Arab Internet users are caught in a terrible web

menafn.com ^ | 07/12/2004 | William Fisher

[miltonim]

Is the Muslim mind impenetrable?

[Jet Jaguar]

ping

[ovrtaxt]

Technology and Freedom bump!

It's human nature for these UN control freaks to try to limit access to the internet. One thing we can rely on is that technology evolves faster than legislation! The slow, bureaucratic pace of the UN will never keep up with us.

[listenhillary]

Will the internet be the David that slays theocracies?

[MadAnthony1776]

Yes.

[Route101]

Another reason we should give thanks we live here. Looks like the bloggers have become the canary in the coal mine around the world..

[AntiGuv]

I can't really fault them for banning AOL..

[DainBramage]

Yep AOL is torture enough.

[rpgdfmx]

It's not just muslims... I've seen posts in here decrying this or that on the internet, and demanding government censorship, often for the same things these governments are censoring (homosexual rights groups, etc.). Or, using the excuse of "fighting terrorism", we're sold the idea of censoring ideas. If you want a free people, we need a free marketplace of ideas.

[Racehorse]

We shouldn't take our own cyber freedom for granted. People of good intention, looking to anticipate all sorts of security threats, are already resuming the call to lasso our mostly free wheeling use of the internet.

I'm pretty sure most of you are aware of what George Tenet had to say:

The U.S. intelligence community needs to consider how terrorists might attempt to couple an attack on telecommunication networks with a physical attack, Tenet said during a keynote speech at the E-Gov Institute's homeland security conference in Washington.

"Efforts at physical security will not be enough, because the thinking enemy that we confront is going to school on our network vulnerabilities as well, and I think the two are inextricably linked," he said. "The number of known potential adversaries conducting research on information attacks is increasing rapidly and includes intelligence services, military organizations and nonstate entities."

According to Tenet "a loose collection of regional [terrorist] networks" now "thrive independently" worldwide by using telecommunications and the Internet to communicate with and learn from each other at almost no cost.

[ . . . ]

"I know that these actions would be controversial in this age where we still think the Internet is a free and open society with no control or accountability," he added. "But, ultimately, the Wild West must give way to governance and control."

http://www.infoshop.org/inews/stories.php?story=04/12/06/5008621

[ovrtaxt]

lol!! You got that right! Jihad aginst AOL-- finally, a holy war that I can support.

[from occupied ga]

Will the internet be the David that slays theocracies?

NO. You will always have theocracies. Liberalism isn't so much a rational thought system as it is a religion. Global warming, gun control, poverty reduction by wealth transfer, etc. are all articles of faith, not science. And conservatives are as bad - if you doubt me look at the slobbering worship that goes on in the day in the life of GB thread.

The problem is that government can't motivate people with rational arguments since most of what they do only makes sense from the totally cynical view of the government employee/contractor/beneficiary getting a share of the plunder. They have to appeal to emotions (if it saves just one life, no child left behind, you don't want the children to starve, these killing machines have no place on our streets, etc.) to get support from the masses.

[Constantine XIII]

Obviously not, otherwise they wouldn't try to ban the internet.

[Socrates1]

....UN-created working group on Internet governance

They must think it is their's to control.

I vote we give it back to DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), the rightful owner.

[Izzy Dunne]

I thought that Iranians were not Arabs.

[from occupied ga]

They must think it is their's to control.

They do. The UN, like all governments everywhere, think everything is theirs to control.

[jocon307]

"Is the Muslim mind impenetrable?"

Their rulers are certainly trying to keep it that way.

The more I learn about Islam the more it seems to be just a totalitarian cult. Hardly a religion at all. Just a tool for keeping the people down.

[tiamat]

Technically he said "Muslim".

Iranians are Persians.

We actually have an Iranian blogger that sometimes posts to FR.

He runs a "Free Iran" blog and is very reasonable, DESPITE the fact that he is Muslim.

[Izzy Dunne]

Technically he said "Muslim".

Well, the headline I saw says:
Arab Internet users are caught in a terrible web

And then talks about Iranians.

[American in Israel]

AOL vaccumes, they block most Christian Organisation emails from Israel. Seems there is a muzzi in the Sysops.