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US Authorities Seize Web Servers in UK

Posted by Cernig at 20:40, 09 Oct 2004

On Friday, workers for a Texas based company surrendered hard drives hosting websites which had become of interest to US Federal Authorities. Simple enough, you may think.

However, the hard drives in question were physically in London, England, not in Texas. The organisation who's websites were seized deny any wrongdoing other than freedom of speech, and only one of the websites in question was for a US branch of the organisation!Indymedia describe themselves as "a network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues."

It would appear that being foreign and doing your foreign thing in a foreign country is no longer enough to keep you safe from the long arm of the Praetorian Guards. It is a terrible day for freedom of expression. We all need to be aware of this. Pass it to your online friends.

Regards, C

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#1
Cernig's picture
Member since:
11 May 2004
Last activity:
2 years 14 weeks
Posted by Cernig on 11 Oct 2004 at about 00:23.

The UK newspaper "The Guardian" has picked up this story in a report today. It would appear that the seizure was accomplished without any involvement from local law enforcement, simply on the say-so of some anonymous federal agency on the other side of the Atlantic, as the London Metropolitan Police have said they were unaware of the move. No reason has yet been given for the seizure.

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."

Regards, C

The 4400
#2
the shadow's picture
Member since:
24 June 2004
Last activity:
2 years 40 weeks
Posted by the shadow on 11 Oct 2004 at about 02:25.

I suppose I can post this here as anywhere else.
Did anyone watch the TV series The 4400 of which the first episode was shown last night?
I broke my no TV rule to watch it and feel that more than 3 hours of my life has been wasted.
Is it worth watching the second episode tonight?
Did anyone else notice the constant mention in the show of the Department of Homeland Security, and the fact that people were urged to report strange things to the dept?
It appears to me that once again aliens are made out to be benign heavenly gods.

shadows