CyberLaw Blog

Archive for November 5th, 2009

New letter reveals top army brass involvement in plot

Zaman, 05 November 2009, Thursday
BETÜL AKKAYA DEMIRBAŞ İSTANBUL

New letter reveals top army brass involvement in plot – A second letter written by an unnamed military officer has come as strong evidence of the knowledge of top army officers about a notorious plan launched by the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) against political parties, individuals and civilian groups in society.
A second letter written by an unnamed military officer has come as strong evidence of the knowledge of top army officers about a notorious plan launched by the Turkish Armed Forces (TSK) against political parties, individuals and civilian groups in society.

The letter mentioned TSK activities aimed at monitoring a large number of Turkish and foreign language Web sites and in this way categorizing visitors to those sites on the basis of their political and religious views. The letter was e-mailed to prosecutors conducting an ongoing probe into a criminal organization known as Ergenekon and a group of newspapers and journalists on Tuesday. It came approximately two weeks after a first letter, which pointed to the authenticity of a notorious action plan aimed at undermining the ruling Justice and Development Party (AK Party) and the faith-based Gülen movement.

A second letter e-mailed to Ergenekon prosecutors by a military officer who wished to remain anonymous claimed that the armed forces established 42 separate Web sites to back its ‘black propaganda’ against civilian groups it termed ‘reactionary,’ ‘separatist’ and ‘pro-AK Party,’ but only four of those Web sites now remain .

According to the letter, the armed forces established 42 separate Web sites to back its psychological warfare against civilian groups it termed “reactionary,” “separatist,” “pro-AK Party” and “anti-TSK.” The TSK also monitored the activities of more than 400 Turkish and foreign language Web sites. In a document the officer attached to his letter, the plan against the Web sites was made at a Third Information Support Unit by colonels C. Gökçeoğlu, S. Özüer, İ. Göktaş, D. Çiçek, H. Gülbahar, O. Güçlü, Brig. Gen. M. Bakırcı and Lt. Gen. M. Eröz. The plan was coordinated by Lt. Gen. İ. H. Pekin, Vice Adm. M. Otuzbiroğlu, Brig. Gen. H. Çubuklu and Deputy Chief of General Staff Gen. Hasan Iğsız. The document bore the initials of all those army officers and bore a note next to the initials of Gen. Iğsız that read: “Submitted to Esteemed Commander.”

Partial list of TSK psychological warfare Web sites

Among the Web sites established by the TSK to conduct psychological warfare against civilian groups and individuals were:

www.irtica.org, www.naksilik.com, www.geocities.com/fethullahgercegi, www.nursi.info, www.irtica.net, www.ozgurgenc.net, www.genclik.info, www.gencizbiz.net, www.aslar.org, www.askeriz.info, www.stratejik.info, www.tskasker.com, ww.turkatak.gen.tr, www.turkuz.info and www.turkler.info, www.turkses.com, www.turkeyturks.com, www.turksturkey.com, www.turkses.net, ww.turkses.org, www.pkkgercegi.net, www.pkkapo.com, www.apopkk.com, www.pkkgercegi.com, www.pkkgercegi.org, www.armenianreality.com, www.turkishgenocide.net, www.turkishmassacre.com, www.terorveguvenlik.net, www.terorizm.info, www.terorgercegi.com, www.terorveguvenlik.com, www.terorveguvenlik.org, www.greekmurderers.net, www.members.tripod.com/camerian_volunteer, www.cameria.org, www.yunanli.com, www.pontuslu.com, www.gurbetciler.info, www.turkuzbiz.org, www.hepimizturkuz.org, www.bizturkler.org.

The armed forces also monitored the activities of such Turkish Web sites as www.2temmuz.com, www.abdullah-ocalan.com, www.akpgercegi.com, www.aktifhaber.com, www.bianet.org, www.bedelliaskerlik.org, www.bizturkmeniz.com, www.cafesiyaset.com, www.fethullahgulen.belgeleri.com, www.genel-kurmay.com, www.haber7.com, www.haberim.com, www.habervakti.com, www.kerkuk.net, www.kesireocalan.com, www.savaskarsitlari.com, www.saidnırsi.de.tr, www.sehadetvakti.com and www.vatansever.biz.

The visitors of those Web sites were categorized as pro-AK Party, reactionary, separatist and anti-TSK.
The TSK also monitored the activities of dozens of prominent foreign language Web sites, including:

www.lefigaro.fr, www.lemonde.fr, www.letemps.ch, www.liberation.fr, www.guardian.co.uk, www.globalsecurity.com, www.israelForum.com, www.armenianpress.am, www.msnbc.com/p/nw, www.latimes.com, www.telegraph.co.uk, www.time.com, www.times.co.uk and www.washingtonpost.com.

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Removed paper on Internet censorship trails in Australia, NZ, UK with NetClean Whitebox, 2009 – Wikileaks

From Wikileaks, Released October 21, 2009

Summary

This is a technology white paper written by an internet censorship company (“filter vendor”) about internet censorship system in many countries. The company, “Watxhdog International” is based in New Zealand and behind the censorship system used by New Zealand, parts of the UK and controversial ‘live pilot’ of the controversial mandatory ISP-level filtering in Australia. The latter trial is using the “ACMA” blacklist, three editions of which were released by WikiLeaks in critical articles. WikiLeaks was itself then added to the blacklist and became the subject of a police raid in Germany and Federal Police investigation in Australia.

The document briefly appeared on the following URL:

* http://www.watchdoginternational.net/images/listwhitepaper_3.pdf

which was linked from:

* http://www.watchdoginternational.net/index.php/whitepapers

The document, and all references to it, were then removed.

In particular, the document describes several problems with one prominent filtering product (NetClean Whitebox) that were uncovered during the recent ‘live pilot’ of mandatory ISP-level censorship in Australia, namely:

* ACMA test list containing a ‘?’ in the URL;
* ACMA test list containing a very long URL; and
* ACMA test list containing a high-traffic URL (youtube).

The paper is important because:

* It pre-empts the official Department of Broadband, Communications and the Digital Economy (DBCDE) report into the ‘live pilot’, due shortly.
* It highlights that the ‘live pilot’ did not go smoothly, and that the NetClean Whitebox may not be suitable for filtering the ACMA blacklist.

This document may be especially important if the official DBCDE report fails to mention these issues.
The URL to the original whitepaper can be verified by searching for “listwhitepaper_3.pdf site:watchdoginternational.net” in google. However the document itself has not been cached.

DOWNLOAD/VIEW FULL FILE FROM
fastest (Sweden)

Is access to the internet now a human right?: “Can checking your e-mail really be a human right? Carphone Warehouse hopes so. After the Business Secretary, Lord Mandelson, announced his plans to disconnect persistent internet pirates last week, the owner of Britain’s largest internet service provider, TalkTalk, threatened him with legal action under human rights legislation.

(Via Tech and Web from Times Online.)