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February 5, 2002 - 5:09pm -- hydrarchist
News
The State

When the news of the closure of www.raisethefist.comfirst surfaced on January 23rd ( the story was reported on /.autonomedia the following day thanks to comrades on the west coast who posted regular updates, see the original story and comments.), there was some scepticism as to the veracity of the story, as there had been no reportage in the mainstream media.

The documents acquired by Cryptome.org establish the facts. Now the question as to why the media have not reported on this can be approached from a different angle. Why was this incident ignored? And who believes that the timing -just before the demonstrations and actions against the WEF was coincidental. This thing stinks.


G. In searching for data capable of being read, stored or interpreted by a computer, law enforcement personnel executing this search warrant will employ the following procedure:


i. Upon securing the premises, law enforcement personnel trained in searching and seizing computer data (the "computer personnel") will make an initial review of any computer equipment and storage devices to determine whether these items can be searched on-site in a reasonable amount of time and without jeopardizing the ability to preserve the data.

ii. If the computer personnel determine it is not practical to perform an on-site search of the data within a reasonable amount of time, then the computer equipment and storage devices will be seized and transported to an appropriate law enforcement laboratory for review. The computer equipment and storage devices will be reviewed by appropriately trained personnel in order to extract and seize any data that falls within the list of items to be seized set forth herein.


iii. Any data that is encrypted and unreadable will not be returned unless law enforcement personnel have determined that the data is not (1) an instrumentality of the offense, (2) a fruit of the criminal activity, (3) contraband, (4) otherwise unlawfully possessed, or (5) evidence of the offense specified above.


-- FBI Special Agent John I. Pi, USA v. Raise the Fist - Search Warrant and Affidavit, January 16, 2002

Cryptome would appreciate information on the legal basis for retaining seized data merely because it is encrypted and there is no proof that it fits any of the five characteristics cited above. Send to jya@pipeline.com"

January 31, 2002 - 7:17pm -- jim
News
Independent Media

cryptome writes:

New York Cops Deny Cryptome.org Press Credentials

John Young

30 January 2002

Cryptome applied to the New York Police Department on January 14 for
New York City press credentials, using a form provided on the NYPD Web
site. We described ourselves as a "Web publisher."

Yesterday we were told that we did not meet requirements for press
credentials because we could not provide letters of reference from
previous press employers. And that our self-employment for 30 years
and operating Cryptome for six years were not sufficient. We have
today sent an e-mail appeal of the decision to Commissioner Raymond
Kelly (below).

New York City thrives on intense, redundant, fatuous press coverage
and is the home of the world's greatest collection of vainglorious
attention seekers, media companies, journalists, and publicity
promoters. To be refused press credentials here must be a singular
honor or a sign of city's obsession with maintaining its allure for
attackers of its own exclusive clubby press manufacture. What other
police department would hire a former Marine general and a CIA head of
espionage to pimp its desirability with press-terrorism-drunk
Washington DC except a new Commish just back from poppy farming
national security?

January 29, 2002 - 1:43pm -- jim
News
Prisons & Prisoners

hydrarchist writes:
[N.B. "The Disobedients" is the national, Ya Basta!-fuelled network that
inherited the experience of the White Overalls. Here are one of their
political communiques and their press release, both texts dated January
26th, 2002. If you want to express solidarity, please write to:
yabasta@tin.it, yabasta_bo@topica.com, tpo@ecn.org.]


A CALL ON THE INMATES OF THE EUROPEAN BASTILLE


There are gestures whose impact lasts for a long time, gestures that mark
the beginning of something or the passage to a new phase of conflicts,
gestures made by people who are fully conscious of their values.
In the morning of January 25th, 2002, we made such a gesture. We invaded a
concentration camp and dismantled it piece by piece. That prison was ready
to contain hundreds of human beings whose only "fault" is being "without
papers". The Center of Temporary Permanence of Bologna was disassembled and
made unusable. A group of about a hundred people, European citizens, chose
to disobey an unjust law, a law that regards as "illegal" the human beings
who were born outside this continent as soon as they lose their jobs, ie as
soon as they are no longer exploitable for the profit of European
entrepreneurs. This law denies freedom of circulation and sets up ethnic
camps for people awaiting forced "repatriation", people whose countries
have been devastated by poverty and war.

