Social Networking Sites Used in G20 Protests Under Attack from FBI
Amy Goodman's most recent column, "Watch What You Tweet" tells the story of Elliot Madison, a New York social worker who is now facing multiple charges of "hindering apprehension or prosecution, criminal use of a communication facility and possession of instruments of crime," all for posting to a Twitter feed "publicly available information about police activities around the G-20 protests, including information about where police had been ordered to disperse protesters."
Madison, his wife and housemates were raided by the Joint Terrorism Task Force, who took all the computers in the house, kept them handcuffed for 16 hours, and even took Madison's Curious George stuffed animal.
Was it only last June when Barack Obama said in a statement, “The universal rights to assembly and free speech must be respected, and the United States stands with all who seek to exercise those rights" as Iranians protested against the results of their national election? Obama's statement was released in English, Farsi and Arabic, and posted on the White House’s Twitter feed: “We call on the Iranian government to stop all violent and unjust actions against its own people.”
Well, now it appears the FBI is monitoring social networks in the same manner as the Iranians, which really shouldn't be a surprise, but is not the best news. Because if the Iranian government was able to disrupt and take command of their networks, surely the US government will be able to as well when the time comes. As you read this a new bill is moving its way through the Senate that would give the President the ability to seize control of private computer networks in the event of a "cybersecurity emergency."
If things get as bad in this country as many are predicting they will, and we begin to see regular spontaneous outbursts or even coordinated uprisings--which will of course mean clashes with security forces--it could very much start to resemble the outbreak of urban riots that took place between 1965 and 1969. The difference these days is that communications technology, like text messaging and Twitter, has allowed resistance movements all over the world to coordinate in a fashion heretofore unthinkable, so that instead of just expressions of blind rage and destruction, there is the potential to actually accomplish something politically meaningful in a coordinated direct action.
Back in '03 I was one of the organizers of the first two Chicago flash mobs ever, which took place a week after the ones in New York. I was drawn into this social and technological phenomenon because, as an activist, I immediately saw the tactical potential of this kind of technology. A crowd is easy to contain when you know they're coming, but a spontaneous mob can put the fear of God into anyone.
As I predicted, in subsequent years, I've seen the flash mob concept naturally evolve into the political arena. Nowhere was that more visible that with the Twitter campaign in Iran. Text messaging was a key tactical instrument for the 2004 protests at the Democratic and Republican National Conventions. Whenever the police would move in to stop an action, we'd change route and be gone before they got there.
But the Feds aren't entirely stupid. By the time we were organizing Counter-Inaugural protests in DC in Jan of '05 the FBI and local police forces had gotten wise to the use of email listservs in the planning (and endless arguing) process and infiltrated most of our organizations.
The result was less than 10,000 totally disorganized souls showed up (compared to 400,000 Republicans who had come to party like firemen), despite the fact that the Feds were expecting bedlam. FEMA had only weeks before issued a memo that they were expecting the protests to be as volatile as those when Nixon was re-elected. I was so dismayed by the turnout, and the infiltration, that I resolved not to get involved in any resistance movement again until the tactical paradigm changed, which I explain in some detail here. But as we saw in Pittsburgh, they're still doin the same shit, and now it appears the Feds are on top of the trends as well.
Without this technology, it's nearly impossible to counter what security forces have at their disposal. This recent FBI raid portends a very bleak demise for this kind of organizing technology. It's clear a message is being sent. The question is, what do we do about it?
Tweet- 10-8-09
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Dancers Against Death!
Mass demos were unfortunately outmoded, co-opted and therefore defeated years ago. The media won't cover our local uprisings. So, continuos small-scale high visibilty politically motivated partying is the way forward.
It can still be web orchestrated, but it will require groups of 20-30 dancing and laughing and singing and chanting in strategically important places, worldwide, on the same day. Having a good time, loving life.
A globally synchronised free party. Every monday morning!
Disappear, get on with the commute, get back in disguise, when the army-cops show up.
The mainstreamedia might not pick up on it, but the people will. Especially if it is regular and passionate and generous and brimful of love and enjoyment of life. Dancers against Death!
