The Null Device
2001/9/12
In the wake of the New York terrorist attack, the FBI have wasted no time in installing Carnivore at ISPs and backbones to monitor all Internet traffic.
"Hotmail officials have been receiving calls from the San Francisco FBI office since mid-(Tuesday) morning and are cooperating with their expedited requests for information about a few specific accounts," the person said. "Most of the account names start with the word 'Allah' and contain messages in Arabic."
Meanwhile, the operators of anonymous remailers have voluntarily taken their remailers offline.
Scare meme of the day: The Universe 'could condense into jelly' at any moment, resulting in the annihilation of all matter. Mind you, the odds of this happening are pretty small.
Another conspiracy theory: Was Robert Elz' deposition and the handing over of the .au domain to a private corporation part of an ICANN plot to subjugate the Internet under multinational corporate control?
The real ICANN is carrying out its mission via control of the DNS - the ability of people to have an address that allows them to do business in cyberspace. ICANN will squeeze out independent voices by raising the cost of domain name registration and turning names over to private contractors with the obligation to fund ICANN at a rate of 15% inflation per year.
The Internet revolution gives everyone a printing press. This reality makes life more complicated for those who want only to sell the alleged benefits of globalism. By the time that we can be proven right or wrong about ICANN and content, it will be too late. The battle about address space is a battle about control. Control is worth having because it gives the possessor a lever to clamp down on content. To those who say well you can still hang out a web shingle as gcook1875@aol.com or dhughes1172@aol.com, we reply under what conditions and at what expense? AOL is not a staunch defender of free speech.
(via Politechbot)
Countdown to World War 3: A survey shows that 86% of Americans want war against the states responsible for the terrorist attack. And when America goes to war, Britain, Australia and other allies follow. (Australia under Howard will definitely go to war alongside the US.) The Third World War could be weeks, even days, away.
Conspiracy theory of the day: While public opinion is that the WTC bombing is likely to be the work of Islamic terrorists, I was wondering about some of the other possible suspects. For example, what if it's the work of an extremist anarchist/Marxist group affiliated with the anti-globalisation movement. Consider the following points:
- The attacks occurred on the first anniversary of the brutal suppression of the S11 protests against the World Trade Organisation in Melbourne.
- The target was the World Trade Cantre, a symbol of multinational corporate capitalism. If the anti-globalisation movement was to choose a target it could hardly choose a better one, with the possible exception of the Nike headquarters.
- Fidel Castro has recently been vocal in aligning himself with the anti-globalisation movement. As such, the Cuban state could have lent logistical support to the terrorists.
Of course, the question comes up of whether anybody in the anti-globalisation movement would consider hijacking airliners full of innocent people and crashing them into a building full of random employees; which seems unlikely; and whether Cuba would get involved in something like that is also a bit of a stretch. Though even if this isn't true, it could be a good excuse for a crackdown on anti-capitalist groups across the Western world.
Pearl Harbour 2: The US World Trade Centre was destroyed in a horrific terrorist attack, when several hijacked airliners, packed with passengers, slammed into its towers, demolishing it and killing thousands. the US president has vowed retribution against anybody harbouring terrorists (which amounts to an open-ended declaration of war); this may well turn out to have been the opening salvo of World War 3.