[PEN-L:6741] "Terrorists' Internet": Washington Post / Ottaway

["valis@xxxxxxxxxx" <valis@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Beachten Sie, Leute: The Washington Beobachter has just begun publishing
on the banks of the Potomac!

Mid-afternoon and still no report of the following anywhere online.
This morning's Post carries a story in which David Ottaway, supposedly a
veteran reporter, quotes an unnamed intelligence expert as shown below=20
in the paragraph with parallel marking.  This gratuitous malevolence=20
should not be overlooked by the world community of Netters,
least of all by the academic left.  The CDA controversy of last January
and February highlighted an invincible ignorance on the majority's part
which could take new nourishment from the choice of words it pleased
Mr Ottaway's informant to employ in murky anonymity.

Now that the Olive Menace has joined the Yellow Peril as a convenient
electronic leash around America's neck, the characterization of Mideast
retaliation cabals as 'a kind of international "terrorists' Internet"'=20
should be taken as the opening shot of a Federal vilification campaign,=20
preparing the political ground for coordinated raids on users and ISPs=20
in the near future.

During the CDA crisis, about which there is now deadly complacency,
I warned both the Net's glamorous stars and its humble citizens that
a mere court injunction would not keep the Feds at bay for very long.
A little THC residue, whether indigenous or imported for the job,
is enough for the scum who do the dirty work of the Feds and their owners.

For starters I suggest that Washington-area Net users organize a boycott
of the Post, to continue until the paper divulges the name of Ottaway's=20
bravely faceless informant.  It would be a poll with a difference in that
jaded city of polls.  More importantly, it would mean getting organized
and _staying_  that way.=20
                                                          valis
                                                          Occupied America


              -- Make your vote count: join the boycotting 50% --

                     ____________________________________
=20
                                         =20
  =20
              U.S. Considers Slugging It Out With International Terrorism
                                           =20
Aides Split on Whether to Target Groups or States That Sponsor Them

   By David B. Ottaway
   Washington Post Staff Writer
   Thursday, October 17 1996; Page A25
   The Washington Post
  =20
   The Clinton administration, increasingly frustrated in its efforts to th=
wart
   terrorism in the Middle East, is considering a more activist policy that=
 could
   include preemptive strikes and expanded covert counter-terror operations=
,
   according to senior U.S. officials.
  =20
   But U.S. strategists are divided over whether terror-sanctioning states =
or
   independent terrorist groups should be the primary targets of more aggre=
ssive
   U.S. action. Officials also disagree over whether military action -- an =
option
   fraught with potential problems -- would prove more effective than tradi=
tional
   diplomatic tools such as sanctions and boycotts against governments the =
State
   Department considers terrorism sponsors.
  =20
 ^ Some U.S. officials contend that the main threat now comes from a murky =
network
 ^ of home-grown, privately financed and largely independent groups forming=
 a kind
 ^ of international "terrorists' Internet," in the words of one expert. Tha=
t
 ^  network is proving extremely difficult for U.S. intelligence agencies t=
o locate
 ^  and penetrate, let alone effectively counter.
  =20
   "The problem is getting worse faster than we're getting better," former =
CIA
   director James Woolsey Jr. said in an interview. "In relative terms, I'm=
 not
   convinced we're gaining ground and we may well be losing a bit."
  =20
                      [...several pages in this vein deleted...]

                    =A9 Copyright 1996 The Washington Post Company
                                         =20