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[Editor's note: I usually send my emails that have links in
them to my AOL email address to maintain the page in that form
and then process it into my indexes. Guess what? I received
an email about the "structure of the shadow government"
and promptly did what I always do. That email was kicked back
as undeliverable from AOL which confirms that AOL is censoring
our emails and will not accept certain emails. Wow, hard to believe
how far we have come. You know that means that our days on the
web are indeed numbered. That is a sad course of events. Our
freedoms are rapidly disappearing. End of Note]
Submitted: Dec 11, 2005 From: Kelly Wakefield <ottokelly@yahoo.com>
http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/ - December 9, 2005 -- Internet
censorship. It did not happen overnight but slowly came to America's
shores from testing grounds in China and the Middle East.
Progressive and investigative journalist web site administrators
are beginning to talk to each other about it, e-mail users are
beginning to understand why their e-mail is being disrupted by
it, major search engines appear to be complying with it, and
the low to equal signal-to-noise ratio of legitimate e-mail and
spam appears to be perpetuated by it.
In this case, “it,” is what privacy and computer
experts have long warned about: massive censorship of the web
on a nationwide and global scale. For many years, the web has
been heavily censored in countries around the world. That censorship
continues at this very moment. Now it is happening right here
in America.
The agreement by the Congress to extend an enhanced Patriot
Act for another four years will permit the political enforcers
of the Bush administration, who use law enforcement as their
proxies, to further clamp censorship controls on the web.
Internet Censorship: The Warning Signs
Were Not Hidden
The warning signs for the crackdown on the web have been with
us for over a decade. The Clipper chip controversy of the 90s,
John Poindexter’s Total Information Awareness (TIA) system
pushed in the aftermath of 9-11, backroom deals between the Federal
government and the Internet service industry, and the Patriot
Act have ushered in a new era of Internet censorship, something
just half a decade ago computer programmers averred was impossible
given the nature of the web. They were wrong, dead wrong.
Take for example of what recently occurred when two journalists
were taking on the phone about a story that appeared on Google
News. The story was about a Christian fundamentalist move in
Congress to use U.S. military force in Sudan to end genocide
in Darfur. The story appeared on the English Google News site
in Qatar. But the very same Google News site when accessed simultaneously
in Washington, DC failed to show the article. This censorship
is accomplished by geolocation filtering: the restriction or
modifying of web content based on the geographical region of
the user. In addition to countries, such filtering can now be
implemented for states, cities, and even individual IP addresses.
With reports in the Swedish newspaper Svensa Dagbladet today
that the United States has transmitted a Homeland Security Department
"no fly" list of 80,000 suspected terrorists to airport
authorities around the world, it is not unreasonable that a "no
[or restricted] surfing/emailing" list has been transmitted
to Internet Service Providers around the world. The systematic
disruptions of web sites and email strongly suggests that such
a list exists.
News reports on CIA prisoner flights and secret prisons are
disappearing from Google and other search engines like Alltheweb
as fast as they appear. Here now, gone tomorrow is the name of
the game.
Google is systematically failing to list and link to articles
that contain explosive information about the Bush administration,
the war in Iraq, Al Qaeda, and U.S. political scandals. But Google
is not alone in working closely to stifle Internet discourse.
America On Line, Microsoft, Yahoo and others are slowly turning
the Internet into an information superhighway dominated by barricades,
toll booths, off-
ramps that lead to dead ends, choke points, and security checks.
America On Line is the most egregious is stifling Internet
freedom. A former AOL employee noted how AOL and other Internet
Service Providers cooperate with the Bush administration in censoring
email. The Patriot Act gave federal agencies the power to review
information to the packet level and AOL was directed by agencies
like the FBI to do more than sniff the subject line. The AOL
term of service (TOS) has gradually been expanded to grant AOL
virtually universal power regarding information. Many AOL users
are likely unaware of the elastic clause, which says they will
be bound by the current TOS and any TOS revisions which AOL may
elect at any time in the future. Essentially, AOL users once
agreed to allow the censorship and non-delivery of their email.
Microsoft has similar requirements for Hotmail as do Yahoo
and Google for their respective e-mail services.
There are also many cases of Google’s search engine
failing to list and link to certain information. According
to a number of web site administrators who carry anti-Bush political
content, this situation has become more pronounced in the last
month. In addition, many web site administrators are reporting
a dramatic drop-off in hits to their sites, according to their
web statistic analyzers. Adding to their woes is the frequency
at which spam viruses are being spoofed as coming from their
web site addresses.
Government disruption of the political side of the web can
easily be hidden amid hyped mainstream news media reports of
the latest "boutique" viruses and worms, reports that
have more to do with the sales of anti-virus software and services
than actual long-term disruption of banks, utilities, or airlines.
Internet Censorship in the US: No Longer
a Prediction
Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, and Cisco Systems have honed their
skills at Internet censorship for years in places like China,
Jordan, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Vietnam,
and other countries. They have learned well. They will be the
last to admit they have imported their censorship skills into
the United States at the behest of the Bush regime. Last year,
the Bush-Cheney campaign blocked international access to its
web site -- www.georgewbush.com -- for unspecified "security
reasons."
Only those in the Federal bureaucracy and the companies involved
are in a position to know what deals have been made and how extensive
Internet censorship has become. They owe full disclosure to their
customers and their fellow citizens.
Censorship tactics on THE INTERNET
When you are a member of an egroup, you can watch the censorship
happen before your very own eyes. HERE IS What is SUPPOSED TO
HAPPEN: You send a message to the group, and you get your own
message back, because you are one of the members of the group.
