Indy Media Watch

A Washington DC Nazi group is planning to hold a rally on 1 May.

A poster to Washington DC Indymedia has proposed a counter-protest. This would be commendable were it not for the proposed alternative:

Anarchism and Communism in!!! Nazis out!!!

Great...

I've said it before and I'll say it again. There's only one way to deal with Nazi protests:

Nonviolent protesters have occupied the administration building of the Univ of Hawaii, calling for end to military weapons development facility.

Honolulu, HI – A group of nonviolent protesters have entered Bachman Hall, the University of Hawaii administration building, and have demanded an end to the University Affiliated Research Center (UARC) project, which would establish a secret military research facility to conduct Navy weapons development. The group -- consisting of students, faculty, and concerned community members -- has prepared a formal statement of legal, moral, health, cultural, and political reasons why UARC should be dropped. They have prepared a formal letter to the US Navy for Interim President David McClain to sign stating that UH is withdrawing its UARC application, because of the substantial public concern over increased secret military research. The nonviolent protesters have stated that they will not leave Bachman Hall until Mr. McClain publicly declares the end of UARC.

We repeat: Non-Violent protesters.

You know, just in case Indymedia readers get them confused with regular (violent) protesters.

Apparently New York City Indymedia has been hacked and defaced.

The hackers covered the site in well researched, fact-checked and politically non-biased articles. To add insult to injury, they then posted numerous articles complimentary of democratically elected governments worldwide and condemnatory of dictatorships.

Just kidding.

Further to my reporting on Indymedia's Incitement to Criminal Vandalism, comes a comment on that page from someone affiliated with Seattle Indymedia.

Folks, as a Seattle IndyMedia volunteer, I believe you are wrong.

Indymedias do not advocate anything. we simply give a forum for anyone to use.

We hope for good, well thought out articles. We sometimes get idiots.

idiots have access to the world wide web, and therefore post their idiotic rantings all over the place.

Much as dogs do pissing on fire posts.

Don't give the kooks more credibility than they deserve.

Sorry, whilst I appreciate you taking the time to write, this is a total cop out. You know full well how your site is used for bad, yet choose to do essentially nothing to prevent it. I called this the Standard Indymedia Defence here - "It's an unmoderated medium, we can't be held responsible for its content". In rather the same way you would expect not to be held responsible for someone getting shot with your firearm if you failed to take any responsibility for properly securing it after multiple warnings to that effect.

Not good enough. Sorry. You either want to be taken seriously or you do not. As an undeniably well-known site, until you take definitive steps to prevent the sort of material I criticize you for on this site, it's no use washing your hands of it.

I note that the article in question is still present on your site. The kooks you refer to are getting all the credibility and posterity they need. Your call.

Update: Via comments in this post, one person writes:

"Dude! You're ragging on Indymedia for being irresponsible by allowing a forum for a random nut who wants to superglue newspaper dispensers?

Didn't they take responsibility by letting their usual posters express their disdain for the kook?"

Did it fail to escape your attention that TIME Magazine graced its cover with a woman who encourages terrorists acts? Talk about a failure to take responsibility.

It's early in the morning, so I'm honestly not sure if that was written as a joke. In it's reporting, Time Magazine has also featured Osama bin Laden on the front cover, however I fail to see your point. If said terrorists wanted to place an advertisement in Time (or any responsible media) inciting destruction of public property, Time's editors would take a responsible position and say no. Indymedia has not and likely will not. The comparison is just silly. By the way, a "random nut" can do a whole lot of damage.

Via Seattle Indymedia comes details of Freeze the Media Day in two weeks on May 9.

"Freeze the Media Day" is when people all around the country drop superglue and toothpicks into the money slots of slimy corperate media newspaper dispensers. This is a statement to figures who like to put themselves in places of power that the power still remains with the people and that we can still tear down any institutions we feel the need to because the were built over the labor on our backs. This is also a message to them that we won't tolerate the bullshit spins they put out to keep us in a constants state of fear and obediance. This is a nationwide event, and we're looking for solidarity everywhere to help spread this empowering message.

The statement is of course "We are criminals". The message is "we aren't very intelligent either".

Seattle is of course where Indymedia started.

Update: Before anyone can say this is just a prank or a deliberate covert-op attempt to discredit Indymedia, they should know that Portland, Santa Cruz and San Francisco Indymedia have all jumped on the bandwagon. No doubt more are to come. Update of an update: (Bondage fans of all things, are discussing just that theory).

Thanks to Michelle Malkin, Rusty Shackleford at the Jawa Report, Tim Blair, Sound Politics and everyone else in my referrer logs who is kindly linking to me and making me seriously question the future of Trackback. I now wish I were selling tee-shirts on the site...

Update 2: One of the comments on my blog makes an interesting point enunciated perfectly by someone over at Jawa: 'Considering that the evil corporate newpapers are about 99.999% rabidly liberal, anti-American Pravda wannabes, maybe this should be called Cutting Off Our Noses To Spite Our Faces Day'.

New Orleans is running a report on opposition to growing prison numbers.

Prison populations across the country continue to swell, according to a new report by the US Department of Justice. While some lawmakers clamor for more prisons to alleviate the over-crowding, a growing movement of community groups is calling for a rethinking of the country’s prison policy.

And who are some of these groups?

Critical Resistance is one of many groups across the country that are mobilizing in communities to stop new prisons and criminalization, which they say disparately impacts people of color. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics report, about 60% of people in prisons and jails are people of color.

Other statistics would argue that (allowing for errors) 100% of the people in prison did something wrong. Shouldn't preventing the crime in the first place, rather than excusing it afterward be the focus of their efforts? Apparently not:

We know that as long as there is prisons, they’re gonna find somebody to put in the prisons. So what are we gotta do? Shut ‘em down!

