Egypt Cuts the Net, Net Fights Back 232
GMGruman writes "Egypt's cutoff of the Net enrages the Netizenry, who are finding a bunch of ways — high tech and low tech — to fight back, from dial-up to ham radio, from mesh networks to Twitter. Robert X. Cringely shows how the Net war is being waged, and asks, Could it happen at home, too?" Sure, it could.
On the same topic, reader dermiste writes
"In reaction to the Egyptian government crackdown on the Internet, the French non-profit ISP French Data Network set up a dial-up Internet access. This way, anyone in Egypt who has access to a analog phone line and can call France is able to connect to the network using the following number: +33 1 72 89 01 50 (login: toto, password: toto)."
For how long (Score:3, Insightful)
This way, anyone in Egypt who has access to a analog phone line and can call France is able to connect to the network [...]
I'm wondering for how long will the international phone lines work. The gvt. is most likely able to cut those too. Remaining options will then be HAM radio, GSM roaming, if you are close enough to a border and you are lucky to be in the range of a GSM base station from across (but I have no idea about the situation in Egypt), and satellite phone.
Re:GSM Roaming (Score:2, Informative)
Not much likelihood of GSM roaming. Take a look at a photo of Egypt at night from space.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/28634332@N05/5146231463/
Egypt *is* the Nile. And not much near the borders...
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Not much likelihood of GSM roaming. Take a look at a photo of Egypt at night from space.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/28634332@N05/5146231463/ [flickr.com]
Egypt *is* the Nile. And not much near the borders...
Yeah, and then it it's most populated neighbouring areas are the Gaza strip and Libia. Not exactly places that have a lot of potential to get a signal out.
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I'm wondering for how long will the international phone lines work. The gvt. is most likely able to cut those too.
They can't do it too long : the egyptian economy relies too heavily on tourism (see here [wikipedia.org]).
The same happened in Tunisia a few weeks ago. Ben Ali (the former dictator) quickly understood that he could not cut his country from the rest of the world, because it was too dependent from outside (tourism & call centers). He then left to Saudi Arabia, which might be a good elderly home for Mubarak too.
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How exactly is Saudi Arabia in line for a revolution? Also, why would any western power ally themselves with enemies of the House of Saud? We've spent the past 80 years or so arming and training them in exchange for oil, I don't see that changing anytime soon.
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That's only needed for outside communication, internally things like UUCP, Unix to Unix Copy [wikipedia.org] and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FidoNet [slashdot.org]">FidoNet would work internally for email and good old Usenet [wikipedia.org] would also be handy as hell. As densely populated as Cairo is wireless routers would be capable of being the backbone with the addition of a pringles can or two. It'll be funny when dictatorship start considering OLPC a terrorist enabling NGO.
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So, can you get the packages without the internet?
Better get started on backup numbers... (Score:2)
I'll wager the exchanges are being told to block it right about now
Lots of backup numbers (Score:3)
Try googling it [google.com]
If Google is too hard, try these [freedialup.org]
Toto...?! (Score:4, Interesting)
Would that be a homage to the group Toto, "famous" for the song "Africa"?
It's gonna take a lot to take me away from you
There's nothing that a hundred men or more could ever do
I bless the rains down in Africa
Gonna take some time to do the things we never have
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Actually I don't think so. Running the article through Google Translate[1] seems to translate "toto" into "foo" so I guess it's the french version of the "foo-bar".
Any french speakers want to pitch in and confirm?
[1]: http://translate.google.com/translate?js=n&prev=_t&hl=en&ie=UTF-8&layout=2&eotf=1&sl=auto&tl=en&u=http%3A%2F%2Fblog.fdn.fr%2Fpost%2F2011%2F01%2F28%2FCensure-de-l-internet-en-%25C3%2589gypte-%253A-une-humble-action-de-FDN&act=url [google.com]
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Yes "toto" is common fill-in for passwords and first names. It's more like "joe" than "foobar".
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toto comes from a lame french kindergarten thing...
0 + 0
=
la tete a toto
dont ask...
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Re:Toto...?! (Score:5, Informative)
No, it's just the French equivalent of "foo". The sequence "foo bar biz baz" is "toto titi tata tutu".
