Commentary
Disparaging the disappearing Internet
By Jerry Mazza
Online Journal Associate Editor


Jun 27, 2008, 00:25

Two articles of interest come to mind. The first from the Washington Post, headlined Al-Qaeda�s Growing Online Offensive by Craig Whitlock. The article�s six pages detail all the inroads Al-Qaeda has made online, �advancing its ideas and propaganda, the struggle for hearts and minds . . ." Another version of the article ends with a quote by Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates from a speech in November, �As one foreign diplomat asked a couple of years ago. �How had one man in a cave managed to outcommunicate the world�s greatest communication society?��

Pregnant pause; lets all consider what is implied and lied about in that statement. One man in a cave with a laptop (and they forgot) kidney dialysis machine for his potentially fatal kidney disease, the one and only, on and off again, most dangerous fugitive in the world, ladies and gentlemen, introducing Osama Been Gone Again.

Second how do we know Al Qaeda, a CIA brand name for the Mujihadeen it helped create in 1979 to fight the godless Russians in Afghanistan, the same Al Qaeda that was financed, trained and provided with weapons by the CIA, the same Al Qaeda whose name came from a file name (the base) from the laptop of one of its leaders, Osama bin Laden, is outcommunicating the US? How?

I mean I hear these fruitcakes loud and clear. It�s just that what they say is hard to swallow if you have something between your ears besides sawdust.

Are �they� winning because we haven�t won the war in Iraq? Is it that we�re sliding in Afghanistan and the Taliban is returning, newly emboldened? Is that the fault of the Internet? Or is it the fault of the US government and its military policy? And could this �blame-laying� be exactly the subject of the second article of interest?

Introducing Corporations Plan To Pull Plug on the Free Internet by Paul Joseph Watson at Prison Planet. In it, he literally points out, �Dovetailing the onset of Internet 2 are government propaganda campaigns to demonize the existing Internet as a wild backwater for hate crime, child pornography and a terrorist recruiting ground.�

Mind you, Watson very clearly declares, �The Internet is the last true unregulated outpost of freedom of speech but moves are afoot to stifle, suffocate, control and eventually pull the plug on the worldwide web as we know it. These threats are not hidden nor are they hard to deduce and yet a significant number of Internet users remain naive as to their scope.�

He goes on to say, �Despite many questioning the authenticity of a report that claimed ISPs had resolved to restrict the Internet to a TV-like subscription model, where users will be forced to pay to visit selected corporate websites by 2012, while others will be blocked, the march towards regulation of the web is clear and documented.

�We have been warning about the plan to let the old Internet die and replace it with a restricted and controlled Internet 2 for years. In 2006, we published an article about how the RIAA were attempting to broaden intellectual property distinctions to a point whereby merely linking to external content is judged as copyright infringement.�

In other words, what I just did, linking to two articles, and quoting three paragraphs from them would be illegal. But then this is one of the unique powers of the Internet, even over the book, the world�s formerly greatest information tool. The Internet has the ability not just to footnote a source, but to deliver it to you to peruse, and not just a specific line or paragraph, but an entire article, even an e-book.

The Internet can point the reader in a moment to a whole new world of linked information ready for his reading; information that he or she perhaps never dreamed of -- information that could reveal criminality of the highest order at the highest levels of government, information that wasn�t �All the news that�s fit to print,� but �All the news that�s needed to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but.�

An Internet article today can layer in relevant articles or passages that create a hitherto unimagined montage of information, outpacing the book, the magazine and newspaper. In fact, the Internet is largely why newspaper sales are falling off and newspapers are creating online versions.

Furthermore, the Internet in the hands of people not necessarily out to get filthy rich but to dish up a rich dish of the truth is a very potent tool that frightens the bejesus out of the corrupt in all areas of life, from government to weapons dealers, false prophets to politicians, and so on. Fill in the blanks.

So, as Craig Whitlock rambles on about Al-Qaeda kingpins authorizing hits via the Internet (and I suppose that includes email); as he foams about propaganda coups orchestrated by A-Q, online chats between �the world�s most wanted fugitives,� and how Ayman al-Zawahiri received 1,888 written queries from journalists and the public, Whitlock also tells us al-Zawahiri �patiently answer[ed] about one-fifth of them, even hostile postings that condemned al-Qaeda for harming innocents and perverting Islam.�

Duh, are the CIA, FBI and NSA apologizing to anyone about anything? Let me know.

And it�s not as if the US hasn�t produced its own propaganda, entire news segments available to news stations all over the US, downloadable directly from the Pentagon. This was Made In the USA propaganda that appeared to be independent news and presented as such until Congress cracked down on it, requiring it be labeled as government-made.

