Gmail may hand over IP addresses of journalists

Eugen Leitl eugen at leitl.org
Mon Aug 31 04:32:01 PDT 2009


http://wikileaks.org/wiki/Gmail_may_hand_over_IP_addresses_of_journalists

Gmail may hand over IP addresses of journalists

>From Wikileaks

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Monday August 31, 2009

By Julian Assange (WikiLeaks)

A California court has issued a subpoena demanding Google reveal the IP
addresses of journalists writing for a corruption busting journal from the
Caribbean.

The August 28 subpoena, issued by the Superior Court, County of Santa Clara,
as part of a "libel tourism" action taken by non-US property developers,
demands detailed information about the operators of "tcijournal at gmail.com".
The account is the main email address of the TCI Journal, the most
influential journal covering the Turks & Caicos Islands. The Islands are a
tourist mecca and tax haven in the Caribbean sea, and until August 14 were an
independent British protectorate.

Exposures in the Journal culminated in a dramatic UK takeover of the Islands
on August 14.

A trail of evidence dug up by the TCI Journal, a UK commission of inquiry,
and others, showed that foreign property developers were giving millions in
secret loans and payments to senior Islander politicians, including an
alleged $500,000 cash payment to the Island's now former Premier, Michael
Misick.

The Commission of Inquiry Final Report was released on the 18th of July this
year in significatly redacted form. A full version was released by WikiLeaks.
A High Court case ensued which initially enjoined all media in the Islands
from reporting the redacted findings, however within a few days this
restriction was overturned.

The Gmail subpeona applicant, property developer Dr. Cem Kinay, along with
his two companies, Turks Ltd, and Star Platinum Island, were mentioned
several times during public oral hearings of the Commission of Inquiry and
featured significantly in the redacted portions of the Commission's Final
Report.

In particular there are allegations of bribery of public officials (e.g of
the Premier with an irregular payment of $500,000), in the acquisition of
public land valued by the government appraiser at approximately $60 - $100
million dollars U.S., for a price of $3.2 million dollars.

On August 14, the UK announced that it had taken direct rule over the Islands
and suspended its parliament.

According to the notifying letter from Google to the journal, Google intends
to hand over the requested records in three weeks, without defense, and
suggests that the Journal file a counter-motion with the Santa-Clara court
itself.

Subpoenas for records are rubber-stamped by US courts, meaning that anyone in
a position to hire a lawyer in California can obtain private Gmail
information about someone not in such a position.

Google has elected to keep extensive, non-anoymized records on its users, but
not defend these records from disclosure. This combination, together with
inequitable access to justice in Californian courts is toxic. 





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