If you want to bless the reigns, you should worry more about what's happening in Jordan, rather than Egypt.
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Ghoser777's explanation is still deliciously poetic though
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Boy, those French, it's like they have a different word for everything!
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Where do I sign up?
Here, I guess. [legion-recrute.com]
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In computer programming.- FUBAR - "fucked up beyond all repair" or alternatively "fucked up beyond all recognition".
The Cringley article is crap. I want to know MORE (Score:4, Interesting)
Yesterday when I read that Egypt had pulled the plug on the internet the first thing that went through my mind was, 'the people will find a way.'. The second thing was, 'I can't wait to see how they do it. This is going to be fascinating.'. Since then I have been contemplating ad-hoc wireless networks and dialing into 56k modems thousands of miles away.
I have been chewing at the bit (haha! I made a pun!) for any information as to how this little project is proceeding.
The best Cringley's article can muster is a French company offering 56k access for free and the words, 'Wireless mesh network'. That is all fine and dandy.
I am happy and impressed that the French company is offering there resources to the Egyptian people. Big round of appluase for those guys. But the geek in me is not impressed. Dialing out of country to a 56k connection is just so bloody obvious. I want to know the bloody details of the wireless mesh. I want to know about the sap that has hacked his satelite dish to give internet access to his town.
I want more. It has to be out there.
Re:The Cringley article is crap. I want to know MO (Score:4, Insightful)
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> Dialing out of country to a 56k connection is just so bloody obvious.
Dialing out of country to a 56k connection is damn near impossible.
28.8? If the phone lines are good.
I wonder if there are any Egyptians left with USR HST modems, and if the dial-up concentrators even speak that any more..
What if it were to happen here? (Score:2)
Yesterday when I read that Egypt had pulled the plug on the internet the first thing that went through my mind was, 'the people will find a way.'. The second thing was, 'I can't wait to see how they do it. This is going to be fascinating.'. Since then I have been contemplating ad-hoc wireless networks and dialing into 56k modems thousands of miles away.
Just as a hypothetical, perhaps not as a government action, but an act of sabotage, but what if it were to happen here? Suppose your internet went dark. What would you do? Do you have out-of-country dialup numbers handy? Do you even have a working modem? Do you even have a POTS phone line? Do you even have a terminal emulation program installed? In the before time we used to use bbs systems like fidonet; a series of nodes that connected via modem and swapped info periodically. Who's ready to deploy such a t
Re:The Cringley article is crap. I want to know MO (Score:5, Funny)
I propose a new protocol: Internet Delivers Information Over Twitter, or I.D.I.O.T for short.
Killing DNS (Score:2)
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I want to know the bloody details of the wireless mesh.
Here's a place to start: HSMM-MESH [hsmm-mesh.org]
Cairo residents opening home WiFi to protestors (Score:2, Interesting)
http://www.nowpublic.com/world/egypt-protests-residents-open-wifi-networks-protestors-2751360.html [nowpublic.com]
I submitted a seperate story on this - before seeing this story.
Any ways - I think this gives greater significance to the WiFi p2p protocols - couple of links I can find in a rush:
http://netsukuku.freaknet.org/ [freaknet.org]
http://sourceforge.net/p/widi/home/ [sourceforge.net]
this is important (Score:2)
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Setting up dial-in is pretty straightforward. One technique I like to do is kick off either a slipd or a pppd attached to a serial terminal based on the shell in the password file. This way, I can just dial in to a shell when it's convenient and/or I have a very slow connection.
The hard part about it is having a POTS phone line. A lot of people forget that you can't run a modem over a VoIP line. This is yet another reason why I refuse to give up my copper pair...
effect of the 'net overstated? (Score:5, Insightful)
For a start, the greater the technological advancement, the more dependent it is on a larger number of underlying functions. That makes it vulnerable not only to someone hitting the kill switch, but to government agents (of whom we can safely assume there are many infiltrated amongst any overthrow plot) sending out false information under the guise of "the people" Whether that's reports saying things are different from what they really are, or sabotaging rallies by sending people tot he wrong place - the problem with believing an anonymous source (on twitter, say) is that they're anonymous: you can never be sure they truly represent who they say they do.
