<div dir="ltr"><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">---------- Forwarded message ----------<br>From: <b class="gmail_sendername">peter waterman</b> <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:peterwaterman1936@gmail.com">peterwaterman1936@gmail.com</a>></span><br>
Date: Wed, Jul 31, 2013 at 1:58 PM<br>Subject: Fwd: [Debate-List] (Fwd) Internet under threat - can US Congress defend against Obama-Stasi state and Google, Facebook, Yahoo, Amazon, Apple and Microsoft<br>To: Michel Bauwens <<a href="mailto:michel@p2pfoundation.net">michel@p2pfoundation.net</a>>, Orsan Senalp <<a href="mailto:orsan1234@gmail.com">orsan1234@gmail.com</a>><br>
<br><br><div dir="ltr"><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">---------- Forwarded message ----------<br>From: <b class="gmail_sendername">Patrick Bond</b> <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:pbond@mail.ngo.za" target="_blank">pbond@mail.ngo.za</a>></span><br>
Date: Wed, Jul 31, 2013 at 5:31 AM<br>Subject: [Debate-List] (Fwd) Internet under threat - can US Congress defend against Obama-Stasi state and Google, Facebook, Yahoo, Amazon, Apple and Microsoft<br>To: DEBATE <<a href="mailto:debate-list@fahamu.org" target="_blank">debate-list@fahamu.org</a>><br>
<br><br>
<div text="#000000" bgcolor="#FFFFFF">
(Will there be new cloud alternatives to the big capitalist firms so
that there's an easy answer to this? "when your chief information
officer proposes to use the Amazon or Google cloud as a data-store
for your company's confidential documents, tell him where to file
the proposal. In the shredder." How come we've not seen any firm not
from the US step into the huge breach so we can all stop being so
FB/Google-reliant?)<br>
<b><br>
Edward Snowden is not the story</b><br>
<br>
The fate of the internet is<br>
<br>
The press has lost the plot over the Snowden revelations. The fact
is that the net is finished as a global network and that US firms'
cloud services cannot be trusted.<br>
<br>
by John Naughton<br>
<br>
The Observer (July 28 2013)<br>
<br>
Repeat after me: Edward Snowden is not the story. The story is what
he has revealed about the hidden wiring of our networked world. This
insight seems to have escaped most of the world's mainstream media,
for reasons that escape me but would not have surprised Evelyn
Waugh, whose contempt for journalists was one of his few endearing
characteristics. The obvious explanations are: incorrigible
ignorance; the imperative to personalise stories; or gullibility in
swallowing US government spin, which brands Snowden as a spy rather
than a whistleblower.<br>
<br>
In a way, it doesn't matter why the media lost the scent. What
matters is that they did. So as a public service, let us summarise
what Snowden has achieved thus far {1}.<br>
<br>
Without him, we would not know how the National Security Agency
(NSA) had been able to access the emails, Facebook accounts and
videos of citizens across the world; or how it had secretly acquired
the phone records of millions of Americans; or how, through a secret
court, it has been able to bend nine US internet companies to its
demands for access to their users' data {2}.<br>
<br>
Similarly, without Snowden, we would not be debating whether the US
government should have turned surveillance into a huge, privatised
business, offering data-mining contracts to private contractors such
as Booz Allen Hamilton and, in the process, high-level security
clearance to thousands of people who shouldn't have it. Nor would
there be - finally - a serious debate between Europe (excluding the
UK, which in these matters is just an overseas franchise of the US)
and the United States about where the proper balance between freedom
and security lies.<br>
<br>
These are pretty significant outcomes and they're just the
first-order consequences of Snowden's activities. As far as most of
our mass media are concerned, though, they have gone largely
unremarked. Instead, we have been fed a constant stream of
journalistic pap - speculation about Snowden's travel plans, asylum
requests, state of mind, physical appearance, et cetera. The "human
interest" angle has trumped the real story, which is what the NSA
revelations tell us about how our networked world actually works and
the direction in which it is heading.<br>
<br>
As an antidote, here are some of the things we should be thinking
about as a result of what we have learned so far.<br>
<br>
The first is that the days of the internet as a truly global network
are numbered. It was always a possibility that the system would
eventually be Balkanised, that is, divided into a number of
geographical or jurisdiction-determined subnets as societies such as
China, Russia, Iran and other Islamic states decided that they
needed to control how their citizens communicated. Now,
Balkanisation is a certainty.<br>
<br>
