statism watch

Oh, because of documents like this? US Counterinsurgency Manual Leaked, Calls for False Flag Operations, Suspension of Human Rights

Perhaps the forces should be more concerned about doing the sorts of things that prompt its personnel to leak in the first place rather than trying to attack public accountability organizations.

Prior Leaks: Leaked UN Documents Reveal Plan For “Green World Order” By 2010 | Cryptome.org Leaks Microsoft Online Surveillance Guide, MS Demands Takedown Under Copyright Law | ACTA Internet Chapter Leaks: Renegotiates WIPO, Sets 3 Strikes as Model | Beyond ACTA: Proposed EU – Canada Trade Agreement Intellectual Property Chapter Leaks | Copenhagen climate summit in disarray after ‘Danish text’ leak | New Leaks of Secret ACTA Copyright Law Reveal Oppressive ‘Global DMCA’ | Top Climatology Lab Hacked, E-Mails Reveal Biased Science | Leaked G20 Documents Shed Light on Global Carbon Tax | More ACTA Details Leak: It’s An Entertainment Industry Wishlist | American Intelligence Contractors Leak Canadian Toronto 18 ‘Terror Training’ Video to Web | US Counterinsurgency Manual Leaked, Calls for False Flag Operations, Suspension of Human Rights | Son of ‘Patriot Act’ Author Denies Connection to Obama-NAFTA Leak | Signs point to PMO in NAFTA leak

David Kravets, Wired.com
March 15, 2010

Wikileaks presents a “threat to the U.S. Army” and publishes “potentially actionable information” for targeting military personnel, according to a classified intelligence report posted Monday on the whistleblowing site.

The 32-page report entitled Wikileaks.org – An Online Reference to Foreign Intelligence Services, Insurgents, or Terrorist Groups? (.pdf) indicates the government’s concern that “current employees or moles” within the Defense Department or the U.S. government “are providing sensitive or classified information to Wikileaks.” To stop this, the 2008 report had suggested a campaign to expose and punish those who leak to the site, which was founded in 2007 by Chinese dissidents, journalists and mathematicians.

“Wikileaks.org uses trust as a center of gravity by assuring insiders, leakers, and whistleblowers who pass information to Wikileaks.org personnel or who post information to the website that they will remain anonymous,” according to the report. “The identification, exposure, or termination of employment of or legal actions against current or former insiders, leakers, or whistleblowers could damage or destroy this center of gravity and deter others from using Wikileaks.org to make such information public.”

The document is classified Secret, and was produced by the Army Counterintelligence Center, under the Department of Defense Intelligence Analysis Program. It appears to underscore the military’s alarm that Wikileaks might be used to reveal United States military secrets, or broadcast disinformation harmful to the U.S.

Neither Wikileaks editor Julian Assange nor the Defense Department immediately responded for comment.

The report, which could not be independently verified, said Wikileaks “could be of value to foreign intelligence and security services (FISS), foreign military forces, foreign insurgents, and foreign terrorist groups for collecting information or for planning attacks against U.S. forces, both within the United State and abroad.”

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It strains credulity that the NYT is presenting this operation as the action of a single rogue defence department official and that the strategic analysis outfit described was absolutely firewalled off from the espionage that was going on. More likely, we’ll find out in a few weeks that the web site and ‘International Media Ventures’ were never anything other than a front for military intelligence and that Furlong simply wasn’t discrete enough. They had the Iran-Contra guy on staff? Come on. And how does Blackwater figure into this? These contractor’s skill sets would have been in demand in-theatre so it may come out that they were under contract with the infamous paramilitary force as well.

Flashback: Arrested Terrorist Leader Exposes Extensive CIA Connections | Report: ‘US to expand military centers in Pakistan’ | U.S. prods Pakistan to expand offensive | CIA admits Blackwater presence in Pakistan | U.S. Military Joins CIA’s Drone War in Pakistan | Blackwater’s Erik Prince: Tycoon, Contractor, Soldier, Spy | Homing chips are CIA’s latest weapon against ‘al-Qaida’ targets hiding in Pakistan’s tribal belt | US military may escalate ‘war on terror’ by striking deeper into Pakistan | Report: CIA runs secret bases in Pakistan | Don’t-ask-don’t-tell Policy: Pakistan and U.S. Have Tacit Deal On Airstrikes | Bush secret order to send special forces into Pakistan | CIA, Pakistani ISI have long, complicated relationship

Dexter Filkins, Mark Mazetti, New York Times
March 15, 2010

From left: Michael D. Furlong, the official who was said to have hired private contractors to track militants in Afghanistan and Pakistan; Robert Young Pelton, a contractor; Duane Clarridge, a former C.I.A. official; and Eason Jordan, a former television news executive.