So, while there is/was obviously some use of the internet by some people in Egypt, I would think that its main effect has been to deliver part of the story to outsiders (whether news organisations or just people) rather than to get things going within the country itself. As such, if the only way we have of getting information is through the internet we naturally (and mistakenly) presume that is also how people inside are getting information, too. There appears to already have been quite enough groundswell without the need for smartphones or websites.
Re:effect of the 'net overstated? (Score:4, Insightful)
I would disagree with you that the main effect of the internet in Egypt has been to deliver news to outsiders. While internet access is blocked now, the use of social media has been instrumental in informing the population and organizing protests for quite a while. See the April 6 Youth Movement [wikipedia.org]. (Sorry, my work blocks most sites so I can't give a more informative reference than that wikipedia article).
This is a movement that has been years in the making. I imagine a large number of the people involved in the protests (who are largely young, educated people who would have internet access) became interested and involved well before the protests of the last few days.
Re:effect of the 'net overstated? (Score:4, Funny)
(Sorry, my work blocks most sites so I can't give a more informative reference than that wikipedia article).
Are calls to France cheap at yours?
Re:effect of the 'net overstated? (Score:4, Insightful)
you are in denial or full of shit...
Just look at what's happening, how it started and how it's being conducted... The net was not shutdown in egypt without reason... Denying it's usefulness as an insurectional tool or saying it lack reliability is just stupidity or attention whoring "HEY look at me ! i'm going against the flow!!!"
One thing for a start, multiple report from multiple source have more chance to give a good picture than any official newsgroup. It's chaos, propaganda and truth have the same 'timeslot' on the net... it's usually not difficult in these case to see that something is going on, maybe not precisely, but enough to get some part of the big picture...
I'm getting really tired of smartasses like you, you have nothing of any value to add, just bucket loads of improbable "what if" that you try to pass as reasonable analysis...
Re:effect of the 'net overstated? (Score:5, Informative)
There are 2 reasons Mubarak tried to block Internet access:
1. It was being used by protesters to coordinate - reporting on where police were concentrated, where people were gathering, etc.
2. It had this video [youtube.com] of a civilian getting shot by police while he was backing away. Mubarak probably thought that by blocking access to the video the Egyptian people wouldn't figure out that the cops had crossed that line.
It hasn't worked. As a longtime /. sig once put it: The Internet treats censorship as damage and routes around it.
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That "longtime /. sig" is a quote by John Gilmore, co-founder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, creator or the alt.* Usenet hierarchy, major contributor to the GNU project, fifth employee of Sun Microsystems, co-author of the predecessor to DHCP, beard wearer. The correct quote is "The Net interprets censorship as damage and routes around it."
Alternative media sources: e.g. AlJazeera (Score:2)
There are other media sources to check: good coverage at the moment by AlJazeera [aljazeera.net].
Some more Reuters quality photos here [totallycoolpix.com] (warning: some show injuries, not nice). Barak Obama should probably not view photo 80, the protestor doesn't look too happy with the 'made in USA' tear gas canister....
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In 1789 mobs on the streets of Paris overthrew the monarchy without the Internet, without television, without radio, without telephones and without the telegraph.
There is no question the Net has played a large role, and perhaps triggered the uprising earlier than would have happened without it, but it is not absolutely needed.
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A dissident group starts a forum, or opens up on twitter. They gather followers, including a few government "sympathisers". All the followers duly follow, but the govt. people start to make more vociferous posts/tweets, appear to be in possession of more damning/inflammatory information (as you'd expect, from the source) and, while still towing the dissident line, become key influencers in the group. Come the revolution, these people - whom no-one
56K (Score:2)
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That's the great value of actual ascii based communication. 300 baud is good enough to transmit news stories as text or to coordinate protest.
Wireless peer to peer? (Score:2)
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We did. Years ago.
http://www.aprs.org/ [aprs.org]
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Yawn!
Have a look at this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mobile_ad_hoc_network [wikipedia.org]
Or make your android phone MANET aware with the following:
http://www.olsr.org/?q=olsr_on_android [olsr.org]
It does require cooperation of people though, so get out of your caves and talk to each other ;).