I'm sure they have The Mob's full support. By closing down the prisons, I'm also sure an immediate reduction in crime will follow... What an innovative approach to social welfare and crime-reduction.

Moonbat is a term thrown around quite widely these days. Not everyone on the Left is a Moonbat, but they do exist.

What is a Moonbat? Perhaps this awesome animation will explain.

Watch it all and sing along with the Moonbats, it's strangely addictive.

Rusty Shackleford has produced a series of interviews the latest one here with the families of Americans being kept hostage in Iraq.

This comment is a sad reflection on the state of the media.

"There is more coverage about the Michael Jackson Trial than I'll ever want to see and other trivial matters.... Things like that make the evening news, but nothing about my father, for example, who has been held hostage now for over 6 ½ months. I find this to be an outrage."

--Carrie Hallums Cooper, daughter of Roy Hallums, a civilian contractor who has been hostage in Iraq for 6.5 months to date.

This problem of hyperfocusing on some issues, while largely (if not totally) ignoring others is a major problem for the Mainstream Media's balance. Balance is something Indymedia could readily provide and it is considered a key to good reporting. Indymedia however won't. Not when they could just be spending their energy protesting to legalise drugs anyway.

David Horowitz was about to commence his presentation detailing "the leftist domination of college campuses" when:

Suddenly appeared a person, a brave person, a person with a whole bunch of drive and determination.

And this brave, driven person....... Threw a pie at him.

Over on Madison Indymedia, an argument has broken out. The Right is saying:

I love what passes for intellectual discourse on the far left these days. A bunch of thugs who can't stand that someone actually has a different opinion...
...
And people wonder why police have to be at these protests
...
We know the nutty lefties have given up on winning elections. Their new strategy seems to involve pie-ing people they disagree with. That's gold, Jerry, gold.

The Left responds:

All you right-wing hacks are pathetic. do you think that coming to this website and denigrating anyone who is concerned with social and economic justice is a form of political discourse? you are just trying to disrupt the effectiveness of this website. that is not discourse. its just childish. grow up.

As "childish" as say, throwing a pie at a public speaker?

Random additional "political discourse":

Damn, I wish I had thought of that one when Churchill was here. It would take a while to get the pie out of his long hippy hair though
...
Good thing Horowitz doesn't have any hair. Just a dry rinse will do.
...
better to pie than to bomb, says i. besides, horowitz is a demagogue, and you can't engage someone like that in civil political discourse. i say hell yeah, let him know that we know that he is a fool.
...
I really feel uncomfortable sharing this, but I just discovered that there was a negative sex act named after Mr. H. Yes, it's called "the horowitz."
...
Horowitz is the clown. that's the joke. clowns are funny because they try to act dignified when they trip, or, get a pie in the face. pieing is funny becuase it difinitively identifies the person getting pied as a clown.

compare this to the effectiveness of those who dismiss 'activists' and 'protestors' as clowns. . . shouldn't we then be showing people like horowitz, daniel pipes, the mendota beacon, college republicans, for the clowns they are?
...
The people who continue to justify this type of silly prank/crime need to grow up. How do you expect anyone to ever give any of you nutty lefties respect when this is the type of behavior you exhibit? You, of course, are welcome to do whatever you want, I'm just sayin' you might further your causes a bit more if you weren't so childish and moronic.
...
DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW MANY CHILDREN THAT PIE COULD FEED?!?! The pie was for the children. You wasted the children's pie! What about the CHILDREN!?!?! I'm sure there are thousands of Iraqi children who would have loved that pie and you wasted it!!!
...
Don't miss Pie Man's web site. A truly revealing look into the mind of the mentally deranged Madison Left.

And finally:

Horowitz gets his just desserts

Thank you, and goodnight.

Whilst this is silly at best, numerous hardcore 9/11 conspiracy pieces spammed elsewhere on Madison Indymedia and on Maine Indymedia amongst other IMC sites are disturbing.

Video of the (obvious) demolition of World Trade Center Seven together with video of the (less obvious) demolition of North Tower.

HIGH RESOLUTION VIDEOS OF THE 9/11 HOAX .

By all means watch it, and never forget.

Bay Area Indymedia has run a hugely 'commented' piece linking to the Fox TV story about 9-11 Israeli Spy activity in the U.S..

It is claimed Fox has now removed all traces of it from their website and is part of some conspiracy to change history. Ha-ha, not so fast, cries "Whatreallyhappened.com", we have an archive copy for you to download.

And they do.

If you bother to download and watch it however, you'll see it completely undermines the argument of the people who are holding it up as (get this): damning "circumstantial evidence" of Israeli complicity in 9/11.

As with most of these things, the article rebukes itself and I need not bother. Certainly others have alread done so in the comments on the page. What amazes me however is the thought process people use in concocting an argument and then insisting they can prove it. See my earlier report on proving conspiracy theories.

From the video:

"Since September 11th, more than sixty Israelis have been arrested or detained either under the new Patriot anti-terrorism law or for immigration violations"

Therefore, according to some people, this is "circumstantial evidence" which proves their theory Israel was secretly responsible for 9/11.

On the other hand, I wonder how many Mexicans, Puerto Ricans, Italians (and don't get me started on Arabs and anti-terrorism laws) have also been detained for immigration violations?

Then there's the frustrating issue of Osama Bin Laden's admission of guilt in 9/11. This is of course summarily dismissed by some as wonderfully demonstrated in this cartoon.


Back to the video:

"A handful of active Israeli military were among those detained according to investigators who say some of the detainess also failed polygraph tests when asked about alleged surveillance activities against and in the United States"

It's important to define Israeli Military involvement according to Israeli law.

