Peace Fresno is Target of Misinformation Campaign

Peace Fresno is Target of Misinformation Campaign
By Mike Rhodes
July 3, 2004

Peace Fresno and the Central Valley page on sfbay Indymedia is under constant attack by political enemies who are engaged in a misinformation campaign that sometimes crosses the line to include threats of violence and other forms of intimidation. These political enemies attempt to disrupt Peace Fresno activities by announcing that an event has been canceled or will happen at another location. This happen yesterday when Peace Fresno held a rally on the corner of Shaw and Blackstone to demand an end to the war in Iraq and to bring the troops home now. Posting were made both here and on SF Indymedia announcing that the rally had been moved to another location. Also posted (several times) yesterday was the announcement of a KKK rally on Shaw and Blackstone at the same time as the peace rally.

Last month, someone posted an altered photo on the Central Valley page saying that a U-Haul truck would be used to attack Peace Fresno supporters if they held the rally there again. That threat was preceded by a post that announced a sniper attack would be carried out on Shaw and Blackstone during last months rally. Fortunately, the only peace activists to get shot that day were the people in front of my camera. You can see those photos here: http://sfbay.indymedia.org/news/2004/06/1683218.php

Peace Fresno has responded to these threats and the disinformation campaign against them by carrying out business as usual. It has not appeared to affect their work in any way. As you may be aware, Peace Fresno was the group infiltrated by an agent working for the Joint Terrorism Task Force. They are featured in the new Michael Moore movie, Fahrenheit 9/11. You can find out more about the infiltration and Peace Fresno’s response by going here: http://sfbay.indymedia.org/centralvalley/

But how to respond to these threats and misinformation is a different matter for Indymedia. Indymedia operates within a system of open publishing, which means that anyone can post an article, a comment, or other form of media on the site without identifying themselves. This makes it possible for anyone to easily post a story on Indymedia, but impossible to identify who uploaded the story. There is no tracking of IP addresses by Indymedia so there is no way of knowing who posted a story. While that is a great system for allowing anyone to get out their opinion, it does have a down side.

The dark side of open publishing is that it allows our political enemies to manipulate the system and attempt to disrupt events. It allows the Free Republic, the Joint Terrorism Task Force, or anyone else to post disinformation, lies, and threats on Indymedia.

Fortunately the editors at Indymedia remove or hide threats, disinformation, and other inappropriate material as soon as it is found. But sometimes it is hard to determine a real event from a hoax. For example a couple of months ago someone posted an announcement about a Peace Fresno potluck at Lost Lake. The time, location, and date were given. Comments to the announcement asked about what items to bring. Was this a vegetarian potluck, etc? Responses were made that you were free to bring whatever you like and everything seemed normal, except it was all a hoax. Peace Fresno had never planned a potluck for that day and location.

There was also a humorous photo alteration of one of the activists in the Occupied Territory gathering with a Big Mac in his hand with a caption saying “who cares about anarchy, I’m fucking hungry.” Not so humorous was the posting by “sharpshooter” suggesting that participants at the Occupied Territory gathering keep an eye in their rear view mirrors because he had “plans for the weekend.”

It is not possible to do anything beyond hiding or deleting these articles when they appear. The Fresno Sheriff’s department has been notified of the threats but they say they can’t do anything because Indymedia does not monitor the IP addresses. When it was pointed out that the Joint Terrorism Task Force or some other government agency is monitoring Indymedia the sheriff’s department asked them for the IP addresses. The FBI, of course, claimed that they do not monitor this web site.

If you see an announcement or event on this site sponsored by Peace Fresno, it would be a good idea to double check the information by going to their web site. They will always have their events listed. You can find them at http://www.peacefresno.org . If you see something that you believe should be hidden or removed send an email to MikeRhodes [at] Comcast.net .