KABUL, Afghanistan — Under the cover of a benign government information-gathering program, a Defense Department official set up a network of private contractors in Afghanistan and Pakistan to help track and kill suspected militants, according to military officials and businessmen in Afghanistan and the United States.

The official, Michael D. Furlong, hired contractors from private security companies that employed former C.I.A. and Special Forces operatives. The contractors, in turn, gathered intelligence on the whereabouts of suspected militants and the location of insurgent camps, and the information was then sent to military units and intelligence officials for possible lethal action in Afghanistan and Pakistan, the officials said.

While it has been widely reported that the C.I.A. and the military are attacking operatives of Al Qaeda and others through unmanned, remote-controlled drone strikes, some American officials say they became troubled that Mr. Furlong seemed to be running an off-the-books spy operation. The officials say they are not sure who condoned and supervised his work.

It is generally considered illegal for the military to hire contractors to act as covert spies. Officials said Mr. Furlong’s secret network might have been improperly financed by diverting money from a program designed to merely gather information about the region.

Moreover, in Pakistan, where Qaeda and Taliban leaders are believed to be hiding, the secret use of private contractors may be seen as an attempt to get around the Pakistani government’s prohibition of American military personnel’s operating in the country.

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This is really Harper’s last and only chance to speak from the heart and lay out whatever master plan he’s been keeping under wraps all these years. To put on that blue sweater and truly appeal to Canadians, to give us some straight talk on the issues we really connect with. (Cough) Getting choked up here. See you Tuesday, Steve. Can we call you Steve now? Let’s have this straight up, no pretense. Canada’s watching.

Related: PM turns to YouTube – and takes questions | Cabinet ministers’ offices regularly interfere in access to information requests, says Tory staffer | Conservatives accused of hiding information | Ottawa won’t budge on secrecy laws | McGuinty won’t deny political interference with Freedom of Information requests | Information commissioner quits, Ottawa chided for lacking ‘guts’ | Canadian Parliament Threatens People For Posting Video Of Proceedings Online | Government secrecy ‘grim,’ watchdog says | Watchdog alarmed by Harper’s information clampdown | Listeria files withheld due to ’systemic’ problems with access to information | Public access vs. government secrecy the issue in Supreme Court of Canada case | Radical change needed in privacy protection, Ont. watchdog says | Files tagged as `sensitive’ cause unfair delays, watchdog says | Tentacles of Secrecy Grip Tightly | Parliament losing power, author says | Over 100 complaints about access to govt. info on Afghan mission: report | Information lockdown: How Harper Controls the Spin | Tories kill access to information database | Harper to create government-run media centre: report

Mike Blanchfeidl, The Canadian Press
March 12, 2010

Prime Minister faces dozens of tough, varied questions via online video

After being called a “pansy” by a cartoon Sarah Palin, Stephen Harper’s experiment with YouTube might yet leave him pining for the parliamentary press gallery.

By late afternoon Friday, the response to the Prime Minister’s pitch this week to hear from Canadians via the popular video website yielded 1,200 questions. They hit on a wide variety of topics, including many Mr. Harper likely won’t be eager to address like legalizing marijuana and 9/11 conspiracy theories.

It often wasn’t so much what they asked – it was how. Many did Marshall McLuhan proud, using the medium of do-it-yourself video to ask tough questions, while lampooning Mr. Harper with stinging messages. His controversial prorogation of Parliament was a prime target.

“You are what we call in Alaska, a pansy,” said a digital cartoon of ex-Alaska governor Sarah Palin in one posting.

“Is it a Canadian tradition for Canadian leaders to run away and hide? If a president did what you did, there would be rioting in the streets? How did you get away with it?”

