US Funding Stealth Internets to Circumvent Repressive Regimes 289
snydeq writes "The Obama administration is leading a global effort to deploy 'shadow' Internet and mobile phone systems that dissidents can use to undermine repressive governments that seek to silence them by censoring or shutting down telecommunications networks. According to a report from CBS News: '...by the end of the year the State Department will have spent $70 million on efforts to provide alternate pathways for dissidents to access the Internet and telecommunications services. One group received $2 million to develop an "Internet in a suitcase" that could be easily carried and set up in a foreign country.'"
Re:Is it just me... (Score:3, Informative)
Would the oppressive regimes not claim that their "police actions" are state secrets?
Re:Is it just me... (Score:3, Informative)
Actually, we weren't set up to be a majority rule country. Read the Federalist Papers, I think #10 is where Madison argues against the evils of what he calls "tyranny of the majority".
Re:No it's not just you.. (Score:2, Informative)
What would happen if there were, just for arguments sake, dissident Americans........ Pause..
For the sake of argument? You don't think there are people engaged in dissent [pajamasmedia.com]? Really [pajamasmedia.com]? Well, there are dissenters of many flavors, from the fringe to more main stream [pajamasmedia.com].
And guess what? They have the same option as everybody else - they go into the voting booth and vote for the party of their choice [wikipedia.org], just like the rest of America. If they don't like the local laws, they can try to change [pajamasmedia.com] them or move [freestateproject.org]. (Massachusetts has state run health care, California is engaging in an interesting physics experiment - can financial implosions lead to the formation of a black hole, Texas is generating a disproportionate share of jobs, for a few possible destinations. Every state has its unique charms.)
In the meantime, they publish magazine articles, books [amazon.com] and web sites, [michellemalkin.com] radio [michellemalkin.com], as well as make use of other media.
If they engage in terrorism that kills people, they get hunted down like dogs, until they get friends [youtube.com].
Really, is this news to you? You probably should have paused earlier.