Second, the issue of internet governance is about to become very
contentious. Given what we now know about how the US and its satraps
have been abusing their privileged position in the global
infrastructure, the idea that the western powers can be allowed to
continue to control it has become untenable.<br>
<br>
Third, as Evgeny Morozov has pointed out {3}, the Obama
administration's "internet freedom agenda" has been exposed as
patronising cant. "Today", he writes, "the rhetoric of the 'internet
freedom agenda' looks as trustworthy as George Bush's 'freedom
agenda' after Abu Ghraib".<br>
<br>
That's all at nation-state level. But the Snowden revelations also
have implications for you and me.<br>
<br>
They tell us, for example, that no US-based internet company can be
trusted to protect our privacy or data. The fact is that Google,
Facebook, Yahoo, Amazon, Apple and Microsoft are all integral
components of the US cyber-surveillance system. Nothing, but
nothing, that is stored in their "cloud" services can be guaranteed
to be safe from surveillance or from illicit downloading by
employees of the consultancies employed by the NSA. That means that
if you're thinking of outsourcing your troublesome IT operations to,
say, Google or Microsoft, then think again.<br>
<br>
And if you think that that sounds like the paranoid fantasising of a
newspaper columnist, then consider what Neelie Kroes, vice-president
of the European Commission, had to say on the matter recently. "If
businesses or governments think they might be spied on", she said,<br>
<br>
��� they will have less reason to trust the cloud, and it will be
cloud providers who ultimately miss out. Why would you pay someone
else to hold your commercial or other secrets, if you suspect or
know they are being shared against your wishes? Front or back door -
it doesn't matter - any smart person doesn't want the information
shared at all. Customers will act rationally and providers will miss
out on a great opportunity. {4}<br>
<br>
Spot on. So when your chief information officer proposes to use the
Amazon or Google cloud as a data-store for your company's
confidential documents, tell him where to file the proposal. In the
shredder.<br>
<br>
Links:<br>
<br>
{1}
<a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/28/opinion/global/the-service-of-snowden.html?_r=0" target="_blank">http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/28/opinion/global/the-service-of-snowden.html?_r=0</a><br>
<br>
{2} <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/technology/internet" target="_blank">http://www.theguardian.com/technology/internet</a><br>
<br>
{3}
<a href="http://www.faz.net/aktuell/feuilleton/debatten/ueberwachung/information-consumerism-the-price-of-hypocrisy-12292374.html" target="_blank">http://www.faz.net/aktuell/feuilleton/debatten/ueberwachung/information-consumerism-the-price-of-hypocrisy-12292374.html</a><br>
<br>
{4} <a href="http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_MEMO-13-654_en.htm" target="_blank">http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_MEMO-13-654_en.htm</a><br>
_____<br>
<br>
John Naughton is professor of the public understanding of technology
at the Open University.<br>
<br>
***<br>
<br>
<div lang="x-unicode"><b><a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/29/us/politics/momentum-builds-against-nsa-surveillance.html" target="_blank">http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/29/us/politics/momentum-builds-against-nsa-surveillance.html</a><br>
<br>
</b>
<div>
<div> <b>New York Times�� July 28, 2013</b>
</div>
<div> </div>
</div>
<h1>Momentum Builds Against N.S.A. Surveillance</h1>
<h6><font>By <span>
<span>JONATHAN WEISMAN</span></span></font></h6>
<div>
<p>
WASHINGTON � The movement to crack down on government
surveillance started with an odd couple from Michigan,
Representatives Justin Amash, a young libertarian Republican
known even to his friends as �chief wing nut,� and John
Conyers Jr., an elder of the liberal left in his 25th House
term. </p>
<p>
But what began on the political fringes only a week ago has
built a momentum that even critics say may be unstoppable,
drawing support from Republican and Democratic leaders,
attracting moderates in both parties and pulling in some of
the most respected voices on national security in the House. </p>
<p>
The rapidly shifting politics were reflected clearly in the
House on Wednesday, when a plan to defund the <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/organizations/n/national_security_agency/index.html?inline=nyt-org" title="More articles about National Security Agency, U.S." target="_blank">National Security Agency</a>�s telephone
data collection program <a title="Times article" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/25/us/politics/house-defeats-effort-to-rein-in-nsa-data-gathering.html" target="_blank">fell just seven votes short of passage</a>.
