From: jim bell <jimbell@pacifier.com>
Date: Tue, 1 Oct 1996 13:27:42 +0800
To: "Chris Adams" <cypherpunks@toad.com>
Subject: Re: Internet plug pulled on Colombia's guerrillas
Message-ID: <199610010257.TAA18377@mail.pacifier.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


At 07:04 AM 9/30/96, Chris Adams wrote:
>On Fri, 27 Sep 1996 14:33:42 -0800, jim bell wrote:

>>>The Communist insurgents, who rose up in arms in 1964,
>>>embraced new technology last year in their fight to overthrow the
>>>government by launching a home page on the Internet. 
>>
>>I couldn't resist smiling when I read this.  Not that I want their access 
>>cut; quite the opposite.  But it is REALLY reassuring to see the authorities 
>>behave in exactly the fashion you expect them to!  Attempting to cut off 
>>dissenting political voices IRL is de rigeur; now, this shows that they 
>>believe "threat" to the government posed by allowing others to voice 
>>contrary opinions on the 'net is real.
>
>It's particularly funny when you consider that the main justification for
>suppression is that insurgents (or rebels or freedom fighters or ...) kill
>people. Something along the lines of "We don't suppress unpopular views;
>we're just protecting our citizens".   Now, it seems to me that that having a
>web page is a decidely non-lethal thing. <g>

For now, it is!


>OTOH, it's probably more
>effective at getting the outside world to find out what's happening.  Draw
>your own conclusions.

Yes, if anything we should want these people to be able to communicate 
whenever they want.  It would probably deter inappropriate violence, and 
further it would put pressure on the government to fix whatever problems 
legitimately need fixing.

Jim Bell
jimbell@pacifier.com