The reason, is that law which states:

"person designated for defence service" means an Israel
national, or a permanent resident, who has not yet
reported for defence service and is of an age as
specified hereunder:

(1) in the case of a male person - any age from
eighteen to fifty-four years;

(2) in the case of a female person - any age from
eighteen to fifty-four years.

has in some cases been interpreted by terrorists to mean that almost anyone in Israel is a military target and therefore, blowing up a busload of thirty-something pregnant women at the local supermarket does not therefore make the perpetrator a terrorist.

Alternatively, active Israeli Military could mean anyone aged between 18-21. Now why on earth might anyone of that age be travelling around the world I hear you ask? Coming soon: "Wild On: Israeli Spies at Beach Resorts" It doesn't matter anyway, the video then says:
"There is no indication that the Israelis were involved in the 9/11 attacks"

Gee... No surprise there.

"But investigators suggest the Israelis may have gathered information about the attacks in advance and not shared it"

Leaving aside the question of "what exactly would have been done anyway", at the very end of the video, the reporter mentions: "A bigger question they [investigators] say is, how could they not have known?"

Hello? You could say precisely the same about the US Government. Something or other to do with the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Centre? Intelligence Shocker: Some Arabs may be planning terrorist attacks.

Of course none of that would help you prove an antisemitic conspiracy though.

It then goes on to talk about claims Israelis were spying on Arab suspects who the US was also spying on "for links to terrorism". I for one can't imagine why Israel would want to gather information about terrorists, but if there is spy activity within the US (which according to the report Israel denies) there is no evidence to suggest it is against US interests, rather terrorists. Good! Whilst later raising several questions of technological and economic espionage (which lets face it make for interesting tabloid headlines), the Fox piece essentially supports this argument.

In other words, the piece says there is some suggestion of things, which was ultimately dismissed, like the Israelis who were rounded up, questioned and released.

So what?

In an attempt to grandly prove something, someone on Indymedia was so busy gloating and caught up in conspiracy theories about media suppression, they were dumb enough to link to source material which largely disproves it.

Newsflash: It's a 24 hour news station. There's lot's of stuff Fox News stop carrying on their website, like everything from over a week ago. Damned Jewish media control!!!

Enjoy sucking up Indybay's bandwidth...

My lack of high-school Latin resulted in an inability to translate "Alea iacta est" without turning to Google. It means "the die is cast" and is the name of an Australian blog which (besides kindly linking to me under unkind circumstances) has made a rather interesting point about the new Pope. I haven't said much about the Pope yet as it's too early to have an opinion. That hasn't stopped plenty of people expressing theirs despite not even knowing what the guy looked like until a few days ago. Alea iacta est had this to say:

You've thrilled to the exciting Bush=Hitler, laughed at its comic sequel Howard=Hitler, cheered during the action-packed Schwarzenegger=Hitler, and been disappointed in the satiric follow-ups Bracks=Hitler, and Optus=Hitler.

Now get ready for the greatest of all: Pope Benedict XVI = Hitler!!!!.

Really, this is becoming the most tiresome meme ever. Not everyone who was in the Hitler Youth or the Germany Army during WWII was a Nazi.If that were true then nearly every German (and Austrian) male over the age of seventy would have to accept this slur.

Let's get a few things straight about the new pope.

1) We are talking about three years in the life of a 78 year old - three years from 14 to 17.

2) He was compelled to join the Hitler Youth, just as he was compelled to join the Germany Army.

3) There is no indication ANYWHERE that he had ANY beliefs that mirrored Nazi ideology.

4) All of this tells us nothing except that he was an ordinary eighteen year old German who did what he was told as did nearly everyone else.

The most annoying thing about this, is it that it trivalises the very real, and very serious issue of resurgent anti-semitism,especially in the Middle East, where the notorious "Protocols of theElders of Zion" is making a comeback, and not just in dank, dingy bookstores..

(It's not just the middle-east either, "Indymedia", ostensibly an alternative to the mainstream media, is a cesspit of anti-semitism these days.)

It's an interesting world where you can talk about the "Fundamentalist Zionist lobby [that] controls media and politics in the US and Australia", and escape any kind of punishment at all, but be a fourteen year old boy who was forced into a organisation against your will, and themoonbats will attack.

Now that's sad.

Yes. Yes it is.

Chicago Indymedia hosts a page entitled How to Write a News Story: A Crash Course for Grassroots Reporters

It is very good reading.

Regrettably, many of the Indymedia contributors missed one key point:

Just don't break the main rule: don't be a liar.

Some people certainly missed that tip:

Understanding what happened on 9/11 requires and understanding of the shadow government that pulls the strings of the puppets who dance before us in the virtual reality of American media.

Gee... Can (CIA) you (Conspiracy) guess (Bush) where (Zionists) that article (Muhahaha) was heading?

Binhamton Indymedia is currently carrying The Beginning of the End? Notes on David Ray Griffin's 9-11 talk.

Fairly standard 9/11 conspiracy theories with some interesting new material.

I attended a lecture tonight at the UW-Madison campus by Christian theologian David Ray Griffin. This is the author of "The New Pearl Harbor — Disturbing Questions about the Bush Administration and 9/11". His most recent book is "The 9/11 Commission Report: Omissions and Distortions". The title speaks for itself.

The lecture this evening was reported to be the first of its kind — the first time a formal lecture has challenged the official 9/11 story. In addition, it was being recorded for broadcast on C-SPAN!

Evidently C-SPAN were preparing for their forthcoming series entitled: "Universities funding nutjobs", but I digress.

He categorizes people into 4 groups:

• People who believe the official story that the 9/11 attacks were a surprise attack orchestrated by 19 Islamic Al-Qaeda terrorists.
• People who believe 9/11 was used opportunistically by the Bush administration to advance an agenda.
• People who believe that the Bush administration had foreknowledge of the attacks but did not stop nor prevent them. No national polls have been taken, but one Zogby poll in New York City showed 50% of the people thought Bush knew.
• People who believe the Bush administration orchestrated the 9/11 attacks.

