Blogger arrests hit record high

Originally posted by mystiq
For the very fact that our freedoms may be removed completely in the not so distant future, I really wish people would form solid action and support groups.

Originally posted by ShiftTrio
Any chance we could get a list of the bloggers arrested, and what their crimes were, also the country that arrested them..

Let's see...
In the article, there was mentioned The Committee to Protect Bloggers: The actual link wasn't in the article, but I found the URL...

Save the Internet
First Amendment Center
Free Press
We the People: These people already have some serious litigation going in the Supreme Court already...Probably can't handle much more at this point, since they also concentrate on education about the Constitution (lots of good solid info & legal research).

These links below don't handle any actual cases for litigation but they do have a lot of good, solid data.
Exploring Constitutional Law
First Amendment Center
Supreme Law
Freedom Above Fortune
Freedom Law School

mystiq, would this be enough to get you started in finding some answers? Yeah, you guessed it...I'm not all that lax when I'm outside ATS.

Originally posted by daddyroo45
Threatening someone with written words? Is that really a threat or an opinionated rant? This is a very thin line we are crossing here. There should be no crime in putting thought on paper...

Well, actually it can be a crime...If it involves "libel" (written), or "slander (spoken). Still gotta be careful...

Originally posted by Skipper1975
NESARA
www.nesara.us...

From what I understand, this particular NESARA is a fraudulent organization...The real NESARA is a Bill that Congress has been pretty much ignoring. I can't even find it in Gov Track, which shows how much they try to ignore it. The NESARA Bill would virtually wipe out our "debt-driven economy" & get us back onto a real value economy...Which is probably the biggest single reason why Congress continues to ignore the real Bill so steadfastly.

The fraudulent organization also provides them with a ready-made excuse to discredit the whole idea...To our woe.

Originally posted by Mad_Hatter
I would like to add that it is only speculation that they monitored the website.

That may the case, but it's more likely that NSA's monitoring computers tripped a flag & told the "agents" to check you out.

Originally posted by ImaginaryReality1984
That's a little extreme, nazi germany came to be in a very slow way over a good 10 years.

It's been going on over in the US since the end of WW2, all during the Cold War & still progressing. Check out the info on Project Paperclip & you'll see that quite a few of Hitler's Nazis just changed employers (at least, those that didn't escape or die by the end of the war)--The US government!

It only took Hitler about 10 years to gain power because Germany was broke & desperate since WW1, but it's taking longer in the US because we were fresh from a WW2 victory & emerged as a World Power. They have to take it more slowly & carefully here...They have to break us down to a similar level as post-WW1 Germany before they can trick us into giving Power to the next Hitler--Or haven't you noticed how many more people have been going broke during the past couple of decades?.

[edit on 16-6-2008 by MidnightDStroyer]

AP to meet with blogging group to form guidelines

[url=http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080616/ap_bloggers.html?.v=4]

Seems the powers that be are clamping down on "unauthorized" speech.

Note to all internet posters: Henceforth cease and desist from posting any quotes, facts, reports, rumors or words that you have not personally generated yourself or from your own verifiable source(s) and/or experience(s). If any aforementioned items are generated from your own sources and/or experiences they will be discredited as unconfirmed sources. You now have your freedom of speech returned to you. Please continue and watch what you say!


[edit on 16-6-2008 by passenger]

[edit on 16-6-2008 by passenger]

[edit on 16-6-2008 by passenger]

[edit on 16-6-2008 by passenger]

reply to post by passenger


Ummm...Did you even read the article itself, or just the headline? Your comments after the link didn't say anything like what the article itself said.

reply to post by MidnightDStroyer


Of course I read it. What was gained from "between the lines" is even more important however.

This is just a seed. Watch it grow until every time you use something from an external source it needs to be “approved“ by said source. It's sort of like those dire warnings in the front of printed material that states; "No part of this material may be reproduced..." This time they mean it. Just watch and see if they don’t. Failure to comply may have dire consequences.

Of course they can’t just ban everything they want - right now. What's going to happen when the AP and other sources start hunting down and going after those that they (or the powers that be) find objectionable and prosecuting them for copyright infringement, plagiarism, etc. ? The charges don’t have to be true or correct but the chill effect will be felt.

Maybe you’re right and I’m just too paranoid. Maybe. I see this as just a first, soft warning to shut up or else.

