Political Viruses & Worms

Viruses and Worms that appear to be politically motivated are not new, but Stian recently informed me about (more here) a worm circulating in China that apparently links to or contains references to "A Survey of Chinese Peasants".

A Survey of Chinese Peasants is an expos� on the inequality and injustice forced upon the Chinese peasantry, who number about 900 million. The book describes what the authors term to be a guaiquan, or vicious circle, where unjust taxes and the arbitrariness of authorities, sometimes resulting in extreme violence against the peasants, is the norm.

The worm modifies the hosts file so that some 937 domains point to 222.89.98.219. The server at that IP is no longer accessible.

F.T.A.

Those who serve in the military are restricted in what they can say. They have to follow orders; there is no room for dissent. There is little outlet for free speech for soldiers except for the long standing tradition of bathroom graffiti.

The soldier cannot come and go as he sees fit; there is no such thing as a "two-week notice" in his line of work. Limitations are placed on what he says, and free speech is certainly not free. Incorrect thoughts are to be kept silent, and dire consequences await for those who act on their convictions. Due to the absolute privacy found in bathrooms, what was once suppressed frustrations suddenly become an open forum of ideas and acquisitions. The latrine walls become what The Combine dreads the most, a podium of free speech for soldiers.

This article discusses the "FUCK THE ARMY" (FTA) movement and the political graffiti that finds expression in bathrooms across Iraq.

RCMP Investigation & Surveillance of a Journalist

Maher Arar is a Canadian citizen who was deported from the U.S., while in transit at NYC's JKF airport, to Syria. He was deported based on information passed from the RCMP to U.S. authorities which claimed that Arar had ties with terrorism. The U.S. does not deny this, rather the U.S. simply claims that it did not seek Canada's "approval or consent" before deporting the Canadian citizen to Syria. Arar was deported to Syria where he was interrogated and tortured, in an apparent case of "extraordinary rendition", a system in which suspects are "out sourced" to countries that use torture in an effort to circumvent domestic laws against the use of torture. Canadian officials supplied Arar's torturers with questions and personal information about him used during Arar's interrogation and torture. Moreover, as Arar's wife Monia Mazigh and the public pressed the Canadian government to have Arar released from prison in Syria, documents that contained information extracted from Arar while under torture in Syria were leaked to the public. Arar is now free and living in Canada, a Public Commission has been set-up to investigate the case.

On November 8, 2003, Juliet O'neill wrote an article that appeared in the Ottawa Citizen concerning the case of Maher Arar. Believing that Juliet O'neill's story was based on classified information the RCMP began to investigate the Ottawa Citizen reporter. The following is an account of the investigative techniques used by the RCMP based on an
affidavit used to obtain a search warrant authorizing a raid on O'neill's home.

Reality & The Great Firewall

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Filtering Dissent

A recent article that caught my attention mentioned an instance where vocal protesters were edited out of the official Whitehouse transcript of a Laura Bush speech. The transcript notes "Applause" 39 times, "Laughter" 1 time and the audeince chanting "Four more years! Four more years! Four more years!" 4 times. However, the transcript does not note that some protesters chanted "No more years! No more years!" and Sue Niederer, wearing a "President Bush You Killed My Son" t-shirt demanded to know why her sone had been killed in Iraq. The protestors were quickly arrested. The Whitehouse transcript acts as the "official history" of the event and thus censors dissenting views from the audience while only including positive audieince reactions.