could be politicians, advertisers or religious prelates. … To check out my attempt to help readers remain centred while so many leaders are trying to make them afraid, you can go here.
I conclude in the column: “In a culture of fear, staying calm amounts to a political act.” What I’m saying is we can resist fearmongers by staying centred. This has spiritual overtones. People who meditate or do yoga are practising being grounded; a possible positive side-effect is they become less easily controlled by those who wield fear. In the same vein, people who trust in some sort of Higher Power are often also finding ways to combat inner panic. Their spiritual convictions help them transcend their fears; real, imagined, and especially manufactured.
Test Yourself: Practice staying calm and centered while watching this video Bomb, Bomb, Bomb, Bomb, Bomb Iran
John Pilger lecture video
John Pilger, a world-renowned journalist, author and documentary filmmaker recently gave a guest lecture at the University of Kent, Rutherford College, Department of Politics and International Relations – Conflict Analysis Research Centre, Canterbury, Kent, United Kingdom, 2-29-2008.
John Pilger says we live in a critical and contradictory time, never a more dangerous time, and that includes the Cold War, which itself was presented in a way that was not really true. It was an assault on a large number of people in the developing world for strategic position, economic gain, for their resources – all the things that lead into the War on Terror. There was a desperate search to replace the coming down of the Berlin Wall during the time when people were looking for a peace dividend – that the great world arms trade would go away, or begin to go, so that we could all relax. People were looking for a time when real interaction between society would take over from Manufactured Fear. But at the same time, there was a search taking place to see what would work as Fear: War on Drugs-No, Foreign Demons-it needed context, Somali Warlords-didn’t catch, Axis of Evil – War on Terror-that succeeded in the media though it is a journalist’s job to be a critic of his own craft. Information is Power. But lots of information we get in our media is False–as it has Other Agendas. It is created for a certain political class, largely of media. National Intelligence got tired of being the patsy any longer for false information. It made a mockery for an attack on Iran which came through very powerful newspapers, both liberal and conservative. Fortunately, Charles Lewis broke rank by breaking the silence on the buildup of the Iraq War. There had been a turning point in journalism where instead of challenging and investigating outright deceptions and lies, the media (academia had responsibility too) amplified and echoed all these justification for a rapacious (taking by force or plundering, subsisting off of live prey) attack on a defenseless country.
Speaking of the Axis of Evil – Bomb, Bomb, Bomb, Bomb, Bomb IranPropaganda
10 March 2008
Is there reason to believe events and news items are manufactured by the U.S. government to create fear as a tool of propaganda to manipulate the American public into supporting military intervention? Does evidence exist to support the theory that crises such as 9/11 and the War on Terror was manufactured by the U.S. Government? Here are two amazing videos that I recommend.
Evidence study #1 Bomb, Bomb, Bomb, Bomb, Bomb Iran
An open source video compilation, Propaganda offers a critical look at mainstream media, featuring interviews and lectures by Noam Chomsky, John Pilger, Amy Goodman and much more.
An Israeli and a Gazan blog for peace
6 March 2008
Please support the call for a One Month cease fire between Israel and Gaza: http://www.one-month.org. Pass it on to all that care!
Two men build a friendship in cyberspace, bridging a violent divide between them.
By Josh Mitnick | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitorfrom the March 6, 2008 edition
Sderot, Israel – It’s a friendship that spans the poles of the Israeli-Palestinian war zone – this southern Israeli border town and a Gaza refugee camp about 10 miles away.
The two men have not seen each other in about a year. But they are now reunited in the blogosphere, writing a joint diary to stave off their own despair and prove that a dialogue is still possible across the divide.
Titled, “Life must go on in Gaza and Sderot,” the pair rants in (uneven) English about the seeming futility about the Hamas-Israeli hostilities, the daily stress of surviving the violence, and the loneliness of optimists.
“Peace man,” an unemployed bachelor who resides in Gaza’s Sajaiya refugee camp, blogs between Gaza’s power outages and complains of insomnia from the constant overflights of Israeli attack helicopters.
“Hope man,” a software programmer whose Sderot house has been buffeted on all sides by Qassam rockets, worries about being away from his kids – who are at school – when the next rockets fall.
“We decided we wanted to come out to the world, and to show that there other types of relationships between Palestinians in Gaza and Israelis in Sderot, not only rockets and violence,” says the Sderot blogger. “Even though things are really awful, it’s to show there can be a true connection.”
On Wednesday, under pressure from US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas announced he would resume talks with Israel after a suspension earlier this week in protest over the killing of more than 100 Palestinians in Gaza.
On the eve of Ms. Rice’s visit, Hope Man said he had low expectations that her talks would yield a permanent halt to the cross-border violence. “I don’t think anyone has a clue about how to get out of this bind.”
Started in January, the Israeli-Palestinian blog team (http://gaza-sderot.blogspot.com/) posts about every other day and they try to steer clear of political debate. The entries include first-person accounts of dodging Qassam rockets, shopping for scarce goods in Gaza’s markets, the frustrating search for like-minded Israelis and Palestinians, and a mantra-like appeal for a stop to the violence.
Afraid their public conversation may be seen as disloyal by their countrymen, they assiduously guard their true identities. The Gaza blogger says in a phone interview that some of his friends who know about the blog have expressed concern for his well-being.
The fighting of the past week, some of the worst in years, has made it almost impossible for Gazans to openly speak of peaceful relations with Israelis, even if it’s only in cyberspace. “They say it’s dangerous and that some groups don’t like this,” says Peace Man. “In Gaza, nothing is clear.”
In Israel, too, where the firing of hundreds of Qassam rockets resulted in one fatality last week, there is hostility toward those who openly talk to Palestinians. “Who’s that traitor that’s writing that damned blog,” Liron Amir, an Israeli sitting at a pizza restaurant in Sderot, replies when asked about the blog. “He should go live with them. We don’t want any connection with them.”
The bloggers met about two years ago through an Israeli-Arab dialogue group sponsored by the Center for Emerging Future in Boise, Idaho, which obtained Israeli army permits for Peace Man to cross into Israel to attend dialogue meetings in Jerusalem and Sderot.
Danny Gal, the Israeli coordinator for the center, said the group encourages Israelis and Palestinians to set up joint peace ventures.
They originally hoped to establish a joint summer camp for kids from Sderot and Gaza, but since the Hamas takeover of the Gaza Strip, Israeli border permits have become very difficult to obtain unless it’s for medical care. Though they continued to speak on the phone frequently, the frustrated pair decided to take their conversation online.
In the same way that blogs have experienced popularity as an alternative to mainstream news reports, a desire to “correct” the portrayal of the conflict in both Israeli and Palestinian media is another purpose of the blog, says the Sderot blogger.
“If you turn on Channel 1 in Israel, you will not see a balanced picture. That’s understandable. I’m not blaming anyone. We’re just trying to represent our reality,” says Hope Man.
“There’s a tendency of the media – especially when there’s an escalation – not to say things that are against the mainstream or the policy of the government. They try to show solidarity with policy.”
Talking by cellphone from his Gaza home, over the background thump of Israeli helicopters, Peace Man says that hope for peace among Gazans has nose-dived ever since Middle East leaders gathered in Annapolis, Md., to announce the resumption of peace negotiations.
Desperate for a respite from the violence, the blogging pair recently started calling for a one-month truce in the fighting, which they say will give a chance for the anger to ease on each side and for leaders to think creatively about searching for a solution.
“We just need a breather,” says Hope Man. “We may be a little naive, but its better than sitting around and waiting for everything to destruct around us.”
We can always Bomb, Bomb, Iran
