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<LIVE: Teasers>
On Breaking the Silence tonight:
* Another update on the increasingly ominous developments in
the South American nation of Colombia, including American
imperialism's deepening involvement ...
* Another look at "Police State Creep" - with a particular focus
centering on telecommunications and cyberspace ...
Plus ...
* More sinister moves to keep tabs on the private activities of
individual computer users on the Internet ... triggered by the
effort to clamp down on the millions of individuals who are
copying and sending out music files over the Internet.
These special features ... tonight, Monday, September 4th, 2000 ...
here on the Labor Day edition of Breaking the Silence, KOOP
Radio's locally produced weekly radio news magazine.
<Start OPENING SIG MUSIC - play for 10-15 secs >
<News lead-in (live)>
<Fade out music >
Good evening, and welcome to this special Labor Day edition of
Breaking the Silence, produced by Straight Facts Radio, for Monday,
September 4th, 2000.
I'm Mark Wright.
<<COLOMBIA CRISIS>>
And I'm Carol Hayman.
Our top story tonight ... another update on the increasingly ominous
developments in the South American nation of Colombia, including
American imperialism's deepening involvement, using the pretext of
the "War Against Drugs".
As Straight Facts Radio has reported, what's really been happening is
US imperialist intervention to prop up a rotting and unstable ruling
class, which has been facing increasing mass unrest, including a
guerilla force called the "Armed Revolutionary Force of Columbia", or
FARC.
We've previously noted that Colombia's deteriorating capitalist
economy has fostered increasing mass misery, widespread social
unrest, and a resurgence of leftist guerilla activity against the forces of
the ruling regime.
Much of Colombia's economic and social deterioration has been
detailed in the mainstream, pro-imperialist media.
Last year, for example, the 'New York Times' noted, (quote)
"unemployment [is] rising to an all-time high" and "the peso [is]
plunging to a record low against the dollar."
\LARRY ROHTER: NYT July 18, 1999\
Washington's moves toward deeper and deeper US involvement in
Colombia, have been cloaked by the cover of the so-called "War on
Drugs".
As we've reported, the "Drug War" is US imperialism's pretext of
choice to beef up "counterinsurgency" military operations against leftist
guerilla groups.
In the usual mainstream-media pattern, the 'New York Times' and
other rulingclass mouthpieces have echoed the imperialist line that
America is just bolstering "democracy" in Colombia.
The 'New York times' was particularly revealing about the situation
nearly a year ago, when it noted:
(quote) "With Colombia's government buckling under guerrilla attacks,
a thriving drug trade and the worst economy in decades,the Clinton
administration is putting together a major new effort to prop up the
country's democracy that will include hundreds of millions of dollars in
economic and military aid."
\TIM GOLDEN/STEVEN LEE MYERS: NYT September 15, 1999\
But, as Straight Facts Radio has pointed out, what exists in Colombia,
and just about all of Latin America, could be more accurately
characterized as "police-state 'democracy'".
And Washington has proceeded to pour hundreds of millions of dollars
into the Colombian state apparatus, beefing up rulingclass repression
and making the nation the third-biggest recipient of US aid, after Egypt
and Israel.
\PRNewswire 01-AUG-99\
This has included a major infusion of "aid" to beef up the police state's
internal security apparatus.
This new influx of "aid" has been packed with gobs of new military
equipment, including mountains of weapons like deadly Blackhawk
helicopters, as well as more intelligence support and training for
Colombia's army and police units, as well as hundreds of US soldiers
and more than 100 Drug Enforcement Administration and CIA
operatives.
\PRNewswire 01-AUG-99\
US imperialism's involvement has now mushroomed into a $7.5 billion
five-year program, supposedly aimed at destroying drug crops, rooting
out drug traffickers, and what the 'New York Times' describes as an
effort to (quote) "rebuild [Colombia's] judiciary and other government
operations."
Besides US cash, additional funds are coming from major European
imperialist powers and international agencies.
Last week, President Bill Clinton, accompanied by a party of both
Republican and Democratic lawmakers, made a tightly guarded one-
day visit to Colombia to reaffirm US support for the so-called
"counterinsurgency" effort and lecture his Colombian clients on how
they must use the first installment of the aid package, a $1.3 billion
dollop of military aid .