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Related: China launches interview requirement, licensing for personal websites | Activists Shut Down Australian Government Websites in Internet Filter Protest | UN agency calls for global cyberwarfare treaty, ‘driver’s license’ for Web users | China tells web companies to obey controls | Google Considers Leaving China If China Will Not Allow Uncensored Search | China Imposes New Internet Controls | Death Of The Internet: Censorship Bills In UK, Australia, U.S. Aim To Block “Undesirable” Websites | Australia introduces web filters | Obama Wants Computer Privacy Ruling Overturned | UK Internet surveillance plan to go ahead | Security boss calls for end to net anonymity | Case for Internet spying not closed | Planned Internet, wireless surveillance laws worry watchdogs | UK ISPs condemn Internet surveillance plans | UK to found new ‘cyber-security’ units attached to national eavesdropping centre | ISPs must help police snoop on internet under new bill | UK plans to integrate ‘cybersecurity’ centre with US, Canada | China begins internet ‘blackout’ ahead of Tiananmen anniversary | Cybersecurity Is Framework For Total Government Regulation & Control Of Our Lives | Obama Set to Create A Cybersecurity Czar With Broad Mandate | EU wants ‘Internet G12′ to govern cyberspace | UK Home Secretary has secret plan to surveil, ‘Master the Internet’ | Munk Centre researchers discover botnet, call for international cyberspace ‘legal regime’ | In Australia, censored hyperlinks could cost you | NSA Dominance of Cybersecurity Would Lead to ‘Grave Peril’, Ex-Cyber Chief Tells Congress | Do We Need a New Internet? | Australian web censorship plan to begin trial despite house opposition | Chinese Learn Limits of Online Freedom as the Filter Tightens | Defense Contractors See $$$ in Cyber Security | Protests in Australia over proposal to block Web sites | China restarts online crackdown | Australia to Implement Mandatory Internet Censorship | RCMP to helm a Canadian “cyber-security strategy” | Sweden approves wiretapping law | Law Professor tells tech conference: plans to shut down Internet already on deck

Steve Watson, Infowars.net
March 12, 2010

Infowars, Prisonplanet websites were mysteriously blocked at the same time as government filter was switched on

The government of New Zealand has quietly implemented an internet filter and is urging the leading ISPs in the country to adopt the measure, in a move that would give the authorities the power to restrict whichever websites they see fit.

The New Zealand Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) reportedly turned on the internet filter on February 1st without making any announcement, prompting critics to charge that the measure had been activated in stealth.

“It’s a sad day for the New Zealand internet” a spokesperson for online freedom lobby Tech Liberty told the leading New Zealand tech website Computerworld.

“It establishes the principle that the government can choose to arbitrarily set up a new censorship scheme and choose which material to block, with no reference to existing law,” the group states.

The filter is already being used by leading internet providers Maxnet and Watchdog, with the government refusing to comment on which other providers are set to take up the technology similar to that used by the Communist Chinese government and the ruling regime in Iran.

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People are being taught this new religion by the media – that it’s tough and cool to have the army doing checkpoints domestically, to have police now carry submachine guns around in London, UK, on the New York subway, etc. They’ve even launched these little pilot projects in Britain where your kids watch a ‘Spy Kids’ video, (same brand as the film) and are taught how to file reports to the police like the Young Spies in 1984. It’s as though Britain is just implementing Orwell’s visions in 1984 one after the other. And what did he learn, working at the BBC? He learned a lot about how powerful a tool propaganda can be when a state amps it up to engineer cultural mores.

Flashback: DHS Video Portrays Average Americans As Terrorists | US Homeland Security: Terror fight needs public’s vigilance | DoD Training Manual Describes Protest As “Low-Level Terrorism” | UK schoolkids trained to inform on ‘extremist’ classmates by police DVD | ‘AmeriCorps’ Domestic Paramilitary Propaganda Ad | Scouts Train to Fight Terrorists, and More | Secret Homeland Security Threat Assessment Labels Gun Owners Potential Terrorists | UK Home Secretary unveils civilian anti-terrorism security force | Pre-Olympic transit ads encourage citizen surveillance | US Urban Warfare Drills Linked To Coming Economic Rage | UK Terror Law To Make Photographing Police Illegal | Army ‘Strategic Shock’ Report Says Troops May Be Needed To Quell U.S. Civil Unrest | US Counterinsurgency Manual Leaked, Calls for False Flag Operations, Suspension of Human Rights | CBC Radio Broadcasts Expose of North American Police State | Fascist America, in 10 easy steps

Paul Joseph Watson, PrisonPlanet.com
March 11, 2010

Government ad running on British radio station tells public to report people who close their curtains as potential suicide bombers

A new government commercial currently running on one of Britain’s most popular radio stations is selling one thing – fear – by encouraging Londoners to report their neighbors as terrorists if they use cash, enjoy their privacy, or even close their curtains.

