ZGram - 5/19/2002 - "They are at it again!"

[irimland@zundelsite.org]

Zgram - Where Truth is Destiny

May 19, 2002

Good Morning from the Zundelsite:

I just visited the www.whatreallyhappened.com website and found at 
they they have been attacked with the kind of "Denial of Service" 
cyber terrorist attack that we experienced in 1995.  Go there and see 
for yourself what the enemy considers to be offensive.

Meanwhile, this one came out of Canada:

[START]

Dear Free Speech Supporter:

The following report makes it clear why real nationalists and patriots like
Jean Marie Le Pen and the National Front in Britain so detest the soulless
New World Order bureaucrats in Brussels. For these people planners, there's
no such thing as freedom of speech, freedom of dissent or legitimate
opposition to the Third World invasion being permitted and engineered by
these bureaucrats to swamp and destroy all of Europe's nationalities.

Paul Fromm
Director
CANADIAN ASSOCIATION FOR FREE EXPRESSION
___

  A Europe-wide attempt to outlaw racism and xenophobia has just been
launched by the Council of Europe (COE)


The COE has launched a =EBprotocol=ED or sort of treaty requiring member sta=
tes
to make the use of the internet to spread racism or xenophobia a criminal
offence, and to get the new international investigation system set up to
fight international crime to also track hate sites


The protocol has been issued as an additional part of the COE=EDs Cybercrime
Convention. It needs the 43 member states of the COE have to sign up to or
=ECratify=EE the protocol


The Council of Europe, which incidentally has no connection with the Europea=
n
Union, was established in 1949. Its 43 member states range from Albania and
Andorra through Finland France, Germany, the UK and the rest of Western and
Eastern Europe to the United States.


It has a Committee of Ministers, usually the foreign ministers of the
member countries, and a 286 member Parliamentary Assembly, but its most
visible activity, as far as the general public is concerned, are the
European Court of Human Rights with the European Convention on Human Rights
which dates from 1950


The intention of the protocol would be that the countries that sign up to
it would ensure that they either already have laws which make sending
racist messages, or hosting racist websites illegal, or that they pass such
laws.


According to Henrik W. K. Kaspersen, Chair of the Committee of Experts on
the Criminalisation of Acts of Racist or Xenophobic Nature committed
through Computer Networks, the driving force behind the protocol were the
member countries themselves.


=ECIt was the wish of a large part of the countries that negotiated the
cybercrime Convention that it should contain criminal provisions against
the dissemination of racist and xenophobic material over the Internet.


The aim of the protocol would be to harmonise criminal law in the states
who sign up so as to ensure all states criminalise the same things in the
same way


A second aspect will be to use the powers to investigate international
crime which are part of the Cybercrime Convention will also be used in
tracking hate sites.


=ECThe Parliamentary Assembly also strongly recommended it. However, certain
negotiating Parties could not agree having such provisions in the
Convention because of their interpretation of fundamental or constitutional
principles of free speech.


=ECFor that reason, it was decided to draft a separate protocol for those
countries that wished to see the criminalisation of racist and xenophobic
acts in an international instrument.=EE He said.


It is believed that one country, The United States, was the main reason why
the separate protocol system was used, to ensure that the US would have no
trouble in signing up to the rest of the Cybercrime convention.


The US has difficulty in criminalising hate mail and hate sites because of
the First Amendment of its Constitution. This protects freedom of
communication in the country and is regarded as a bedrock of the US system


Some countries have already acted on aspects of hate crime. France has had
a long-running battle with computer portal Yahoo! over the ability of
=46rench citizens to access Yahoo! Auction sites in the US which sell Nazi
memorabilia


Germany has also acted against web sites which support Nazi or ultra-right
racist propaganda.


The UK has so far avoided criminalising such internet activities, though it
already outlaws child pornography which can be another internet activity,
and has passed wide-ranging amendments to the Race Relations legislation.


It has currently deciding on further amendments to complete the
implementation of Article 13 of the Amsterdam Treaty into law.


The proposal is causing concern amongst Internet Service Providers (ISPs)
such as GreenNet or Freeserve who would be in the firing line to act
against sites, especially if they hosted them, or allowed access.

[END]

=3D=3D=3D=3D=3D

Thought for the Day: 

"The only good is knowledge, and the only evil is ignorance."

(Socrates)