>From: "Eveline Lubbers" <[log in to unmask]> >To: "' pandora'" <[log in to unmask]>
>Date: Mon, 28 May 2001 11:24:35 +0200
>Subject: [pandora] more on FBI Attack on Seattle IMC
>Reply-To: [log in to unmask]
>Cc: [log in to unmask]
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>From:                   [log in to unmask] (kees/ventana)
>Date sent:              Sat, 26 May 01 10:14:34 GMT
>
>Newsgroups: misc.activism.progressive
>
>Eat the State!
>
>Volume 5, #18 Politics with Bite May 9, 2001
>  FBI Attacks Seattle IMC - Eat the State! (May 9, 2001)
>         URL: http://www.eatthestate.org/05-18/FBIAttacksSeattle.htm
>
>FBI Attacks Seattle IMC
>by Geov Parrish
>
>During last month's raucous Quebec protests against summit negotiations
>for the Free Trade Area of the Americas, a stunning side story surfaced in
>Seattle--a disturbing government attack on media freedoms, Internet free
>speech and privacy, and the rights of ordinary people seeking alternative
>news sources.
>
>The target of the attack was Seattle's Independent Media Center. The IMC,
>housed in a downtown storefront on 3rd Avenue, is a collection of media
>activists (including ETS!) that came together during 1999's WTO protests.
>Its groundbreaking live reports and streaming media from the streets of
>Seattle have since morphed into 54 IMC web sites around the world. Traffic
>is heaviest during big anti-free-trade protests. For the FTAA, over a
>dozen IMC sites, including Seattle's, produced a massive number of reports
>from the scene of protests in Quebec and several other cities.
>
>But at the weekend's height, on Saturday evening, April 21, the Seattle
>IMC storefront was visited by two FBI agents and an agent of the Secret
>Service, bearing a sealed court order. The court order contained two
>provisions. First was that the IMC (at an IP address that turned out to be
>incorrect) hand over "...all account records and system/accounting log
>files and supply the Federal Bureau of Investigation with...All user
>connection logs for [the IMC] for the time period beginning April 20,
>2001, to the date of this Order for any connections to or from [the IMC].
>User connection logs should contain the following: 1. Connection time and
>date; 2. Disconnect time and date; 3. Method of connection to system
>(e.g.,SLIP, PPP, Shell); 4. Data transfer volume (e.g., bytes); 5.
>Connection information for other systems to which user connected via,
>including: a. Connection destination; b. Connection time and date; c.
>Disconnect time and date; d. Method of connection to/from system (e.g.,
>telnet, ftp, http); e. Data transfer volume (e.g., bytes)."
>
>In other words, at the peak of user activity during the Quebec protests,
>the FBI sought the identities and browsing histories of not only the
>Seattle site, but 35-40 other sites also hosted from the Seattle IMC's
>computer--detailed data on 1.25 million hits over a 48-hour period.
>
>Secondly, the order demanded that the IMC "...not disclose to the user of
>said electronic communication service, nor to any other person, the
>existence of this Application and Order..." Hence, as reports started to
>spread that night of the agents' visit to the storefront, IMC activists
>were under a court order not to themselves report or discuss what had
>happened or why.
>
>They were also powerless to counter the version of the story which
>appeared in an error-laden story heavily attributed to "federal sources"
>two days later in the Seattle P-I--and, last week, in a short but even
>more erroneous summary in The Stranger. The visiting agents claimed that
>their investigation sought the identity of the person or persons who
>posted, on the Seattle IMC site (which is open for anyone to post on
>without screening), documents stolen from a Canadian government agency,
>including classified information relating to President Bush's Canadian
>travel itinerary.
>
>The only problem, according to the IMC, is that there is no such post. The
>closest was two articles, one in French and one in English, posted on the
>Montreal IMC site, containing portions of documents purportedly stolen
>from a police car in Quebec City on April 20. The documents detail police
>strategies for hindering protests, and appear unrelated to Bush.
>
>Even if the Montreal document was the focus of the investigation, and was
>illegally obtained, publishing it should be protected free speech (think
>Pentagon Papers); a media firm's source of material relevant to a criminal
>investigation should also be privileged information; and the Privacy
>Protection Act should also protect Internet user identity.
>
>After six days, the gag order was lifted, allowing the IMC to belatedly
>offer its side of the story, but plenty of damage was already done. While
>the IMC was silenced, "federal sources" were free to spread misinformation
>to the P-I. News of the FBI visit spread quickly during the FTAA
>weekend--resulting in a sharp drop in posts to the IMC. Even if the feds
>don't get the data they want--IMC lawyers are negotiating to narrow the
>order's scope--they've already succeeded in suppressing coverage of events
>in Quebec. As the Indymedia model spreads, state attacks like this must be
>prepared for in the future.
>
>And when they happen, don't expect help getting the story out. Almost no
>local media outlets covered the FBI/IMC story--let alone covered it
>accurately--let alone raised the media freedom issues involved--let alone
>spoke out. If the feds had sought the sources or audience of, say,
>KOMO-TV, the effort would have made headlines. The silence when a
>well-established but overtly dissident local outlet is targeted tells us
>all we need to know about whose side our "objective" corporate media is
>on.
>
>======================
>
>*** NOTICE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material
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>
>
>
>
>
>Pandora, being too curious for her own good, opens a forbidden box,
>and all the Evils of mankind fly out...
>Similarly, the Pandora Project intends to crack open the PR industry and
>spread its noxious secrets to people everywhere.
>
>The Pandora Project http://www.xs4all.nl/~evel/pandora
>The Pandora mail archive http://www.oudenaarden.nl/lists/pandora/
>Mail to the list: [log in to unmask]

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Phil Graham, Lecturer
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University of Queensland
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