HERE IS What DID HAPPEN: I sent a message to the group, and did
NOT get that message back.
I checked to see if it was a moderated group, and the message
HAD not yet been approved. Sometimes I sent a test message, and
the test message was delivered. Then I found that the censored
message had been marked as "spam", and put into the
"spam" folder. Now what about the strange problem in
just getting the message OUT?
FIRST I sent a message ANNOUNCING that the censored message was
about to be sent, within five minutes. THEN I sent the censored
message. I got LOTS of emails back from people; who got the announcement,
but did NOT get the censored message.
Below you will see a few of the problems, that I encountered
trying to sent the censored message
NONE of the things, that you see below, EVER happened, while
sending the ANNOUNCEMENT. THESE THINGS HAPPENED ALMOST EVERY
SINGLE TIME, THAT I TRIED TO SEND THE CENSORED MESSAGE. Just
a few of the censorship tactics that I saw: 1. AFTER SENDING
A FEW OF THESE MESSAGES, WHILE TRYING TO GO BACK TO http://groups.yahoo.com/mygroups
I GOT THIS: We're Sorry... The database is unavailable at the
moment. Please try again in a few minutes. If you continue to
experience trouble, please contact our Customer Care team. We
apologize for this inconvenience.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
THEN AFTER I GOT BACK IN I RAN INTO TO NUMEROUS OTHER DELAYS,
AND FRUSTRATIONS.
Here are a few examples:
Send - Verify To finish sending this message and help us fight
spam, please enter the character string as it is shown in the
box below.
Trouble seeing this image? Character string shown: [input] Why
do I have to do this? This step helps Yahoo! prevent spammers
from using Yahoo! Mail, and helps to ensure that your email will
be delivered.
Character string verification technology developed in collaboration
with the Captcha Project at Carnegie Mellon University.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Character String Verification Error You need to pass the verification
test to send any more email.
Your message has not been sent and will not be saved.
Back to Mail Home
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Message Viewing Error Sorry, but we can't display the message
you are trying to view. This error usually occurs when you are
trying to access a message that has been moved or deleted.
Please return to the appropriate folder view (Inbox, a personal
folder, etc.) and try to select the message from there.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Send - Verify
To finish sending this message and help us fight spam, please
enter the character string as it is shown in the box below.
Trouble seeing this image? Character string shown: [input] Why
do I have to do this? This step helps Yahoo! prevent spammers
from using Yahoo! Mail, and helps to ensure that your email will
be delivered.
Character string verification technology developed in collaboration
with the Captcha Project at Carnegie Mellon University.
---------------------------------------------------------------
From: Administrator@hcm-pg.com.my To: savefreed0m2003 Subject:
Symantec Mail Security detected prohibited content in a message
sent from your address
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Send - Verify
To finish sending this message and help us fight spam, please
enter the character string as it is shown in the box below.
Trouble seeing this image? Character string shown: [input] Why
do I have to do this? This step helps Yahoo! prevent spammers
from using Yahoo! Mail, and helps to ensure that your email will
be delivered.
Character string verification technology developed in collaboration
with the Captcha Project at Carnegie Mellon University.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Send - Verify To finish sending this message and help us fight
spam, please enter the character string as it is shown in the
box below.
Trouble seeing this image? Character string shown: [input] Why
do I have to do this? This step helps Yahoo! prevent spammers
from using Yahoo! Mail, and helps to ensure that your email will
be delivered.
Character string verification technology developed in collaboration
with the Captcha Project at Carnegie Mellon University.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
There was a problem: There was a temporary problem in sending
your message. Please try again.
Your message has not been sent.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
The page cannot be displayed The page you are looking for is
currently unavailable. The Web site might be experiencing technical
difficulties, or you may need to adjust your browser settings.
---------------------------------
Please try the following:
Click the Refresh button, or try again later.
If you typed the page address in the Address bar, make sure that
it is spelled correctly.
To check your connection settings, click the Tools menu, and
then click Internet Options. On the Connections tab, click Settings.
The settings should match those provided by your local area network
(LAN) administrator or Internet service provider (ISP).
If your Network Administrator has enabled it, Microsoft Windows
can examine your network and automatically discover network connection
settings.
If you would like Windows to try and discover them, click Detect
Network Settings
Some sites require 128-bit connection security. Click the Help
menu and then click About Internet Explorer to determine what
strength security you have installed.
If you are trying to reach a secure site, make sure your Security
settings can support it. Click the Tools menu, and then click
Internet Options. On the Advanced tab, scroll to the Security
section and check settings for SSL 2.0, SSL 3.0, TLS 1.0, PCT
1.0.
Click the Back button to try another link.
Cannot find server or DNS Error
Internet Explorer
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Send - Verify
To finish sending this message and help us fight spam, please
enter the character string as it is shown in the box below.
Trouble seeing this image? Character string shown: [input] Why
do I have to do this? This step helps Yahoo! prevent spammers
from using Yahoo! Mail, and helps to ensure that your email will
be delivered.
Character string verification technology developed in collaboration
with the Captcha Project at Carnegie Mellon University.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Continue Send - Verify To finish sending this message and
help us fight spam, please enter the character string as it is
shown in the box below.
Trouble seeing this image? Character string shown: [input] Why
do I have to do this? This step helps Yahoo! prevent spammers
from using Yahoo! Mail, and helps to ensure that your email will
be delivered.
Character string verification technology developed in collaboration
with the Captcha Project at Carnegie Mellon University.
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