Iraq

According to a translation from the Centre for Law and Democracy, Articles 3, 4, and 5 of Iraq’s Informatics Crimes Law would impose a mandatory life sentence for anyone using a computer or the Internet to do any of the following:

“compromise” the “unity” of the state;
subscribe, participate, negotiate, promote, contract or deal with an enemy … in order to destabilize security and public order or expose the country to danger;
damage, cause defects, or hinder [systems or networks] belonging to security military, or intelligence authorities with a deliberate intention to harm [state security].
promote “ideas which are disruptive to public order”;
“implement terrorist operations under fake names or to facilitate communication with members or leaders of terrorist groups”;
“promote terrorist activites and ideologies or to publish information regarding the manufacturing, preparation and implementation of flammable or explosive devices, or any tools or materials used in the planning or execution of terrorist acts”;
facilitate or promote human trafficking “in any form”;
engage in “trafficking, promoting or facilitating the abuse of drugs”.

The Act also includes provisions to punish network users who “create chaos in order to weaken the trust of the electronic system of the state,” “provoke or promote armed disobedience,” “disturb public order or harm the reputation of the country,” or “intrude, annoy or call computer and information network users without authorization or hinders their use,” the Electronic Freedom Foundation reports. Copyright infringement and hacking would also land users in big trouble under the Act, which proposes a 2- to 3-year prison term for either offense.

Human rights group Access is vocally opposed to the proposed legislation. It has issued a report calling the Information Technology Crimes Act of 2011 “vague, overbroad, and overly harsh.” The EFF echoes this sentiment, and on its blog called for the Iraqi Parliament to fully evaluate the human rights impact of the Act and to “engage with civil society actors and technologists to revise the bill.”

Lebanon

To date, Lebanese internet users — and especially bloggers — have enjoyed some of the greatest Internet freedoms in the Middle East. But a new draft law by Information Minister Walid Daouk, called the Lebanese Internet Regulation Act, could disrupt some of those freedoms.

Under the proposed law, any electronic publication “affecting the morals and ethics” of Lebanon, as well as anything having to do with gambling, would be illegal. The Act would also require mandatory registration of websites with the Ministry of Information, including personally identifying information.

The Act would render online content (including advertising) subject to the same regulations as traditional print and broadcast media under the country’s 1963 press law, which “limits the number of press licenses issued for political publication,” [EFF] and encourages self-censorship. Web users would also be restricted to owning no more than a single website.

The Lebanese blogosphere is fighting back against the legislation, though one interview conducted by the organization Ontornet indicates the such protests might be to no avail. Opponents of the Act are also questioning whether signing up for social media profiles and freely hosted blogs constitutes website ownership. As the EFF writes:

One concern that has been raised again and again is what constitutes a website. With ever-increasing participation on social networks, will Lebanese who have pages on both Google Plus and Facebook be held liable for their “ownership” of them?

Lebanese citizens are protesting the Act on Twitter under the hashtag #StopLIRA, and released the following video to receive support for their protest.

A full text of the document is available in Arabic here, and a rough translation in English here.

[EFF, Photo Source: ThinkStock]

This is in many ways an interesting development.  For starters, it’s almost impossible not to think about the political and military turmoil in both countries (and in Tunisia in particular) and what effects Google’s move might have.

Perhaps the company’s trying to show its commitment to the free flow of information, hoping it can help locals make better decisions.  Or the timing could be coincidental, part of Google’s regularly scheduled efforts to reach more potential users.

Either way, the move does represent a milestone of sorts in terms of growth.  A post on the Google Arabia Blog noted, “This recent launch brings the number of local Google search domains worldwide to 184 with 15 domains in Arab countries.”

The post also pointed out, “Up until recently, users in Iraq and Tunisia had to visit other domains in order to use the search user interface in their language of choice.  With this launch, the new domains will enable users to access Google search in local languages like Arabic and Kurdish in Iraq and Arabic and French in Tunisia.  Eventually, this will lead to access to more locally-relevant content.”

Additional local search domains are supposed to launch this year, too, so keep an eye out for them.  Hat tip goes to Ahmad Al-Shagra.

The Iraqi government joins the Pope, the Royal Family, Queen Rania, and the presidents of the United States, France, South Korea, and Estonia in having YouTube channels to communicate with the public. Here’s a YouTube message from Iraq’s Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki:

"Earlier this year, I visited Baghdad as a guest of the U.S. State Department to engage in conversations about the role of technology in Iraq," says Hunter Walk, Director of Product Management for YouTube. "In discussions with elected officials, private companies and NGOs, I routinely heard the desire to connect with fellow citizens, Iraqis outside the country’s borders, and cultures across the world."