Message from Cairo (Score:2, Funny)
These are exciting times to be living in Egypt. I'm not an Egyptian myself having moved here a few years ago and the locals are usually wary of me but I have past experience of setting up ad-hoc internet connections and that has proven invaluable in the current crisis. I never travel anywhere without my trusty Commodore 64 and, combined with some string and sticky tape, I have set this up as an internet hub giving access to the rest of the world. Like people everywhere, the Egyptians just want to download
Does this mean... (Score:5, Funny)
Does this mean we can get their IPV4 addresses back?
Just 'sayin
Phy disconnect or DNS? (Score:2)
I wonder if they've physically shut down the networks (down, down) or if they just did something like kill the DNS servers? Even in a small network like what Egypt has it would still take a while to get all the network links, towers and DSLAMS, etc. completely off. Even if it would be a little more difficult there are plenty of resourceful people who could get IRC servers and other services up even without the links to the outside world. Most people would consider a DNS failure an outage and it's relatively
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I wonder if they've physically shut down the networks (down, down) or if they just did something like kill the DNS servers? Even in a small network like what Egypt has it would still take a while to get all the network links, towers and DSLAMS, etc. completely off. Even if it would be a little more difficult there are plenty of resourceful people who could get IRC servers and other services up even without the links to the outside world. Most people would consider a DNS failure an outage and it's relatively quick and easy (and just the thing to be sneaky if you have a revolutionary mind).
I doubt they's go to the effort to shut it down at teh customer edge. Moch more effifient to do it at the CO/ISP office.
Could use several methods to actually accomplish this. Perhaps disable DHCP or DNS or authentication, or route all traffic to a static "out of order" page, or shut down the ports to upstream providers, or to international gateways.
Or probably a blend of the above.
And, I have also been wondering, how hard is it to set up wireless mesh nodes using off the shelf consumer hardware?
I'm w
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IIRC it's already been figured out - their top-tier ISPs (presumably under orders from the government) have stopped advertising the addresses they provide routes to at the border routers.
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better yet, if all the major ISPs shut off their DNS servers, you could simply use OpenDNS or Google DNS (or any other DNS server that is outside of the country)
Keep those dialup modems? (Score:2)
Perhaps this suggests that some of that 'old tech' should be kept working and around just in case... I probably have a modem in a basement somewhere and I'm equally sure I've thrown a bunch out thinking that they'd never be need again
Egyptians, find the CNN crew (Score:2)
The will be happy to broadcast any videos, pictures and comments, and put them up on the internet as well. If you are familiar with Cairo, just look at the live coverage that they are broadcasting, and figure out where they are. If they have satellite video access, they certainly have satellite internet access as well. And they love to put up stuff where they can say, "CNN exclusive!"
Now, if the Egyptian starts blocking CNN . . . oh, well. Try Al Jazeera.
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Nah apparently the protesters have been beating reporters. Including CNN, BBC, etc. Something to do about the reporters filming the MAS(aka Muslim Brotherhood) inciting people, and them not wanting it to get out.
011-610-867-5309 (Score:2)
Cleaner unplugs the Internet in Egypt (Score:2)
According to an article appearing in the online technology journal MicroScope.co.uk, here [microscope.co.uk]:
FDN should get some support (Score:2)
That's at least one thing the French do right at the moment.
Not the "real" Robert X. Cringely (Score:4, Informative)
Kill Switch (Score:3)
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Yeah it is an association where members split the overall cost of the network.
I'll possibly go with them eventually because other ISPs in france insist on making you pay for services you do not want, like TV...
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They ARE offfering it for free, it is an association, there is nothing in it for them. They are fierce defenders of net neutrality, they have been around for quite a while now.
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The number to call is a normal landline, so the person in egypt would still have to pay the communication itself, but appart from that, it is free.
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Their dialup capacity is probably 99% idle these days. Might as well offer it for something.
Speaking of paranoia, I wonder if the Egyptian telcos have any way to log callers to that number? I wonder if they might ever be persuaded to hand over the logs to the authorities.