The advertisement, produced in conjunction with national radio outlet TallkSport, promotes the “anti-terrorist hotline” and encourages people to report individuals who don’t talk to their neighbors much, people who like to keep themselves to themselves, people who close their curtains, and people who don’t use credit cards.

“This may mean nothing, but together it could all add up to you having suspicions,” states the voice on the ad, before continuing “We all have a role to play in combating terrorism” (we’re all indentured stasi informants for the government).

“If you see anything suspicious, call the confidential anti-terrorist hotline….if you suspect it, report it,” concludes the commercial.

Listen to the ad below.

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Is this a response to CanadaParticipates.ca, the website launched by the group that staged the anti-prorogation rallies? Or simple a belated nod to the thousands of Canadians that got out to those protests. Either way, this is what leaders and their staffers should be doing in the Internet age. But like a fuzzy sweater, the image of a consensus-driven leader doesn’t really work on Harper. That suit is an ill-fitting one. To wait so long, and to have done so many things to centralize power in the PMO, this small consultative effort is of course going to draw fire. Let’s assume he knew that. It will be interesting to see how he handles the response interview on Tuesday. Now, go post some comments on the TalkCanada channel. It can’t get any easier, you’ve got a direct line to Harper’s staff until Sunday 1PM EST.

Related: Cabinet ministers’ offices regularly interfere in access to information requests, says Tory staffer | Conservatives accused of hiding information | Ottawa won’t budge on secrecy laws | McGuinty won’t deny political interference with Freedom of Information requests | Information commissioner quits, Ottawa chided for lacking ‘guts’ | Canadian Parliament Threatens People For Posting Video Of Proceedings Online | Government secrecy ‘grim,’ watchdog says | Watchdog alarmed by Harper’s information clampdown | Listeria files withheld due to ’systemic’ problems with access to information | Public access vs. government secrecy the issue in Supreme Court of Canada case | Radical change needed in privacy protection, Ont. watchdog says | Files tagged as `sensitive’ cause unfair delays, watchdog says | Tentacles of Secrecy Grip Tightly | Parliament losing power, author says | Over 100 complaints about access to govt. info on Afghan mission: report | Information lockdown: How Harper Controls the Spin | Tories kill access to information database | Harper to create government-run media centre: report

Richard J Brennan, Toronto Star
March 11, 2010

OTTAWA –– Prime Minister Stephen Harper draped himself in Olympic gold medals Thursday as he boasted – in the House of Commons and via YouTube – that his Conservative government almost single handedly pulled Canada back from the precipice of financial ruin.

“Bad choices now – unaffordable long-term spending commitments, ill-advised tax hikes, dithering on deficits and difficult decisions – will doom those countries who choose them to years of debt, stagnation and joblessness. A country of 33 million people that can win the most gold medals ever at an Olympic Games does not deserve that. And, on our watch, Canada will not get it,” Harper concluded at the end of a 30-minute speech.

Giving his official response to last week’s throne speech, Harper went beyond the television sets of Canadians and had his speech livestreamed on YouTube.com, where viewers were also invited to submit questions. Harper will make a return visit next Tuesday at 7 p.m. to answer a selection of questions.

In turning to the popular video-sharing website to get his message out to Canadians and others “unfiltered” by the national media, Harper opened up a social media can of worms.

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Good news. As Mike Masnick at Techdirt notes, “This is pretty big — and a massive setback for ACTA supporters. The MEPs didn’t just reject the lack of transparency, they were blatantly rejecting some of the proposals that were in the leaked documents.” Let’s hope that any other parliamentary defenders of the freedom of information as may exist out there don’t lose the momentum this generates.

