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March 30, 2005

Free speech dead.

Anarchist website under attack by the FBI

One of my favorite websites is under attack. The FBI has served flag.blackened.net administrator with a court order to turn over the IP addresses of certain (maybe all?) vistors of the site. It hosts a number of worthy subdomains and is prolly not involved in anything itself. However, the "chilling effect" as the lawyers like to put it is there for us all to see, and be scared by, they hope.

In a forum posting the admin who was contacted by the FBI posts his paranoid and fearful decision making process as he wonders if he should risk his liberty, home, wife and child to stand on principle or give in to the threats and hand over the IP addresses. A real Hobbesian choice. I wish him well.

The post reads in part:

"I have been ordered to submit IP info on two separate incidents having to do with subdomains hosted on flag. Both of these are in regard to claimed or threatened responsibility for acts of propaganda by the deed. Both incidents involve topics which are completely out of line for consideration here at flag and really I can only view them in two ways. Either people are simply ignorant about the murderous history of the FBI, or, as is my belief in one case, they are trying to make flag vulnerable to government intrusion.

At this point let me say, in all honesty and conviction, that if I end up dead by strange means - suicide, overdose, drunk driving accident (I never, ever, ever drink and drive), "accidental" gunshot to the back of the head while sleeping ala Fred Hampton, car jacking, or anything else reasonably suspicious, contact the FBI in Chico, California for more details."

We all knew that these days were coming. And so they are here.

I have lurked and posted to their forum off and on for a few years. They are more collectivist and communal than I am really comfortable with and many of them (no, most all), do not especially care for my views of religion, self-denfense, and free enterprise economics. However, that all said and stipulated, I still agree with them on far more issues than all the statists and their appologists and dupes.

"But, the real point is that I feel like a coward and traitor to my comrades, even in the face of what is essentially a coerced decision. I'm the last one who will criticize or disagree with any of you who want to deride me. I'm also aware that this will probably cause quite a few of you to lose faith in me, flag, and it's subdomains. This can't be avoided and it's something I weighed into my decision. I post this mainly to inform you all and give you opportunity to make your own decisions as to whether I've handled this correctly and whether you wish to use flag or it's subdomains in the future. If you don't trust me, I understand, believe me.

It is by far the most agonizing decision I've been faced with in relation to my anarchist opinions.

This is why we do not discuss certain things as if they are a legitimate part of anarchism. Resist the extra y-chromosome influenced urge to sound more hardcore than the guy next to you. Nobody is impressed and the powers that be are sitting on the edges of their seats waiting for an excuse to shut down flag. Freedom of speech does not exist, don't try to test it. They will come bust down your door - for real - point a gun to your head and pull the trigger if you refuse to comply."

I know they will brother, I know. Save yourself even if the site has go down.

Posted by Ali Massoud at March 30, 2005 10:59 PM

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