Then we have the endless retired generals, political pundits, former terror-trackers, think-tank empties, right-wing professors all as talking heads on endless TV panels, parroting administration policy for a fee. Gee whiz. I wonder who�s paying them?

Craig says, �US and European intelligence officials attribute the al-Qaeda propaganda boom in part to the network�s ability to establish a secure base in the governed tribal areas of western Pakistan.� Yet he counters with �Some US officials acknowledge that they missed early opportunities to disrupt al-Qaeda�s communications operations, whose internal security has since been upgraded to the point where analysts say it is nearly bulletproof.� Not good.

And is it a �bulletproof Internet� that we need? As Watson says, �a licensed Internet that will be sold . . . and could lead to mandatory biometric thumb or finger scanning simply to access the worldwide web.� Whoever is for that, raise your thumb!

As Watson says, �This is hardly a stretch of the imagination, since numerous public services and functions of society are increasingly accessible only through providing some form of biometric identification.� Even �credit passes for travel ATM terminals and access to theme parks like Disneyland are just a few of the many services we use that are shifting towards mandatory biometric gatekeeping. . . ."

Yes, Internet 1, the old Internet, that brought us this incredible burst of formerly unattainable information and also libraries full of known information at warp speed, would be shunted off, kept open just so Amazon.com and other major Net-marketing organizations wouldn�t go broke.

But with the new dis-improved Internet 2, ta da, Watson tells us, �The nation�s largest telephone and cable companies are crafting an alarming set of strategies that would transform the free, open and nondiscriminatory Internet of today to a privately run and branded service that would charge a fee for virtually everything we do online.� Aren�t you just dying to have it?

And here�s more great stuff: �Verizon, Comcast, Bell South and other communications giants are developing strategies that would track and store information on our very move in cyberspace in a vast data collection and marketing system, the scope of which could rival the National Security Agency.� Wouldn�t you love that? But there�s more . . .

�According to white papers now being circulated in the cable, telephone and telecommunications industries, those with the deepest pockets -- corporations, special-interest groups and major advertisers -- would get preferred treatment.� You�re kidding? Not.

And �content from these providers would have first priority on our computer and television screens, while information seen as undesirable, such as peer-to-peer communications, could be relegated to a slow lane or simply shut out.� Now that�s progress! Or is it another fall back into the rabbit hole of fascism?

Of course, Homeland Security agents, we�re told, would be joined with local police in order to get their hands on domestic terrorists who use the Internet as a political tool. Jesus, Paul, is that us? Is that Prison Planet, Online Journal, Counterpunch, Global Research, 911Truth.Org, name it, anyone not parroting establishment blather?

I mean, would the Washington Post line us up with terrorists, like Joe McCarthy of old lined up whomever he damn pleased as �fellow travelers with the reds� and railroad us all into nowhere land? They take a finger one day, a hand the second, a soul the third, and a lot of bodies the next day, to Gitmo, Uzbekistan, India, the moon. Will Internet 1 be full of holes from the disappeared Alex Jones, Jeff Rense, Bev Conover, good night?

And, as Craig Whitlock (who will survive the purge?) reports about the Power of Truth, a film made by Zawahiri and other Al Qaeda leaders, with a run-on narrative dissing the US government in its treatment of Muslims, is actually �using video excerpts of US leaders and commentators to bolster their argument,� the nerve . . .

About this film, we get this critique from Jarret Brachman, research director at the Combating Terrorism Center at the US Military Academy at West Point, NY: �It�s beautifully crafted propaganda, and it�s a huge problem for us . . . You�re left shaking your head saying, �Yeah, I guess they�re right.'�

�I guess they�re right,� what? Oh ye of feint heart, call up Hollywood, we invented movies. Where�s Frances Ford Coppola, Mr. Godfather; Stephen Spielberg, from ET to Shindler�s List to Sergeant Ryan; where are all the big guns that put our culture on the widescreen reality map? Does a West Point terror hunter fold like that?

Well, you know what, here�s a movie you should look at, what really happened, about 9/11 and how the War on Terror started. And this movie could only have been made on the Internet, because it�s fearless, bold, and tells the truth like you won�t see it in any movie theater. It will explain to you how all this terror was invented.

It will help you realize how 9/11 was used to create a coup d�etat by the Powers That Be -- and why they are so afraid of the Internet. It could provide the evidence that puts them away one day for good. But act now! Click that link. Start thinking for yourself, before Big Brother and his Propaganda Machine roll right over you, and somebody pulls the Internet 1 plug for good and sticks the Internet 2 plug somewhere in the middle of your forehead.

In fact, be prepared to defend the Internet you know, as if it were your own human memory, because it is. And anything less, like Internet 2, would be a full-fledged lobotomy!