Eric Cordian writes:
RAW forwards...
Wiring the War Zone
It's a typical morning at Camp Anaconda, the giant US military base 50 miles north of Baghdad - light breeze, temperatures heading to 100 degrees, scattered mortar fire. Ryan Lackey is getting ready for today's assignment: installing a pair of satellite Internet connections at Camp Warhorse about 30 miles away.
Ryan Lackey needs to star in an Ayman al-Zawahri produced video, making short-lived gurgling and whistling noises.
Making a fast buck off an illegal war of aggression is a far cry from running a secure data repository on an oil platform.
Eric, I think you could nuance this a bit. Ryan isn't supporting Bush's little war - the military has plenty of comm channels for C&C which Ryan wouldn't be allowed near. What he's doing is supplying US soldiers with an independent, uncensored and unreviewed channel through which they can find out outside views of the war, information which their superiors won't pass down to them, and a means by which they can pass back their own views and opinions. Frankly, I'm suprised the brass are letting him do it. How do you think the prison abuse photos got back to the US media? Would you rather the soldiers rely on Stars & Stripes for info on the changing situation back home? If anything, what Ryan's doing advances the so-called 'cypherpunk agenda' more than anything being done at the ideologicaly pure but practically insignificant Sealand. Just my opinions.... Peter Trei