Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by on Tuesday July 21 2015, @04:49PM   Printer-friendly
from the someone-stomp-these-guys-already dept.

From this article on vice.com:

The self-proclaimed Islamic State (IS) has severely restricted use of the internet in its de-facto capital of Raqqa, requiring that all residents — including those in the militant group's ranks — access the web from observed internet cafes, according to international monitoring organizations.

An IS leaflet photographed and circulated by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights and the activist group Raqqa is Being Slaughtered Silently (RBSS), advises that "all owners of shops with satellite internet must comply with the following: Removing Wi-Fi boosters in internet cafés as well as private wireless adaptors, even for soldiers of the Islamic State."

...

Activists worry that internet restriction is intended to clamp down on citizen journalists, human rights workers, and potential IS defectors.

Even under IS rule, activists have managed to sneak out videos, images, and accounts of daily life. In September, a woman with a camera hidden in her niqab walked through the city narrating her experience. The smuggled footage was aired on French TV.


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 4, Interesting) by bradley13 on Tuesday July 21 2015, @05:29PM

    by bradley13 (3053) on Tuesday July 21 2015, @05:29PM (#212003) Homepage Journal

    "Probably the same idiots supporting things like the Tea Party?"

    Maybe we're getting off topic here, but what happened with the Tea Party is a shame. It started as a small government movement, but the religious right flocked to it as well - which pretty much discredited the movement with everyone else.

    So maybe not off topic after all. Religious zealots come in all flavors...

    --
    Everyone is somebody else's weirdo.
    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   +2  
       Interesting=2, Total=2
    Extra 'Interesting' Modifier   0  
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   4  
  • (Score: 1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 21 2015, @05:32PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 21 2015, @05:32PM (#212008)

    "Probably the same idiots supporting things like the Tea Party?"

    Maybe we're getting off topic here, but what happened with the Tea Party is a shame. It started as a small government movement, but the religious right flocked to it as well - which pretty much discredited the movement with everyone else.

    The tea party was always a shill for the Koch brothers. That was never going to end well for anybody (except maybe the Koch brothers), with or without the religious mania.

    • (Score: 5, Interesting) by kurenai.tsubasa on Tuesday July 21 2015, @05:55PM

      by kurenai.tsubasa (5227) on Tuesday July 21 2015, @05:55PM (#212019) Journal

      No, it wasn't. I never attended the local rally, but one of my friends did. She reported seeing Republicans and Democrats in addition to Libertarian party members. I forget if she said she saw any Greens there or not.

      Bradley13 is correct. It started as a grass roots campaign for small government and balanced budgets that crossed political parties. The media largely ignored this phase of its history. I first heard about the movement from one of the Libertarian Party's newsletters. Then it got co-opted into an astroturf campaign for religious fundamentalism and, as you'd mentioned, shilling for the interests of the 0.1%.

      For some reason, this new, perhaps COINTELPROed, astroturf movement was what actually got the vote out. Republicans running as teabaggers against another Republican and the teabagger wins! Insanity.

      Coming back around to topic, that does make me wonder about ISIS. Are there similarities? Are they being funded by big money? Is it an astroturf movement? How does increasing Islamophobia and releasing agitprop crap like Dearborn, MI being under sharia law help the MotU? Circuses? Increased military budgets? Considering the situation in Greece and Eurozone, are they hoping to fire off World War 3?

      A bunch of Ritchie-Riches taking over a grassroots movement like the Tea Party and turning it into an astroturf movement, eh, it happens. It sucks, but it happens.

      On the other hand, with ISIS, we have murderous thugs oppressing and terrorizing everyone unfortunate enough to lack the ability to flee when ISIS' armies come. Then they go on destroying valuable historical artifacts, many of which have not been completely studied yet. (All though, all is not lost. Didn't we just have an article about some of those historical places being serendipitously digitized over the past decade so that research can continue?)

      It's pure speculation, but if any of their funding can be traced back to the Kochs, will that be enough for the American public to get the pitchforks and torches? More likely is that they have Russian funding. Nothing like getting the cold war back on, eh?