\MARC LACEY NYT August 31, 2000\
Reacting to criticism, Clinton declared, (quote) "This is not Vietnam,
nor is it Yankee imperialism."
But that's exactly what plenty of observers, including many in the
mainstream, are saying it is.
<Slight pause>
We'll examine these issues more fully in an open discussion among
tonight's "Breaking the Silence" news team ...
<LIVE: ad- lib discussion >
<<POLICE STATE CREEP>> <<CYBERSNOOPING>>
Next ... another update on what we've been calling "Police State
Creep" -- the growing efforts by this country's ruling elite to regiment
the American population with a police-state-style political, legal, and
social structure.
As we've reported, the basic aim is to regiment and discipline the
American public as United States capitalism unravels, and engages in
increasingly dangerous adventures worldwide.
Our particular focus tonight centers on telecommunications and
cyberspace - where the spooks of the CIA and other "intelligence"
agencies of US imperialism have been trying to plug in and listen away
to your private conversations - your international phones calls and,
lately, your Email.
American imperialism's spy apparatus has a (quote) "Long History of
Intercepting Key Words", headlined the 'New York Times' in an expose
earlier this year.
\ELIZABETH BECKER NYT February 24, 2000\
The 'Times' focuses on an operation called the "Echelon" system,
developed in the 1970s. and run by the US National Security Agency,
NSA.
(quote) "It links computers in at least seven sites around the world to
receive, analyze and sort information captured from satellite
communications" recounts the 'Times', referring to "newly declassified
information".
The 'Times' continues with some details. (quote) "The computers
watch and listen for key words in telephone, fax and Internet
communications and route intercepted messages on a topic requested
by a country, the descendant of a decades-old electronic
eavesdropping network set up by the United States with Australia,
Britain, Canada and New Zealand."
\ELIZABETH BECKER NYT February 24, 2000\
According to Jeffrey Richelson, quoted in the article, (quote)
"Countries throughout the world ... engage in widespread satellite
intercepts."
\ELIZABETH BECKER NYT February 24, 2000\
And he goes on to remark, (quote) "It is a legitimate question whether
people minding their own business are having their conversations
picked up by any of these systems."
So we're all having our phone conversations - at least, when we
phone abroad - monitored by these helpful NSA spooks.
Of course, it's all for our own "protection".
That should make us all feel so much safer ... right?
But it's got some of the major European imperialist rivals of
Washington all bent out of shape.
They're convinced the NSA's Echelon is really a cover to provide
American corporations with stolen industrial intelligence, says the
'Times'.
\ELIZABETH BECKER NYT February 24, 2000\
That rivalry - reflecting a growing European revolt against US
imperialism and its economic penetration of Europe and competition in
world markets elsewhere - led to the exposure of Echelon and the
spotlight of publicity it's received recently.
But while the Echelon spy operation and the outrage in Europe have
been simmering in the background, even more ominous instances of
"Police State Creep" have been emerging.
How about an FBI program to scrutinize your private Email and search
for possibly incriminating statements?
That's exactly what the FBI's ominously named "Carnivore" computer
program does.
\DAVID STOUT NYT August 10, 2000\
Now, this is a relatively brand-new spook tool - it's less than two years
old, says the 'New York Times'.
\DAVID STOUT NYT August 10, 2000\
(quote) "Housed in a small black box," relates the 'Times', "Carnivore
consists of hardware and software that trolls for information after being
connected to the network of an Internet service provider. It can monitor
all e-mail on a network, from a list of what messages are transmitted to
their actual contents."
\DAVID STOUT NYT August 10, 2000\
The F.B.I. has said it obtains court orders for the surveillance, and
sees only those e-mails covered by the orders. But some privacy
experts have expressed concerns that only the F.B.I. knows what
Carnivore can do, or what is done with the extraneous information.
If you feel nervous, you're not alone.
Even within America's ruling circles, some leading lights of US
capitalism are edgy.
(quote) "Leading congressional Republicans and privacy groups want
the government to stop using the technology until the system and its
safeguards are better explained" says the 'Dallas Morning News',
which also notes that "The American Civil Liberties Union has filed
papers to obtain the source code and other technical details about
Carnivore."