"But it wasn’t just the Iraqi Government who expressed an interest in YouTube — I was pleasantly surprised by the high level of awareness from a wide variety of Iraqis," he continues. "One young student told us she uses YouTube to understand what is really happening in her country based on the variety of opinions, citizen journalism and news reports uploaded to the site. There was little difference between her examples and those we often hear in other countries, which speaks to both the global community on YouTube and the universality of the video experience."

On a related note, Google CEO Eric Schmidt himself visited Iraq this past week, where he met with government officials. He offered the following video via YouTube’s Citizentube site:

It’s quite interesting to see how online video, social media, and YouTube in particular are changing the way governments connect with the people. It is likely that even more countries’ governments will follow suit in the future.

Related Articles:

> The Pope Goes YouTube

> White House Still Cool with YouTube

> White House Looks at YouTube Video Popularity by Region

Employees of AT&T, Blue State Digital, Howcast, Meetup, Wired Magazine, and YouTube are also part of the team, which has been dubbed the "New Media Technology delegation."  Their journey began yesterday, and should end on Thursday the 23rd.

 

As for what exactly they’ll be up to, Robert Wood, Acting State Department Spokesman, stated during a briefing, "During the trip the delegation will meet with representatives from the Government of Iraq, the public and private education sectors, Iraqi technology companies, and groups active in Iraqi civil society."

He also explained, "[T]hey will provide conceptual input as well as ideas on how new technologies can be used to build local capacity, foster greater transparency and accountability, build upon anti-corruption efforts, promote critical thinking in the classroom, scale-up civil society, and further empower local entities and individuals by providing the tools for network building."

So Google and the other companies may soon be involved in pretty much every aspect of online life in Iraq.

You can follow the delegation’s trip, if you want, through Jack Dorsey’s Twitter account and Raanan Bar-Cohen’s blog.

The new Web site CommunityofVeterans.org, provides information that can help veterans with transitional and readjustment issues, including a searchable database of national and local resources on topics such as jobs, education and health.

CommunityofVeterans.org aims to foster connections among veterans and allow them to communicate with each other. The Web site and private community were developed by BarkleyREI.

"Less than 1 percent of the U.S. population has served in the current conflicts and it’s critical that returning troops are able to connect with people who understand what they’ve been through. The PSAs and groundbreaking social networking site will go a long way toward helping these heroes readjust," said Paul Rieckhoff, Executive Director, Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America.

The new PSAs and Website have been researched and tested with veterans, their familes and the public. MTV has made a commitment to support the new campaign through primetime content and on their social media channel, ThinkMTV.

AOL has also donated its resources to design the campaign’s Web banners and has made a commitment along with Google to support the ads on Veterans Day and in the coming months.

Beginning this week, an integrated social media program will promote the campaing on popular social networking sites and blogs targeted to service members andd their families.

The tablet had a wedge-shaped cuneiform script and had been put up for sale on eBay’s Swiss site. It caught the eye of a German archaeologist, who contacted the German police. They passed the information to their Swiss counter parts.

Authorities have launched criminal proceedings against the seller, who was identified only as a resident of Zurich.

eBay ended the auction just minutes before the bidding deadline on December 12, Yves Fischer, the director of the Swiss federal office of culture’s department on commerce in cultural objects.

Zurich police seized the tablet from a storage facility. Officials said the tablet, which dates back to around 2000 BC, was "with great probability" smuggled out of Iraq. Switzerland bans trading of Iraqi cultural objects that were removed from the country after 1990.

Fischer said the tablet had not been deciphered. Cuneiform tablets were used in the Middle East and ancient Persia in the last three millennia BC for recording great deeds of leaders to everyday correspondence and bookkeeping.

"The authorities will now establish the facts to see what to do with the object," Fischer said. "If it’s a tainted object, then the goal will be to return it to Iraq."

The seller faces a fine of up to $43,000 or jail time if convicted of breaking the Swiss embargo laws on the transfer of cultural goods. Cuneiform tablets are included on a "red list " of endangered Iraqi cultural cultural objects by the International Council of Museums.
 

The culture office said it was the first time it had worked with Ebay to stop the sale of an Iraqi cultural object.
 

Yon’s résumé includes a stint with the US Army’s Green Berets. Most recently, he’s been a steady reporter from the ground in Iraq, one who does the kind of objective, good with the bad, reporting that almost seems quaint to the jaded media observer.

Yon thinks people need to hear the news about Iraq, beyond what get filtered through major news organizations. To counter this, Yon has offered his news and photos to the National Newspaper Association, free of charge.

“It probably won’t be enough just to make the news I am reporting available to NNA-member publications at no cost,” Yon said in his blog post. “There may need to be a little irritating sand in order to get a pearl out of this oyster.”

Blog readers can serve as that “sand,” by asking their local papers to pick up on Yon’s stories. Those papers will have to be NNA members to be able to participate.

