From: kb4vwa@juno.com (Edward R. Figueroa)
Date: Thu, 14 Nov 1996 18:32:23 -0800 (PST)
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: The Conspiracy To Erect An Electronic Iron Curtain
Message-ID: <19961114.205947.7711.21.kb4vwa@juno.com>
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An Essay by L. R. Beam 


The internet, perhaps the last truly free means of information exchange
in the Western World, may soon be choked by censorship and governmental
controls. The circumscribing of the net may cause the death of what has
become the first people-to-people exchange of ideas and information on a
world wide basis. The forces behind this effort appear at first glance to
be an unlikely coalition of conspirators, the CIA, some Jewish Religious
groups, and various foreign governments. While this unholy alliance for
censorship and control may seem unusual to some, politics makes the bed
for these strange fellows. Indisputably, an international cabal of
special interest groups both within and out of governments are working
both openly and secretly to end the unregulated direct exchange of
information between people. At stake is nothing less then the regaining
of information control which the internet has shattered. Up for grabs is
nothing more than the thinking and decision making abilities of informed
men. 

Information has flowed from the top down for most of this century.
Filtering of information by middle men from government, newspapers, radio, and then television has left most Americans depending upon Paul Harvey
"for the rest of the story." Suddenly, almost without warning, the
internet mushroomed into popularity connecting people all over the world
together electronically and thereby threatening the power of those who
disseminate information. If information is power, then the control of
information is more power. The ideas of men are shaped by what they are told. For those who hope to erect a "New World Order" upon what they view
as the antiquated ashes of free speech, control of the internet has
jumped to near top of the list of "things to do." Governments and
religious groups manipulate and control people by what they are allowed
to know or not know. A decision has been made by the information brokers
to end unregulated information exchange. Overnight the propaganda begins
as these forces build their case for control and censorship. 

Quickly the nightly news lights up with horror stories of pornography on
the net. Minutes later the same channel runs four hours of lurid
programming bringing profanity, sex, sodomitizers and violence into the
homes of viewers who were just shocked about porno on the net.
Newspapers carrier feature length stories about children being lured
from home over the computer telephone line, as if somehow typing a
request to a child for sex over the phone line is more effective than
saying it over the same phone line. The Anti-Defamation League issues a
report saying that bomb plans can be found on the net along with anti-
Jewish opinion. As if the same were not available in every public library in the United States. Politicians in Washington began to talk about
"protecting the children." The same politicians who's destructive social
policies and no win wars have destroyed more mothers sons than all the pagan empires of the past. Rabbi Abraham Cooper calls for censorship of politically incorrect ideas in Canada and asks for the establishment of an
"internet police." A delegation from the Nazi- hunting Simon Wiesenthal
Center in Vienna Austria, which has for the most part ran out of eighty
year old former Nazis to hunt, takes on the new task of information
censors and asks Italian Prime Minister Lamberto Dini, European Union
president to back World Jewish Congress initiatives to stop those who disagree on the impact and importance of the holocaust from using the
internet. Then in a joint effort of the ADL and the Simon Wiesenthal
Center letters are mailed to Internet service providers in early 1996
urging providers not to carry messages that contain non-complimentary
opinion about Jews, which is quickly labeled as "cyberhate speech." This
is but a glimpse of the public efforts of the information censors to
unleash "info police" on the net. It is clear that those who have previously served as the middlemen of politically correct information are
distraught at their having been taken out of the loop. 

Meanwhile, sources within the federal government, who wish to remain
unnamed, reveal that there are considerable behind the scene efforts to
bring the flow of information under government control. In the
labyrinthine bunkers of the CIA in Arlington Virginia, a team of
planners has begun discussion on how to control the net by establishing
internet node servers throughout the system that will act as a
"strainer" of unwanted electronic information flow (there are
indications this process has begun now). The Army Security Agency (ASA),
which has the worlds most sophisticated signals intelligence and electronic monitoring capabilities has began setting up clandestine servers to
monitor traffic, catalog, classify, and achieve. 

>From the above sampling of events, it is clear that both government and
pressure groups with sacred cows to defend have determined that
uncontrolled information flow between people is a threat to their
interests. The results of this statist thinking will lead to a "war on
information" similar to the "war on drugs," curtailing free speech and
informed opinion. Like the war on drugs the real objective will not be
to save society but rather to control society. CYBER WARS are breaking out between the people and government over the flow of information. What
is wanted by these would be internet thought police is nothing less then
the right of government and religious (in this case Judaism) imprimatur
on the transfer of electronic information: an electron iron curtain. 

Efforts at censorship by religious groups are not new to this continent.
The Spanish Catholic church which saw nothing of value among the
writings of Aztecs and Mayans ordered their books burned in contempt. Like them, Rabbi Abraham Cooper and the Anti-defamation League see nothing of value in the words of those who beg to disagree. Black robed priests
yelled the smear words of the 16th century "Vile heretic!" and labeled
non-catholics "pagan savages." Rabbi Cooper and his religious cohorts of
the new inquisition cry "anti-Semitic" and label those who believe
differently "hatemongers." The words have changed, but for those
shouting them the objective is the same: eliminate the opposition, the
opponent is never answered; he is discredited. Fear kept many silent who
would have otherwise opposed the Catholic Inquisition. Fear of the rack
and straps of being labeled anti-Semitic will keep many quite today. The
call now for censorship by Rabbis is much like the pyres of Priests in
the fifteenth century it is an electronic equivalent of book burning.
The zealots willingness to accept only his personal vision of the world
around him has led mankind down this same pernicious path before.
Intolerance it is clear, is not solely a non- Jewish characteristic. A
new inquisition has begun. This one will seek out the heretics of the
internet for the stake. Each age it seems, has it's TORQUEMADA. 