Now, after initially signaling that they were comfortable with
the scope of the N.S.A.�s collection of Americans� phone and
Internet activities, but not their content, revealed last
month by Edward J. Snowden, lawmakers are showing an
increasing willingness to use legislation to curb those
actions. </p>
<p>
Representatives Jim Sensenbrenner, Republican of Wisconsin,
and Zoe Lofgren, Democrat of California, have begun work on
legislation in the House Judiciary Committee to significantly
rein in N.S.A. telephone surveillance. Mr. Sensenbrenner said
on Friday that he would have a bill ready when Congress
returned from its August recess that would restrict phone
surveillance to only those named as targets of a federal
terrorism investigation, make significant changes to <a title="Times article" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/07/us/in-secret-court-vastly-broadens-powers-of-nsa.html" target="_blank">the secret court</a> that oversees such
programs and give businesses like Microsoft and Google
permission to reveal their dealings before that court. </p>
<p>
�There is a growing sense that things have really gone
a-kilter here,� Ms. Lofgren said. </p>
<p>
The sudden reconsideration of post-Sept. 11 counterterrorism
policy has taken much of Washington by surprise. As <a title="Times article" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2013/06/11/us/how-edward-j-snowden-orchestrated-a-blockbuster-story.html" target="_blank">the revelations</a> by Mr. Snowden, a former
N.S.A. contractor, were gaining attention in the news media,
the White House and leaders in both parties stood united
behind the programs he had unmasked. They were focused mostly
on bringing the leaker to justice. </p>
<p>
Backers of sweeping surveillance powers now say they recognize
that changes are likely, and they are taking steps to make
sure they maintain control over the extent of any revisions.
Leaders of the Senate Intelligence Committee met on Wednesday
as the House deliberated to try to find accommodations to
growing public misgivings about the programs, said the
committee�s chairwoman, Senator Dianne Feinstein, Democrat of
California. </p>
<p>
Senator Mark Udall, a Colorado Democrat and longtime critic of
the N.S.A. surveillance programs, said he had taken part in
serious meetings to discuss changes. </p>
<p>
Senator Saxby Chambliss of Georgia, the ranking Republican on
the panel, said, �We�re talking through it right now.� He
added, �There are a lot of ideas on the table, and it�s pretty
obvious that we�ve got some uneasy folks.� </p>
<p>
Representative Mike Rogers, a Michigan Republican and the
chairman of the House Intelligence Committee, has assured
House colleagues that an intelligence policy bill he plans to
draft in mid-September will include new privacy safeguards. </p>
<p>
Aides familiar with his efforts said the House Intelligence
Committee was focusing on more transparency for the secret
Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, which oversees data
gathering, including possibly declassifying that court�s
orders, and changes to the way the surveillance data is
stored. The legislation may order such data to be held by the
telecommunications companies that produce them or by an
independent entity, not the government. </p>
<p>
Lawmakers say their votes to restrain the N.S.A. reflect a
gut-level concern among voters about personal privacy. </p>
<p>
�I represent a very reasonable district in suburban
Philadelphia, and my constituents are expressing a growing
concern on the sweeping amounts of data that the government is
compiling,� said Representative Michael G. Fitzpatrick, a
moderate Republican who represents one of the few true swing
districts left in the House and who voted on Wednesday to
limit N.S.A. surveillance. </p>
<p>
Votes from the likes of Mr. Fitzpatrick were not initially
anticipated when Republican leaders chided reporters for their
interest in legislation that they said would go nowhere. As
the House slowly worked its way on Wednesday toward an evening