Further, Yon works off of a shoestring budget, and says he is entirely reader-supported. We wonder what excuse major news organizations in the US can make for not matching his effort with reporters and backing.

What you might call a fringe group – global conspiracy prophets are fringe, right? – have uploaded an obscure video from 1994, where then former Secretary of Defense Dick Cheney defended the decision not to invade Iraq following the Gulf War (a decision which, if you remember in fairness, broke poor Al Gore’s heart).

Though it may be easy to dismiss a group called "Grand Theft Country," whose primary goal it is to prevent future state-sponsored terrorist attacks (9/11 being the first one) while exposing media cover-ups and global-fascist alliances, this is the very group that has unmasked Vice President Cheney as a man who abandoned previous (and prophetic) insights.

In the video, produced by the conservative American Enterprise Institute, Cheney predicts invading Iraq and toppling Saddam Hussein would be "a quagmire" the US wouldn’t be interested in navigating.

Cheney focused on the consequences of taking over Iraq, and the delicate balance of power there that would be obliterated by religio-political factions as they divvied up the ruins.

And then there’s this little nugget at the end, regarding George H.W. Bush’s decision not to invade:

And the question for the president, in terms of whether or not we went on to Baghdad, took additional casualties in an effort to get Saddam Hussein, was how many additional dead Americans is Saddam worth?

Our judgment was, not very many, and I think we got it right.

So, apparently, there was a change of heart, one that wasn’t (hasn’t been) sufficiently addressed in the past six years in the media – a good time to bring that up might have been, say, the 2004 election.

I’m not going to walk out on that limb with Grand Theft Country and point to a global-fascist conspiracy with Arab-terrorist pawns and complete media control, but I will concede they’ve made a point nicely, and that point will be tested if and when the rest of the media, which will report on YouTube videos of every other (read: unimportant) stripe, picks up this gem.

It also underscores the power and importance of YouTube, sites like it, and citizen journalism, while reminding us why  the First Amendment to the US Constitution included the Press in its protection, and why consolidated media might not be the best idea we’ve had in the past 200 years.    

Hat tip to Editor and Publisher.

Both in the distribution of malware servers and in the locations of compromised websites, Iraq, Cuba, most of Africa and several other countries in South America and Asia were rated “green,” meaning that there were incidences. China, the United States and Russia, respectively, fared worst in these categories.

Google’s not just sharing this tidbit so we can all look cool at our next dinner party. They state that:

[A] sample-based analysis puts the fraction of malicious pages at roughly 0.1%. The analysis described in our paper covers billions of URLs. Using targeted feature extraction and classification, we select a subset of URLs believed to be suspicious for in-depth investigation. So far, we have investigated about 12 million suspicious URLs and found about 1 million that engage in drive-by downloads. In most cases, the web sites that infect your system with malware are not intentionally doing so and are often unaware that their web servers have been compromised.

They tout their anti-malware efforts, will warn you if search results are potentially dangerous and can prevent malicious downloads with Google Desktop. Additionally, they recommend that you keep your browser and OS updated with all the latest security patches. If you’re really worried, they say:

If you want to be really sure that your system does not become permanently compromised, you might even want to run your browser in a virtual machine, which you can revert to a clean snapshot after every browsing session.

Sounds a little extreme to me—or can you never be too safe? What do you think?

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Among the documents seized were satellite photographs taken from Google Earth, according to the Telegraph, detailing tented barracks for about 1000 soldiers, lavatories, and parking areas of lightly armored vehicles. On the back, the insurgents had written latitudinal and longitudinal coordinates.

An intelligence officer expressed concern that information gleaned from Google Earth was being used to plan terrorist attacks, focusing on their most vulnerable areas.

The discovery hearkens back to worries expressed by the US military in August of 2005. Though photos are often up to two years old, US base Camp Anaconda was easily located using Google’s popular tool. Upon request, Google has often blocked out sensitive government locations, like buildings surrounding the White House.

But even blocking out locations may not be satisfactory for British soldiers in harm’s way. Members of the Royal Green Jackets, who are based in Basra, said if they are injured by insurgent attacks aided by Google Earth, Google could be facing lawsuits.

The Telegraph quotes an unidentified soldier:

The US and England aren’t the only countries who’ve expressed security concerns about Google Earth. In fact, it’s become a quite regular complaint from governments around the world.

Also in August 2005, Australian officials asked Google to remove or censor images of a nuclear reactor.

In October the same year, Indian President APJ Abdul Kalam worried that Google Earth could increase threats to developing nations, which are already danger of, and more vulnerable to, terrorist attacks.

In August last year, a full-scale replica of the Chinese-Indian border was spotted via Google Earth further into the mainland of China – an apparent military training area.

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