Sorry, I don't believe what I believe because it's the "official story", but because of who admitted it, who celebrated it and who had tried a similar stunt in 1993. Excuse me if that doesn't help your argument that cynically dismisses most of us as naive.

If you believe these were surprise attacks by terrorists, the war is justified then as "punishing evil", and you'd have no suspicion of American imperialism.

It's nothing to do with "punishment" and everything to do with preventing a repeat.

Another little piece of damning evidence comes from the financial markets. Griffin reported that days before the attacks there were extraordinarly high "put options" placed on United Airlines, American Airlines and one of the firms that occupied several floors of the World Trade Center. Put options are essentially bets that the stock price is going to fall.

Damning evidence? Newsflash: Stock prices fall. For example:

NEW YORK (AP) -- Stocks resumed their slide Wednesday as concerns about rising inflation trumped a slew of upbeat quarterly reports, including better-than-expected results from Caterpillar Inc. and Intel Corp. The Dow Jones industrial average lost more than 115 points, settling just a whisper above the 10,000 mark.

I eagerly look forward to articles citing the above proving the grand Mossad conspiracy which resulted in Caterpillar shares performing better than expected in spite of the veiled anti-Israel International Day of Action Against Caterpillar (which organizers conveniently neglected when it was only Saddam Hussein using Caterpillar gear to knock over houses of dissidents or the Taleeban pushing walls onto homosexuals in order to kill them but I digress again).

So obviously somebody knew about the attacks and planned to profit off of them

Yeeeeesssssss. "Obviously". And just as "obviously" Yahoo and NBC are about to be attacked as significant put options were lodged last week for those companies as well.

Obvious to whom exactly? Perhaps I missed that psychology lecture but I thought part of getting others to subscribe to your viewpoint was to provide satisfactory evidence to support it. Not merely writing something off as "obvious" when there is no evidence to support it. I certainly did not however miss the economics lecture where I learned that put options give a buyer the right, but not any obligation to sell the shares later at the nominal strike price. You'll be surprised (not really) to learn it happens a whole lot more than you think.

Griffin argues that the intelligence community keeps tabs on the financial markets to watch for things like this (at least, I believe that's what he said, my notes are vague).

Vague notes didn't stop you writing all about it on Indymedia though did it?

I have previously condemned Sydney Indymedia for tolerating and even encouraging some of the disgraceful material on its newswire.

They appear to have lifted their game considerably in the last few weeks. Initially, I assumed this was accidental and the trolls/Nazis had found another distraction and not posted as much as usual.

Reviewing the 'hidden' articles on Sydney's newswire however (Indymedia's impotent version of deleting offensive material) I can see that significant numbers of offensive pieces had in fact been manually removed.

Credit where credit is due, well done, please keep it up.

Update: Via House of Wheels comes what Leigh refers to as "The best post in Indymedia's history" on Sydney Indymedia. Leigh sums it up: "The tin foil is in aisle 4". For what it's worth though, outlandish conspiracy theories which don't smack of racism are far more entertaining than the usual sort of garbage one might find.

Unfortunately, the headline of the article in question: "WHY THE SYDNEY MORNING HERALD SUPPORTTS (sic) FASCISM" is another unfortunate case of generous overuse of the terms fascism and Nazism by people who have very obviously never experienced either.

Via Gordon, The Environmental Republican, comes an Editor's Note in the LA Times.

Someone at the LA Times screwed up. Badly. A report was written and virtually every point in it was subsequently corrected or retracted.

The LA Times fired the writer. Gordon asks whether any of his editors or sub-editors were disciplined. Probably not, but transparency and the ability to admit a mistake (albeit after causing damage) is commendable.

Are you listening Reuters?

A quick search of Google News (note this is not Google's main search) shows that several Indymedia sites are indexed by Google News.

At the moment, this includes NYC Indymedia (previous Indy Media Watch observations including association with terrorist groups and assorted foolishness here and here), Ireland Indymedia (previous Indy Media Watch reports here and here) , Indymedia Columbia, Indymedia Canary Islands and Indymedia Argentina to name a few.

Adding this to Uruknet.info (the fiercely pro-Saddam propaganda machine) and al-Jazeera, it's nice to know Google News continues to provide a high-quality news product.

I'm not the only one who has noticed.

Faruque Ahmed of Australia, previously written about here has been Googling for his name again and posted more of his crap on my (yes, read it again) my blog.

Should you bother to visit the link above you may discover the Zio-Nazi nature. They will attack and insult you based on false and unsubstantiated materials.(sic) They will not provide you a (sic) right of reply.

The link was in fact to the very same page on which his comment appeared. Genius!

It was simultanously written about in his own Yahoo Group (visit at own risk, contains Holocaust Denial and assorted other Faruque Ahmed filth).

Most of the Israelites of our time are either Holocaust survivor
(LOL) or children of survivors (LOL x LOL)! "A Palestinian prison-
state" and other true stories tell me, holocaust NEVER HAPPEND.

That's some real nice content that Yahoo is hosting! Please let Yahoo know!

In a utterly typical anti-Semitic conspiracist manner, Ahmed fears he is part of a global conspiracy to stifle his "right of reply". So how does he enunciate this? By replying of course.

In this case, adding his comments on my blog to his messages on his aforementioned personal Yahoo Group and his endless spamming of Indy Media sites as previously referenced.

Faruque, let me offer you some friendly advice:

1) You are not welcome here. Let me be perfectly clear about that. I respect differences of opinion. I do not, and cannot however respect you. I can have no respect for someone who has written in the manner you have (as previously documented).

You have your own site, you have Indymedia. Please do not come into my house and pee on my rug.

2) For what it's worth, I haven't deleted Faruque's initial message. I have however deleted three which followed in quick succession (from the same IP address) under different names (echoing accusations of his modus operandi on Indymedia) , all wholly irrelevant to this blog and its content and some quite offensive as well. More of the same will be cheerfully deleted.