vote to curb government surveillance, even proponents of the
legislation jokingly predicted that only the �wing nuts� � the
libertarians of the right, the most ardent liberals on the
left � would support the measure. </p>
<p>
Then Mr. Sensenbrenner, a Republican veteran and one of the
primary authors of the post-Sept. 11 <a href="http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/u/usa_patriot_act/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier" title="More articles about the USA Patriot Act." target="_blank">Patriot Act</a>, stepped to a microphone on
the House floor. Never, he said, did he intend to allow the
wholesale vacuuming up of domestic phone records, nor did his
legislation envision that data dragnets would go beyond
specific targets of terrorism investigations. </p>
<p>
�The time has come to stop it, and the way we stop it is to
approve this amendment,� Mr. Sensenbrenner said. </p>
<p>
He had not intended to speak, and when he did, he did not say
much, just seven brief sentences. </p>
<p>
�I was able to say what needed to be said in a minute,� he
said Friday. </p>
<p>
Lawmakers from both parties said the brief speech was a
pivotal moment. When the tally was final, the effort to end
the N.S.A.�s programs had fallen short, <a title="Tally of
the vote" href="http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2013/roll412.xml" target="_blank">205 to 217</a>. Supporters included
Republican leaders like Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers
of Washington and Democratic leaders like Representative James
E. Clyburn of South Carolina. Republican moderates like Mr.
Fitzpatrick and Blue Dog Democrats like Representative Kurt
Schrader of Oregon joined with respected voices on national
security matters like Mr. Sensenbrenner and Ms. Lofgren. </p>
<p>
Besides Ms. McMorris Rodgers, Representative Lynn Jenkins of
Kansas, another member of the Republican leadership, voted
yes. On the Democratic side, the chairman of the House
Democratic Caucus, Representative Xavier Becerra of
California, and his vice chairman, Representative Joseph
Crowley of New York, broke with the top two Democrats,
Representatives Nancy Pelosi of California and Steny H. Hoyer
of Maryland, who pressed hard for no votes. </p>
<p>
On Friday, Ms. Pelosi, the House minority leader and a veteran
of the Intelligence Committee, and Mr. Hoyer dashed off a
letter to the president warning that even those Democrats who
had stayed with him on the issue on Wednesday would be seeking
changes. </p>
<p>
That letter included the signature of Mr. Conyers, who is
rallying an increasingly unified Democratic caucus to his
side, as well as 61 House Democrats who voted no on Wednesday
but are now publicly signaling their discontent. </p>
<p>
�Although some of us voted for and others against the
amendment, we all agree that there are lingering questions and
concerns about the current� data collection program, <a title="The letter" href="http://blogs.mcclatchydc.com/washington/2013/07/pelosi-153-house-democrats-tell-obama-of-lingering-questions-and-concerns-about-nsa-programs.html" target="_blank">the letter stated</a>. </p>
<p>
Representative Reid Ribble of Wisconsin, a Republican who
voted for the curbs and predicted that changes to the N.S.A.
surveillance programs were now unstoppable, said: �This was in
many respects a vote intended to send a message. The vote was
just too strong.� </p>
<p>
Ms. Lofgren said the White House and Democratic and Republican
leaders had not come to grips with what she called �a grave
sense of betrayal� that greeted Mr. Snowden�s revelations.
Since the Bush administration, lawmakers had been repeatedly
assured that such indiscriminate collection of data did not
exist, and that when targeting was unspecific, it was aimed at
people abroad. </p>
<p>
The movement against the N.S.A. began with the fringes of each
party. Mr. Amash of Michigan began pressing for an amendment
on the annual military spending bill aimed at the N.S.A.