Related: ACTA Internet Chapter Leaks: Renegotiates WIPO, Sets 3 Strikes as Model | ACTA Is Called An ‘Executive Agreement’ To Implement Restrictive Copyright With Less Hassle Than A Treaty | ACTA One Step Closer To Being Done; Concerns About Transparency Ignored | UK MPs frozen out of super-secret ACTA copyright talks | Reading Between The Still Secret Lines Of The ACTA Negotiations | Beyond ACTA: Proposed EU – Canada Trade Agreement Intellectual Property Chapter Leaks | New Leaks of Secret ACTA Copyright Law Reveal Oppressive ‘Global DMCA’ | MPAA Says Critics of Secret Copyright Treaty Hate Hollywood | ACTA Threatens Made-in-Canada Copyright Policy | More ACTA Details Leak: It’s An Entertainment Industry Wishlist | Six Days Left: Canadian Net Users Caught As Copyright Consultation Nears Conclusion | MP Charlie Angus on copyright: industry lobby pulling for ‘dead business model’ | Ottawa denies altering public’s ECopyright Consultation submissions | Security guards stop MPs, students from distributing fair use flyers at Toronto copyright townhall | Can The Public Be Heard On Copyright Issues? | Copyright Consultation Launches: Time For Canadians To Speak Out | Third stab at copyright law ‘reform’ to kick off with consultations | Time to slay Canadian file-sharing myths | Canadian copyright lobbyists leaned on “independent” researchers to change report on file-sharing | Think tank plagiarizes, pulls report on Canadian piracy | Obama Administration Claims Copyright Treaty Involves State Secrets | Latest Round of Closed-Door ACTA Copyright Negotiations Wrap Up | Digital rights groups sue for access to secret ACTA treaty | Critics waging a cyber offensive to fight copyright changes | Canadian Industry Minister lies about Canadian DMCA on national radio, then hangs up | The Canadian DMCA: Check the Fine Print | Government ready to drop copyright bomb | Transparency needed on ACTA | Revamped copyright law targets electronic devices | New Attempt to Align Canada’s Copyright Act with USA Coming Soon | Canadian DMCA To Be Introduced Tomorrow Morning?

Euractiv.com
March 10, 2010

The European Parliament defied the EU executive today (10 March), casting a vote against an agreement between the EU, the US and other major powers on combating online piracy and threatening to take legal action at the European Court of Justice.

Alternate definition of irony: Goldman Sachs, lecturing anyone else on abuse of process.

Related: Shaw Cable moves for acquisition of controlling share in Canwest Global | Tipping point at CanWest | Obama: We Need To Bailout Newspapers To Stop New Media Taking Over | Tech giants respond to Media with ideas on charging readers for news online | Reuters Steps Up; Says Linking, Excerpting, Sharing Are Good Things For The News | Associated Press Tries To DRM The News | Should linking be illegal? | Ottawa considering aid for private broadcasters | The Death of Canadian Journalism | Prepackaged News

On Goldman Sachs: Goldman Sachs Helped Greece Obscure Debt Through Currency Swaps | America slides deeper into depression as Wall Street revels | How Goldman secretly bet on the U.S. housing crash | Goldman Sachs breaks record with $16.7bn bonus pot | More US Bank Failures and The Coming Deposit Insurance Bailout | Arrest Over Software Illuminates Wall St. Secret | The Lords of Time: Goldman Sachs and low-latency trading | Record quarterly profits and bonuses: Goldman Sachs makes out like a bandit on taxpayer’s dime | Goldman-Sachs: Pilfered trading code could be used to ‘manipulate markets’ | Taibbi: NYSE ends transparency to protect Goldman Sachs | Goldman Sachs: The Great American Bubble Machine | 10 U.S. banks to repay U.S. bailout money | Top Senate Democrat: bankers “own” the U.S. Congress | Barclays, Lloyd’s, RBS join Goldman-Sachs in the black | Goldman-Sachs to repay TARP loan, resume private operations, bonuses, at “earliest time” possible | Which Banks Will Rule? | Wall Street’s Big Takeover | Behind the panic: Financial warfare over the future of global bank power | Goldman-Sachs Alumni Hold Reins of Financial System | Bilderberg Seeks Bank Centralization Agenda

Susan Krahinsky, Grant Robinson, The Globe and Mail
March 10, 2010

Firm has complained about being left out of the bidding, and in court documents on Wednesday called it ‘a remarkable abuse of the CCAA’s process’

New York investment bank Goldman Sachs (GS-N175.301.791.03%) is appealing a decision to allow Shaw Communications Inc. (SJR.B-T20.600.301.48%) to take control of CanWest’s broadcast assets, once the company has emerged from restructuring.

The Calgary-based cable giant won approval three weeks ago to invest a minimum of $95-million in exchange for 20 per cent of the equity and an 80-per-cent voting interest in a restructured CanWest. It knocked aside a competing bid put forward at the last minute by Goldman, in partnership with private equity firm Catalyst Capital Group, the Asper family and former executives of Rogers Communications Inc.

One member of that failed bid came out in support of Goldman’s appeal on Wednesday. In a statement, Catalyst said its proposal with Goldman still stands.