Every monday morning. Or indeed every morning...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qAQrsA3m8Bg
YouTube Channel: cveitch
Ah yes... Charlie Veitch and Danny Shine. They are THE BEST example I've seen of how best to fight TPTB. I recommend everyone view their YouTube channel (cveitch). They aren't always perfect in everything they say and do, but overall, this is the future of 'protest'. Atlhough It's really more about expressing ideas with love and compassion.
Example
First of all, I would like
Good Info
Very informative post. This mesh network thing intrigues me. I'm not very network savy, but is there any way I can stay up do date on any progress?
Thank you for this
What do we do about it?
"A crowd is easy to contain when you know they're coming, but a spontaneous mob can put the fear of God into anyone."
This right here has set you up for the "T" word. ;)
And second, if we truly expect to 'out tech' the military industrial complex that invents/invented most of it(the internet included), then we are sadly mistaken.
I see movies like 'Hackers' as a fantasy that perpetuates this falsity, generating false hope that we could 'beat them at their game', but the game is already ten steps ahead(and operating on multiple boards) before we even move. The mesh networking might be allowed for awhile, but can you think of any technologies right now that can possibly locate or disrupt such a system? Not saying I can, I'm not a 'techy', but this is the way to plan: if you are really going to 'get into it' with them, you have to be able to plan and foresee ahead the possibilities, like they do. An aspect of this though, is that it is possible you may find that this line of strategy won't work, then what? Well, all kinds of possibilities, but it is helpful to actually see this and acknowledge and not 'do soemthing' for the sake of doing something.
Another aspect of 'the game' for 'them'(I do not see them as separate, but language dictates) is 'acceptable losses'. Is there any planning by activists today(or ever) that take this into account? And if their acceptable losses are actually people that we really don't want to hurt, or infrastructures we are still wanting to participate in/use, then what?
I've seen the community sites for the informational mining sites that they are, what better way to gather information than to make a 'playground' to observe? Where people feel free to say whatever they want, all the while what we say gets more and more illegal everyday.
No, I can't say that 'protesting' has ever really made any lasting change, but demonstrating makes all the difference. Focusing energy and attention into what we really want and not pleading, complaining or demanding from a system that has no real intention of listening or doing anything about it, but has every interest in keeping the pleading, complaining or demanding going. Keeping us involved in a system that is destroying us.
So what are we wanting? Perhaps why we're really not getting anywhere is because we're not clear on this yet? There are so many divided into different agendas that overlap and effect one another(and many 'surface' issues), that distract from deeper issues that effect on a grander scale. But it is the nature of 'the beast/machine/system'(whatever it is to be called, perhaps 'machine' is most fitting right now since we are being/have been turned into a 'robotic' society that) to grow to such a scale that it feels overwhelming to go beyond it, that is without real 'sacrifice' or 'surrender' of some sort.
Y'see, I feel that people are wanting things to change, but they are expecting 'others' to change, the supposed others that have gotten us into this mess(like we haven't decided to go along with it), the ones that sold us the fantasies of 'modern living' and what that means(as if we didn't buy it), but don't really want to give up the fantasies of our modern living. Like, "We are taking care of you and know how best to 'run the world'. You run along and play(and work to earn your play) and we will make sure you are taken care of."
Of course this happened over decades, if not centuries, and we are just now seeing how the exponential growth of people on the planet has made it difficult to manage things. The fast paced lifestyle that has been conditioned and sold has made it very difficult to really discern with any measure of true maturity. Less and less of the populace are actually active in making decisions that effects all life(political 'voting' no longer counts), that we have let the foxes into the hen house and have mostly been acting like sheep.
So we are being faced with our immaturity and are being offered the opportunity to accept our full maturity. And that means to acknowledge fullheartedly(how come there is a word 'halfheartedly', but not 'fullheartedly'?) our compliance and complacency, our lack of responsibility and accountability. We also have to be able to see that at the heart of 'them' is 'us', whatever is possible in them is possible in us, and not to act or respond with arrogance and condemnation(shaming and blaming), but with humility and the willingness to invite true change in the recognition that We are not 'separate'.
To end the 'war within' to realize peace that shifts attention and energy from warring to...what? Well, we have to be willing to stop supporting the actions that are perpetuating our destructive society. Too what degree there is willingness will be the degree with which we make any real change or shift, what and how much that does remains to be seen, but if we wait for 'them to fix or stop things' not much will happen.
