Thanks Julian, care to comment on the technology elements or any of the factual items in the article?
-david On 06/12/2011 04:11 PM, Julian Cain wrote: > The Obama administration helping dissidents? That's a lie. He's doing the > opposite. Sheeple > > > > On Jun 12, 2011, at 5:47 PM, David Barrett<[email protected]> wrote: > >> Anybody know anything about this? Sounds cool! >> >> -david >> >> http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/12/world/12internet.html?_r=1 >> >> The Obama administration is leading a global effort to deploy “shadow” >> Internet and mobile phone systems that dissidents can use to undermine >> repressive governments that seek to silence them by censoring or >> shutting down telecommunications networks. >> Multimedia >> >> Slide Show >> Technology for ‘Shadow’ Internet Networks >> >> Graphic >> Creating a Stealth Internet >> The effort includes secretive projects to create independent cellphone >> networks inside foreign countries, as well as one operation out of a spy >> novel in a fifth-floor shop on L Street in Washington, where a group of >> young entrepreneurs who look as if they could be in a garage band are >> fitting deceptively innocent-looking hardware into a prototype “Internet >> in a suitcase.” >> >> Financed with a $2 million State Department grant, the suitcase could be >> secreted across a border and quickly set up to allow wireless >> communication over a wide area with a link to the global Internet. >> >> The American effort, revealed in dozens of interviews, planning >> documents and classified diplomatic cables obtained by The New York >> Times, ranges in scale, cost and sophistication. >> >> Some projects involve technology that the United States is developing; >> others pull together tools that have already been created by hackers in >> a so-called liberation-technology movement sweeping the globe. >> >> The State Department, for example, is financing the creation of stealth >> wireless networks that would enable activists to communicate outside the >> reach of governments in countries like Iran, Syria and Libya, according >> to participants in the projects. >> >> In one of the most ambitious efforts, United States officials say, the >> State Department and Pentagon have spent at least $50 million to create >> an independent cellphone network in Afghanistan using towers on >> protected military bases inside the country. It is intended to offset >> the Taliban’s ability to shut down the official Afghan services, >> seemingly at will. >> >> The effort has picked up momentum since the government of President >> Hosni Mubarak shut down the Egyptian Internet in the last days of his >> rule. In recent days, the Syrian government also temporarily disabled >> much of that country’s Internet, which had helped protesters mobilize. >> >> The Obama administration’s initiative is in one sense a new front in a >> longstanding diplomatic push to defend free speech and nurture >> democracy. For decades, the United States has sent radio broadcasts into >> autocratic countries through Voice of America and other means. More >> recently, Washington has supported the development of software that >> preserves the anonymity of users in places like China, and training for >> citizens who want to pass information along the government-owned >> Internet without getting caught. >> >> But the latest initiative depends on creating entirely separate pathways >> for communication. It has brought together an improbable alliance of >> diplomats and military engineers, young programmers and dissidents from >> at least a dozen countries, many of whom variously describe the new >> approach as more audacious and clever and, yes, cooler. >> >> Sometimes the State Department is simply taking advantage of >> enterprising dissidents who have found ways to get around government >> censorship. American diplomats are meeting with operatives who have been >> burying Chinese cellphones in the hills near the border with North >> Korea, where they can be dug up and used to make furtive calls, >> according to interviews and the diplomatic cables. >> >> The new initiatives have found a champion in Secretary of State Hillary >> Rodham Clinton, whose department is spearheading the American effort. >> “We see more and more people around the globe using the Internet, mobile >> phones and other technologies to make their voices heard as they protest >> against injustice and seek to realize their aspirations,” Mrs. Clinton >> said in an e-mail response to a query on the topic. “There is a historic >> opportunity to effect positive change, change America supports,” she >> said. “So we’re focused on helping them do that, on helping them talk to >> each other, to their communities, to their governments and to the world.” >> >> Developers caution that independent networks come with downsides: >> repressive governments could use surveillance to pinpoint and arrest >> activists who use the technology or simply catch them bringing hardware >> across the border. But others believe that the risks are outweighed by >> the potential impact. “We’re going to build a separate infrastructure >> where the technology is nearly impossible to shut down, to control, to >> surveil,” said Sascha Meinrath, who is leading the “Internet in a >> suitcase” project as director of the Open Technology Initiative at the >> New America Foundation, a nonpartisan research group. >> >> “The implication is that this disempowers central authorities from >> infringing on people’s fundamental human right to