Many thanks to Randicus, dzz, nadir, carabela for moral support. This is much appreciated!
Nadir, can you put your links inside code tags? A security feature prevents my browser from attempting to follow "live" links. I need to do something else to visit a cited url.
As a general concern about mailing lists: because email addresses are generally exposed to public view (and even if hidden from most recipients, are probably held on less than secure servers), these can be easily used by intelligence agencies to collect email addresses of persons to monitor. Not just by "local" security services, but by foreign governments too. (I think many persons greatly underestimate the frequency with which "private eyes" or "rogue reporters"--- or nastier people posing as such--- obtain contact information by simply bribing a telecom or ISP employee. Or in some countries where criminal gangs are running out of control, by threatening them and their families with physical harm. In Mexico and the Caribbean, where the police forces are often ineffective and corrupt, such threats can be hard to resist.)
The fact that this occurs is illustrated by a recent case in the US which I mentioned in another thread. A man living in Leesburg, VA was arrested by US authorities of charges of spying on US persons suspected by Syrian intelligence of opposing the Assad regime. He had allegedly obtained (probably by bribery) contact information corresponding to email addresses, had taken videotape footage of "targets", was feeding this information back to Syrian intelligence. And then he purchased some guns.
When U.S. Assistant Secretary of State Michael Posner spoke recently at a human rights conference in San Francisco organized by the EFF, he echoed several points I have tried to make, including these:
- the nastiest regimes in the world (e.g. Syria, Zimbabwe) have been using the same "Western"-designed systems for universal population surveillance which are used by Western governments, except that unlike such countries as the UK, countries like Iran and Syria have for some time been using these systems to arrest political activists with sometimes deadly consequences,
- the appearance of grassroots protests by bloggers should be a warning sign to regimes that they are in very serious trouble, but reacting by oppressing bloggers is likely to bring on the very consequence they most fear, a popular uprising such as has happened recently in several MENA nations,
- IT workers have a responsibility to consider human rights issues.
My claim that even "Western" governments (not to mention the governments of Zimbabwe, Syria, Burma, etc.) maintain lists of "radicals" whom they intend to round up in case of "civil disturbances" is supported by numerous documents leaked from inside the US/UK Surveillance State, which show that, for example, the U.S. DHS is greatly concerned by the Occupy movement, which has recently taken fire, as well as the libertarian movement and other domestic political movements generally opposed to authoritarian rule. Hundreds of white papers and speculative warning memos issued by the US DHS, DOJ, and other US federal, state, and local agencies are readily available at sites like publicintelligence.net and cryptome.org.
My claim that the vision driving the growth of the US/UK Surveillance state is the notion that 24/7 universal population surveillance can entirely eliminate both crime and domestic political opposition to unpopular governmental policies is clearly spelled out in such documents as a white paper coauthored by William Bratton, a highly influential figure in "Western" policing, the man who was asked by UK Prime Minister David Cameron to advise the UK government on how to suppress any possible recurrence of the recent London riots, as the economic situation continues to worsen there and as young Britons become increasingly vocal about their poor prospects for a decent life. And the US authorities are very much aware that the European crisis is likely to soon deepen the economic depression in the US, which will no doubt further inflame unrest among young Americans and returning veterans who find their own prospects are poor and rapidly worsening. Both the US and UK governments have been fairly blunt that they intend to stop at nothing to prevent further rebellions such as the London riots, which they feel will require intimidation and other oppressive measures (both governments are helpless to actually fix the underlying economic problems, not because they are not fixable--- of course they are--- but because the 1% won't let them try).
@ traveler:
Thanks for the information about the image. I wonder whether it had occured to you that
Code: Select all
Location: Shooting Range
Well I'm never bored
When I'm a-killin' for the Lord
could be seen as intimidating to those of us who have had guns waved in our faces by persons threatening to harm us in consequence of our opinions/beliefs/ethnicity/whatever. I hope you will not be offended if I admit that when I see such violent word-imagery in "personal tags", I tend to assume the poster must be an American. Possibly a cultural misunderstanding, since for all I know you are quoting a line from an (American?) movie you happen to like, and did not intend to intimidate anyone, but clarification would be appreciated.