January 25, 2002 - 10:41pm -- hydrarchist
News
The State

Here's an Update: Anonymous Comrade writes:

After doing some trawling about I can't find any current confirmation of the story. People are talking about it on IRC, but there's no hard evidence. The founder of RaiseTheFist "anti" is reported as being in custody. Historical background certainly appears to be that there's a lot of _international_ government monitoring of the site. In May last year at Long Beach (LA, CA) Rob "Ruckus" Middaugh was fitted up by the LBPD for "assault" on the police during a May Day demonstration. He was associated with the site. Unfortunately he had a parole violation and is now doing 2-3 years. This was one of the most savage attacks by the police that I've seen. The guy that is reportedly arrested "anti" had film of some of the attacks and there has been a lot of organizing of monitoring of the police by a "Copwatch" group.

Info that is missing due to the site being down includes the Ride Board" for activists travelling from CA to NY. Interestingly I cannot find a cached copy of the logs of site monitoring. Anyone else have them? One poster on indymedia speculates that the database of undercover fed pictures is one of the reasons that "anti" had his equipment snatched.

Again, I have no good current confirmation of what is happening, just rumours

Anonymous Comrade writes: "USA: Los Angeles, the anarchist project Raisethefist.com raided
From sf imcista

Date Fri, 25 Jan 2002 17:21:24 -0500 (EST)


This was posted this morning on San Francisco Indymedia. It is being
forwarded here unmodified It was forwarded from Aron Kay's
email and sent along by a credible local source. The original
URL is here: http://sf.indymedia.org/news/2002/01/114428.php


The nameserver for raisethefist.com is not responding
to pings.


From: "ARON KAY" Fri, 25 Jan 2002 15:34:35 -0500


LOS ANGELES, JAN 23 2002 - Heavily armed with high-powered machine
guns, shotguns, and hand guns, the FBI, Secret Service, and Los
Angeles Police Department surrounded the founder of raisethefist.com
in his house. The founder was currently asleep, woken up by a relative
who said fbi, police and undercover's were currently up and down all
of the streets, with they're eyes focused on the premises.

January 24, 2002 - 3:45pm -- jim
News
News

French critic Pierre Bourdieu died of cancer at 11 p.m. Wednesday night at the Saint-Antoine hospital in Paris. He was 71. Internationally renowned for his radical and committed work in sociology and anthropology, he moved in his last years from the academic style to more active engagment in social movements. He was the Director of Studies at the Ecole de Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, and a member of the College de France since 1981. For his followers, his work on the social world constituted a "symbolic revolution" in knowledge.

For French readers, Liberation's obit may be found at Liberation on Pierre Bourdieu and Le Monde's at "http://www.lemonde.fr/article/0,5987,3246--259825-,00.html">Le Monde on Pierre Bourdieu

January 24, 2002 - 3:18pm -- hydrarchist
News
Independent Media

Communiqué by the Counterinformation Network EU 2002, against an attack
against freedom
of speech on the internet


In an action coordinated, allegedly from the Spanish Internal affairs
minister, a
framework of at least 7 media (Diario de la Rioja, Logroño; Diario El
Norte de
Castilla; Diario Idea, Granada; Diario Las Provincias, Valencia; Diario
Panorama
Actual, Valencia; Diario de Sevilla and Canal Nou, Valencia) started a
campaign
against counter-information webs.


Melchor Saiz-Pardo, from COLPISA agency (news agency that belongs to
"Grupo Correo",
recently united to "Prensa Española") signed the article used by all
these media in
which they use the language and the style of the articles Internal
Affairs ministry
uses to distribute in its "antiterrorist raids". It is not casual that
all this
"second order" media use the same ínformation; COLPISA provides news to
all regional
press and such press is usually under the control of "Grupo Correo".


The text, full of lies, groundless insinuations and attempts to link
the virtual
counterinformation with "the violents", profusely uses terms as
"sabotage",
"antisystem radicals". All of this, even if there is very little
information (non
manipulated), the only mention they make is about the meeting held in
Zaragoza last
24th or 25th of november (see http://www.nodo50.org/antiglobalizacion),
were nothing
was mentioned about sabotage or guerrilla; the week for social fight in
Sevilla and
the day for civil dissobedience in Barcelona.


On thursday january the 17th, Nodo50's server was hacked and "El Mundo"
newspaper
reported on friday, january 18th, the "controversy" generated around
the webpages
coordinated through the counterinformation network EU 2002.


The counterinformation network EU 2002, gathers different projects of
virtual
counterinformation that fight against neoliberal globalization and they
try to
inform unitarily about the events that are happening during spanish
presidency to
the European Union in 2002.


From this space we denounce that these accusations and harrassments are
not other
thing but an attempt to criminalise the freedom of speech through the
internet, and,
for this reason, an attempt to ensure the monopoly of information
during these
months when a multitude of events against the Europe of Capital are
going to happen
during the spanish presideny until june, this year.