I note that my complaints here are in response only to your posting on my Blog Faruque. You cannot possibly claim I started this or am part of some great conspiracy to attack you. I am not, you brought this ridicule on yourself.

3) 220-244-141-138-nsw.tpgi.com.au (220.244.141.138) is the IP address Faruque Ahmed was using (at approximately 19:50 East Australian time GMT +10hrs) in case anyone happens to be interested.

Ending a procedure which some speculated may take far longer, the Vatican today announced, with the much anticipated puff of white smoke, that it has elected the new Pope.

Cardinals who had decided to maintain silence from the media lifted their embargo and explained their joy at reaching their decision so easily.

Although the voting results are unknown (the ballots are burnt causing the famous smoke) it is believed the new pope was highly popular amongst his peers and people.

The new pontiff, Avery Ant will address the public later today.

Update: I've just found out the whole thing never actually happened and Avery Ant isn't in fact human, but an ant. If making up news is good enough for Reuters and the MSM though...

Important Update: Now that a new Pope has been genuinely elected, given this page will be archived I should spell out clearly that it was a joke.

Reuters is reporting a twin suicide bombing of buses in Israel.

Here's the thing: It never happened. There was no bombing.

Theories are abounding as to how this report came about:

a) Old story details (almost certainly this one) were re-run by accident. Although the current facts have been intertwined (Gaza withdrawal etc.) and updated so this probably wasn't a technical or automated error. It could merely be a co-incidence that the Gaza withdrawal is on the agenda again and Ahmed Qureia is back in the picture.

b) A canned report was prepared in advance of an attack with the awful details to be filled in later. Perhaps Reuters gets phone calls from terrorists in advance? Certainly, their report is not complimentary of Israel's reaction

In any case, Google News and numerous other sites which syndicate Reuters material have run with it in good faith. Screenshots are archived here for when and if it 'mysteriously' disappears.

Someone has screwed up majorly.

So now we know (as if we didn't already) that Reuters can't be trusted.

Sounds like a job for....(Trumpet fanfare) Independent Media. Unfortunately rather than providing quality journalism that is obviously lacking from Reuters, they seem to have the market cornered on creating untrue 'news'which Reuters could only possibly dream of.

A pity.

Update: Thanks to a comment left by one of the most charming right-wing death beasts from hell I know, I have been alerted to an article by Michelle Malkin that demonstrates this sort of screwup happens a whole lot more than it should (i.e. never)

Update #2: Surprise, surprise, the original article linked above is now gone. That is, gone without an explanation, clarification or apology. Unfortunately this page and the numerous others which covered this 'problem' aren't going to disappear quite as easily.

Winnipeg Indymedia has finally realized that a lack of editorial policy has caused 'problems'.

Indymedia.org began with a very 'hands off' approach to the open publishing model -- posting to the website was effectively unrestricted.
...
In terms of ideals, the model has served to facilitate what might be called a Chomskian anarcho-libertarianism.

Chomskian whatever, it might also be fairly called a steaming pile of crap.

As more and more IMCs formed and promulgated the Indymedia.org model, unforeseen success also brought with it the attention of the 'radical Right' (loosely defined).

I'm not sure how you define "success" but let me give a more firm definition of the 'radical Right': Nazis.

As a result, the Winnipeg collective have decided to update and enforce an editorial policy, the first draft of which is available here.

Unfortunately, in attempting to find a solution, it seems they are having a hard time identifying the problem.

The greater the prominence of those views, the greater the onslaught of the radical Right. In the past two years, a few IMCs collapsed under constant streams of posts from neo-Nazis and others struggled to put forward pro-Palestinian views amidst organised attacks from pro-Zionism extremists.

One respondent writes:

Is it just me, or were comparisons made between attacks by Neo-Nazis and Zionists?

You weren't. I also saw it.

The response argues:

Am I the only one that sees through the propaganda and realizes Zionism isn't in fact about killing people and only about securing a homeland for the Jewish people? The Palestinian propaganda has attempted to portray Zionism as a pariah cult of blood-soaked Jews when the fact is, the Jews have been the victim of ongoing Arab aggression pre-1948 which continues to this day.

Why are the Palestinians entitled to an ethnic homeland whereas the Jews aren't?

I'm sorry to turn this converstaion into yet another ISrael thing, but it's wrong to accuse "pro-Zionist elements" of attempting to subvert Indymedia when you simply have no proof to support the accusation.

It's quite clear there is loads of genuine anti-semitism passed off as news. Indymedia has done a good job of discrediting itself without placing blame for this on the victims of much of it (i.e. Jews and Zionists).

Also, the far-left (Bush=Hitler crap) is as big a problem as the far right. So much so, it's seriously hard to tell them apart.

It's good to see an attempt by Indy to develop and finalize a policy and stick to it, but it's not right to see the earlier problems aren't fairly identified.

I agree. Other Indymedia sites should watch this with interest.

Someone on Indymedia Ireland has way too much time on his hands and made an Ireland Indymedia Crossword.

If you have too much time, you can answer questions like 4 Down: Four letter "acronym for what George avoided".

One respondent bemoans that as a result of doing the crossword, now he won't get any work done today. Why do I get the feeling that isn't really a big deal for him?

The Young Conservatives of Texas were to play a campus-wide game of "Illegal Immigrant Hunt".

According to the article, it consists of "a t-shirt that said "Illegal Immigrant" and a bunch of fake badges given out to participants to give them the feeling that they were Border Patrol agents".