      Maybe the silver lining is we might get another space race?

      • (Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 21 2015, @06:01PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 21 2015, @06:01PM (#212024)

        It helps both Western and Middle Eastern powers control their populaces through fear.

        It helps eliminate pesky 'historical landmarks' for future redevelopment efforts by having 'those dirty ISIS fellows' destroy them.

        It helps drive up the price of oil by claiming the supply is disrupted by the activities taking place 'near' the extraction sites.

        It helps distract all three populace groups from the ever increasing loss of freedom by their unelected leadership.

        That was all I could think of. Perhaps others can add more?

      • (Score: 2) by frojack on Tuesday July 21 2015, @06:29PM

        by frojack (1554) on Tuesday July 21 2015, @06:29PM (#212034) Journal

        Sad, you started off informative, then your rage-hate got the best of you and you went all Koch brothers and Russians.

        ISIS has nothing at all to do with American politics.
        You sir, are seriously out of touch.

        --
        No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
      • (Score: 4, Interesting) by curunir_wolf on Tuesday July 21 2015, @06:35PM

        by curunir_wolf (4772) on Tuesday July 21 2015, @06:35PM (#212036)

        Actually, it's CIA and US State Department funding. This has been well-documented (by anonymous and unchecked sources, Seymour Hersh, Iranian TV, ). The U.S. State Department confirmed May 29, 2015 with CNN that Islamic State fighter Gulmurod Khalimov from Tajikistan was trained in the United State three times.

        ISIS videos are, of course, staged productions as the recent leak confirms [leaksource.info].

        --
        I am a crackpot
        • (Score: 2) by frojack on Tuesday July 21 2015, @09:13PM

          by frojack (1554) on Tuesday July 21 2015, @09:13PM (#212092) Journal

          That someone was trained somewhere, and then decided to go Rogue does not mean that ISIS is a US/CIA funded operation.

          The Tajiks and Uzbeks were our ally in Afghanistan against the Taliban. Training their Special Forces in counter-terrorism is the price we had to pay for forward secret air bases. No way you can parlay that into ISIS being a US operation.

          Do you ever read what you type to see just how ludicrous you sound.

          --
          No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.
          • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 21 2015, @09:46PM

            by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 21 2015, @09:46PM (#212102)

            It's much easier to track Gulf state money, and Saudi money in particular, directly investing in ISIS than it is US or other NATO. That much NATO equipement rapidly found its way into the hands of ISIS is unquestionable - we funded and equipped a large number of groups in the early stages of the Syrian civil war, some of whom were doubtless shady and linked with (or linked with groups that were later merged with) ISIS, and others of whom were assimilated or wiped out and their equipment seized. That happened. What is much harder to demonstrate, most likely because it is not happening, is that ISIS are actively funded by NATO states. The only possible outlier is Turkey, who have credible motivations for maintaining upheaval in Syria and continued pressure on the Syrian Kurdish population - though even in that instance, if it *is* happening (and I have seen no evidence to suggest it is) there are probably some people beginning to think it was a big mistake.

          • (Score: 2) by curunir_wolf on Tuesday July 21 2015, @10:07PM

            by curunir_wolf (4772) on Tuesday July 21 2015, @10:07PM (#212105)
            Oh, okay, dude.
            --
            I am a crackpot
          • (Score: 2) by Thexalon on Tuesday July 21 2015, @10:15PM

            by Thexalon (636) on Tuesday July 21 2015, @10:15PM (#212108)

            That someone was trained somewhere, and then decided to go Rogue does not mean that ISIS is a US/CIA funded operation.

            And by that same standard, Al Qaida is a US/CIA operation, since Osama bin Laden was for quite a long time a CIA "asset".