Leaders of the Intelligence Committee argued strenuously that
such an amendment was not relevant to military spending and
should be ruled out of order. </p>
<p>
But Mr. Amash, an acolyte of Ron Paul, a libertarian former
congressman, persisted and rallied support. </p>
<p>
Mr. Sensenbrenner and Ms. Lofgren said they were willing to
work with the House and Senate intelligence panels to overhaul
the surveillance programs, but indicated that they did not
believe those panels were ready to go far enough. </p>
<p>
�I would just hope the Intelligence Committees will not stick
their heads in the sand on this,� Mr. Sensenbrenner said. </p><span class="HOEnZb"><font color="#888888"><span><font color="#888888">
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<p></p>
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�<br>
</font></span></font></span></div><span class="HOEnZb"><font color="#888888"><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br><div dir="ltr"><ul><li><font size="1"><b><span><span>EBook (co-editor), February 2013: World Social Forum: Critical Explorations <a href="http://www.into-ebooks.com/book/world_social_forum/" target="_blank">http://www.into-ebooks.com/book/world_social_forum/<font color="#ff0000"> </font></a></span></span></b><b><span><span><br>
</span></span></b></font></li><li><font size="1"><b><span></span></b><b><span><span>EBook, November 2012:</span> <a href="http://www.into-ebooks.com/book/recovering_internationalism/" target="_blank">Recovering
Internationalism</a>.� </span></b><span><font color="#ff0000">[Now <b>free </b>in two download formats]</font></span><span><span><a href="http://www.into-ebooks.com/book/world_social_forum/" target="_blank"><span style="background-color:rgb(255,0,0)"><span></span></span></a></span></span><b><span><span><a href="http://www.into-ebooks.com/book/world_social_forum/" target="_blank"><span style="background-color:rgb(255,0,0)"><span></span></span></a></span></span></b></font></li>
<li><font size="1"><b><span>Interface
Journal<span> Special (co-editor), November 2012:</span> </span></b><b><span style="font-weight:normal"><a href="http://www.interfacejournal.net/current/" target="_blank"><b>For the Global Emancipation of Labour</b></a></span></b></font>
</li><li><font size="1"><b><span lang="NL">Blog:</span></b><b><span lang="NL"> <a href="http://www.unionbook.org/profile/peterwaterman." target="_blank">http://www.unionbook.org/profile/peterwaterman.</a>
</span></b></font></li><li style="text-align:left"><font size="1"><b><span>EBook 2011, Under, Against, Beyond (Compilation 1980s-90s) <a href="http://www.into-ebooks.com/book/under-against-beyond/" target="_blank">http://www.into-ebooks.com/book/under-against-beyond/</a></span></b><br>
</font></li><li><font size="1"><b><span>Paper 2012:</span></b><b><span> <a href="http://www.unionbook.org/profiles/blogs/peter-waterman-the-second-coming-of-the-wftu-updated" target="_blank">The 2nd Coming of the World Federation of Trade�Unions <br>
</a></span></b></font></li><li><font size="1"><b><span><a href="http://www.unionbook.org/profiles/blogs/peter-waterman-the-second-coming-of-the-wftu-updated" target="_blank">
</a>Paper 2012:<span>� </span><a href="http://www.unionbook.org/profiles/blogs/marikana-south-africa-elsewhere-the-dance-of-the-undead" target="_blank">Marikana,
South Africa, The March of the Undead</a></span></b></font></li><li><font size="1"><b><span>Chapter, 2013. 'Many New Internationalisms!', in Corinne Kumar (ed), <i>Asking, We Walk:</i></span></b><span style="font-weight:normal" lang="EN-GB"><b><i> The South as New Political Imaginary,</i> Bangalore:<span> Streelekha Publications.</span></b></span><br>
</font></li><li><table cellpadding="0"><tbody><tr><td><font size="1"><br></font></td><td><font size="1"><br></font></td></tr></tbody></table></li></ul><font size="1">
</font><font size="1">
</font></div>
</font></span></div>
</div><br><br clear="all"><br>-- <br>P2P Foundation: <a href="http://p2pfoundation.net" target="_blank">http://p2pfoundation.net</a>� - <a href="http://blog.p2pfoundation.net" target="_blank">http://blog.p2pfoundation.net</a> <br>
<br><a href="http://lists.ourproject.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/p2p-foundation" target="_blank"></a>Updates: <a href="http://twitter.com/mbauwens" target="_blank">http://twitter.com/mbauwens</a>; <a href="http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens" target="_blank">http://www.facebook.com/mbauwens</a><br>
<br>#82 on the (En)Rich list: <a href="http://enrichlist.org/the-complete-list/" target="_blank">http://enrichlist.org/the-complete-list/</a> <br>
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