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if?
It's virtually certain.
Also, the number is probably already blocked.
Re:What's the Catch? (Score:5, Informative)
Also, the number is probably already blocked.
If you read their comments there are links to other alternatives, including this interesting link that some how uses cellphones[1], and more people are pitching in.
Also, they have offered some statistics:
[1]: http://manalaa.net/dialup [manalaa.net]
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Muhammed Don't Lose That Number
You don't wanna call nobody else
Send it off in a letter to Yusef
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I guess you have noticed this thing called a "phone bill" that you pay. This is made from billing records and traditionally was directly related to the calls you made (nowaday's, with flat rate, it's more complex than that). Every telephone exchange in existence automatically records the outgoing calls you make. Even 99% of PBXs (with the exception of a few where the users deliberately throw away the information).
I wonder if volunteers messing around in this area are not generally doing lots of harm.
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But if the NPO sets up a toll free number for their internet freedom internet hotline, then it really is free to call (For the people in Egypt anyway.. SOMEBODY has to pay the bill, but in this case it would be the NPO.)
It would also make a great angle for getting donations.
"We at [afore mentioned French ISP] believe strongly in internet freedom, and offer this service free of charge; if however, you like the service, please feel free donate at [micropayment site]."
Such a move would generate lots of donatio
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The government is bounded to doing one single thing at a time. They have, if they are skilled at it, the ability to multi-task like no other because they command a large army of civil servants.
When analysing a revolution there is rarely one single thing that determines the success or failure of overthrowing the seated power. A (current) government therefore has the interest in controlling the flow of information in the broadest sense of the word. If Muburak and his cohorts have paid attention to the role of
the angle is (Score:2)
Re:What's the Catch? (Score:5, Informative)
>>>are they charging an arm and a leg? I mean, I know they're Not for Profit, but that doesn't always meant they offer all services free. If they ARE offering it for free... I can't help but wonder what their angle is.
>>>
I don't know why you're surprised. DIALUP internet only costs me $7/month. Netzero and Juno offer it for free (see links below). It's not that much of a burden for the Non-profit ISP to offer free access to egyptians.
And the datarate is only ~30 kbit/s via analog lines, so you could carry over 300 users in the space of one DSL or cable customer.
http://www.juno.com/start/landing.do?page=www/free/index [juno.com]
http://isp.netscape.com/ [netscape.com]
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How are you getting ~30 kb/s over a pots line? The highest rating I've seen is 5.6 kb/s in theory and in practice I get 3 kb/s for $29 a month for unlimited.
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thing that cured the Czech Republic - several guns aimed at Nicolae Ceausescu's body.
So Czechs killed Romanian dictator? Or were they just posing with his body to scare their own authorities? And Romania posted videos to internet in 1989? Was it .GIF or .FLI? Uh.
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Caeucescu was in Romania, not Czech Republic...
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Caeucescu was in Romania, not Czech Republic...
You obviously forgot that the Securitate had secret tunnels.
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Honestly considering the state of the infrastucture in Cairo, I'd be amazed if dialup got past 14.4 Kbaud, mine never got past 33.4 and usually connected at 28.8 in Michigan. now the telephone lines in are what costs for dialup rather than the data. As far as popping a cap in Hosni Mubarak's happy ass, I don't see any possible replacements that wouldn't be worst, no sense in replacing a secular dictator with a religious dictator.
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Ooops. Me not perfekt. ;-) (shrug) I hear the exact same thing from europeans all the time: "New Jersey... Virginia... eh, what's the difference? It's over there somewhere."
BTW there was no reason to mod -1 Troll on BOTH my messages, especially the second one about Dialup internet costing virtually nothing to provide.
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I remember when microsoft built an ISP finder into their OS. Do they still? I wonder if that would work...
It's all shades of gray (Score:5, Interesting)
doesn't anyone want to talk about about the fact that the good old US of A is supporting a brutal regime that murders and tortures its own people?
If the USA didn't support any regime that murders and tortures its own people it would have very few relations to other countries. It's all a matter of proportion. Egypt is less brutal than other countries in that region, they have a relatively moderate stance regarding international relations, they try not to let Muslim radicals do too much harm.
