Posted on 10/08/2004 5:15:45 PM PDT by Mike Fieschko
The FBI yesterday seized a pair of UK servers used by Indymedia, the independent newsgathering collective, after serving a subpoena in the US on Indymedia's hosting firm, Rackspace. Why or how remains unclear.Rackspace UK complied with a legal order and handed over hard disks without first notifying Indymedia. It's unclear if the raid was executed under extra-territorial provisions of US legislation or the UK's Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA). Provisions of RIPA make it a criminal offence to discuss warrants, so Rackspace would not be able to discuss the action with its customer Indymedia, or with the media.
Rackspace US has issued a statement which says that the investigation "did not arise in the United States", but which sheds very little light on the whys and the wherefores.
In the present matter regarding Indymedia, Rackspace Managed Hosting, a US based company with offices in London, is acting in compliance with a court order pursuant to a Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT), which establishes procedures for countries to assist each other in investigations such as international terrorism, kidnapping and money laundering. Rackspace responded to a Commissioners subpoena, duly issued under Title 28, United States Code, Section 1782 in an investigation that did not arise in the United States. Rackspace is acting as a good corporate citizen and is cooperating with international law enforcement authorities. The court prohibits Rackspace from commenting further on this matter."
Dai Davis, an IT lawyer at London law firm Nabarro Nathanson, said Rackspace's statement fails to clarify the legal basis of the raid. "If it was a RIPA warrant, Rackspace can't refer to it. Most RIPA warrants can be issued by the Home Secretary," he said. "The FBI has no jurisdiction in the UK and would need to act in concert with UK authorities, such as the security services or police," he added.
Net effect
The seizure of Indymedia's servers affects more than 30 Indymedia sites worldwide. The list of affected local media collectives includes Uruguay, Andorra, Poland, Nice, several French groups, Euskal Herria (Basque Country), multiple Belgian sites, Serbia, Portugal, the Czech Republic, Italy, Brazil, the UK, part of the Germany site, and the global Indymedia Radio site. One of the servers taken down at Rackspace provided streaming radio to several radio stations and served files related to the Blag Linux distribution, among other purposes.
While Indymedia is not exactly sure what prompted the action, the group does have one strong idea. A French Indymedia site last month posted photos of what it believed to be undercover Swiss police officers photographing protesters at a French event. Indymedia received a request from the FBI to pull those photos down, as they "revealed personal information" about the undercover police, said Indymedia press officer Hep Sano.
Rackspace appeared to confirm that the photos were an issue with the FBI.
"I apologize for the delay in responding. I have been trying to get a hold of the FBI agent I spoke with before, but haven't been able to at this time," wrote a Rackspace official to Indymedia earlier this week, according to Sano. "As the request originated with the Swiss police, I can only speculate on what they saw or what they were concerned about. However, at this time, I have received no further communications from either the FBI or the Swiss authorities, so I feel like we can close this this issue."
Still, Indymedia has never sorted out the matter with the FBI.
"They never clarified what they meant by personal information," she said. "The photos were taken on a public street."
Indymedia believes the photos were eventually pulled, but ironically cannot check on this as it no longer has access to the servers or hard disks. The group has not been notified if the FBI is even involved in this seizure or whether or not the servers or just hard disks were confiscated.
"We are still trying to work with the EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) to figure out who is charging us and with what crime," said Sano. The EFF did not immediately return a call seeking comment.
Indymedia said yesterday's raids were part of a wider pattern of "attacks" against independent media outlets by the US Federal Government authorities over recent months. Last month the Federal Communications Commission shut down community radio stations around the US.
In addition, an article submitted through Indymedia's Open Newswire service identifying the names of delegates to the Republican Convention and where they were staying in New York reportedly led to an investigation by the FBI. The Secret Service used a subpoena in an "attempt to disrupt" the New York City's Independent Media Centre before last month's Republican National Convention in the city.Speculation (on Slashdot) links yesterday's raids with this investigation. This remains unconfirmed but Rackspace's comment that this is to do with "an investigation that did not arise in the United States" doesn't fit with this theory. Indymedia also believes that the Republican Convention problems have passed and are not an issue in this week's server raids.
Indymedia (AKA Independent Media Center) was set up in 1999 to provide grassroots coverage of the World Trade Organisation (WTO) protests in Seattle. It has continued to report on controversial subjects often under-reported in the mainstream media since then; but this week has marked the most controversial chapter in its operations.
Important story BUMP. Mixed blessing.
They all need a good wood shampoo.
bump
Naming RNC delegates
Indymedia has posted the names and addresses of lots of RNC delegates, which in turn has earned it an investigation by the Secret Service. As you might expect, the ACLU has jumped in to defend Indymedia, arguing that "This type of investigation is really a form of intimidation and a message to activists that they will pay a price for speaking out," said Ann Beeson, the ACLU's associate legal counsel. "The posting of publicly available information about people who are in the news should not trigger an investigation."
Fair enough. However, consider what it is that Indymedia -- at least, some posters there -- hoped to accomplish through this stunt:
There are several lists of Republican National Convention delegates posted on the Indymedia site, including one listing more than 2,000 of them. Included are names, home addresses, e-mail addresses and the New York-area hotels where many are staying.
"The delegates should know not only what people think of the platform they will ratify, but that they are not welcome in New York City," said one posting, first reported Monday by The New York Times.
Apart from the fact that the delegates, like all other persons in this country, have a right to visit New York City, I would think that simply joining the massive protests would be sufficient to express disagreement with the RNC and to let the delegates know that they are "not welcome." What else is to be gained by posting their home addresses and local hotel information? Could it be, oh, "really a form of intimidation and a message to [delegates] that they will pay a price for speaking out"?
