Help-Pakistan.com

We have moved all Don’t Block the Blog issues to DBTB.org

Just to clarify the issue of Free speech, where examples are given of openess in the Western countries (specifically the USA) in comparison to the restrictions on free speech in Pakistan, South Asia and the East, here’s something that is likely to make your hair stand on end. This example epitomizes the changes that are likely to come in reference to freedom of speech.

Source: www.newstarget.com

Senate Bill 1959 to Criminalize Thoughts, Blogs, Books and Free Speech Across America
by Mike Adams

The end of Free Speech in America has arrived at our doorstep. It’s a new law called the Violent Radicalization and Homegrown Terrorism Prevention Act, and it is worded in a clever way that could allow the U.S. government to arrest and incarcerate any individual who speaks out against the Bush Administration, the war on Iraq, the Department of Homeland Security or any government agency (including the FDA). The law has already passed the House on a traitorous vote of 405 to 6, and it is now being considered in the Senate where a vote is imminent. All over the internet, intelligent people who care about freedom are speaking out against this extremely dangerous law: Philip Giraldi at the Huffington Post, Declan McCullagh at CNET’s News.com, Kathryn Smith at OpEdNews.com, and of course Alex Jones at PrisonPlanet.com

This bill is the beginning of the end of Free Speech in America. If it passes, all the information sources you know and trust could be shut down and their authors imprisoned. NewsTarget could be taken offline and I could be arrested as a “terrorist.” Jeff Rense at www.Rense.com could be labeled a “terrorist” and arrested. Byron Richards, Len Horowitz, Paul Craig Roberts, Greg Palast, Ron Paul and even Al Gore could all be arrested, silenced and incarcerated. This is not an exaggeration. It is a literal reading of the law, which you can check yourself here: http://thomas.loc.gov/home/gpoxmlc110/h1955_rfs.xml

The bill states:

‘…ideologically based violence’ means the use, planned use, or threatened use of force or violence by a group or individual to promote the group or individual’s political, religious, or social beliefs…

Note that this means the “planned use of force to promote a political or social belief” would be considered an act of terrorism. This all hinges on the definition of “force,” of course. Based on the loose use of logic in Washington these days, and the slippery interpretation of the meaning of words, “force” could mean:

• A grassroots campaign to barrage Congress with faxes
• A non-violent street protest
• A letter-writing campaign that deluges the Senate with too much mail
• A sit-in protest that blocks access to a business or organization
• A grassroots e-mail campaign that overloads the e-mail servers of any government department or agency

You get the idea. “Force” could be defined as practically anything. And since the “planned use of force” would be considered a criminal act of terrorism, anyone who simply thinks about a grassroots action campaign would be engaged in terrorist acts.

If you stopped someone on the street and handed them a Bible, for example, this could be considered an act of terrorism (”…use of force to promote the individual’s religious beliefs…”)

If you sent a barrage of angry letters to Washington about global warming and the destruction of the environment by the U.S. military, this could also be considered an act of terrorism (”…to promote the individual’s political beliefs…”)

If you believe in same-sex marriage and you wrote a letter threatning a sit-in protest in front of your state’s capitol building, this could also be considered an act of terrorism, even if you never carried it out! (”…planned use of force to promote a social belief…”)

The United States is on the fast track to fascism, and the Congress is working right alongside this nation’s traitorous leaders to criminalize any thoughts, words or speeches that disagree with current government policies regarding war, terrorism, domestic surveillance and civil liberties. Simply speaking out against the war on Iraq could soon be labeled a crime. Merely thinking thoughts against the war on Iraq could be considered a criminal act.

October 8th 2005, changed Pakistan forever, at precisely 08:50:38 a massive earthquake struck the northern areas of Pakistan over 80,000 lives perished in a blink of an eye, thousands were displaced ultimately resulting in millions of dollars in damage.

At this tragic moment it was really heartening to see that every Pakistani around the world joined in the relief efforts in unison to help the suffering. It was a proud moment of unity which sadly seemed to last for a fleeting moment and has long since been forgotten, the tragedy was without doubt a lesson from God Almighty, but it seems that we may have already forgotten too quickly, we have returned back into the slums of looting and plundering that has always been the hallmark of our corrupt leadership we have forgotten, we continue to loot and plunder the nation with no care and worries of any repercussions whatsoever.

I would like to join A for [pine]Apple in prayer at Islamabad Metroblogs

Let’s pray for the departed souls, May Allah bless them with Maghfirah and Peace in Jannah; and for the affectees who lost limbs, families, homes, businesses, and lot more we’d never be able to even comprehend, May Allah’s blessings be with them (Ameen)

Please its time for us all to stop for a moment and reflect back on that day two years back where we were all a witness to some remarkable stories of unity, faith and discipline which was interspersed amongst the tragic loss of life, lets reflect back on the fleeting glimpses of a proud nation which stood up for something it truly believed in, if we can do it once then I believe we can do it again and not wait for another tragedy to jolt us again into our senses.