            The real story there is that the CIA is mostly incompetent, totalitarian, and incredibly short-sighted:
            - The biggest testament to its incompetence is Cuba: Between the Bay of Pigs and hundreds of failed attempts to kill Fidel Castro, they've shown that they cannot carry out the mission they've been assigned to do.
            - The basic argument for why they are totalitarian: It has not once overthrown a dictator and installed a democracy while it has done the opposite to a large percentage of the world. And these weren't friendly neighborhood dictators, we're talking mass murder, summary execution, and torture here.
            - As for short-sighted, almost all of our great enemies of recent decades have been former CIA assets, from Manuel Noriega to Saddam Hussein.

            They mostly try to hide all this behind a wall of secrecy and killing people who they are afraid might talk. But frequently they get caught, for example attempting to overthrow Hugo Chavez in Venezuela.

            --
            The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 21 2015, @08:58PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 21 2015, @08:58PM (#212087)

        Originally, the Tea Party was a Dick Armey! True! Never Grassroots, more like Astroroots. You know, fake grassroots. -

        • (Score: 2) by curunir_wolf on Thursday July 23 2015, @07:12PM

          by curunir_wolf (4772) on Thursday July 23 2015, @07:12PM (#212809)
          Dick Armey founded Tea Party Express to co-opt the tea party movement. That was founded in 2009, WAY after the tea party was started by grass roots folks, back in 2007.
          --
          I am a crackpot
      • (Score: 2) by c0lo on Tuesday July 21 2015, @11:16PM

        by c0lo (156) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday July 21 2015, @11:16PM (#212124) Journal

        Coming back around to topic, that does make me wonder about ISIS. Are there similarities? Are they being funded by big money?

        Petroleum non olet (oil doesn't smell). Actually it does, so strong that any ISIS specific aroma is drowned [nytimes.com].

        The group takes in tens of millions of dollars each month, including about $1 million a day through black-market sales of oil extracted from territory it controls, allowing it to amass wealth at an “unprecedented pace,” Mr. Cohen said.

        Describing an elaborate smuggling operation that uses well-worn routes and old local networks, Mr. Cohen said the Islamic State sold oil to a wide array of buyers, including Iraqi Kurds who resell it in Turkey, and the government of President Bashar al-Assad of Syria.

        Now, $1mil/day is big for a terrorist organisation, but not nearly enough to run a "state". So they seems to have other means [brookings.edu] as well.

        --
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0 https://soylentnews.org/~MichaelDavidCrawford
    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 22 2015, @02:33AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 22 2015, @02:33AM (#212158)

      Right, and Liberials don't want to take everyone's guns away....

  • (Score: 3, Informative) by K_benzoate on Tuesday July 21 2015, @05:47PM

    by K_benzoate (5036) on Tuesday July 21 2015, @05:47PM (#212013)

    It started as a small government movement

    It started off as a retrograde, functionally illiterate, paranoid group of tax protesters; the sort of people who keep a well stocked gun safe and seed vault and buy fluoride filters from Alex Jones. Don't misunderstand me. There are compelling arguments to be made for a small Federal government, states' rights, and low taxes, but the Tea Party has not articulated them [wordpress.com], even before they were co-opted by the Religious-Right and the Koch Brothers.

    --
    Climate change is real and primarily caused by human activity.
    • (Score: 2) by ikanreed on Tuesday July 21 2015, @06:11PM

      by ikanreed (3164) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday July 21 2015, @06:11PM (#212030) Journal

      There was a very brief time before Fox News latched onto the group with that name, inflating its numbers with their viewers, and inflating its stupidity with their viewers.

      To call it non-partisan, or small government, or even possessing of a genuinely plausible platform like the OP is suggesting is more than a bit far, but it was a purposefully co-opted movement.

      To be honest, it's hard to take the bumper-sticker-argument of "small government" seriously in any context. Everyone except some anarchists believe in some role for a government, and rather than have an honest debate about exactly what that is, the phrase invents a false ideal to attack functions they happen to not personally like.