I feel sorry for the innocent bloggers who have been harrassed for posting the truth or what they believe, those who were not innocent such as the pedo guy who posted those disgusting things did deserve to be arrested and thrown in jail to rot.

I myself have resisted posting opinions and answers to some threads and posts on ATS because of a concern over drawing unwarranted attention to myself just over an innocent opinion i may choose to express.
For example the thread about P2P'ers in Canada being given fines for sharing software, music, video etc.., i wanted to say certain innocent things in my reply to the thread about the true power of internet users in relation to the "internet police" but i wouldn't say much incase it brough up flag on some governmental computer system about what i had posted because the governments of the world hate it when someone points out just how much power the people do have just incase they choose to use it against unjust governmental actions.

I am wary of almost every word i type in response to threads on here just incase the 'wrong people' (e.g. governmental stooges) read and misconstrue something that i have written.
I was even in two minds about answering this thread and part of the reason i have been an ATS reader for a few years and have only recently joined properly was because i was concerned about government monitoring of sites calling for any kind of truth in any form.

It is a sad state of affairs when we cannot freely innocently express ourselves anymore without fear of monitoring or reprisals.

[edit on 17/6/2008 by smokey101]

Just a thought, i would reccomend you read Digital Fortress by Dan Brown.
It is fiction but i do believe that some of the things he suggests about government computer monitoring may have some basis in truth and even if it doesn't it is still a pretty good book to while away a few hours with.

[edit on 17/6/2008 by smokey101]

I'm following this topic because I am working on stories about free energy that I would like to post on ATS. I could be arrested and fined if I publish something that turns out to be under a secret order of the Invention Secrecy Act of 1951.
Inventions that could cause "social disruption" are cause for a secrecy order which could lead to arrest and fines. Taking power from big oil and giving it to the people would be a welcome "social disruption".

Here is a quote and a link to the full article that I am using as a guideline.

b. Exceptions to First Amendment Protection
The Court has recognized only a few specific categories of speech that deserve a lesser degree of First Amendment protection. For example, the Court has held that advocacy of imminent illegal conduct, fighting words, and obscenity are unprotected by the First Amendment. The Court has also recognized intermediate categories deserving of lesser protection, including commercial speech, near obscene and offensive speech, and defamation. General scientific expression does not fall into any of th ese categories, and therefore, should remain protected under the First Amendment despite its arguably nonpolitical nature.

Link to article

We are in an info-war. Laws against opposition to the administration was one of the tools of the Nazi Party. I'm hoping the current laws are just a fear mongering tool which they won't enforce.
I'm glad that members of ATS are willing to take up the cause of oppressed bloggers.

Saying "smoke pot" is not legal, saying "legalize smoking pot" is legal. This is another way the administration twists and expands legalese to suppress free speech.

Well there goes any freedom of speech and all those other freedoms. This is rediculous. I must say that censorship probably has it's purpose but where is the line drawn??

Is a threat online the same as a threat in person? If someone mentions online that they have plans to blow something up, does that make them guilty of a crime??

Since Homeland Security has been running the states, the US people cannot even talk on the phone without worring if someone is listening.

It's all about greed, money, politics, control etc... it all seems so out of hand..

Originally posted by MidnightDStroyer
It's been going on over in the US since the end of WW2, all during the Cold War & still progressing. Check out the info on Project Paperclip & you'll see that quite a few of Hitler's Nazis just changed employers (at least, those that didn't escape or die by the end of the war)--The US government!

I was already aware of project paperclip, sorry i know as much about this issue as you i'm willing to bet. Unless you have a history degree, with your major research on the rise of the nazis in europe. In which case i will bow to your superior knowledge.

Originally posted by MidnightDStroyer
It only took Hitler about 10 years to gain power because Germany was broke & desperate since WW1, but it's taking longer in the US because we were fresh from a WW2 victory & emerged as a World Power. They have to take it more slowly & carefully here...They have to break us down to a similar level as post-WW1 Germany before they can trick us into giving Power to the next Hitler--Or haven't you noticed how many more people have been going broke during the past couple of decades?.

Agreed they're taking it slowly, however you are not yet at the point nazi Germany was after only 10 years. You're still a long way off, most of you are still legally allowed to own guns, until that changes i think you're safe. I have of course seen the people going broke, it's happening at an increasing rate and will be like it for the next two years in my view. When your guns are taken from you nationwide, that will be the day that i fear for the USA, or should i say, when the majority wilingly hand their guns over. That's what will have to happen and i'm sure they'll scare or guilt people into it.