Lets preempt the rebuilding of our own nations with our own hands lets forget about any help from our politicians who continue to be self indulgent in protecting their own seats of power simultaneously amassing wealth for their own benefit. Simply said we don’t need politicians, We need Leaders.
Links:

1. Lahore Metroblogs – 8th October and 08:50:38 AM
2. Chowrangi – Remembering Pakistan Earthquake 2005
3. Buzzvines – The earthquake
4. Islamabad Metroblogs – The Quake (8/10/05 – 08:50:38): Remembered
5. Mera Jehaan – Say a little prayer…

_{If you have written a post on Remembering the 2005 Earthquake in Pakistan please post the link in the emails and I shall update the post with the links}



Don’t Block the Blog would like to express its dissatisfaction at the recent development in Turkey where the Turkish Government has been served with a court order to enforce a blanket censorship on the entire Wordpress.com blog hosting website, forcing all Wordpress blogs to become inaccessible to the people of Turkey. This development occurred because one specific blog, AdnanOktar.wordpress.com, criticised Adnan Oktar (Haryun Yahya) a Turkish proponent of creationism in the debates of evolution vs. creationism. Oktar has put forth numerous books under the name Harun Yahya arguing against evolution, and has been widely criticized for his methods in promoting his religious viewpoints.
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Taking stride from our Don’t Block the Blog campaign that we launched for Pakistan back in march 2006. We would like to show our support for the ongoing problems faced by Turkish bloggers. A Pakistani blogger, Kyla Pasha from Islamabad has been kind enough to whip us a few campaign buttons so that the Don’t Block the Blog organization can express their support for the Turkish people

Cross Posted at Teeth Maestro: A few months back in March there was a huge circus surrounding the decision by the Turkish government to block the entire YouTube website as it hosted a video which according to the official government statement was insulting Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the founder of modern Turkey. Unsurprisingly the same, modern Turkey was now up in arms protesting this blatant censorship and the hue can cry bore fruit as in two days the local court lifted the embargo.

Recently in yet another astonishing move, the new Turkish Pro-Islamic Government has now decided to clamp down on all blogs hosted on Wordpress.com and also on Blogcu.com since one specific site adnanoktar.wordpress.com had hurled insulting remarks against Adnan Oktar, a leading Muslim advocate of creationism who is an active leader in the creation vs. evolution debate subscribing to the Old Earth Creationism concept read more details on his Wikipedia article, but if you care to read a counter-perspective where Adnan Oktar is accused of pedophile acts, blackmail and slander, and leading a sect under the guise of the Science Research Foundation then read this article probably composed by his opposition its good to understand and appreciate both sides of an argument before making any assumptions or taking sides

For Pakistanis the censorship issue is nothing new and is like watching history repeat itself, for the record in 2006 our own government banned the entire blogspot domain simply because one blog hosted on a sub-domain on the blogspot.com site hosted controversial cartoon images of Prophet Muhammed, the out lash by our local Islamic Leadership led the supreme court to block millions of websites on the entire blogspot.com domain to the people of Pakistan. We objected to the censorship not on whether the images were right or not but more so on the issue of free speech and continued to urge our government to show restraint and let our people decide.

Some confusing signals are emerging from turkey, with some claiming that the ban is in effect while a few bloggers claim its been ordered to be lifted. Whatever may be the condition, I would like to show my support to the Turkish people and protest against any form of censorship as a convincing argument must be put forth to the bureaucracy that censorship itself does not solve the problem, the government cannot punish millions of innocent Turkish internet users simply for no fault of one their own.

Governments have to understand that pointing out the bad wolf in a bunch of sheep only attracts more attention ti the issue which would have generally would have traversed an noticed course to dies its own death.

Cross Posted at Teeth Maestro: Barely four days left for the 60th anniversary of our beloved nation, but it seems that many citizens are just not motivated enough to celebrate this milestone. It appears that the people have been disheartened by the continuous political twists and turns that have besieged our country since the past few months which saw the attack on the the judiciary, the 5/12 massacre then the recent rumor of State of Emergency.

Its sad but the citizens of Pakistan just don’t feel patriotic enough to celebrate. Sensing this onset of depression Buzzvines has launched an ‘I still Do Love Pakistan, Do You?’ campaign just to bring out that patriotic spirit amongst Pakistanis.

I would suggest every Pakistani to take a moment and say a few words on why you love Pakistan and post it to the buzzvines site. My message posted on the site is as follows.

I love Pakistan, have done so throughout my life, and will love it forever.

