The FBI on Thursday morning
seized servers of the global
Indymedia (IMC) news network in the UK. The servers were hosted by Rackspace, a US company with offices in London. Over 20 sites of the Indymedia network have been affected.
The Indymedia network, begun at the WTO protests in Seattle in 1999, has been subjected to official attack before. FBI efforts to gain access to Indymedia logs, visits to Seattle IMC volunteers, and raids on IMC protest headquarters (particularly the bloody Genoa G8 raid) show the IMC network to be a threat to power. This attack, however, has been the most successful at shutting down part of the network.
Rackspace, the provider, has said they cannot provide any information about the warrant. This indicates that the USA PATRIOT Act may have been invoked, as it bans agencies who provide information from revealing that they have done so.
This seizure comes at a critical time in the US, less than a month away from the election. Given that the Bush election campaign appears to be swinging into full-smear zone, that people are wondering what depths they will go to win, this attempt to silence one of the most radical voices on the internet is particularly chilling.
From Indymedia
The last few months have seen numerous attacks on independent media by the US Federal Government. In August the Secret Service used a subpoena in an attempt to disrupt the NYC IMC before the RNC by trying to get IP logs from an ISP in the US and the Netherlands. Last month the FCC shut down community radio stations around the US. Two weeks ago the FBI requested that Indymedia takes down a post on the Nantes IMC that had a photo of some undercover Swiss police and IMC volunteers in Seattle were visited by the FBI on the same issue. On the other hand, Indymedia and other independent media organisations were successfull with their victories for example against Diebold and the Patriot Act. Today however, the US authorities shut down IMCs around the world.
The list of affected local media collectives includes Ambazonia, Uruguay, Andorra, Poland, Western Massachusetts, Nice, Nantes, Lilles, Marseille (all France), Euskal Herria (Basque Country), Liege, East and West Vlaanderen, Antwerpen (all Belgium), Belgrade, Portugal, Prague, Galiza, Italy, Brazil, UK, part of the Germany site, and the global Indymedia Radio site.