US Subpoenaed All Visitor Logs From Online News Publication; Falsely Said Site Couldn't Tell Anyone
from the the-abuse-of-secrecy dept
We've seen it over and over again: when the government can hide behind the veil of secrecy, it can abuse its power. That's why we're supposed to have checks and balances on power, but all too often governments figure out ways to get around that. The latest example is that US attorneys issued a subpoena to the person hosting the news website Indymedia, demanding a logfile of all visitors from a particular day and ordered the woman not to reveal the existence of the subpoena itself. Indymedia doesn't keep its logfiles, so it simply had nothing to turn over, and after realizing this, the government withdrew the request. However, the requirement to stay silent about it still was there, and the woman asked the EFF for help. With the EFF involved, the government finally backed down and admitted that there was absolutely no legal basis for demanding that the woman not talk about the subpoena, and "chose not to go to court" over the matter, despite threatening to at an earlier time.This is hardly the first time we've heard about the government using (and abusing) procedures like national security letters to not just demand all sorts of info, but also demand that the recipient not tell anyone about it. Every once in a while we're able to hear about these situations because a group like the EFF or the ACLU pushed back and were able to get the US government to back down, but that's likely only a fraction of the situations where this has happened. In many others, we likely don't even know at all, because the recipient gave in, either because they didn't realize their legal rights, or because it just wasn't worth the fight. But when the government thinks that it can demand certain data and cloak the demand behind a related demand for secrecy, it makes it way too easy for the government to abuse the process. It basically guarantees no oversight, so why not ask for way more than the law requires, knowing that most people won't push back and no one will ever find out about it?
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Filed Under: log files, secrecy, subpoena
Companies: eff, indymedia
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Government of the people myth
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Re: Government of the people myth
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Re: Re: Government of the people myth
Waaaaaay before then. More like around the time the first national bank was created. People with very familiar last names (Morgans, Rothschilds, Rockefellers, etc.).
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It's a Government for the Government by the Government and for the Bankers by the Bankers.
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Re:
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Same people
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Re: Same people
Then there is the "nothing can be done" attitude. This attitude is more realistic, in that it acknowledges the rigged system, and says in essence, "I can't change things from within the confines and rules which have been set up, so I'm just going to get together with a bunch of other people and begin to subvert the system."
This latter method actually works, because there is no rigging possible with anarchy and subversion. The riggers of systems get all hot and bothered when their control mechanisms break down.
Viva La Revolution!
(The shame is, what usually happens is that when the control mechanisms break down and subversion starts, the riggers of systems back off *just enough* to cause the subversion to wane. People get fat and lazy again, and we're back on track. They've learned not to piss people off *too* much, and just rely on a formula to do as much damage as possible, without tipping the boat over. As long as we remain blind to this, we will always get the least possible freedom that the rigging will allow.)
CBMHB
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Re: Re: Same people
There is little to no choice in major elections today. When you realize that 90% or so of the money (made that up, but maybe there's a true figure out there) that BOTH parties get comes from the same sources, you begin to see the problem.
Controlling elections isn't done by rigging the votes so that one favored candidate wins. It's done by making sure that no matter WHO wins, it's your guy....
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Re: Re: Same people
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Obama's Communist Administration is Killing the Constitution
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Re: Obama's Communist Administration is Killing the Constitution
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I'm sure - this is only ONE of many such 'requests'. By the Bush administration, the Obama administration, etc, etc, etc.
Our one-party system just does so much it's hard to hide now.
Oh wait - was it supposed to be 'two-parties' like Network News tells us? lol, not.
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