Thursday, June 15, 2017

Internet cuts: We have had to suspend work on our Church and State website in our current battle to stay online (WITH UPDATE 19/6/2017 RE: 18th Internet cut since 26 May 2017)

I just hope you will be able to stay online ... it must be
a terrible feeling to be mistreated like that ...

Dr. Dieter Ehrhardt, Retired German diplomat

Re: Blocks on public access to our Church and State website since 26 July 2016

From my earlier blog post's Update 19 June (8.05am):

"I have updated my blog post of 16 January with yesterday's 505th block on public access to our Church and State website since 26 July 2016. The blog post also not only reveals a record-breaking 52 such blocks in one week at the end of April (an unprecedented escalation that kicked off with our focus on Denmark's cartoon crisis; 94 blocks last month), but it reveals the daily targeting to fluctuating degrees of category pages throughout the site which continues to this day."

An unprecedented ten blocks in one day on 7 May with our publication of Atheist Ireland republishes 25 blasphemous quotes in solidarity with Stephen Fry. 21 blocks last week; five blocks yesterday; no blocks since midnight today (as of 8.05am).

The War on Free Expression


UK Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ)



It's not just blocks on public access to our Church and State website, the daily targeting to fluctuating degrees of category pages throughout the site and Facebook blocks that Declan and I are dealing with these days. We have also been dealing with Internet cuts since 26 May. Our concern since the second internet cut on 27 May has been whether we will have the internet to increase our connections across northern Europe, particularly in Denmark, Norway and the Netherlands (see our distinguished list of 121 Honorary Associates from around the world, including two Nobel Prize winners). Since 8pm tonight we have had an unprecedented four internet cuts, with no end in sight. We have had to suspend work on our Church and State site. I will concentrate solely on Denmark over the next few days. It is not inconceivable that we will have no internet this time next week. We may also have to suspend work on our Facebook page.

Denmark Ditches Blasphemy Laws

INTERNET CUTS

1st 26 May 2017, 1.39pm
2nd 27 May 2017, 12.32pm
3rd 3 June 2017, 8.45pm
4th 4 June 2017, 11.49am
5th 4 June 2017, 1.32pm
(1st 2nd cut)
6th 9 June 2017, 10.50pm
7th 13 June 2017, 9.48am
8th 13 June 2017, 12.48pm
9th 15 June 2017, 6.50am
10th 15 June 2017, 8.01pm
11th 15 June 2017, 9.48pm
12th 15 June 2017, 10.18pm
13th 15 June 2017, 11.02pm
(1st 5th cut)

UPDATE 19 June (8.52am): Presented below is last Friday's 18th recorded internet cut since 26 May (a record-equalling five cuts that day). British Telecom is one of the world's leading communications services companies. We pay BT £65.53 per month (£786.36 per year) for BT Infinity fibre optic broadband. It is especially noteworthy that a BT engineer attended on 12 June and not only provided us with a brand new phone socket, but he could not find a problem with our line; see my blog post of 27 May, British Telecom: We lose our Internet connection for the second time in two days, having not previously been disconnected from the Internet since our contract with BT commenced on 28 May 2014 (WITH UPDATE 17/6/2017 RE: 18th Internet cut since 26 May 2017).*

14th 16 June 2017, 12.22am
15th 16 June 2017, 7.22pm
16th 16 June 2017, 8.02pm
17th 16 June 2017, 10.49pm
18th 16 June 2017, 11.32pm
(2nd 5th cut)

No internet cuts for the last two days;
no cuts since midnight today (as of 8.52am).

* I have filed these first internet cuts since May 2014 in a folder I created on 27 May just past called "BT Internet Cuts", with the date and time part of the graphic for each cut.



Re: Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ)

Paragraph 12 of Declan's updated complaint to the United Nations under Article 19 (freedom of expression) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

12. It is important to underscore that the discriminatory surveillance suffered by the Applicant and his wife is not an isolated event. Rather, it is emblematic of a larger pattern of surveillance by law enforcement officials in the UK that has been well-documented by international and domestic human rights bodies. For example, GCHQ's Joint Threat Research Intelligence Group (JTRIG) specialises in the "4 D's": deny, disrupt, degrade, deceive. It has been branded by the press as the spy agency's "deception unit". Though its existence was secret until 2014, JTRIG has developed a distinctive profile in the public understanding, after documents from NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed that the unit had engaged in "dirty tricks" like deploying sexual "honey traps" designed to discredit targets, launching denial-of-service attacks to shut down Internet chat rooms, pushing veiled propaganda onto social networks and generally warping discourse online. Previous reporting on GCHQ established its focus on what it regards as political radicalism. Beyond JTRIG's targeting of Anonymous, other parts of GCHQ targeted political activists and groups deemed to be "radical", even monitoring human rights NGOs. The President of the London-based Privacy International, Simon Davies, asks: "If spying on human rights NGOs isn't off limits for GCHQ, then what is?"

Citizenfour Official Trailer 1 (2014) - Edward Snowden Documentary HD



JOIN THE CONVERSATION #CITIZENFOUR

From a fascinating excerpt from Glenn Greenwald's book "No Place to Hide: Edward Snowden, the NSA, and the U.S. Surveillance State":

All of the evidence highlights the implicit bargain that is offered to citizens: pose no challenge and you have nothing to worry about. Mind your own business, and support or at least tolerate what we do, and you'll be fine. Put differently, you must refrain from provoking the authority that wields surveillance powers if you wish to be deemed free of wrongdoing.

'Let me recommend an important web site churchandstate.org.uk. Operating out of London this well-designed and exciting web site covers church-state, population, climate change and other issues. Check it out.' - Edd Doerr, President, Americans for Religious Liberty

From My Picks:

9 June: Ministry of Justice: Complaint to the Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice against the County Court at Central London, Royal Courts of Justice (WITH UPDATE - Day 7 15/6/2017)

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