communicate,” Mr. >> Meinrath added. >> >> The Invisible Web >> >> In an anonymous office building on L Street in Washington, four unlikely >> State Department contractors sat around a table. Josh King, sporting >> multiple ear piercings and a studded leather wristband, taught himself >> programming while working as a barista. Thomas Gideon was an >> accomplished hacker. Dan Meredith, a bicycle polo enthusiast, helped >> companies protect their digital secrets. >> >> Then there was Mr. Meinrath, wearing a tie as the dean of the group at >> age 37. He has a master’s degree in psychology and helped set up >> wireless networks in underserved communities in Detroit and Philadelphia. >> >> The group’s suitcase project will rely on a version of “mesh network” >> technology, which can transform devices like cellphones or personal >> computers to create an invisible wireless web without a centralized hub. >> In other words, a voice, picture or e-mail message could hop directly >> between the modified wireless devices — each one acting as a mini cell >> “tower” and phone — and bypass the official network. >> >> Mr. Meinrath said that the suitcase would include small wireless >> antennas, which could increase the area of coverage; a laptop to >> administer the system; thumb drives and CDs to spread the software to >> more devices and encrypt the communications; and other components like >> Ethernet cables. >> >> The project will also rely on the innovations of independent Internet >> and telecommunications developers. >> >> “The cool thing in this political context is that you cannot easily >> control it,” said Aaron Kaplan, an Austrian cybersecurity expert whose >> work will be used in the suitcase project. Mr. Kaplan has set up a >> functioning mesh network in Vienna and says related systems have >> operated in Venezuela, Indonesia and elsewhere. >> >> Mr. Meinrath said his team was focused on fitting the system into the >> bland-looking suitcase and making it simple to implement — by, say, >> using “pictograms” in the how-to manual. >> >> In addition to the Obama administration’s initiatives, there are almost >> a dozen independent ventures that also aim to make it possible for >> unskilled users to employ existing devices like laptops or smartphones >> to build a wireless network. One mesh network was created around >> Jalalabad, Afghanistan, as early as five years ago, using technology >> developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. >> >> Creating simple lines of communication outside official ones is crucial, >> said Collin Anderson, a 26-year-old liberation-technology researcher >> from North Dakota who specializes in Iran, where the government all but >> shut down the Internet during protests in 2009. The slowdown made most >> “circumvention” technologies — the software legerdemain that helps >> dissidents sneak data along the state-controlled networks — nearly >> useless, he said. >> >> “No matter how much circumvention the protesters use, if the government >> slows the network down to a crawl, you can’t upload YouTube videos or >> Facebook postings,” Mr. Anderson said. “They need alternative ways of >> sharing information or alternative ways of getting it out of the country.” >> >> That need is so urgent, citizens are finding their own ways to set up >> rudimentary networks. Mehdi Yahyanejad, an Iranian expatriate and >> technology developer who co-founded a popular Persian-language Web site, >> estimates that nearly half the people who visit the site from inside >> Iran share files using Bluetooth — which is best known in the West for >> running wireless headsets and the like. In more closed societies, >> however, Bluetooth is used to discreetly beam information — a video, an >> electronic business card — directly from one cellphone to another. >> >> Mr. Yahyanejad said he and his research colleagues were also slated to >> receive State Department financing for a project that would modify >> Bluetooth so that a file containing, say, a video of a protester being >> beaten, could automatically jump from phone to phone within a “trusted >> network” of citizens. The system would be more limited than the suitcase >> but would only require the software modification on ordinary phones. >> >> By the end of 2011, the State Department will have spent some $70 >> million on circumvention efforts and related technologies, according to >> department figures. >> >> Mrs. Clinton has made Internet freedom into a signature cause. But the >> State Department has carefully framed its support as promoting free >> speech and human rights for their own sake, not as a policy aimed at >> destabilizing autocratic governments. >> >> That distinction is difficult to maintain, said Clay Shirky, an >> assistant professor at New York University who studies the Internet and >> social media. “You can’t say, ‘All we want is for people to speak their >> minds, not bring down autocratic regimes’ — they’re the same thing,” Mr. >> Shirky said. >> >> He added that the United States could expose itself to charges of >> hypocrisy if the State Department maintained its support, tacit or >> otherwise, for autocratic governments running countries like Saudi >> Arabia or Bahrain while deploying technology that was likely to >> undermine them. >> >> Shadow Cellphone System >> >> In February 2009, Richard C. Holbrooke and Lt. Gen. John R. Allen were >> taking a helicopter tour over southern Afghanistan and getting a >> panoramic view of the cellphone towers dotting the remote countryside, >> according to two officials