However again, i do not think you're even approaching nazi Germany at the current time and to say so really undermines what was going on in Germany after the 10 year rise to power of that party. 10 years is an arguable figure but it's the one i use.

Freedom of speech online is still there but they really are trying to remove it. If they manage to push through all they want to against net neutrality then it will mean the end of the last free speech area.

[edit on 17-6-2008 by ImaginaryReality1984]

reply to post by ImaginaryReality1984


I never said that the US is at the same point as when Hitler took power in Germany, nor did I ever say that because Hitler did it in 10 years that the US has equaled or surpassed Hitler's power...I was only pointing out how the US is on that same path, but TPTB in the US government have to move more slowly than Hitler did.

Originally posted by MidnightDStroyer
I never said that the US is at the same point as when Hitler took power in Germany, nor did I ever say that because Hitler did it in 10 years that the US has equaled or surpassed Hitler's power...I was only pointing out how the US is on that same path, but TPTB in the US government have to move more slowly than Hitler did.

Interesting that you seem to be backing off TOO far , at least in my opinion, now.

1: Bush stole two elections, so did Hitler but Hitler needed a private army larger than the standing army to do so and didn't even manage to beat a near senile ( or entirely so depending on who you believe) Hindenberg; it's telling that he didn't showing that the German people were NOT fooled and had to be coerced.

2: The majority of Germans were worse off economically under Hitler than they were under the failing Weimar republic but since Americans have seen a much slower decline in income since around the mid 1970's this isn't as pronounced a change as it was in Germany.

3: The German people were by no means in war fighting 'mood' and the first two 'conquests' were against former territories or 'homeland' regions where the complicity of other Western powers were exceedingly important for success. The fact that these early successes massively contributed to strong local groupings not ousting Hitler is quite telling and shows how Hitler could have been stopped in his tracks far more easily so than the USA. The US have now invaded, at least in recent times, the same number of countries Nazi Germany did before a world war started and one can only hope that this example doesn't prove any more accurate than it seems.

4: The rhetoric against 'Arabs, typically vaguely defined and with nebulously leadership that can apparently not be caught, and a Islam terrorist conspiracy against the west seems awfully familiar and most certainly has much less of a foundation in reality that the concept that the world is being controlled by a Jewish ( insert minority/faith) Cabal.

5: A conscript army is a very different thing to a volunteer/mercenary army and while Nazi Germany could not instigate wars with it's meager conscription treaty army the US easily can with it's current volunteer one.

6: The US has locked up 'drug' users ( the new name/technical offense for socialist, anarchist, communist or anyone who doesn't respect the authority of the federal government) in numbers that would have have impressed even Hitler and it's assassination campaigns against African American liberation movements has had much the same effect on the black liberation movement as the imprisoning of of hundreds of thousands of German socialist had on the struggle for human rights.

I wanted to stop at two examples ( i didn't want to go too far off topic) but what i am trying to make clear is that Americans are in a strikingly similar boat to Germans in 1939 and they seem to be worse informed about the dangers and comparatively more arrogant about their power over the world even if such may be be displayed in a less well organized and fanatical fashion.

That all being said much progress HAS been made and the world, even the USA, has changed enough to make all these abuses relatively harder and the result of far better planning and organization behind the scenes.

Stellar

Originally posted by StellarX
I wanted to stop at two examples ( i didn't want to go too far off topic) but what i am trying to make clear is that Americans are in a strikingly similar boat to Germans in 1939 and they seem to be worse informed about the dangers and comparatively more arrogant about their power over the world even if such may be be displayed in a less well organized and fanatical fashion.

Wish i had the energy to reply to all of your post, maybe tomorrow. I will address this one point though. The biggest difference for me between Germany in 1939 and modern America is that the Americans still have guns in their hands. Hitler disarmed his citizens unless i'm mistaken, as long as the American people have the right to bear arms i think they're safe. That's unless they are convinced to hand them over, or they are convinced they're under attack and willingly accept marital law.

One thing i think we are seeing is a whole new breed of control, much like "brave new world" or "1984". It's quite consent rather than battle.