There is more(or perhaps a lot less) to all this, much that can be discussed from many angles, but most of all I want to know: if you had only one choice left before you died, being "do you want to live in 'war'(separation) or 'peace'(unity)?", which would you choose?
Checking back in to say...
Thank you Charles. I want to acknowledge appreciation for the willingness to cover and explore this topic and that I did not read your Green Party article yet, but will next. And thank you everyone/anyone willing to face life in it's unfolding, no matter how dire or dark it may seem, for that is the only way to seeing the light.
Thank you Sean for voicing and exploring deeper what I am sharing, what I feel many of us are feeling, but uncertain how to go about making the shift. It's alright though, what I have found is that we don't have to know conceptually beforehand what 'will be', but just willing to respond when something comes to light that feels right.
I can't even say that we need or are going to 'save ourselves', but that we do have the ability to live out whatever remaining time we have left(be it seconds, days, years, etc.) giving our life force and attention to what we really want, how we truly desire to live life out. And that truly is only for each one to say for their self.
I look forward to the potential that you speak of, to what I feel in the heart of us all, and am doing my best to realize now in every moment: Peace.
Protests Under Attack from FBI
I think the best way to fight is not to engage the enemy. Although I understand this social worker who was arrested for basically warning people on his social network that something dangerous was going on that they would want to avoid, namely the police attacking the protesters at the G20 conference, if we don't have mass protests, the police don't get overtime pay policing these events.
We play right into the hands of the thugs if we get angry or indignant and protest in our tie-dye and blue jeans while they soldier up like pot-bellied Darth Vaders with their tasers and batons. On the other hand, if we disconnect from our basic survival instinct, which, rightfully so, gets angry about these things, we become domesticated animals who walk willingly to slaughter.
I agree with the Skeye, who posted above, that if we are going to save ourselves, we should give our life force and attention to what we truly want, not want we don't want.
We need to do what people in small towns do when they don't like the federal police force who has invaded their town for some pretext or another. The people in these small towns shun the feds. They don't talk to them, or serve them in their restaurants, or assist them with their purchases in their retail establishments, or befriend them, or marry them, or push their car out of the mud, or patch them up in the emergency room.
We should go on strike and detach from this society which is based on death and hurting people by not getting hurt ourselves. Decent, kind, honest self-preservation both of one's self and other good people is a radical social act when one is surrounded by evil people who are just looking for a pretext to get you in trouble so you can be harmed/fined/prosecuted.
Timothy Leary said to tune in and drop out. Maybe we should do this and maybe we are going to have to learn some new skills, like how to outsmart the thug class that wants to hurt us instead of becoming their victims at events like the G20 where they hold all the cards.
A new kind of activism
This sounds true to me..
http://www.organelle.org/organelle/disc/disc.html
http://www.organelle.org/organelle/ca/ca1.html
"The SACRED (whatever that means) is surely related (somehow) to the BEAUTIFUL (whatever that means)..."
Gregory Bateson
Good Article
Propaganda Anonymous
Informative stuff.
I find it inconceivable that A) That bill would get passed allowing Obama, or whomever, the switch to shut off the internet.
Reason: Based this idea on the way technologic innovations have worked in, for the most part, in recent years.
Quick example, as pointed out by a friend, When they tried to shut down Napster, more came up in it's place.
I see the same thing happening with the networks on the Internet. Like an earlier post mentioned about Mesh Networks. I see this happening.
B) If they do manage to pass this bill. And people are able to 'shut it off'I think these mesh networks will quickly rise up.
Still feels necessary to learn about things like Mesh Networking. Just in case we're part of those groups that will get the ball rolling with it.
Apathy
Mobil Protest
(courtesy of Mason Dixon in Chicago)
Mobile Protest
Mobile Protesters are invisible. They create low-level drama noise to a site-specific theater. Mobile Protest has three initial toolkits: wireless communications technology, the illusion of images, and the principles of fluid movement through space.