      • (Score: 3, Insightful) by K_benzoate on Tuesday July 21 2015, @06:26PM

        by K_benzoate (5036) on Tuesday July 21 2015, @06:26PM (#212033)

        I'd believe the sincerity of the "small government" types (the mainstream ones, not libertarians) if they didn't spend so much time trying to expand the role of government in pushing a specific platform of conservative-Christian morality issues. They want low taxes because "got mine, fuck you" combined with an inflated sense of individual achievement. [youtube.com]

        --
        Climate change is real and primarily caused by human activity.
        • (Score: 3, Insightful) by curunir_wolf on Tuesday July 21 2015, @06:40PM

          by curunir_wolf (4772) on Tuesday July 21 2015, @06:40PM (#212039)
          Government employees want bigger government. News at 11.
          --
          I am a crackpot
        • (Score: 2) by ikanreed on Tuesday July 21 2015, @06:58PM

          by ikanreed (3164) Subscriber Badge on Tuesday July 21 2015, @06:58PM (#212051) Journal

          I understand your wish to appreciate that some people could have a sincere interest in it. But the sentiment's framing is fundamentally dishonest, not just made dishonest by hypocrites. "Small government" is an answer to a useless question, namely: "devoid of specific concerns what size should the government be?" Which isn't being asked by much of anyone, because specific concerns exist all over the place.

      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 21 2015, @09:13PM

        by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday July 21 2015, @09:13PM (#212094)

        To be honest, it's hard to take the bumper-sticker-argument of "small government" seriously in any context. Everyone except some anarchists believe in some role for a government, and rather than have an honest debate about exactly what that is, the phrase invents a false ideal to attack functions they happen to not personally like.

        Indeed. I haven't really heard any tea partier honestly answer the question of what part(s) of the federal government should get cut back. Hint: if you claim that you would start off by weilding the budget axe at "foreign aid" (or any other discretionary spending, for that matter), you are either dishonest or you haven't really taken a serious look at the federal budget.

        • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 22 2015, @03:11AM

          by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday July 22 2015, @03:11AM (#212168)

          I haven't really heard any tea partier honestly answer the question of what part(s) of the federal government should get cut back

          Apparently because you've never bothered to listen.

          You may not read this either but I'll try to keep it short and to the point:

          Government debt is about $20 trillion (much higher if unfunded liabilities are accounted for). If the government keeps spending like it is, it will default, likely by printing money (inflation) rather than refusing to pay. That will cause consumer prices on imported goods to skyrocket, which will destroy the economy.
          Increasing taxes will make it more expensive to employ/work.
          The best solution (even if not the most politically palatable one) is to reduce spending.
          The amount of reduction required isn't in the order of a few billion here of there; it's hundreds of billions that needs to be cut. This means every government agency and employee is going to have to justify their budget. Otherwise they should be axed.
          Defense needs cutting, benefits need cutting, and entire agencies (as many as possible) need to be abolished.
          Everyone would scream about this, but that only goes to show how dependent the economy has become on government, which is entirely ass about from how the USA got wealthy in the first place.
          If nothing changes, eventually everyone will be paid in worthless dollars that can't buy anything, so even if the budget becomes $50 trillion it won't matter because nothing will get done and everyone will be much much worse off than if the right thing had been done earlier.
          If interest rates on the national debt goes up, it's all over; the federal budget will be consumed by interest.

          If you've been brainwashed by Keynesian dogma, you will not understand this and I pity you. Otherwise it should be blatantly obvious.

          PS. The tea party movement began with Ron Paul. It has nothing to do with neocon religious bullshit, but given the amount of negative press it gets it must really be pissing the establishment types off so that's good.

  • (Score: 2, Informative) by Thexalon on Tuesday July 21 2015, @07:59PM

    by Thexalon (636) on Tuesday July 21 2015, @07:59PM (#212077)

    The primary purpose of the Tea Party was to help Republicans forget about George W Bush. It was effectively a rebranding campaign, at least as soon as the big money and Fox News got involved.

    And it worked. Very well. Which is hardly surprising: When fascism comes to America, it's wrapped in a flag and carrying a cross.

    --
    The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.