“Catalyst strongly supports Goldman Sachs as it exercises its rights – both as a matter of law and a matter of fairness … Catalyst and Goldman Sachs remain committed to our proposal,” the firm wrote.

CanWest’s broadcasting division filed for court protection under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act in October; its newspaper division filed in January. The company owes almost $4-billion to its creditors.

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And the other fork of the dual attack on online freedom is exhumed to lend support in the present assault – ‘cyberterror’, meet ‘cyber bullying’. Of course, if someone says something mean to someone on the telephone, do you ban the telephone network? Do you set up some new infrastructure to filter bad words and ideas from being spoken on the phone? Do you sue Bell Telephone? Of course not, because this is a question of human action and human nature. The technology isn’t what is at fault. The media is hyping and hyping these isolated cases where some kid commits suicide because some other kid said they were fat (or whatever the case may be), and the outcome is going to be some sort of ‘driver’s license‘ or vetting process or an automated censor board unless people get a little perspective and look at why the media establishment really wants the Internet locked down: Control of content.

Related: Italy Convicts Google Execs over Youtube Video of Downs Syndrome Boy | UN agency calls for global cyberwarfare treaty, ‘driver’s license’ for Web users | China launches interview requirement, licensing for personal websites | Internet companies voice alarm over Italian copyright law | Death Of The Internet: Censorship Bills In UK, Australia, U.S. Aim To Block “Undesirable” Websites | Australia introduces web filters | Obama Wants Computer Privacy Ruling Overturned | Security boss calls for end to net anonymity | Cyber Bullying Case Officially Dismissed for Vagueness | Do We Need a New Internet? | Cyberbullying verdict turns rule-breakers into criminals | Felony hacking precedent not set in case of Myspace cyberbully | Myspace terms of use could become fulcrum for destruction of online anonymity in precedent setting case | Microsoft patents web moderator robots, forbidden phrases to be memory-holed | Berners-Lee W3C Consortium to ‘Authorize’ Website Content? | Law Professor tells tech conference: plans to shut down Internet already on deck | MySpace signs up to OpenID scheme

Dan Whitcomb, Reuters
March 9, 2010

The Internet was built on freedom of expression. Society wants someone held accountable when that freedom is abused. And major Internet companies like Google and Facebook are finding themselves caught between those ideals.

Although Google, Facebook and their rivals have enjoyed a relatively “safe harbour” from prosecution over user-generated content in the United States and Europe, they face a public that increasingly is more inclined to blame them for cyber-bullying and other online transgressions.

Such may have been the case when three Google executives were convicted in Milan, Italy on February 24 over a bullying video posted on the site – a verdict greeted with horror by online activists, who fear it could open the gates to such prosecutions and ultimately destroy the Internet itself.

Journalist Jeff Jarvis suggested on his influential BuzzMachine blog that the Italian court, which found Google executives guilty of violating the privacy of an autistic boy who was taunted in the video, was essentially requiring websites to review everything posted on them.

“The practical implication of that, of course, is that no one will let anyone put anything online because the risk is too great,” Jarvis wrote. “I wouldn’t let you post anything here. My ISP (Internet Service Provider) wouldn’t let me post anything on its services. And that kills the Internet.”

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It’s a testament to the human spirit that people can escape the mind control of such a crushing, brutal regime.

Flashback: Obama Information Czar Calls For Banning Free Speech | Border guards are now Olympic thought police – Amy Goodman detained | Cuban blogger claims she was roughed up by state agents | Associated Press Tries To DRM The News | Murdoch CEO Labels Bloggers “Political Extremists” | Should linking be illegal? | Fredericton police arrest well-known N.B. blogger on legislature grounds | Chinese Learn Limits of Online Freedom as the Filter Tightens | Italian Judge: Blogs are Illegal | Human rights body to consider Internet speech regulation | Blogger arrests hit record high

Associated Press
March 4, 2010

Information on price of rice passed to defector in South Korea

A North Korean factory worker has been executed by firing squad for sneaking news out of the country on his illicit mobile phone, Seoul-based radio said today.

The armaments factory worker was accused of divulging the price of rice and other information on living conditions to a friend who had defected to South Korea years ago, Open Radio for North Korea reported.

The man, surnamed Chong, made calls to the defector using an illegal Chinese mobile phone, according to an unnamed North Korean security agency official cited by the report.

The execution took place by firing squad in late January in Hamhung, according to Open Radio for North Korea. The station broadcasts into North Korea, which tightly controls news.

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