I haven't kept up on the First Amendment cases, but this kind of reminds me of how some extreme pro-life groups put up websites with the pictures and home addresses of doctors who perform abortions. My recollection of that case was that the intent to intimidate was much more clear than in this case, so perhaps this can be distinguished on a factual basis. But it seems to me a similar sort of "outing" aimed at scaring the delegates. It may be that the ACLU even sympathized with the pro-life website (I just don't remember), so I'm not suggesting that the ACLU is acting hypocritically. I do think, however, that the intent to intimidate may run in both directions in this case, and in any event, First Amendment rights aside, I personally think this approach of listing people's names and home addresses on websites is a pretty socially wicked thing to do.
Who's A Rat http://www.whosarat.com
This site needs to be downed. It will get an informant and / or an Agent killed. They also list people in the Federal Protection Program!
btt
Followed by a thorough gasoline rinse.....
bump
bttt
http://www.turkishpress.com/turkishpress/news.asp?ID=30155,Sat Oct 9, 2004
News website Indymedia says FBI seized server
WASHINGTON, Oct 8 (AFP) - A website billed as a grassroots news source for the anti-globalization movement and other issues said Friday one of its Web servers was shut down after the FBI served a subpoena.
The Independent Media Center said the FBI issued an order to hosting company Rackspace "to remove physically one of our servers."
The FBI acknowledged that a subpoena had been issued but said it was at the request of Italian and Swiss authorities.
"It is not an FBI operation," FBI spokesman Joe Parris told AFP.
"Through a legal assistance treaty, the subpoena was on behalf of a third country."
The FBI spokesman said there was no US investigation but that the agency cooperated under the terms of an international treaty on law enforcement.
Rackspace, a US Web hosting company with offices in London, said it complied with a court order "pursuant to a Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty, which establishes procedures for countries to assist each other in investigations such as international terrorism, kidnapping and money laundering." The company declined to elaborate.
"The order was so short-term that Rackspace had to give away our hard drives in the UK," the Independent Media Center said.
Italian news reports said access to Indymedia had been cut as a result of an FBI operation at US and British locations.
Mauro Bulgarelli, a member of Italy's Green party, called it a "provocation and intimidate effort" against the alternative media.
The website was established by organizations during the 1999 World Trade Organization protests claiming the mainstream media failed to adequately cover the news.
It calls itself "a network of collectively run media outlets for the creation of radical, accurate and passionate tellings of the truth."
Indymedia said in a statement it "had been asked last month by the FBI to remove a story about Swiss undercover police from one of the websites hosted at Rackspace."
The statement added, "It is not known, however, whether Thursday's order is related to that incident since the order was issued to Rackspace and not to Indymedia.
According to Rackspace, they 'cannot provide Indymedia with any information regarding the order.'"
I bet George Soros is a major source of funding for Indymedia and the groups that appear on it.
Those charges are specific - I would say they nailed them on two of the three, with kidnapping not being one of them.
We may have some Leftist perp walks coming soon.
Bump again
The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is currently assisting Indymedia investigate possible responses to the seizure of their information. Over 20 Indymedia-related websites, along with Indymedia's online radio, were hosted on the servers, which were dedicated machines provided by Rackspace.
"This seizure has grave implications for free speech and privacy. The Constitution does not permit the government to unilaterally cut off the speech of an independent media outlet, especially without providing a reason or even allowing Indymedia the information necessary to contest the seizure," said EFF staff attorney Kurt Opsahl.
Rackspace contends that a court order prevent then from providing a copy of the subpoena, confirming which court issued the order, or the government agency who served the subpoena.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation continues to take on cases that set important precedents for the treatment of rights in cyberspace. In our second big case, Bernstein v. U.S. Dept. of Justice, the United States government prohibited a University of California mathematics Ph.D. student from publishing on the Internet an encryption computer program he had created. Years before, the government had placed encryption, a method for scrambling messages so they can only be understood by their intended recipients, on the United States Munitions List, alongside bombs and flamethrowers, as a weapon to be regulated for national security purposes. Companies and individuals exporting items on the munitions list, including software with encryption capabilities, had to obtain prior State Department approval.Encryption export restrictions crippled American businesses and damaged the free speech rights of individuals. Critical for ecommerce, companies use encryption to safeguard sensitive information, such as credit card numbers, which they send or receive over electronic networks. Companies also secure access to software programs and provide system security using encryption. By limiting the export of encryption, technologies and methods, the U.S. government drove development of security software overseas, where American companies were unable to compete.
The State Department was unsympathetic to Bernstein's situation and told Bernstein he would need a license to be an arms dealer before he could simply post the text of his encryption program on the Internet. They also told him that they would deny him an export license if he actually applied for one, because his technology was too secure.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation pulled together a top-notch legal team and sued the United States government on behalf of Dan Bernstein. The court ruled, for the first time ever, that written software code is speech protected by the First Amendment. The court further ruled that the export control laws on encryption violated Bernstein's First Amendment rights by prohibiting his constitutionally protected speech. As a result, the government changed its export regulations. Now everyone has the right to "export" encryption software -- by publishing it on the Internet -- without prior permission from the U.S. government. Once again, the Electronic Frontier Foundation led the charge to establish important cyberspace rights.
Like most things (I, especially, know!) some good -- some bad.
So, Italy requested the server?
If so, I understand why the EFF is involved.
It looks like whatever is found, they are going to defend it as "free speech", right?
But if this is under Italian jurisdiction, that won't fly.
They pulled it for a reason - what is found during the investigation could involve additional charges against others.
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