Childish? Perhaps, but not nearly as much as the dialog which ensued when it was reported on Texas Indymedia as "The Young Conservatives and the Racist Games They Play... "

Think and say what you want about immigration or border-control policies, but "racist"? The game wasn't entitled "hunt the Mexican" or "hunt the Canadian". One commenter summed it up:

Well... nothing like shutting people up and calling them Nazis and fascists to promote free speech... you Communist scumbags are the real criminals here. It is NOT racist to call for reasonable limits to immigration. Why can't you fucking morons understand the difference between legal and illegal immigration? LEGAL ... versus... ILLEGAL. They are two different words with two different meanings. One is ok, the other is not. WHY CAN'T YOU SEE THE DIFFERENCE? I am sick and tired of you fucking Communist motherfuckers thinking you are better than everyone around you when you fight against perfectly reasonable things like controlled immigration and the free-market system. When will you reactionary Stalinists stop calling yourselves progressives?

and everyone else Nazis and fascists.

UK Indymedia is referring to an Associated Press article which reports that Israeli troops have fired at a group of Palestinian youths in the southern Gaza Strip, killing three teenagers.

According to the article on UK Indymedia:

Ali Abu Zaid, a 22-year-old Rafah resident, said a group of boys were playing football in an open area when the ball was kicked toward the border fence. "The kids ran after it, and that's when we heard gunfire".

Shocking.

Or is it?
Googling for the source article shows this information from the same report which was left right out of the Indymedia version:

The Israeli army, however, said the youths were involved in smuggling across the border.

An Israeli commander at the scene said the youths were spotted crawling on their stomachs deep inside a closed military zone. He said three of the youths got to their feet and began running toward the border. The teenagers were about 250 yards into the closed area when they were shot on a military patrol road, he said.

"These kids were not playing soccer," said the commander, whose name was withheld under military regulations. "You don't get there by accident."

What actually happened depends on who you want to believe. Reports of the "Jenin Massacre" make me cynical. You could however only reach a one-sided conclusion had you relied solely on the Indymedia version.

Here's my problem, Indymedia claims it is a replacement for the terribly biased 'MSM' (mainstream media). Isn't taking the story as reported by the MSM and then reprinting it minus at least half the story, making a bad problem even worse?

Via DC Indymedia comes more about "the shadow government that pulls the strings of the puppets who dance before us in the virtual reality of American media":

Future essays will go into greater depth and move towards a greater understanding of how the American people were deceived into believing that a non-existent terrorist organization is real and how this non-existent terrorist organization was blamed for the attacks on 9/11 as a cover for the actions of the shadow government.

Okay. Thanks.

It also reprints (in full naturally) some "top secret" super-duper classified material. Having not worked around sensitive defence installations, I honestly had no idea sensitive material was so gosh-darned colorful! The money they must spend on stationery and crayons instead of welfare programs...

According to Reuters, a French tribute to the late Pope has caused left-wing outrage.

PARIS, April 4 (Reuters) - As Catholics mourned the death of Pope John Paul, French leftwingers and a major teaching union criticised the government on Monday for ordering flags on public buildings to be lowered in a sign of respect.

Socialist senator Jean-Luc Melenchon and Yves Contassot, a senior Green party member on the Paris City Council, said the government had abused its powers in ordering the official tribute to the Pope, who died on Saturday.

The Unsa union said the government was guilty of double standards having ordered schools to take part in the tribute to a religious leader but banned Muslim headscarves in state schools in a drive to keep schools firmly secular.

"Let the Christians pay tribute to the head of their church, it's a private matter," Contassot told France Inter radio.

"Today, we have a government and a head of state who, clearly, for political reasons, are trying to take advantage of an issue that is a private matter," he said.

Private matter? You can see the queues from space. The remainder of the article discusses French precedent for lowering the flag - not that they should have to justify themselves to these miscreants.

I'd report Paris Indymedia's take on it if I could understand it, however it's down now anyway.

Good!

(Hat tip: Scott, The Environmental Republican)

I have been struggling for several hours now to post to this Blog. After checking Blogger Status I saw a note advising that clearing out cookies may solve the problems caused by an 'upgrade' (the new 'recover posts' thing you may notice if you use this service).

It worked.

I am getting what I paid for, so can't complain.

This protester, featured on Santa Cruz Indymedia is offering to "fuck the army".

What a lovely original way to support the troops.

The global Indymedia page is reporting on a protest which turned ugly.

Activists from all around Australia traveled for up to 3 days to converge in protest of Australia’s Mandatory Detention Policy for Asylum seekers, at Baxter Refugee detainment centre, north of Port Augusta in the dusty red South Australian desert.
...
Roughly 500 Refugee rights activists and community members met for Baxter 05,taking up residency for the weekend on the hill over looking the faccility, whilst Refugee rights activists staged solidarity protesters across the country, at Perth Detention Centre and Maribyrnong Detention Centre, west of Melbourne.

Protesters walked repeatedly to the Baxter centre,3.5 kms away, to make themselves heard to the public and the detainees. What was for all intentions to be a passive protest was met with excessive police force of 400 officers, and resulted in a number of clashes.

at precisely which point any sympathy for the cause was lost.
Let me guess... If there were no police, there would have been no violence, and it's all the police's fault?

Of course it is...

There were 16 arrests in total for the weekend, comparatively less than the 33 arrests from the previous Baxter convergence in 2003. The arrests were made for charges ranging from trespass, property damage, illegal balloon and kite flying in a ‘military no fly zone’, and indecent exposure.
...
Protesters had a final action with a large bunch of balloons attached to a banner depicting the slogan ‘freedom, close Baxter’, and numerous scripts ‘freedom’, with the aim to float the banner over the centre in view of detainees.They were met by a line of police who had been guarding the perimeter for the duration of the weekend and then proceeded to engage in a stand off, similar to that of the previous day.

Why might the police be guarding the perimeter then?

This subsequent article explains some of the non-violence:

Our action took place on Easter Sunday morning. The five of us crossed a small perimeter fence and then used a nylon rope and small metal hook to pull off some strands of electrified wire running along the top of the main fence. We did this away from the main protest activity and police presence. We then dropped our equipment and stood with our hands in the air, peacefully giving ourselves up for arrest as the police arrived. We remain open and accountable for these actions as we believe that they are morally right.