Originally posted by ImaginaryReality1984
Wish i had the energy to reply to all of your post, maybe tomorrow. I will address this one point though. The biggest difference for me between Germany in 1939 and modern America is that the Americans still have guns in their hands.

I must admit that that is a comparative huge difference but just how serious is the danger of local 'uprisings' in such a integrated society? I think that short of entire states attempting to break away ( as Americans didn't take up the gun when Bush stole two elections) or a civil war of old the Government has much less to fear now that it has had nearly three decades to train para-military ( Swat/DEA and special police 'anti-riot' units) forces in numbers large enough to prevent small scale militia groups doing much damage.

Hitler disarmed his citizens unless i'm mistaken, as long as the American people have the right to bear arms i think they're safe.

Hitler didn't have to disarm a European population as they have never been happy with their people being armed for 'home defense'. Sure their citizens were relatively well trained to fight for the state but private gun ownership is not something that was prevalent in those times. Americans are quite well armed but not more so than Canadians who in fact have comparatively far less crime; guns do not prevent crime nearly as effectively as good social contracts been the people and their government.

That's unless they are convinced to hand them over, or they are convinced they're under attack and willingly accept marital law.

Clearly they will impose martial law only when they are confident that the citizens will accept it or if the numbers of people they have to lock up are small enough in number to prevent a public outcry they can not deal with. As the war on drugs proves you can lock up a million and get away with a excuse only a very politically unsophisticated public would accept.

One thing i think we are seeing is a whole new breed of control, much like "brave new world" or "1984". It's quite consent rather than battle.

Absolutely and it's definitely about misinforming the public and co-opting their actions than it is about doing exactly what you want. While the American government sticks to generally terrorizing foreign nations for profit they will probably get away with it but when they are for lack of means forced to turn more and more on their own people they will run into more of the same difficulties they are already experiencing. I am sure that they understand this and it's why they tend to concentrate their outrages abroad...

Stellar

Let me make my self clear,
9-11 was Not an inside job, The Indians DONT deserve there land back, and all teachers should teach creationism.
...................THERE DID I PASS??? I DON'T WANNA GO TO JAIL ..................................

Do any of you seriously know what context means?
Do any of you do any research?
Do any of you actually RTFA when presented?
Do any of you have any comprehesion skills whatsoever?

Come on people, "bloggers" aren't getting "arrested" in the US for blogging about corporations or human rights abuses. Read the source, do some research and get some context.


All who keep writing about, or quoting from the constitution or bill of rights need to really start comprehending what a story actually says and what it means.

Context and comprehension is seriously lacking here.
I sometimes wonder how it is many of you have managed to make it through life and then I realize (at least for Americans)

It isn't a crime to be ignorant and stupid and no one is going to help you out of that particular situation.


Saying "wake up sheeple" or some equivilent makes you look mentally challenged.

Originally posted by jsobecky
As the article stated, the majority of these cases were in China, Egypyt, and Iran.

Does that make it right?

Originally posted by jsobecky
Let us know what response you get, OK?

Next time try to address my post without the unnecessary sarcasm. If you disagree, then disagree. Leave out the attitude, OK?

Originally posted by jsobecky
The US, otoh, is the most open and free country in the world.

Really?

The United States ranks 48th out of 169 countries surveyed for freedom of the press.

The United States ranks 30th out of 36 countries surveyed for privacy.

The United States ranks 14th out of 70 countries surveyed for property rights.

And at the root of it all, corruption - the United States ranks 20th out of 179 countries surveyed for perception of corruption.

Maybe those last two aren't so bad, but where is this "most open and free country in the world" you speak of? If that were true, the United States would rank #1 in all major international studies on freedom.

I highly doubt you actually took the time to look in to whether or not the United States was truly the freest nation in the world. More likely your opinion comes from the simple fact that you live here.

Because you live here and so far have not been personally inconvenienced by the continuous deterioration of our civil liberties does not make this the freest nation on Earth.

Our civil liberties are being robbed from us even on the internet. I was putting in about a phone tap that I had had on my phone, describing how I knew it was a tap then the post screen went blank.

So, the internet isn't safe, they can tap our keystrokes and watch what we write, if they so choose.

These bloggers could be posting bs that hurts the government or discriminates against a group of people. I've seen a lot of bloggers that should be arrested for spreading false information that changes the perspective of different cultures from good to bad to worse.

Should we be worried here at ATS???

I mean...

What are people getting arested for???