Text 13873, 75 rader
Skriven 2010-06-19 07:17:30 av Bob Ackley (1:300/3)
  Kommentar till text 13869 av Richard Webb (1:116/901.0)
Ärende: InterNet Terrorist!
===========================
Replying to a message of Richard Webb to Ross Sauer:

 RW> Hello ROss,

 RW> On Fri 2038-Jun-18 00:23, Ross Sauer (1:123/789) wrote to TIM
 RW> RICHARDSON:

 RS>> No wonder you left off where this article appeared.

 RS>> "prisonplanet.com"


 RW> The source of this may present a lot of dubious material,
 RW> but i wouldn't pooh pooh this one just yet.  Your government wants to
 RW> be able to exert control of information flow from a disaster such as
 RW> a Katrina at a moment's notice.

The US government has been trying to stifle the free exchange of information
and opinion via computer networks for almost 30 years.  They have been trying
to shut down BBSes and Fidonet almost since they were invented.

 RW> Consider for a few moments what you might find if you were
 RW> displaced from your home by disaster to one of those Red
 RW> Cross shelters, or, worse yet, as in NEw ORleans, whisked a
 RW> thousand miles from your home with few resources except
 RW> whatver cash and credit cards you might have had in your
 RW> pocket at the time.

 RW> A decade and more ago:  YOu would have found a friendly ham, or group
 RW> of ham radio operators ready to take messages for you to send to your
 RW> family and friends advising them of your whereabouts and continued
 RW> safety.

 RW> Today:  THough there may be some hams working with the REd
 RW> Cross they are actively discouraged from taking any messages from you
 RW> or anybody but REd Cross officials and government types.  IF they're
 RW> kindly disposed toward their "beneficiaries" they might deploy
 RW> additional cellular resources, or maybe a bank of pay phones for you
 RW> to use, should you have the resources to take advantage of them. THe
 RW> hams, otoh asked for nothing except the name address and telephone
 RW> number of the recipient of your message.

 RW> OUr government's new motto in any type of large scale
 RW> incident is "spin control is job #1."

Yes it is.

 RW> Remember during Katrina you were probably hearing about
 RW> looters and folks wandering around the city armed.  I'm sure you do.

 RW> From our hospital location we noted more than once people on the
 RW> freeway overpass a couple blocks distant.  Such folks were not in
 RW> uniform, but were carrying a variety of arms. THese are now said to
 RW> be "the national guard."

 RW> I'm sorry, but a  National Guard soldier does not have pants with the
 RW> crotch around his knees, and does not wear a ball cap backwards. 
 RW> HE'd also not be carrying a Chinese assault rifle.

 RW> YOur government would love to have a "kill switch" on
 RW> information flow outward from such an event.

Yes it would.  As I noted, the government has been trying to stifle the
free exchange of information and opinion via computers almost since
the beginning.

Note also that the US government also doesn't want its citizens to be
hiding their secrets from it.  When Phil Zimmerman invented PGP and
made it publicly available the government went ballistic and tried to
throw him in jail for distributing "munitions."  Also note that the government
at least briefly considered charging Tom Jennings with doing the same thing
for making Fidonet technology freely available around the world.

--- FleetStreet 1.19+
 * Origin: Bob's Boneyard, Emerson, Iowa (1:300/3)