I can imagine some people believing the trouble all started after the Police hit the protesters back.

Let me ask them something: Where exactly is it written that a protest isn't truly successful unless someone gets hurt and the pepper spray comes out? If it isn't smashing police, it's smashing windows, vandalizing property or causing an extreme public nuisance. And for what?

See here for a reminder of a more intelligent approach.

Sydney Indymedia is evidently still having 'issues' if it is comfortable with another article suggesting Jews were behind 9/11.

Like most such things, it does not require rebuttal and rebukes itself. I did however like the cartoon subsequently attached (below) which asks the obvious question, if Osama bin Laden accepted responsibility, why can't those who think it was a big Jewish/US conspiracy just admit it?

I have now reported a few times on the danger of online hostility and incitement spilling into real acts of violence.

And now, this from the Washington Post

At 1:27 a.m. on Nov. 19, 2002, Officer David Mobilio of the Red Bluff Police Department was working the graveyard shift when he pulled his cruiser into a gas station in his quiet little farm town. As he stood beside the car, the 31-year-old husband and father of a toddler was shot three times, twice in the back and once in the head, at very close range.

Beside Mobilio's dead body, someone left a handmade flag with a picture of a snake's head and the words "Don't Tread on Us."

A well-chosen spot for an ambush. That is what investigators later concluded, especially when they learned the suspected assailant had Army Ranger training. A lonely crossroads. Poorly lit. No station attendant on duty. No witnesses. It was a killing that might have never been solved.

That is, until a confession appeared on the Internet. Six days after the shooting, a manifesto appeared on more than a dozen Web sites operated by the left-leaning Independent Media Center.

It began: "Hello Everyone, my name's Andy. I killed a Police Officer in Red Bluff, California in a motion to bring attention to, and halt, the police-state tactics that have come to be used throughout our country. Now I'm coming forward, to explain that this killing was also an action against corporate irresponsibility."

The murder and subsequent Indymedia coverage happened in 2002 but is now relevant as the trial is due to begin shortly. There was much discussion about it on Indymedia and presumably will be more as it becomes relevant again.

As far as I can tell, this was the earliest post on San Francisco (Indybay) Indymedia. Some of the follow up comments are disturbing:

Fuck The Police
The police can harrass people, break down doors and kill people and get away with it. As far as I'm concerned they can all go to hell. I would not go out and shoot them but I will not lose any sleep when they are killed. They know the risks. I have actually heard a police officer who was very drunk in a bar say he could drive home because he has the "BRASS PASS". Then if he would have crashed and killed someone he would have gotten away with it. What happend to law inforcement being held to higher standards.
Fuck The Police

And on it goes.

I have only one question which I believe deserves an answer: Why would the alleged murderer know about, recognize and choose Indymedia? I think the above comment by another 'contributor' answers the question.

Sydney Indymedia has been an anti-Semitic trough for some time. This article on Melbourne Indymedia (and reposted from Sydney which was mercifully offline at the initial time of writing) makes some excellent observations.

Recently there have been posts on Sydney Indymedia with titles such as ‘Hitler was not wrong about them’, ‘World Bank run by Jew Wolfowitz’ and ‘Israel women slave trade soars’. The content of the ‘articles’ promotes hatred of world Jewry and hatred of the citizens of Israel. Some of the language used to describe Jews and attributes of Jewish people include that (Jews) ‘celebrate death and murder with blood rituals.’ That (Israeli’s) ‘are disgusting murdering scum’ and that Jews are ‘Zionist nazi cunts.’

It's true, I've seen them and avoided linking to them.

The most consistent contributor of Anti Semitic hate mail is an individual who goes by the name of Faruque Ahmed.

Why am I unsurprised?

It is amazing that Sydney Indymedia has not been shut down or prosecuted for allowing race hate material on their site. This call has been made because we want to solve this problem without resorting to the courts or government interference. By allowing Anti Semitic materials to remain on Sydney Indymedia the following possibilities may occur. The Jewish Board of Deputies will sooner or later find out about this situation. They are rightly very concerned about Anti Semitism and will probably launch legal action. The end result will be that Sydney Indymedia will come under great scrutiny by the mainstream media and government. This is the goal of the Anti Semites who post to Sydney Indymedia. This will then ‘prove’ the mythological power of the ‘Jewish lobby’ and how ‘Jews control the media’ thus becoming a self fulfilling prophecy. It is also very likely that the identities behind the Anti Semitic posts are White Supremacists using Arab sounding names and feigning concern for Palestinians to further their Anti Semitic agenda. Their goals are Fourfold. One, to promote Jew hatred. Two, to shut down Left wing websites by creating a furore. Three, to promote the myth that Jews are all powerful and Four, to further damage relations between Arab speaking peoples and Jews.
...
Therefore we are issuing this call.

We ask that all supporters of these organisations: International Socialist Organisation, Democratic Socialist Party, Socialist Alternative, Socialist Equality Party, Communist Party of Australia, The Socialist Party, Socialist Alliance, The Spartacist League, Barricade Books, Jura Books, Black Rose Books, Industrial Workers of the World, Anarcho-Syndicalist Federation, Anarcho-Syndicalist Network, Rebel Worker as well as all independent Socialists, Communists, Anarchists, Autonomists to support the following.

“We are opposed to the Sydney Indymedia Collective allowing Anti Semitic posts to remain on Sydney Indymedia. We believe that this promotes hatred of Jews and goes against the principles for which we stand. We believe that Sydney Indymedia and all members of the World Indymedia Network should in future delete Anti Semitic posts as they promote racial hatred which is antithetical to our aims.”

And then they started fighting about it...