on the flight. By then, millions of Afghans >> were using cellphones, compared with a few thousand after the 2001 >> invasion. Towers built by private companies had sprung up across the >> country. The United States had promoted the network as a way to >> cultivate good will and encourage local businesses in a country that in >> other ways looked as if it had not changed much in centuries. >> >> There was just one problem, General Allen told Mr. Holbrooke, who only >> weeks before had been appointed special envoy to the region. With a >> combination of threats to phone company officials and attacks on the >> towers, the Taliban was able to shut down the main network in the >> countryside virtually at will. Local residents report that the networks >> are often out from 6 p.m. until 6 a.m., presumably to enable the Taliban >> to carry out operations without being reported to security forces. >> >> The Pentagon and State Department were soon collaborating on the project >> to build a “shadow” cellphone system in a country where repressive >> forces exert control over the official network. >> >> Details of the network, which the military named the Palisades project, >> are scarce, but current and former military and civilian officials said >> it relied in part on cell towers placed on protected American bases. A >> large tower on the Kandahar air base serves as a base station or data >> collection point for the network, officials said. >> >> A senior United States official said the towers were close to being up >> and running in the south and described the effort as a kind of 911 >> system that would be available to anyone with a cellphone. >> >> By shutting down cellphone service, the Taliban had found a potent >> strategic tool in its asymmetric battle with American and Afghan >> security forces. >> >> The United States is widely understood to use cellphone networks in >> Afghanistan, Iraq and other countries for intelligence gathering. And >> the ability to silence the network was also a powerful reminder to the >> local populace that the Taliban retained control over some of the most >> vital organs of the nation. >> >> When asked about the system, Lt. Col. John Dorrian, a spokesman for the >> American-led International Security Assistance Force, or ISAF, would >> only confirm the existence of a project to create what he called an >> “expeditionary cellular communication service” in Afghanistan. He said >> the project was being carried out in collaboration with the Afghan >> government in order to “restore 24/7 cellular access.” >> >> “As of yet the program is not fully operational, so it would be >> premature to go into details,” Colonel Dorrian said. >> >> Colonel Dorrian declined to release cost figures. Estimates by United >> States military and civilian officials ranged widely, from $50 million >> to $250 million. A senior official said that Afghan officials, who >> anticipate taking over American bases when troops pull out, have >> insisted on an elaborate system. “The Afghans wanted the Cadillac plan, >> which is pretty expensive,” the official said. >> >> Broad Subversive Effort >> >> In May 2009, a North Korean defector named Kim met with officials at the >> American Consulate in Shenyang, a Chinese city about 120 miles from >> North Korea, according to a diplomatic cable. Officials wanted to know >> how Mr. Kim, who was active in smuggling others out of the country, >> communicated across the border. “Kim would not go into much detail,” the >> cable says, but did mention the burying of Chinese cellphones “on >> hillsides for people to dig up at night.” Mr. Kim said Dandong, China, >> and the surrounding Jilin Province “were natural gathering points for >> cross-border cellphone communication and for meeting sources.” The >> cellphones are able to pick up signals from towers in China, said Libby >> Liu, head of Radio Free Asia, the United States-financed broadcaster, >> who confirmed their existence and said her organization uses the calls >> to collect information for broadcasts as well. >> >> The effort, in what is perhaps the world’s most closed nation, suggests >> just how many independent actors are involved in the subversive efforts. >> From the activist geeks on L Street in Washington to the military >> engineers in Afghanistan, the global appeal of the technology hints at >> the craving for open communication. >> >> In a chat with a Times reporter via Facebook, Malik Ibrahim Sahad, the >> son of Libyan dissidents who largely grew up in suburban Virginia, said >> he was tapping into the Internet using a commercial satellite connection >> in Benghazi. “Internet is in dire need here. The people are cut off in >> that respect,” wrote Mr. Sahad, who had never been to Libya before the >> uprising and is now working in support of rebel authorities. Even so, he >> said, “I don’t think this revolution could have taken place without the >> existence of the World Wide Web.” >> >> >> Reporting was contributed by Richard A. Oppel Jr. and Andrew W. Lehren >> from New York, and Alissa J. Rubin and Sangar Rahimi from Kabul, >> Afghanistan. >> _______________________________________________ >> p2p-hackers mailing list >> [email protected] >> http://lists.zooko.com/mailman/listinfo/p2p-hackers > _______________________________________________ > p2p-hackers mailing list > [email protected] > http://lists.zooko.com/mailman/listinfo/p2p-hackers _______________________________________________ p2p-hackers mailing list [email protected] http://lists.zooko.com/mailman/listinfo/p2p-hackers
