Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

DemocracyNOW on server seizure

repost | 19.10.2004 11:01 | FBI Server Seizure | Cambridge

Democracy NOW is an American independent radio programme that you can listen and watch on the internet. this is their investigation of the IMC server seizure.

 http://www.democracynow.org/article.pl?sid=04/10/18/1438244

This is a radio show. you can listen/watch on their website, but below is also the rush transcript of the show.

Democracy Now!
18 October 2004


In the latest crackdown on the Indymedia network, the FBI with Spanish and Swiss officials oversaw the confiscation of the servers. Indymedia's Internet provider is under a gag order not to talk about what happened. [includes rush transcript] Earlier this month, two United Kingdom-based Internet servers containing data for more than 20 local Independent Media Center websites were seized A week later, the webservers were returned to Indymedia and their hosting company, Rackspace Managed Hosting.

It is still unclear who actually took the servers, the reasons for the seizure, or the legal authority under which they were impounded. Citing a gag order, Rackspace would not comment on what had happened both in the original seizure of the servers or their return.

What is known at this point is that the subpoena that resulted in the seizure was issued at the request of a foreign government. Although initial reports suggested that the FBI had taken the servers, the FBI has now denied any involvement.

Indymedia and the Electronic Frontier Foundation are planning legal action to find out what really happened to Indymedia"s servers.

The seizure has come under heavy criticism from civil liberties and press freedom groups. Aidan White, General Secretary of the International Federation of Journalists, called it "an intolerable and intrusive international police operation against a network specializing in independent journalism ... [that] smacks more of intimidation of legitimate journalistic inquiry than crime-busting."

* Devin Theriot-Orr, a lawyer and a member of the Seattle Indymedia Center. He has been working with the Electronic Frontier Foundation on the seizure of Indymedia servers by U.S. authorities.

RUSH TRANSCRIPT

This transcript is available free of charge, however donations help us provide closed captioning for the deaf and hard of hearing on our TV broadcast. Thank you for your generous contribution.
Donate - $25, $50, $100, more...

AMY GOODMAN: We're joined by Devin Theriot-Orr, who is a lawyer and member of the Seattle Indymedia Center working with the Electronic Frontier Foundation on the seizure. Welcome to Democracy Now!, Devin.

DEVIN THERIOT-ORR: Hi.

AMY GOODMAN: It's good to have you with us.

DEVIN THERIOT-ORR: There's background noise on my line. I'm having trouble hearing you.

AMY GOODMAN: If you could just listen very carefully. Sorry about that. Can you explain what's understood at this point? First we hear that the F.B.I.'s involved. We even see Agence France-Presse quoting an F.B.I. spokesperson saying they were involved in the seizure. Then they deny it, French, Italian governments. What's going on here?

DEVIN THERIOT-ORR: Well, we are still trying to determine exactly what's going on. What we have been able to determine so far is that the subpoena was issued under U.S. law, most likely in the district of San Antonio where Rackspace’s U.S. offices are stationed. So, we suspect that in fact it was either the Department of Justice or the F.B.I. that served the subpoena, but their involvement -- that may have been the extent of the U.S. government's involvement in this action. Again, we're trying to get all of the facts, and since we have not yet received a copy of the subpoena, because it was filed under seal, it's somewhat difficult to determine exactly what happened here.

AMY GOODMAN: Now, have you had contact with federal authorities like the F.B.I.?

DEVIN THERIOT-ORR: Yes. On October 1, two F.B.I. agents visited my office in Seattle, Washington, where they were concerned -- they said that they were visiting me on behalf of the Swiss government as a courtesy visit on behalf of the Swiss government, that in regards to a post on the Nantes independent media site of two – allegedly of two undercover F.B.I. agents, or not F.B.I. agents, excuse me, of Swiss police officers who were – the photos were taken during the G8 summit and posted to the Swiss IMC site and then reposted to the Nantes site. And they said that they were concerned because there was personally identifying information on the website and that there was some kind of a threat on this post. After they left, I looked up the post in question and we had actually received an email from our ISP, Rackspace, a week earlier, around September 22, saying that the F.B.I. had filed a request to them to have this photo removed. So, we were aware of this incident, and Nantes had taken the proactive step, even though under U.S. law, I think, it's very arguable that posting both the photos and even address information would be protected under the First Amendment. Just to be overly cautious, the Nantes site went ahead and masked the faces of these allegedly undercover police officers, and at no time have we been able to discover any kind of personal identifying information that was actually on the post. So, that has not been factually supported at any time. But just so -- on September 22, they masked the faces of these people just to be extra cautious and even wrote back to the ISP and said, you know, look, we have done this, is this okay? We want to make sure that everything is okay. And then, you know, lo and behold, October 1, the F.B.I. comes knocking on my door and says, we want -- we are concerned about this personally identifying information. I go to the site and not only is there again no personally identifying information, but the photos have actually been masked at that point. So, initially, when the servers were taken down October 7, we initially thought that it was a result of a Swiss investigation because of the proximity in time to the F.B.I. calls on my office and the F.B.I. email to Rackspace. As it turns out, that may not be the case. The Swiss government does say they're investigating the post, but the prosecutor there has said they are not -- that they did not issue a request. They have said that to an attorney who’s working with us in Switzerland. And then recently, we have learned that it may be -- I mean this is all still, you know, without seeing a copy of the company it's hard to -- it's all based on conjecture somewhat, but we believe that the Italian government may be involved, but we're still working on confirming the details of their involvement and trying to get to the bottom of exactly what happened here?

AMY GOODMAN: We're talking with Devin Theriot-Orr, who is a lawyer and member of the Seattle Indymedia Center. So, the two servers that were confiscated from Rackspace in Britain have been returned?

DEVIN THERIOT-ORR: That's right. The servers were returned last week. We're again not -- that doesn't, you know, solve any of the issues here, because, you know, the analogy that I think most aptly describes what happened here would be if the Swiss government was investigating a story in The Washington Post, and instead of contacting, you know, The Washington Post and asking them about the story, they get a subpoena and go to the people that published The Washington Post and seize their -- all of the presses in the publishing house, and take all of their back issues and then take it away without any kind of explanation or, you know, any kind of authority essentially for the action, and then just, you know, return it a week later without any explanation, and say, “Okay, there; everything is fine now.” So, you know, the fact that the hard drives have been returned is really a minor point for us. We're glad to have them back, so that we can get our sites back up and running, but the point here is that it's a blatant violation of the First Amendment. We believe that the U.S. government cannot aid and abet in the violation of the First Amendment even if the F.B.I. was not directly involved in -- even if they didn't have possession of the hard drives at any point, the point here is that they -- that U.S. courts were acting in direct violation of the First Amendment both in the sense that they were – we don't know exactly what information they were seeking, but in the past the types of stuff that they have sought has been server logs. We have been involved with subpoenas being served on us in the past.

AMY GOODMAN: Devin, we only have a few seconds. But during the Republican Convention, the New York IMC, Indymedia Center, was served with a subpoena for posting the names and places where republican delegates were staying, not that that wasn't public information. What's the latest on that?

DEVIN THERIOT-ORR: Um, well, you know, I'm not a member of the New York Indymedia Center, so I'm just speaking as a member of the Seattle center, so I don't know if I can quite update you on what's going on there. I know they're still looking into it, and you know, that we consider that information to be also protected. I think that this is a pattern of harassment by federal authorities.

AMY GOODMAN: On that note, I want to thank you for being with us. Devin Theriot-Orr, lawyer, member of the Seattle Indymedia Center.

repost

Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech