Indymedia Raided - Shut Down
Correspondent:: "nu-monet v7.0"
Date: Thu, 07 Oct 2004 16:34:09 -0700
--------
http://www.indymedia.org/en/index.shtml
Thursday morning, US authorities issued a federal
order to Rackspace ordering them to hand over
Indymedia web servers to the requesting agency.
Rackspace, which provides hosting services for
more that 20 Indymedia sites at its London facility,
complied and turned over the requested servers,
effectively removing those sites from the internet.
Since the subpoena was issued to Rackspace and not
to Indymedia, the reasons for this action are still
unknown to Indymedia. Talking to Indymedia
volunteers, Rackspace stated that "they cannot
provide Indymedia with any information regarding
the order." ISPs have received gag orders in similar
situations which prevent them from updating the
concerned parties on what is happening.
It is unclear to Indymedia how and why a server that
is outside the US jurisdiction can be seized by US
authorities.
At the same time an additional server was taken down
at Rackspace which provided streaming radio to
several radio stations, BLAG (linux distro), and a
handful of miscellanous things.
The last few months have seen numerous attacks on
independent media by the US Federal Government. In
August the Secret Service used a subpoena in an
attempt to disrupt the NYC IMC before the RNC by
trying to get IP logs from an ISP in the US and the
Netherlands. Last month the FCC shut down community
radio stations around the US. Two weeks ago the FBI
requested that Indymedia takes down a post on the
Nantes IMC that had a photo of some undercover Swiss
police and IMC volunteers in Seattle were visited by
the FBI on the same issue. On the other hand,
Indymedia and other independent media organisations
were successfull with their victories for example
against Diebold and the Patroit Act. Today however,
the US authorities shut down IMCs around the world.
The list of affected local media collectives includes
Ambazonia, Uruguay, Andorra, Poland, Western
Massachusetts, Nice, Nantes, Lilles, Marseille
(all France), Euskal Herria (Basque Country), Liege,
East and West Vlaanderen, Antwerpen (all Belgium),
Belgrade, Portugal, Prague, Galiza, Italy, Brazil,
UK, part of the Germany site, and the global
Indymedia Radio site.
--
Unless there is some reason for investigation,
the federal law and the Constitution still
protect the rights of citizens.
--FBI agent Greg Stejskal
Correspondent:: Frere Jean Bleu
Date: Fri, 08 Oct 2004 21:17:12 +1000
--------
On Thu, 07 Oct 2004 16:34:09 -0700, "nu-monet v7.0"
wrote:
>http://www.indymedia.org/en/index.shtml
>
>Thursday morning, US authorities issued a federal
>order to Rackspace ordering them to hand over
>Indymedia web servers to the requesting agency.
>Rackspace, which provides hosting services for
>more that 20 Indymedia sites at its London facility,
>complied and turned over the requested servers,
>effectively removing those sites from the internet.
>
>Since the subpoena was issued to Rackspace and not
>to Indymedia, the reasons for this action are still
>unknown to Indymedia. Talking to Indymedia
>volunteers, Rackspace stated that "they cannot
>provide Indymedia with any information regarding
>the order." ISPs have received gag orders in similar
>situations which prevent them from updating the
>concerned parties on what is happening.
>
>It is unclear to Indymedia how and why a server that
>is outside the US jurisdiction can be seized by US
>authorities.
>
>At the same time an additional server was taken down
>at Rackspace which provided streaming radio to
>several radio stations, BLAG (linux distro), and a
>handful of miscellanous things.
>
>The last few months have seen numerous attacks on
>independent media by the US Federal Government. In
>August the Secret Service used a subpoena in an
>attempt to disrupt the NYC IMC before the RNC by
>trying to get IP logs from an ISP in the US and the
>Netherlands. Last month the FCC shut down community
>radio stations around the US. Two weeks ago the FBI
>requested that Indymedia takes down a post on the
>Nantes IMC that had a photo of some undercover Swiss
>police and IMC volunteers in Seattle were visited by
>the FBI on the same issue. On the other hand,
>Indymedia and other independent media organisations
>were successfull with their victories for example
>against Diebold and the Patroit Act. Today however,
>the US authorities shut down IMCs around the world.
Looks like they've got a backup server.
Full story here.
http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/2004/10/298741.html
Fr J B