Don't get me wrong, I think Mubarak should step down, but Obama is right in taking a cautious approach to that crisis.
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Ok, so what you're saying is that all we have to do is trust your judgment on what is the lesser of two evils? I'm not sure that's good enough.
Especially not for those people that are tortured and murdered daily by the countless regimes that the U.S. keeps in power.
You see your argument can justify involvement with any level of evil, and it suggests that your moral compass is not just flexible, but broken.
And has anyone noticed that the first place that America's "friends" are heading to when they're ejecte
Re:It's all shades of gray (Score:5, Insightful)
This is one way of looking at things. The other is that the local population's views aren't (or at one point, weren't) deemed compatible with the U.S.'s strategic and economic interests in the reason. As a result, it became convenient to ally with a totalitarian regime that overrode those interests.
In this view, which I believe is pretty well supported by history, Muslim extremists are more of a symptom than a cause of U.S. policy (i.e., if a regime crushes all of its non-violent, secular opponents, sooner or later you'll be left with fanatics who are willing to die for their cause). For a great view on this, look up the history of the U.S. in Iran, and in particular how our Operation Ajax [wikipedia.org] eventually replaced a secular prime minister with a radical Islamic government.
The one thing I'll offer in "our" defense is that these things are highly path dependent. In other words, our mistakes beget a dictator, which leads to radicalism, which leads to our offering more support to the dictator in order to hold down the radicals --- basically the situation you described in your post. It can be very difficult to untangle yourself from bad decisions made by your predecessors.
Doesn't mean we shouldn't try --- even as a practical matter (rather than a moral one) these dictatorships in the middle east aren't going to last forever, and the longer we support them the worse it'll be for us when the shit hits.
Re:It's all shades of gray (Score:5, Interesting)
If the USA didn't support any regime that murders and tortures its own people.......
It doesn't just support them politically it actually trains their police how to do this: Leaked U.S. Military Manual:
How to Train Death Squads and Quash Revolutions from San Salvador to Iraq. [informatio...house.info]
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Protecting Israel from Egypt takes second place to protecting Egyptians from each other. Do not forget Mubarak, like Hafez Assad in Syria and Saddam Hussein in Iraq, imposed stability on people who would not otherwise have it. It takes a strong, forceful leader to rule primitive societies.
Mubarak was useful to the US. He fought Al Qaeda, which his successors won't bother to do.
When there are no "good guys", playing some of the bad guys against each other is necessary. Taking the moral high road never confer
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Imposing stability rarely in the long run guarantees it. I'll concede that in certain societies at certain times your argument may in fact hold weight, that not every society is instantly ready for democracy. Hell, even Merrie Olde England went through a considerable number of contortions between the Magna Carta, the Model Parliament, the English Civil War, the Glorious Revolution, and ultimately the great Reform Bills of the 19th century. But even in the case of England, at least there was movement, not a
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It takes a strong, forceful leader to rule primitive societies.
With this, you clearly show your prejudice.
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But the law regarding stoning was put in place in '77 and Sharia was put in place via a referendum in '80. You could say the people voted for it, but the idea of a free vote in a dictatorship is kind of ridiculous.
Now there is a revolutionary situation in Egypt. There are both secular and Islamic forces at work and, at this stage, it's impossible to say who will be successful. It's incorrect to say that Egypt is a primitive society though, they have an industrial base, a developing economy and control of on
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Though Egypt without the internet should perhaps be renamed Gypt?
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Eygpt is known to have nasty jails for people who disagree with others on all sorts of things.
What is happening seems to be a revolution in the making. Either you win or you die, and the people (at least those involved enough to be specifically targeted by the government) probably know it.
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"In a hypothetical scenario in some Axis of Evil nation of course."
Put functional "bait" hotspots in plastic containers that contain a tamper switch discreetly connected to any number of interesting "prizes" made from uncontrollable common non-firearm components anyone with a bit of ingenuity can assemble. A fat UPS case has LOTS of room if you ditch the large batteries. Take out enemy techs and weaken their response.
Peaceful baiting could include sacrificial easily found hotspots adjacent to concealed hots