DMN 07/25/2000
(quote) "The big unanswered question is whether the communications
of innocent people not involved in the investigation will also get
gobbled up" the 'News' points out in an editorial, adding: "And if that
happens, what exactly does the FBI plan to do with that information?"
DMN 07/25/2000
As the 'New York Times' notes, "The F.B.I. has said it obtains court
orders for the surveillance, and sees only those e-mails covered by the
orders. But some privacy experts have expressed concerns that only
the F.B.I. knows what Carnivore can do, or what is done with the
extraneous information. "
<<RECORDING INDUSTRY GREED>><<POLICE STATE CREEP>>
And a related story is a tale which seems to involve both an
astounding level of private-profit greed ... and even more sinister
moves to keep tabs on the private activities of individual computer
users on the Internet.
Our focus on this tonight all revolves around the controversy over
copying and sending out music files over the Internet.
Songs can be recorded in a digitized, very compact form called MP3.
Computer users - many of them younger, usually college students -
have found that they can send these to each other via the Internet.
The songs can therefore be played and shared on different computer-
based audio systems.
Enter Napster, a combination website and software designed to help
users share their music files.
Napster, and other, similar systems, like Gnutella, enable users to
make connections with each other and share their music files.
Well, that has got the top honchos of the music and entertainment
industry all bent out of shape, and some performers as well.
They want total control over how, where, when, and by whom any
recorded music gets sent or possessed.
Last month, the music and entertainment industry won a copyright-
infringement lawsuit against Napster.
But an injunction, stopping the music-sharing activity, was not granted,
pending an appeal court review later this month.
In the meantime, the recording industry bigwigs seem to have some
ominous plans to try to bring music further under their control, and to
put a stop to people sharing their music libraries.
For one thing, they plan to embed special codes in all new music CDs,
to prevent their being copies.
Future CDs may require new electronic equipment to be played -
meaning that everybody would have to ditch one's current CD player
and buy totally new equipment.
But by far the most sinister development is an intensified effort to
refine technology for tracking down individual computer users on the
Internet, based on identifying the user's Internet Access Provider, or
ISP.
ISPs are the companies, like America Online, Texas.net, and
Earthlink, that enable users to connect to the Internet.
The next step would be to force ISPs to reveal the individual accounts
of specific users ... or to refine software to do this automatically and
surreptitiously.
And currently, this vigorous drive to rip away computer users' privacy is
being driven by the recording industry and its following, determined to
go after individuals who share recordings of their personal CDs or LP
records.
Last week, for example, in a story on these efforts, the 'New York
Times' cameoed the work of one such software designer, Travis Hill, in
Provo, Utah, who, according to the 'Times', has been working on a way
to squelch Napster users.
He's concocted software he calls "Media Enforcer", released this past
May, which (quote) "allows an individual to search Napster and
Gnutella servers and compile lists of the screen names of people who
are offering to share specific artists or song titles."
\CATHERINE GREENMAN NYT August 31, 2000\
He claims a new version of the software, soon to be released, will also
reveal the music sharer's IP address, which can then be traced to that
person's Internet service provider.
Hill explains that, although the trail back to the Napster user ends with
the ISP, his software will allow entertainment-industry leading lights to
contact the ISP with demands for giving a "cease and desist" order to
the computer that was used to share music files.
And these guys aren't gonna let privacy rights stand in their way.
The privacy policies of most ISP's require a court order before they'll
contact one of their clients or forward a message to a client, but Hill's
convinced that entertainment-industry gorillas won't have any problem
getting such an order.
The prospect of powerful interests tracking down individual computer
users from their online connections has some very serious
ramifications.
We'll discuss these, and some of the other "Police State Creep" issues
we've raised, in another open discussion among tonight's "Breaking
the Silence" news team ...
<LIVE: ad- lib discussion >
<Begin closing SIG MUSIC>
<OUTTRO>
<Read LIVE over closing SIG MUSIC>
And that's all the time we have for tonight's special edition of "Breaking
the Silence".
The next edition of "Breaking the Silence" to be produced by Straight
Facts Radio is scheduled for September 18th.
And stay tuned for "The Bike Lane", coming next, right here on KOOP
Austin, 91.7 MHz.
<CD: closing SIG MUSIC>
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