We denounce the dangerous repressive outcome that are already taking
the
provocations that from official media are being made -as it has happen
in this case-
days or weeks before protests. In Barcelona (june 2001), it was
demonstrated that
police infiltration in the mobilisations and its key role in the
lutting that
happened. Sadly this kind of manipulation are accompanied by repression
acts or
violent police charges during the demonstrations.


The activities organize around the citizen protests against the EU are
aiming at a
more just and equalitarian society, and our aim in this case is to
inform without
any conditioning of the different activities that will happen.


Counter Information network EU 2002: IMC-Barcelona, Griesca, La Haine,
IndyACP,
Nodo50, Rebelión and UPA-Molotov

January 21, 2002 - 12:33am -- nomadlab
News
Technology

hydrarchist writes: "Italian police have identified six members of a hacker group charged
with
attacking thousands of Web sites in 62 countries, replacing official
home
pages with anti-globalization slogans, finance police officials said
Tuesday. The group is one of the most important to be discovered in
terms
of the number and significance of its targets, officials said. The
hackers, all students between the ages of 15 and 23, began their
attacks
last July during the G8 summit in Genoa, which led to
anti-globalization
demonstrations. Hackers placed the slogan "Hi-Tech Hate" on Web sites,
police said. However, the attacks did not cause much monetary damage,
so
the hackers are not expected to be severely punished.

January 19, 2002 - 10:47pm -- autonomedia
News
In the Streets

nomadlab writes: "I am not totally sure what to make of this, but --via a list I am on-- I was sent a fwd of an email that went out on friday. It seems that the NYC Civilian Complaints Review Board (the powerless group that has the job of reviewing complaints against the police) has contacted a number of groups that are planning to participate in the anti-WEF demonstrations. They even sent an attachment -- the form necessary to file a compalint. I guess someone is expecting a ton of trouble.


below is the email and a link to the .pdf file (hey, can't hurt to hand out some of these at the demo.)

January 19, 2002 - 7:17pm -- nomadlab
News
In the Streets

entropia writes: "After a long time anarchist and antiauthoritarian groups from Athens co-operated in order to organise an anarchist demonstration on 12th of January. The main subjects of the demonstration were the opposition to the "anti"terrorist law, to the European army, to the war and to assassinations of immigrants and racial minorities by police forces.
On 11th of January, anarchist groups organised protestations in the Polytechnic School of Athens, despite the decision of the school authorities to evacuate the place after 15:00. Banners with the slogans "Demonstration of resistance and solidarity", "Against the plundering of our lives - Solidarity to the insurrection in Argentina", "We are all foreigners and insurrected" and "Cops - Pigs - Assassins (in the Albanian language) were hanged up. Meanwhile counter-information brochures and leaflets were distributed to passing-by people. On the afternoon a movie was projected and followed an act of the Darien Fo's "I, Ulrike Meinhof" theatre play. The protestations finished with concert by the anarchist band "Ohra Spiroheti".
About 300-400 people participated the first day protestations. On 12th of January about 700-800 comrades demonstrated behind a central banner with the slogan "Wherever order and security exists, smells human flesh - Sabotage to social consensus". Due to massive police presence the demonstrators organised their self-defence (wear helmets, held crowbars and formed 3 lines of chains - tied hands). The demonstrators chanted for class war, solidarity to the social insurrection in Argentina, solidarity to immigrants and against repression. The demonstration finished peacefully on the entrance of the Polytechnic School. On midnight took place an assault, with stones and petrol bombs, against a riot police van, near the central offices of the PASOK (ruling party). On Thessaloniki, sub-capital of Greece, 4 hooded activists assaulted with stones and petrol bombs to a bank."

January 15, 2002 - 7:15pm -- nomadlab
News
Rants

YellowTimes.ORG writes: "
By John Chuckman

YellowTimes.ORG Columnist (Canada)


(YellowTimes.ORG) – This morning, an angel - yes, that's right, an angel - appeared to a gathering of reporters at the National Press Club in Washington. The stunningly beautiful creature with satiny white wings and glowing pink skin announced that it was appearing on behalf of the Creator for a brief, informal press conference.

The Almighty wants people to understand that He is getting mighty tired of being asked ten million times a day to bless America. It is beginning to grate on His nerves. Twenty-four hours a day from truck stops, pool halls, jumbo television screens, and shag-carpeted basement rec-rooms, the noise just never lets up.

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