This feature article on NYC Indymedia details how

A planned CIA recruiting event at New York University (NYU) was cancelled after the Campus Antiwar Network (CAN) called a protest demanding the CIA abandon its recruiting program at NYU.

An interesting dialog follows in the comments, however my favourite line was this:

The history of the CIA shows the U.S. is the last country that can bring democracy anywhere.

Uh huh.

From the comments:

Congradulations students! Keep up the great work!

"Congradulations"? What is this guy a student (or lecturer) of? Evidently not English!

More fucking hypocrisy!!! You complain about the failings of our intelligence community in regard to 911 and Saddam's WMD program, but are against the recruitment of bright, motivated young people to change the course of the agency. It appears you just like to whine alot. Well if you're not part of the solution, then you're part of the problem.

There's a lot of that going around...

To the people who came to this site via a search engine looking for:

Is President Bush puppit for Zionist Israel
The answer is no. Get help, and not just with your spelling.

terri Schiavo and pope coincidence
The answer is - it was a coincidence. Get help.

"Scrotal inflation"
We are thrilled you are reducing your ability to reproduce.

According to my server logs, someone in Ireland came to this site as a result of Googling for "zionist tactics on indymedia".

I wonder why, and look forward (not) to reading all about it on Irish Indymedia...

Oh, and to the guy in Las Vegas who came here via a Yahoo Search for "watch us f**k", sorry to disappoint.

I am not a fan of online polls. Firstly, they are open to abuse (ballot stuffing) and secondly, they are often used for no other reason than to draw traffic to your site. For example, if a major newspaper ran a divisive poll on nearly anything to do with the Middle East, both 'sides' would start circulating emails advising people to go to the site and register their vote. Newspapers and websites of course know this and keep running polls concerning anything to do with Iraq, Israel, Palestinians, Bush and anything else guaranteed to get people polarized and their hit-rates high.

Additionally, these polls are frequently written by amateurs who ask leading or loaded questions and it's often the case that the results would differ were the questions written more suitably. The bottom line is, online polls are seldom an indicator of anything substantial.

Nevertheless, there is a poll on previously mentioned BC Indymedia which may interest some. For no other reason than it is hosted on the Indymedia site and not a site (such as mine) which may be considered negative towards Indymedia. The poll is here and asks:

Indymedia is...
a wonderful free for all! (2.9%)
an important activist resource (71.4%)
a place to vent my sexual frustration (2.9%)
a waste of bandwidth... why am I here? (20.0%)
a nice place to visit, but a better place to rob (2.9%)

It's worth noting at the time of writing the poll has only had 35 votes so no conclusions can be fairly drawn. Indeed the option of "a place to vent my sexual frustration" suggests the poll was never expected to be taken seriously. I'll keep an eye on it though.

As well, I've created my own little poll below. As always, poll results are non-scientific and feel free to get upset by it and demand hundreds of your friends visit this site...

Indymedia is:
	Terrific, Indy Media Watch is wrong.
	Terrible, should be abolished.
	A nice idea, poorly implemented and maintained, in need of serious improvement
	I never (or seldom) visit there.
Free polls from Pollhost.com

Incidentally, feel free to justify your answers in the comments and note that your IP address is logged, your full home address and that of your parents and siblings will be revealed and the secret police will be around shortly. Vote accordingly.

According to this article on British Columbia Indymedia, "Hunter S Thompson was assassinated before he could expose the Twin Towers Scam". Specifically:

In typical New World Disorder style, famous American novelist and political anaylyst Hunter S Thompson was likely assassinated to prevent him from exposing hard evidence that the World Trade Centre towers were destroyed by planted explosives, not airplanes as the US administration and global evil oligarchy would have us unquestioningly and naively believe.

April Fools?

Not quite, it was posted on 2 April, so whilst it is April, and they are fools, they are quite serious.

Now check out this Associated Press story about Thompson's death. Sounds a lot like a professional hit with a silencer.

"I was on the phone with him, he set the receiver down and he did it. I heard the clicking of the gun," Anita Thompson told the Aspen Daily News in Friday's editions.

Err.. Which Associated Press story about Thompson's death? The article (conveniently) didn't link to one.

Various other whacked out sites are carrying longer versions of the same text but note the story keeps changing. The one I have linked to carries links to the AP articles, all of which have (eerily) disappeared and return a 404 error. Damned CIA!

For most of us it's real simple. He's dead. Fear the global evil oligarchy!

As the world prays for the Pope and he prepares to leave this earth, Italy Indymedia brings this truly touching tribute.

First part poorly translated via Google:

The Pope dies and knocks to the door of the Paradise: knock knock - Who is? - Saint Peter answers - They are the Pope, come I from a lot far away, I Polish Pope - - Ah, already, the old Woytilaccio!! Dimmi one what - we ask all, not to offend to you - six for case gay? - - Nooo, I am not gay, I true male DOC, like you, Jesus!!! - - Like me? How Jesus? Karol, knows that not six informed good to me. He is I that Jesus always we have been gay and, unfortunately for you, here in Paradise we do not accept eterosessuali and tantomeno omofobi like you. Therefore it goes to knock to the Purgatorio, then between 100.000 years it returns here purified and perhaps we will make you to enter!! - - Kazzarola!!! - - and not to say bad words, ok? -

Not a great translation, but you get the gist. The remainder, in English, should leave no doubt...

Young man, there's no need to feel down.
I said, young man, pick yourself off the ground.
I said, young man, 'cause you're in a new town
There's no need to be unhappy.

Young man, there's a place you can go.
I said, young man, when you're short on your dough.
You can stay there, and I'm sure you will find
Many ways to have a good time.

It's fun to stay at the Y.M.C.A.
It's fun to stay at the Y.M.C.A.
They have everything for you men to enjoy,
You can hang out with all the boys ...

And so on. Truly touching and I'm sure Hell is waiting to meet the author (and publisher).