A warning of what is to come: as the Federal Government, Anti-Defamation
League, and the Central Intelligence Agency seek to squelch or control
the net, look for senseless acts of random electronic violence. These
acts of subterfuge will be committed by computer nerds at CIA and the ADL or their agent provocateurs and will appear to have been perpetrated by
"white racists," "neo-nazis," "patriots," "extremist anti-government
radicals," "hackers," or other identifiable dissidents of the right and left. The purpose of these incidents will be similar to those of a drive
by shooting to terrorize people into submission. In this case consent is
wanted for censorship rather than drug turf but the principal is the
same: a political/religious gang wants control. Understand that
establishment media, as the propaganda arm of the government, will on
cue make the call for censorship of the net. Those who have the
resources to employ the best politicians money can buy also own
newspapers, radio and television networks, for all serve their design.
That design being the control of people through the filtering of
information and repressive laws. After investing billions of dollars in media/information empires and politicians, all geared to work in tangent
keeping people under control, these modern day equivalents of the book
burners of former ages will not willingly let unfettered information
exchange hinder their efforts. With at least four federal agencies (FBI,
CIA, FINCEN, and ASA) investing hundreds of millions in advanced computer
systems designed solely to monitor and track people technological warfare
between the people and government will be a major component of the rest
of this century and perhaps longer. 

The new head of the CIA John Deutsch was hand picked by Bill Clinton and
his backers to carry forward plans for a technological police state to
rest upon the typical shoulders of bullet proof vests, black boots, and
front doors shattering under their assault. Air Force Lieutenant Colonel
Edward G. Lansdale, CIA operative par excellence, personally recruited
the new CIA director for his first Government job in the early 1960's at
just 22. Deutsch became one of Secretary of Defense Robert MacNamara's
('we never intended to win in Viet Nam') whiz kids in the Pentagon who
would help to design the Vietnam War; a slaughterhouse for other kids
not so fortuity as to have political connections. Deutsch has held
political posts under Democratic administrations and advisory or
academic positions during Republican administrations. Deutsch became
part of the elite permanent government of the United States that is
accountable to no one, and immune to the oversight process. The shell
game of elections and political parties have no effect on their
careers.. This select cadre move in and out of various Federal agencies
and advisory positions, always on the public dole, never elected,
spending their entire lives trying to control the affairs of others.
Much like the secret CIA Air Base (Area 51) at Groom Lake in
southeastern Nevada, there is an aureole of secrecy surrounding their
lives and functions. Deutsch's grandfather was a diamond merchant who
ran the Zionist Federation of Belgium and he is therefore expected to
work closely with the ADL and other pro-censorship groups. President
Clinton appointed Deutsch as Director Central Intelligence in May of
1995 at the moment when the bombing of the Federal kindergarten in
Oklahoma had allowed his Administration to launch a maximum
political/propaganda counter-offensive against the rapidly growing
discontent with, and mistrust of the federal government. Black smoke,
mutilated bodies, dying children, crying distraught mothers, created
exactly the atmosphere the government needed to turn things around. John
Deutsch is the man in charge of that effort for the government. 

Censorship is a word of many meanings. In a narrow sense it of course may
refer to suppression of information, or ideas. In a broader sense
however, it is the rape of the human mind: Taking away that which is
needed to make fair, informed opinions about this life. The mental
rapist of today is no different in his goals than the back ally pervert who by force assaults a defenseless woman, taking from someone else that which he has no right to. Both acts are the works of the most
contemptible sorts of humankind, desperate men, fearful of the light of
day. What is being called for by the online information censors is the
equivalent to Bosnian ethnic cleansing' a sort of information cleansing
of the internet. 

It seems ironic to many that the ADL which has made innumerable calls for
"diversity" would spearhead these efforts at censorship. What is being
called for by them, the Simon Wiesenthal Center, and Rabbi Cooper is the
equivalent to Bosnian ethnic cleansing' a sort of information cleansing
of the internet. Perhaps a new organizational motto of "Many Cultures, One Opinion" would be more in line with true ADL objectives. It is not
just a little bit odd that the same people who fear firearms in the hands of the people fear information in the minds of people. The ADL
supported the recent government ban on certain types of firearms just as
it supports government action to censor the net. As firearms laws only
disarm honest citizens who obey the laws, information bans only effect
people who desire to think for themselves. One pundit has already
quipped that "I'll give up my information when they pry my cold dead fingers from the keyboard." 

In closing the author would like to make two additional things clear.
First, there are Jews who oppose censorship although to this point their
voice is but a whisper compared to the intolerance of the Anti- Defamation League and Rabbi Cooper. Second, that writing about Jewish religious
leaders and government spymasters operating in a collusive effort to
erect an electron iron curtain to restrict freedom of speech and
information does not make one anti-Semitic or anti-government. The truth
is anti-Semitic. The government is erecting a police state. The author
opposes both oppressive religious groups and repressive government. If
speaking the truth and opposing tyranny makes one anti-Semitic and
anti-government, then I am both...