Statement Issued by Rackspace.com on Indymedia Server Seizure

I think they should try checking out the CIA . . . their main office is in DC. Maybe someone should give the FBI a heads up.

From WRH:
Latest on FBI Trashing of Indymedia
Posted Oct 8, 2004 09:36 AM PST
Category: DICTATORSHIP
Is this why Indymedia was raided and hard drives seized? Or are we supposed to think that? Obviously the FBI have aquired a great deal more private information than just what is related to the "hot" photos.
http://newswire.indymedia.org/en/newswire/2004/10/811383.shtml

(1) scaring people away from indymedia websites, and discouraging groups from posting events as well as stories and photos about them;

(2) discouraging server providers lack Rackspace from allowing indymedia to use their servers

if I was really paranoid, I'd think that something major is about to happen, an attack upon Iran by US/Israeli forces, a terror attack in the US or Britain, or something along these lines, and that the intelligence services are taking preemptive action against indymedia to make it more difficult for people to respond globally

this is a little arrogant, after all, while extremely useful for activists to communicate and organize, indymedia is not that important, people would find ways to respond, anyway

but, we are talking about how *they* think, not us, and they might believe that the intimidation would be useful to them, as it would resonate beyond the indymedia world


--Richard Estes

Originally posted at http://nantes.indymedia.org/article.php3?id_article=4016

Re-posted at http://ch.indymedia.org/fr/2004/09/26441.shtml  

Will the FBI put pressure on Indymedia Nantes?
Nantes, 29 September 2004, 12:01

A little like a Hollywood film or the X-Files TV series, the Indymedia Nantes collective has trouble with . . . the FBI. This makes you laugh? To tell the truth, it makes us laugh, finally not for a long time, it doesn't seem to be bullshit. This story permits us to understand how a simple contribution posted on the Internet permitted the authorities to resort to censorship and to understand the dangers of the laws that humiliate our elementary liberties, such as the LEN [Loi Economie Numerique] or the Patriot Act. In the following text, you will find all the details of this story, as well as the problems that it raises.

 

Short reminder of the facts (in trying to be clear and concise)

On 8 September [2004] we received a contribution entitled "Photos of 2 cops of the anti-G8 cell." At the time, one had already posed the question of the interest of such a contribution, but, seeing that this wasn't beyond fundamental principles, it was valid. Meanwhile, this contribution questioned us. If it is real, doesn't it involve the same practices of the police? If the author of the contribution deceives him or herself, who are the people depicted? This contribution provoked a debate at the heart of the collective, but meanwhile remained on the site. It was a question of taking into account the hyper-repressive context in Switzerland since the G8, where a certain number of liberties are humiliated and police Internet sites overflow with photos of activists with appeals to becoming a paid informant, and where prison sentences come easily, not to mention the practices in which the police disguise themselves as rioters. Thus, we decided to leave the contribution as it was.

And thus began an international police imbroglio. . . .

On 22 September [2004], by mail (in English), we learned that, according to Rackspace (the Great Britain-based providers of Internet access for the machine that hosted Indymedia Nantes), no less than the FBI had demanded that the contribution in question be taken down. This provider is Anglo-American, which somewhat explains the demand. Nevertheless, we were surprised that the FBI, an American agency, made its demand to an English ISP [Internet service provider], that a French Internet site should take down a contribution concerning the Swiss police. Without doubt, this is globalization! Thus, the provider sent us a letter demanding that we immediately take down this article.

This posed many questions:

-- Was this all a joke? Until then, we weren't certain, though it seemed plausible. We awaited the response to our letter (in English) from Rackspace.
-- What to do? First of all, we decided to provisionally hide the article on the 24th [of September], and, in addition, to mask the faces of these individuals out of respect for their "private lives." Moreover, we couldn't permit ourselves to stand up to the ISP, because, if it closed down the connection, dozens of Indymedia sites would find themselves arbitrarily closed down.
-- We have no sign that any kind of judicial action has been started. This poses the question of the privatization of justice, which thus gives a censorship role to private firms. This is the reign of the arbitrary, where we can neither defend nor speak for ourselves. As a result, we must accede to these demands.
-- This strikes us as strange, but it also refers us to the control of the Internet by both police and private authorities.

In France, it is the LEN that renders the ISPs directly responsible for the content of the sites that they host, and that makes them play a preventive role. If they do not, they can be convicted. The demands to provide logs of IP addresses can be made without judicial decisions . . . etc . . . . Note this article from Paris [translator: no link provided in re-posted version], which has also been confronted by police pressures.

PS: the archives of the discussion list of the Nantes Indymedia collective are publically consultable and you can find all of our exchanges on the subject of this Abracadabra-esque story (this is what we call amongst otherselves "radical transparency").

here's one of the photos that is supposedly causing such a stir....


hotos des 2 flics de la cellule anti-G8


GENÈVE post-G8 : Vidéos, photos et témoignages ; tout est bon pour remonter la piste des casseurs. Un travail minutieux poursuivi aujourd'hui par deux inspecteurs, et qui a conduit à 200 arrestations à ce jour.

La cellule G8 avait pourtant été dissoute en décembre 2003. Elle a repris du service, en plus petit : deux inspecteurs.

Ces inspecteurs visionnent des films et photos reçu par des balancent et des collègues.

Ils viennent aux manifs sur Genève où ils pensent retrouver des "casseurs"

De plus ils prennent de nouvelles photos afin peut être de constituer une bande de données de photos d'activistes suceptibles d'être les futures casseurs des futures émeutes Genevoises.

Comme le dit l'un des 2 inspecteurs : « J'ai vu deux de mes collègues se faire lyncher pendant les manifs anti-OMC, en 1998, raconte un inspecteur. Je ne l'oublierai jamais. »

Peut etre qu'il y a d'autres choses que cet inspecteur n'obliera jamais ! Car il n'y a pas que le Carpacio comme plat qui se mange froid !

What anarchist organization is threatening to use bombs against the European Union President? The Seattle, WA Indymedia office was raided by the Mind Police over some alleged plot. We do have http://www.earthliberationfront.com operating in this area.