French Intelligence Agency Forces Removal of Wikipedia Entry 179
saibot834 writes "The French domestic intelligence agency DCRI has forced a Wikipedia administrator to delete an article about a local military base. The administrator, who is also the president of Wikimédia France, has been threatened by the agency with immediate reprisals after his initial refusal to comply. Following a discussion on the administrator's noticeboard, the article (which is said to violate a law on the secrecy of the national defense) has been reinstated by a foreign user. Prior to pressuring the admin, DCRI contacted the Wikimedia Foundation (WMF), which refused to remove the article. WMF claimed the article only contained publicly available information, in accordance with Wikipedia's verifiability policy. While the consequences for Wikimedia's community remain unclear, one thing is certain: The military base article – now available in English – will get more public awareness than ever before."
Re:compromised, fullstop. (Score:5, Informative)
I think the important part of the wiki article (English version) is that it mentions nuclear attack orders may be relayed through the station and that there are four others, with additional wiki links to those stations.
Re:Le effect Streissand. (Score:5, Informative)
Welcome to the Internet, France. Wiki ain't local. Suck it.
That said - This article has pretty much nothing of interest in it except maybe a tiny bit of cold war trivia only of interest to the most die-hard "must know everything" historians. That, therefore, makes me suspect this base's official purpose as a cover for something much, much more interesting. Thanks, France, for drawing attention to this!
Re:Military intelligence (Score:3, Informative)
What is so secretive and important about a radio tower and roughly 20 personnel? Especially when they have three more of those.
Hell, there's more informative articles on Gitmo, Diego Garcia, and Area 51... and those are still up.
I think someone in the French military got their panties in a wad about nothing...
Re:compromised, fullstop. (Score:3, Informative)
Yes, however the fact being that this information was apparently in a TV show broadcast on French regional TV and now available from the station's web site probably makes any campaign against Wikipedia redistributing it somewhat moot.
(captcha: retracts, i.e. what Wikipedia doesn't.)
Re:The French article had ZERO hits ... until now (Score:3, Informative)
That link goes to the recreated article. The original article is still available as well to the admins. These stats are most likely just for the new page not the original.
From the discussion (translated):
I recreated the article, if the government seeks a victim you would be nice to direct them to me. And tell them that I fuck. - GaAs ( d ) April 4, 2013 at 22:39 (CEST)
Re:Great test case (Score:5, Informative)
And in a wonderful example of self-reference, this Slashdot article is referenced in the Wikipedia article.
Re:Not really (Score:3, Informative)
No, that was six British divisions and 39 French divisions. The French had closer to 900,000 men. The British Forces performed admirably, but were not exactly giving it their all; the BEF was most of the UK's officer corps and Kitchener at least was planning for the war to last a lot longer than the French or Germans had any idea. His plan was for the BEF to serve as the nucleus for a much larger (~1 million) army. Obvs can't do that if they're dead. And "well outside Paris" must mean something different to you than the rest of us. The German armies came to within 30-40 miles of Paris, famously within reach of the Parisian taxicabs, and it should be noted that the city of Paris is not itself a defensive structure. What else would count as "defending Paris"? Climbing up on the Arc de Triomphe and taking up a sniper position?
You're probably unaware, but the Germans had just marched through Belgium to get to France. Due to some imagined terror of the franc-tireur, they had just become famous for massacring and razing whole villages whenever they thought that were being shot at by Belgians. They would have been just as happy to do the same to Paris. Anything that didn't involve armies meeting in an open field was probably not so hot an idea.
Generally, unless you like getting your nation's seat of government burned to the ground, the way to defend your capital city does not involve fighting a pitched battle anywhere near the place. The premise of the original joke is retarded.
Anti-French sentiment is equally retarded, considering that the Revolutionary War was nothing more than a proxy war against the British. France had the largest economy and military in the world at the time, and spent over a billion livres fighting in the Americas. They directly funded the revolution, provided most of the rifles, and fielded a highly effective army, as well as providing military advisers. They also fought a highly successful naval campaign -- the United States had no ships of the line, which is more or less equivalent to having no navy at all. The Battle of Chesapeake decided the Battle of Yorktown, which I am sure that your history books have taught you decided the entire war. Guess how many Americans took part in Chesapeake. It is completely accurate to say that the United States would not exist today if not for France. Generally a good ROI for them considering WWI and WWII, but not at the time. The depth of ignorance required to harbor hostility against the French is frankly astounding, and it is deeply to the US's shame that this is so prevalent.