Pakistan belongs to its people and not to the bunch of rotten corrupt politicians that have come and gone. Pakistan has been resilient enough to withstand the onslaught of corruption year after year for 60 years running, watching one tyrant after another make his own heaven on earth, even then my country withstood the onslaught and continued to serve its people. After a 60 year struggle it seems to be a little battle worn and tired and its now time for true Pakistanis like us, to stand up and give our nation a helping hand. It does not ask for much, just simply your love for the nation and maybe a good ruler at the helm of the ship and the courage to stand up and boldly say, I LOVE PAKISTAN very soon we shall see our efforts bear fruit and the new rising sun will take Pakistan into the skies like never before

Believe in Pakistan like never before and boldly say Pakistan Zindabad

Pakistani Girls Hot Pakistani Girls

Don’t Block the Blog regrets to announce that the President of Pakistan, General Pervaiz Musharraf, has just signed into immediate effect measures which increase governmental control over the electronic media in Pakistan and which will further erode free speech by Pakistani citizens. The ordinance also extends the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority’s (PEMRA) control over both the Internet and all mobile services. We, as representatives of the Society Against Internet Censorship in Pakistan and also Don’t Block the Blog, are concerned that very soon a number of outspoken website which were without doubt a testimony to free speech in Pakistan will be silenced forever. Hence we fully condemn all actions taken by the government to censor and monitor all internet activity in Pakistan

Since March 9th 2007, which was a foiled bid by the President of Pakistan to unseat the Chief Justice of Pakistan, the electronic media has been openly suspicious about each move made by the military ruler. In response, the President of Pakistan has accused the media of sensationalism of all news items, and also blames the free press for destabilizing a positive image of Pakistan abroad.

The Internet in Pakistan has never been entirely free, as the Pakistan Telecommunications Authority (PTA) has in the past enforced a blanket block on a number of websites including the entire blogspot.com domain. Network administrators at the PTA still enforce an IP address block on the Blogspot domain. However, a few months ago, Google, which sponsors the blogspot domain, went through an upgrade in which they changed the IP address. In this confusion, the PTA was caught sleeping. For over three months the internet surfing community was treated to unrestricted access to blogspot.com, as the PTA was under the misconception that it was still enforcing the block

The Society Against Internet Censorship in Pakistan, previously known as Action Group Against Blogspot ban in Pakistan, and the Don’t Block the Blog (DBTB) team, continues to highlight the issues which have plagued the Pakistani blogosphere since March of 2006, with updates issued to both the national and the international press. Since the blockade, a couple of savvy Pakistani programmers have created websites that help by-pass the unfair blanket ban for internet users in Pakistan.

DON’T BLOCK THE BLOG strongly opposes any form of internet censorship, and requests the support of national and international bloggers, media, and free speech organizations to help our cause by continuing to highlight the issue of the unfair blanket ban of blogs for the internet users in Pakistan.

Background:

The PTA (Pakistan Telecommunication Authority) had initially blocked access to the blogspot domain on the 3rd of March 2006, due to a Supreme Court decision dated 2nd March 2006 instructing the PTA to ban 12 offending websites which highlighted the blasphemous cartoons on the Prophet Muhammad (PBUH). In adherence to the Supreme Court ruling, all 12 sites were blocked including one that was hosted on the blogspot domain. But rather than block the offending blogspot website, the PTA blocked the entire domain (www.blogspot.com) which happens to be one of the most popular blog hosting domains hosting upwards of 8 million blogs globally, according to some estimates.

The DON’T BLOCK THE BLOG (DBTB) campaign ( http://www.help-pakistan.com/main/ ) was launched by Dr. Awab Alvi and Omer Alvie on 3rd March, 2006 in order to highlight the unfair blanket ban of the blogspot domain and additionally to show support for free internet speech in general. Approximately at the same time the Society Against Internet Censorship in Pakistan (formerly known as The Action Group Against Blogspot Ban in Pakistan – AGABBIP) (http://groups.google.com/group/AGABBIP ), a mailing list with dozens of contributing members also was formed to protest this form of censorship in Pakistan.

The Government of Pakistan (read Pakistan Army) has been trying its best to suppress the release of the book titled Military Inc.: Inside Pakistan’s Military Economy which was written by Dr. Ayesha Siddiqa. Since Friday, the proposed release date the military has pulled all stops to prevent the release of this all-exposing book going to the extent of pulling the book off the shelves and then harassing the author considerably.

This recent attempt to bully Free Speech has resulted in a world wide outcry and many people overwhelmingly have objected to the attempt by the Pakistan Army to silence this author and offer her my full physical and moral support in this regard.

