Hi BOb,

On Fri 2037-Mar-13 05:36, Bob Ackley (1:300/3) wrote to Richard Webb:

 RW> YOu have to agree that the military and political leaders in this
 RW> country took one very valuable lesson away from VIetnam, even if
 RW> others didn't quite take hold.  tHis lesson was that the reporters
 RW> bringing back the story to the folks at home in the age of satellite
 RW> television must be controlled carefully.  Hence the "embedded"
 RW> reporter who cannot go anywhere and act independently of his/her
 RW> military handlers.

BA> Note that two independent (non-embedded) reporters in the country
BA> were killed when the hotel they were staying in was deliberately
BA> shelled - from close range -
BA> by a US tank.  The fact that that particular hotel was full of
BA> un-embedded journalists
BA> was public knowledge, and AFAIK that was the only hotel that was
BA> attacked.  Note also that al-Jazeera *gave* the US command the
BA> coordinates of the building serving
BA> as its news bureau in Baghdad so it wouldn't be bombed by mistake; a
BA> cruise missile
BA> levelled the building shortly thereafter, and it obviously wasn't a
BA> mistake. 


I remember that well.  Also, was not surprised by this.



BA> The government in this country has been trying for years - ever
BA> since networked BBSes appeared - to do it; the government
BA> doesn't like to have people exchanging news, general information and
BA> opinion in a
BA> manner it cannot control.  Most folks aren't aware of it, but
BA> traffic on the Internet
BA> can *easily* be controlled, because the US government owns all but
BA> one of the root
BA> servers in the system - and Cisco is building such control
BA> mechanisms into its routers.  The technology is being tested in
BA> implemented in mainland China, look for
BA> it everywhere in a few years..

I've been saying much the same thing for years.  All this
surveillance and control technology sold to CHina will be
used here at home in a few years.  Welcome to the
panopticon.  "Big brother's watching you" and controlling
what information you get.
NOte my "the elephant in the room" thread in another echo a
few weeks ago, etc.

MOst folks are playing ostrich with this issue, and that's
just the way the powerful in government and industry want
it.

Regards,
           Richard
--- timEd 1.10.y2k+