Ways Round Egyptian Internet Crackdown Found
“Internet not working, police cars burning,” sent out one Egyptian. “Today marks a great day for Egypt,” sent out another.
These messages weren't coming from mobile phones or computers, but from an amateur radio sending out Morse Code somewhere amidst the chaos in Egypt.
The Egyptian government's efforts to restrict communications within the country has triggered a wave of activism from an international group of free speech activists on the Internet called Telecomix.
Organizing using chat rooms, wikis, and collaborative writing tools, this largely anonymous group has worked to inform Egyptians about their communications options while receiving incoming messages from them. Telecomix has previously worked on free speech efforts in Tunisia, Iran, China and other countries who have tried to censor or block parts of the Internet.
Egypt has been identified as a “top priority” for Telecomix on one of its network sites, We Re-Build. It has a wiki set-up as a one-stop shop with the latest chat rooms and resources for the ongoing efforts.
There are roughly 20 extremely active members, 50 active and some 300 total including lurkers, according to chat administrator Christopher Kullenberg from Gothenburg, Sweden.
“Think of Telecomix as an ever growing bunch of friends that do things together,” Kullenberg says.
For the majority of users, anonymity is stressed and real identities are rendered obsolete.
Said one chat user, in awe from Australia: “I'm new here, just trying to help.”
The group says it's also worked on receiving and decoding amateur radio messages, sent on frequencies recommended by the group of activists. While these groups have only been able to receive a small amount of messages of a short length with an unknown source, the Egyptian people's use of amateur radio to transmit messages represents an interesting utilization of old-fashioned technology to circumvent government restrictions.
Most activists behind these messages say they wish to remain anonymous. But besides Telecomix, other Internet groups have assisted, including “Anonymous,” which has helped by sending out large amounts of faxes into Egypt. “Anonymous” was also involved in denial of service operations against organizations who took actions against Wikileaks. They've also participated in many other operations, with targets ranging from Scientology to Gene Simmons.
Have these efforts proven effective in helping the Egyptian people? “We cannot really tell,” said Kullenberg. “Opening up communication channels is enough for us. What that leads up to, is up to the people communicating.”
Said another user, wd40_: “Time will tell.”
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1798 ... Napoleon invaded
1801 ... evacuation of French...again to Ottoman
1805 ... Kavala Mehmed Pasha becomes Governor Egypt
1869 ... channel opened
1882 ... invasion of British
1914 ... Brits declared Egypt Sultanate
1922 ... Brits puppet regime declared independence Egypt
1936 ... Fuad dead,son Farook becomes Egypt Sultane
1952 ... Colonel Nasser cue
1953 ... declaration Republic...Brits withdraws from channel
1954 ... Nasser President...Brits withdraws completely
1956 ... short time ( Brits+French+Israel) invasion
1967 ... 6 days Wars
1979 ... Peace Treaty Israel--Egypt
1981 ... Assad assasination
........................
2011 ... ?????
McDonnell Douglas planes are not in circulation.
perhaps the future will be brighter .
Argentina perhaps ?? she is going to fly 8,000 miles over the coast, and just DROP a bomb, then fly all the way home,
Welcome to the nut house [NEXT]
as it happens only the RAF has that distintion, 1982, vulcan bomber
great britain = falklands = bombed airfield = and flew all the way home ?
news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_depth/uk/2005/london_explosions/default.stm
This story is funny, don't you think? You always find this stories funny :) There will be no more war in Malvinas, but London... who knows...
as the truth will either embarrass you, or hurt you.
the truth is you Argentineans never knew just how close you came to being whacked in 1982. This I read today, interesting ?
night night
he even tries his hand at poems, ?
P.S: Isolde, do you think of me when you're making love to your husband?
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