Guest LB Posted August 29, 2003 Report Share Posted August 29, 2003 Is the below interference by the US or is it a genuine attempt to free the iranians from their "oppressive regime"?What gives the US the right to interfere with other countries affairs and bypass their laws on freedom????A pact between the U.S. government and the electronic privacy company Anonymizer, Inc. is making the Internet a safer place for controversial websites and subversive opinions -- if you're Iranian. This month Anonymizer began providing Iranians with free access to a Web proxy service designed to circumvent their government's online censorship efforts. In May, government ministers issued a blacklist of 15,000 forbidden "immoral" websites that ISPs in the country must block -- reportedly a mix of adult sites and political news and information outlets. An estimated two million Iranians have Internet access. Among the banned sites are the website for the U.S.-funded Voice of America broadcast service, and the site for Radio Farda, another U.S. station that beams Iranian youth a mix of pop music and westernized news. Both stations are run by the International Broadcasting Bureau (IBB), the U.S. government's overseas news and propaganda arm. The U.S. responded to the filtering this month by paying Anonymizer (neither the IBB nor Anonymizer will disclose how much) to create and maintain a special version of the Anonymizer proxy which only accepts connections from Iran's IP address space, and features instructions in Farsi. The deliberately generic-sounding URLs for the service are publicized over Radio Farda broadcasts and through bulk e-mails that Anonymizer sends to addresses in the country. The addresses are provided by human rights groups and other sources, says Anonymizer president Lance Cottrell. "We're providing a system whereby the people in the countries that are suffering Internet censorship can bypass the government filtering and access all the pages that are blocked," says Cottrell. The services' navigation boxes default to Radio Farda or Voice of America, but surfers are invited to put in any address they like, and browse free of the Iranian government's filtering. "Dissident sites, religious sites, the L.L. Bean catalog -- we point them to the Voice of America site, but they can go anywhere," says Ken Berman, program manager for Internet anticensorship at the IBB, "They're free explore the Internet in an unfettered fashion." Mostly unfettered. Like the Iranian filters, the U.S. service blocks porn sites -- "There's a limit to what taxpayers should pay for," says Berman. But the United States' hope is that a freer flow of online information will improve America's image in the Arab world. The service is similar to one Anonymizer provided to Chinese citizens under a previous government contract that ran-out ended earlier this year. Cottrell and Berman agree that it's only a matter of time before the Iranonymity service winds on the official blacklist. But Berman hints that the U.S. is ready for a prolonged electronic shell game with Tehran. "In China we're continually monitoring the state of the proxy, and when we see the traffic drop off, we change the proxy's address, usually within 24 hours," says Berman. "In Iran, we're prepared to change the proxy address every day if necessary." A bill that passed the U.S. House of Representatives last month would create an Office of Global Internet Freedom that would have up to a $50 million annual budget to help citizens of foreign repressive governments skirt Internet censorship. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sir T Fireball Posted August 30, 2003 Report Share Posted August 30, 2003 INTERFERENCE!!!!!Nothing the yanks would like more than for the Iranians to revolt against their leaders and 'invite' the colonials in to help kick some mullah butt.Alternatively....To stir up the masses so that the Iranian gov't reacts (preferably heavy-handedly) and so giving the colonials the excuse of invading for humanitarian reasons. :( Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest moon Posted August 30, 2003 Report Share Posted August 30, 2003 Whatever. Bye bye Taliban, bye bye Saddam and bye bye anybody else that even looks like a threat to the West. Kick a giant in the nuts and you'd better have a deep and secret hidey-hole. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LB Posted August 30, 2003 Report Share Posted August 30, 2003 Whatever. Bye bye Taliban, bye bye Saddam and bye bye anybody else that even looks like a threat to the West. Kick a giant in the nuts and you'd better have a deep and secret hidey-hole.i see your point but they don't kick hard enough or in the right place...the taliban- still in existance, no doubt re-organising for a comeback at some stageSadaam- hes still alive somewhere and us soldiers are being killed by the dozen as well as bombs going off all over the placeKorea - still a major threat - even more so than iraq waspalestine - still a big issueexactly what have the US done for world peace except start a lot of wars, none of which they can finish? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest moon Posted August 30, 2003 Report Share Posted August 30, 2003 If Imperialism was a threat during the Great War then they helped save the world from that. If Fascism was a threat during WW2 then they helped save the world from that. If Communism was a threat after WW2 then they most certainly saved the world from that, not only through Cold War tactics but in Korea and Indo-China. People look upon the Vietnamese war as folly but it prevented Chinese communist ambitions from consuming Japan and my own country. Now that Islamic Fundamentalist half-men have the world cowed through terror tactics in order to propogate Dark Age beliefs it is the Americans, once again, who sacrifice their lives and their wealth to protect the quality of life of the rest of the world. The Taliban are finished as a force which murdered, raped , mutilated and tortured, as is Saddam. Activity from those quarters is spasmodic, the twitching of a fallen beast. Without the Americans the Fascists would be fighting the Communists over the bones of a free world in which the Fundamentalists were free to blow our balls off as we went to work at our slave labour. Who gives a toss about the Iranian mullahs ? Let the young and sane Iranians have them for lunch. Just a few years back they were blowing holidaymakers out of the sky and condemning writers to death for the crime of criticism. Fortune favours the brave and its time that Western pacifists realised that attack is the best form of defense. Go sock it to 'em, Uncle Sam, and by the time the UK has ousted Blair for helping to keep London bomb-free the Tories will be back in there with their own right-wing agenda.Death to Fundamentalists and stick it to Mugabe while you're at it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
popeye Posted August 30, 2003 Report Share Posted August 30, 2003 Moon."Phew" :rolleyes: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest moon Posted August 30, 2003 Report Share Posted August 30, 2003 :D Faint heart never won fair lady. :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest LB Posted August 31, 2003 Report Share Posted August 31, 2003 If Imperialism was a threat during the Great War then they helped save the world from that. If Fascism was a threat during WW2 then they helped save the world from that. If Communism was a threat after WW2 then they most certainly saved the world from that, not only through Cold War tactics but in Korea and Indo-China. People look upon the Vietnamese war as folly but it prevented Chinese communist ambitions from consuming Japan and my own country. Now that Islamic Fundamentalist half-men have the world cowed through terror tactics in order to propogate Dark Age beliefs it is the Americans, once again, who sacrifice their lives and their wealth to protect the quality of life of the rest of the world. The Taliban are finished as a force which murdered, raped , mutilated and tortured, as is Saddam. Activity from those quarters is spasmodic, the twitching of a fallen beast. Without the Americans the Fascists would be fighting the Communists over the bones of a free world in which the Fundamentalists were free to blow our balls off as we went to work at our slave labour. Who gives a toss about the Iranian mullahs ? Let the young and sane Iranians have them for lunch. Just a few years back they were blowing holidaymakers out of the sky and condemning writers to death for the crime of criticism. Fortune favours the brave and its time that Western pacifists realised that attack is the best form of defense. Go sock it to 'em, Uncle Sam, and by the time the UK has ousted Blair for helping to keep London bomb-free the Tories will be back in there with their own right-wing agenda.Death to Fundamentalists and stick it to Mugabe while you're at it.thats put that straight then moon..........well said...!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sir T Fireball Posted September 5, 2003 Report Share Posted September 5, 2003 Kick a giant in the nuts and you'd better have a deep and secret hidey-hole.They got no nuts, they ARE nuts, but with big guns :P now where did I put my asbestos suit :unsure: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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