Cindy, any ideas?
San Antonio web-hosting company gives servers to government
A Texas Internet company this week surrendered hard drives from a pair of its Web servers in England to U.S. government officials, but the company says it's not allowed to say why.
San Antonio-based Rackspace Managed Hosting said it gave up the equipment after receiving a court order under an international treaty governing multi-nation investigations of crimes such as terrorism, kidnapping and money laundering.
But officials from the Independent Media Center, whose London office leased the Web servers for Internet affiliates in more than two dozen countries, says it has been kept in the dark about what the U.S. investigators might be looking for.
"We don't know what court made the order or why and we don't know the agency involved," said Hep Sano, an IMC spokeswoman in San Francisco. "Was it the FBI? Was it the Secret Service? Was it the (National Security Agency)? We really don't know."
The IMC, better known as "Indymedia", is a loosely organized collective of online journalists and others posting information to Web sites.
http://www.dentonrc.com/sharedcontent/APStories/stories/D85JFV3O1.html
Oh, now that investigation sounds mighty interesting and promising...
No, no specific concrete ideas.
Sorry Velveeta.
As soon as I know, I'll post it.
This doesn't sound so much like a terrorism issue to me anymore:
***
Rachel Shabi
Monday October 11, 2004
The Guardian
American authorities have shut down 20 independent media centres by seizing their British-based webservers.
On Thursday a court order was issued to Rackspace, an American-owned web hosting company in Uxbridge, Middlesex, forcing it to hand over two servers used by Indymedia, an international media network which covers of social justice issues and provides a "news-wire", to which its users contribute.
The websites affected by the seizure span 17 countries.
It is unclear why, or to where, the servers have been taken. The FBI, speaking to the French AFP, acknowledged that a subpoena had been issued but said this was at the request of Italian and Swiss authorities.
"It is not an FBI operation," said its spokesman, Joe Parris.
Rackspace told Indymedia that it had been served with a court order under the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty, under which countries assist each other in investigations such as international terrorism, kidnapping and money laundering
It is unclear why such a treaty would apply in this context. A UK Indymedia journalist said: "The authorities may just be using this as a trawling exercise. We don't know."
It is also unclear if the Home Office was involved.
The Metropolitan police said it was not aware of the move.
The UK Indymedia site is now working, because it was backed up on another server, unlike others which are still shut down.
One of the servers was to be used to stream web radio coverage of the European Social Forum conference in London next week.
Aidan White, the general secretary of the International Federation of Journalists, condemned the "intolerable and intrusive" action .
Tim Gopsill of the NUJ said: "If the security services of the UK or US can just walk in and take away a server, then there is no freedom of expression."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,1324244,00.html