TCM:
Although I am thought of as a "crypto anarchist," and basically am such a thing, the fact is that there aren't a lot of trials for thoughtcrime in this country. I have some doubts about the circumstances surrounding Danny Casolaro's death, though, so I don't say all is rosy and perfect.
amusingly, on one of those web sites, the death of Casolaro is indeed tied in with the conspiracy that "touched" (to say the least <g>) Vince Foster. the Whitehouse web hits are potentially interesting. I agree they don't imply any "dissident web monitoring program". the question of how high a staffer hit those pages and for what reasons is still unanswered. if it was indeed just Joe Sixpack on a presidential tour, playing with the machines, not even employed with the whitehouse, or perhaps some bored college intern, then I agree that nothing significant is going on. but it is fun to fantasize about Hillary or Bill getting an eyeful and thinking that *pornography* on the internet pales in comparison to *this* little problem!! <g> now, those "dissident" web sites are not as innocuous as you might think. they are not run-of-the mill "I hate the president and republicans too" sites. one of them is the absolute master repository on the internet for all the rampant, hardcore Foster conspiracy theories talking about NSA bank spying, whitewater, etc. these are *not* something you would find in a library, or expect anyone without an interest in conspiracy theories to be reading. and from what the article suggests, the browsing was pretty thorough. it would be interesting to ask the site maintainer, something I might do. I suspect that a lot of this Foster stuff is going to hit the media big time when the mud starts to sling during the presidential election, when it really counts. I think that someone is sitting on a lot of anti-clinton ammo. the 3rd candidate possibilities are very strong in 96, because of all the junk coating the Republicrats and Demopublicans. recall that the "october surprise" suspicions regarding Reagan really hit the media big time, and supposedly that was a highly secret intelligence operation. so I think that there is a kind of rough government accountability, it's just that it only happens about every 4 years or so and is *awfully* messy.. <g> --Vlad Nuri