FBI seizes IndyMedia Servers

[Swamp Gas]

nyc.indymedia.org/feature/display/126066/index.php



This is it! Something big is up, and in the next three weeks we should expect something frightening, if not stupid. Could this be the beginning of the shutdown of the Internet?

I would suggest all people on this board to start exchanging emails, phone#'s, addresses, and short wave frequencies.



FBI seizes Global Indymedia Servers. Reasons Unknown Current rating: 0
by Sascha Meinrath / NYC IMC
(No verified email address) 07 Oct 2004
(from UC-IMC / Global IMC / Wire Reports): The FBI took the hard drives of Global IMC servers in the USA and the UK. It appears that a court order was issued to Rackspace (Indymedia's service provider with offices in the US and in London) to physically remove the hard drives from Global Indymedia servers (backup servers are now in place). Rackspace was given no time to defend against the order before it was acted upon and turned over the hard drives, both in the US and the UK. The servers hosted numerous local IMCs, including UK Indymedia, Belgium, African imcs, Palestine, UK, Germany, Brasil, Italy, Uruguay, Poland, Belgrade, Portugal and others.

During the Republican Convention, the ISP of the NYC IMC was informed that it was the subject of a Secret Service / FBI investigation into an article submitted to its Open Newswire identifying delegates at the RNC. While the FBI has made it clear to members of the press that the investigation is ongoing, there is not necessarily a connection between events in NYC and the FBI's seizure of the Rackspace servers. Currently, much of the speculation about the reasons for the FBI's move centers around photographs posted to the IMC-Nantes website.

See IMC Press Release
Slashdot Discussion
The FBI's latest anti-free-press actions began at the beginning of October when they visited Indymedia's ISP demanding the removal of identifying information from photographs of undercover police officers that was posted on the Nantes Indymedia website. When asked what the US government was doing requesting the removal of information from a French-run website that contained information about Swiss police actions, the FBI stated that this was a "courtesy" to the Swiss government. The FBI agents stated that no laws had been broken, and no crimes had been committed. However, because no identifying information was posted on the website in question, it was unclear what actions the FBI was requesting.

The article in question is/was posted here:

nantes.indymedia.org/article.php3?id_article=3910

On Tuesday October 5th, Indymedia received the following message from Rackspace:

"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. 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."

Today the FBI seized Global Indymedia servers; however it is unclear if this is related to the Nantes issue or is a second FBI concern within the past week.

(14:20) Rackspace has issued a "no comment" response concerning the FBI's actions.

[AtomHeartMother]

swampgas said:

nyc.indymedia.org/feature/display/126066/index.php
This is it! Something big is up, and in the next three weeks we should expect something frightening, if not stupid.

[/u] Could this be the beginning of the shutdown of the Internet?
[/quote]

I hope it's more on the stupid side of the scenario than the frightening shutdown one.

Over the past couple of weeks, I've had to reformat my hard drive and restore my computer . It should be running faster, but it's slower than it was before. Also I'm having an extremely hard time getting on and staying on line. It keeps saying the computer I'm dialing isn't answering, or I'm not configured right, not to mention the frequent disconnecting. I've never had that problem before (especially after restoring it). Could it be the internet and not my computer?[/b]

[Swamp Gas]

mparent7777.blog-city.com/read/853620.htm

[Swamp Gas]

The British are questioning how can an American Spy Compnay, The FBI, come into a foreign land. You will see in the article that the FBI says, "It is NOT an FBI operation??"


www.guardian.co.uk/online/news/0,12597,1324419,00.html


US seizes webservers from independent media sites

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."

[Thetaloops]

'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."' Quote

'Freedom of Choice is what you've got,
Freedom from Choice is what you want.' Quote DEVO

Ohhhh Noooo DEVO! You were right!

The internet is something that TPTB have feared since it has gotten into the hands of the people. Can't have an educated public now can we?

[AtomHeartMother]

Servers seized by FBI returned - but who wanted what?
By John Lettice
Published Thursday 14th October 2004 09:51 GMT

The Indymedia hardware seized in London last week were put back in place over the last 24 hours, but their return puts the UK Home Office even more on the spot. The original hard disks, apparently with the original data, have been returned, which suggests strongly that the authorities wanted sight of information that is on them.

Who these authorities are remains as open a question as what they wanted to see, but given the convoluted nature of the seizure process (the FBI apparently acting under a US-UK treaty on behalf of Switzerland and/or Italy to seize hardware in London), the British Home Office must surely have been presented with at least a flimsy pretext for its approval of the operation.

Further mystery is added by the circumstances of the return. Rackspace, the hosting company involved, alerted Indymedia to their return yesterday morning, saying: "I was just told that the court order is being complied with and your servers in London will be online at 5pm GMT." But what court order? And why is being complied with? The Orwellian nature of the powers likely to have been used in the case severely restrict Rackspace's ability to tell its customer, or anybody else, what's going on, and can also be used (on US request) to bind the Home Office to confidentiality. Not that any compulsion is usually necessary here.

Although the data on the drives appears intact, Indymedia is treating them as potentially compromised, and won't boot them or take the servers live until they've been verified. Depending on what was done to them when they were in the hands of, er, whoever, there may be some slight chance that the verification will throw up some clues. And if information was being sought as evidence in a pending court case, then information on how this evidence was obtained and by what process will also have to be produced. If the process turns out not to have been one that would be accepted by a court, then it will be likely that direct evidence-gathering was not the intent. Which would raise even more questions about the validity of the use of an MLAT, and the Home Office's involvement in it.

Richard Allan, Liberal Democrat MP for Sheffield Hallam, has tabled a Parliamentary question to the Home Office asking David Blunkett "what recent discussions he has had with US law enforcement agencies concerning the seizure of material from UK-based internet hosting providers; and if he will make a statement." This is to be dealt with tomorrow. MPs in the National Union of Journalists' Parliamentary Group are also tabling questions. ®<br>
www.theregister.co.uk/2004/10/14/indymedia_servers_back/