Mobile Protesters do not march, they crowd the area. They do not walk in parades or stand around holding a sign. They look like their advisories. They dress in suites on Wall Street, and like soccer moms in the park. You cant tell them apart, unless you really stop to ask questions. They take up people's time. A flash mob of impostors will always be more confusing than a flash mob of clowns.
Mobile Protesters never break the law, and they record everything. The goal of Mobile Protest is to create temporary zones of complete system failure. Mobile Protest works to clog every available public resource and line of communication in the physical space of the target.
Tactically, Mobile Protest is an application of Guerrilla Warfare to digital resistance. Mobile Protesters control reality by being in it, at the time and place. Just decide to go get a coffee, and spill it on the way out. Take all the napkins.
Charles Shaw
Author - Exile NationComing soon on Evolver/Reality Sandwich
progress over protest
So many readable points here. I tend to focus on progress over protest, such as a positive lifestyle and common-sense discussions. In fact traveling far off to a protest is costly and widens my carbon footprint. The video almost honors that tribal police tactic. The vid made them rock stars, almost. It clearly provides power-mongers with more revenue for all kinds of payoffs and contracts. On the other hand, if clear scholarship was possible to generate, concerning world governance, then that could provide progress. World governance is not necessarily a dirty word. If peace ever does come, world governance will likely find a place in it somewhere. (For example, a world court could address greedy war-mongers, who practice deceit. A huge body of study or a resource would be required to develop that case. Much more wisdom is needed, beyond energetic protests.)
Besides, it is not necessarily a 'class war', really. Such might develop, due to the incompetence of the buccaneers and pillagers of our world. But more likely, sufficient confusion will be purposefully injected to prevent a full-on revolution with Paul Revere leading a cell phone charge.
Yet there are thinking and loving people of great-power-through-wealth who could be persuaded concerning the poor strategies, of police-states generally. This can provide practical hope for the paradigm shift of 2012, so called. After all it was movements of conscience, including some wealthy families involved, who evolved their own thinking, which coincided with the collapse of military empires. It was also the degeneration of the likes of Caligula and Hitler which ended those empires for ever. The real key here is elevation of conscience. An elevation higher than that materialistic greed of ages past.
Currently, 'G' complexity jogs the light-thinker into a sea of apathy. If a well documented body of work could be injected into universities, then protest could make sense in a dignified way. It could evolve into a viable protest, ahead of the curve. Universities were the most viable centers of anti-Vietnam protesting. Today the universities get too much money from the 'G' proponents. So clearly, much more homework and more diplomacy is needed, before any measure of discussion will start. Until that happens, i would expect little gain. Hard-rock-police will get lots of money, and free advertising on your cell phones. Make their day! Or make way for deeper, disciplined study of the particular underling issues, complete with counter proposals. Strategists essentially stole the 'green' label from activists of the 60s and 70s. The robber-strategists are easy to beat at the bigger chess game. However it takes more than the guts of protest. It takes living examples as proofs. Activists-stategists are so non-funded and marginalized, they are never heard or studied. The police drums penetrate the public further. They stole this from rappers. So let the police drum role alone and to themselves, like the palace guard in England. Get out of there faster, and out-strategize thus. Use the energy of excitement to hit the books immediately. Spread wisdom, not war. The vid made enough of a point, just getting the police arrayed. Hitting the books for deeper study is the best reply. Wisdom over war.
Congratulations However
Making these vids was valuable research, thanks.
Make the best of the vids.
Hit the books. Hit the podcasts while you work at your service-jobs. I can actually listen to some podcasts while doing computer work like my CAD-
http://harmoniouspalette.com/
No offense intended, if this sounds oppositional in some way. I never went to university, etc.... So continuous education seems natural to me. I find it generally helpful in making a living to learn about our world's intricacies. So more study was beautiful for me.
History of Rome is actually an excellent set of lectures on line for free. (As on itunes/search ... Great starting place for the 'G' subject. So many other good sources like this gold mine archive of many subjects. It even includes Alan Watts lectures of the 60s?-
http://www.progressiveradionetwork.com/PRNarchives2.php
I find that audio, as in educational podcasts, really let me resonate with the 'robot worker mis-readings'. Most of us need to do work anyway. Find a way that is sort of on autopilot-- I figured. I usually worked with my hands and usually alone. 'You got to serve someone'
Social networking sites can
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