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.

‘More Intimidation Than Crime-Busting’ Says IFJ re IMC Server Seizure

Update. | 08.10.2004 15:51 | European Social Forum | Indymedia | Repression | Technology | London

International Federation of Jounalists Release on Indymedia Server Seizures

‘More Intimidation Than Crime-Busting’ Says IFJ As Police Target Independent Media Network

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), the global organisation representing over 500,000 journalists worldwide, today called for an investigation into the action by [apparent] police in Britain in co-operation with other agencies that led to the temporary closure of 21 of the more than 140 Indymedia web sites worldwide.

"We have witnessed an intolerable and intrusive international police operation against
a network specialising in independent journalism," said Aidan White IFJ General
Secretary. "The way this has been done smacks more of intimidation of legitimate journalistic inquiry than crime-busting."

The IFJ believes that the authorities may have abused their powers in carrying out the action, which is said to have been carried out at the request of the Federal Bureau of Investigation in the United States.

Yesterday police seized two web server computers in London used by the Indymedia network. The servers were located on the premises of the Rackspace company, which is now not giving out any information.

Initial reports suggested FBI officers themselves had seized the servers. The seizure follows visits by the FBI to Indymedia personnel in the US inquiring about the publication on the French site Indymedia Nantes of photographs of Swiss undercover police photographing protestors. The photographs remain available on other websites.

Indymedia sites, which provide challenging and independent reporting, particularly of political and social justice issues, are open forums where any member of the public can publish their comments.

The IFJ believes the seizure may be linked to a September 30 court case in San Jose California, in which Indymedia San Francisco and two students at Swarthmore College in Pennsylvania successfully opposed an application by Diebold Election Systems Inc to remove documents claiming to reveal flaws in the design of electronic voting machines which are due to be used widely in the forthcoming US Presidential election.

Although Indymedia UK was back in operation within hours, several of the other 20 sites affected remain silenced today.

"The seizing of computers and the high profile nature of this incident suggests that someone wanted to stifle these independent voices in journalism," said Aidan White. "We need a full investigation into why this action took place, who took part and who authorised it.”

Update.

Comments

Hide the following 12 comments

Server seizures

08.10.2004 17:15

Reports are suggesting that target wasn't Indymedia but Islamic hate sites also hosted by Rackspace. Any comment?

reporter


Re: any comments

08.10.2004 18:26

>>Any comments?

Yeah, I don't believe you.

Who are you and what's all this about "reports suggest".

What 'reports'???

Tell us where you got this information. Or admit that you just made it up.

Ozymandias


fine...

08.10.2004 19:01

1) I don't care whether you believe me or not...
2) The IFJ article contains inaccuracies that reflect that there are conflicting stories about where the order originated and why it was issued...
3) My sources still think the targets were Islamic hate sites also hosted on Rackspace...

reporter


islamic hate sites? what reports?

08.10.2004 20:15

what islamic hate sites? what's their domain names? any url's of articles or pages that are "islamic hate"? let's see if you can provide that - they will for sure possible to find via the google cache or  http://www.archive.org/web/web.php

and what reports? where can we read them?

or are you just making this up reporter?

disbeliever


'reporter' whats are these 'reports' you refer to?

08.10.2004 20:18

If 'reporter' can not refer to these so-called reports which he claims suggest rackspace was hosting islamic hate sites, then I will hide the comment as it is clear that it is posted just to wind people up and is inacurate. the servers were owned by indymedia, they contained indymedia sites and rackspace could not host anybody elses stuff on them. either back up your claims with references to these 'reports' or say goodbye to this thread.

there is no B3 bomber


No need for the hostility.

08.10.2004 22:40

Rackspace were hosting all of the following:

qal3ah.net
imamsadrnews.net
fatehorg.org
nasrollah.org
al-fateh.net
palestine-info-urdu.com

I don't know which site, if any, was the intended target. The reason might have been qal3ah.net, which I'm told was an active forum used to co-ordinate bombings and kidnappings and was definitely up until the server was pulled.

reporter


All wrong.

08.10.2004 23:34

 http://uptime.netcraft.com/up/graph/?host=qal3ah.net
 http://uptime.netcraft.com/up/graph/?host=www.imamsadrnews.net
 http://uptime.netcraft.com/up/graph?site=www.fatehorg.org
 http://uptime.netcraft.com/up/graph?site=www.nasrollah.org
 http://uptime.netcraft.com/up/graph?site=al-fateh.net

None of them is currently running on rackspace. al-fateh.net was until May, but now it's on Corbina.

Time to fire your sources, reporter. I hope you didn't pay for that info. :)

Ian


The missing bit

08.10.2004 23:58

qal3ah.net is currently on Pipex:
 http://www.dnsstuff.com/tools/whois.ch?ip=www.qal3ah.net

tech


clarification on the difference between rackspace and two indymedia racks

09.10.2004 00:51

ok all - we should clarify here that there's a difference between rackspace [ http://rackspace.com] which is a company that hosts hi-bandwidth sites for good money, and the indymedia boxes that were seized.

rackspace are a very professional company with pretty much direct access to the intercontinental Big Pipe between the US and Europe. they are located in that impressively futuristic black cube if you're on the highway from the eastend out direction dsei. they host a zillion organisations and charge very good money for it. a lot of "professional" web companies have racks there because they have an immense pipe and charge per usage. you just open a direct debit with them and they will suck out your bank account depending how many people are downloading your stuff.

but we're talking here about the seizure of TWO of the probably thousands of racks rented out - in this case we're talking about the indymedia racks. any rack or domain name is unique and identifiable to one company, organisation or person who pays for it. that's rackspace's business model.

i want to see proof that any of these "islamic hate sites" were hosted on the two seized racks.

rackspace don't communicate to any questions as they're clearly under a gagging order. after much hassling they provided this terse statement, provided to US indymedia:  http://indymedia.org/en/static/fbi - go down to Update 1, 8 October: "Statement by Rackspace".

so again, reporter, who are your 'sources'? no hostility intended. just say - is it the spooks, the sun or who?

otherwise you're simply not credible.

[nb: note to the imc admin who said lets hide this - please don't... let reporter come up with something - if s/he can...]

disbeliever


...

09.10.2004 10:55

I never claimed to be right. Notice that the IFJ are proposing that the Diebold incident is the reason, even though we now know the order didn't originate in the US. Therefore the IFJ story is almost certainly inaccurate.

As for my sources, what do you want, their names and phone numbers? If I'd been copying this stuff from slashdot I would have given you the URL. And no, I haven't paid anyone.

As for deleting the thread, anyone can see how it has developed and make a judgement as to the likelihood or otherwise of a particular interpretation of the story.

-end-

rep


Inaccuracy vs. speculation

09.10.2004 11:24

The IFJ article says:
"The IFJ believes the seizure may be linked to a September 30 court case..."

So they haven't reported anything inaccurately. If they had said "The seizure was linked...", that would have been inaccurate.

In fact, we still don't know whether or not the seizure was linked to the Diebold case, even if the actual orders didn't originate in the US.

You, on the other hand, have reported something inaccurately here:
"Rackspace were hosting all of the following..."

You were claiming to be right about that, and the Netcraft data above prove otherwise. Would you like to make a retraction?


spanner


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