STATEMENT OF SUPPORT FOR DR AYESHA SIDDIQA

Interference with the book launch in Islamabad on Friday of the distinguished Pakistani
scholar Dr Ayesha Siddiqa’s ‘Military Inc.: Inside Pakistan’s Military Economy’ gives us grave concern.

Although Dr Siddiqa was able to use the office of a non-government organization after hotels refused to provide a venue, her phone service has subsequently been repeatedly disrupted as she gave interviews and she has told the Committee to Protect Journalists and others that she feels increasingly isolated and physically threatened. On Saturday, plainclothes “Special Branch” agents visited her home town Khanqah Sharif near Bahalwapur and questioned her employees about Dr. Siddiqa, her husband and property.

We urge the Pakistan government not to curb academic freedom. At a time when Pakistan faces an internal political crisis and a dangerous regional security situation the need for information and free expression of ideas only increases. Dr. Siddiqa has produced thorough research on important topics that can inform open debate by all Pakistanis, and indeed others around the world. She and her work should be defended, not threatened or suppressed.

The following academics and professionals around the world endorse this statement:

_{1.Hassan Abbas, Research Fellow, Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, U.S.A.
2.Tahira Abdullah, researcher, development worker Islamabad, Pakistan
3.Syed Adeeb, journalist & President of the Human Rights Foundation (HRF), U.S.A.
4.Nasir Ahmad MD., FRCS.,FACs, Chief of Otolaryngology /Head & Neck Surgery, Hurley Medical Center, Flint, Michigan, U.S.A.
5.Salman Ahmad, UN Special Representative, New York, U.S.A.
6.Ishtiaq Ahmed, Professor, Department of Political Science, Stockholm University, Sweden
7.Imtiaz Ali, International Knight Fellow, Stanford University, U.S.A.
8.Kamran Asdar Ali, Associate Professor of Anthropology, Middle East Studies
and Asian Studies. University of Texas, Austin
9.Omar Ali MD, Assistant Professor of Pediatric Endocrinology, Medical College of Wisconsin, U.S.A.
10.Amin Ansari, CEO IT company, Lahore, Pakistan
11.Shaheryar Azhar, moderator, The Forum, 1175 New York, U.S.A.
12.Cassandra Balchin, Director, L.A.W.S. (Legal Awareness, Women & Society), U.K.
13.Akshay Bakaya, Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales, Paris, France
14.Julia Bard, writer and editor, Member of the National Union of Journalists
London, U.K.
15.Amna Buttar, MD, President, Asian American Network Against Abuse of Human Rights, Middleton, WI, U.S.A.
16.Walter Crump, Commonwealth School, Boston, MA, U.S.A.
17.S.M.A. Ehtisham MD, Bath NY, U.S.A.
18.Drs Khalid Hameed Farooqi, journalist and researcher, Holland
19.Asim Ghani, journalist, Karachi, Pakistan
20.Frederic Grare, Visiting Scholar, Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, U.S.A.
21.Shahla Haeri, Director, Women’s Studies Program & Associate Professor of Anthropology, Boston University, MA, U.S.A.
22.Zahra Shahid Hussain, educatioinst, political analyst, Karachi, U.S.A.
23.Zaffar Iqbal, MD & ANAA Board Member, Kingman AZ, U.S.A.
24.Ayesha Jalal, Professor of History, Tufts University, MA, U.S.A.
25.Ruchir Joshi, film maker and writer, New Delhi, India
26.Kalim Irfani, M.D., Pediatrics, Scarsdale, NY, U.S.A.
27.Dr Mahjabeen Islam, Medical Director, Comprehensive Addiction Services & Odyssey Hospice, Toledo, Ohio, U.S.A.
28.Mohmmad Arshad Khan, Society for Social Justice and Developement Pakistan, Sialkot
29.Waqas Khwaja, Associate Professor and Chair, English Department
Agnes Scott College, Decatur, GA, U.S.A.
30.Zaheer A. Kidvai, Education Technology Consultant, Karachi, Pakistan
31.Syeda Masood, Kennedy School of Government ’08, Harvard University, U.S.A.
32.Andy McCord, freelance writer, past fellow of the Fulbright program in Pakistan and India, & of the U.S. National Endowment for the Humanities, New York, U.S.A.
33.Anita Mehta, Fellow, The Radcliffe Institute of Advanced Study, Harvard University, U.S.A.
34.Zubeida Mustafa, journalist, Karachi, Pakistan
35.Maniza Naqvi, author/development specialist, Washington DC, U.S.A.
36.Akbar Noman, Senior Fellow, Initiative for Policy Dialogue, Columbia University
New York, NY, U.S.A.
37.Philip Oldenburg, Independent Scholar, New York, U.S.A.
38.Emran Qureshi, Wertheim Fellow, Labor & Worklife Program at Harvard Law School, U.S.A.
39.Omar Qureshi, History Department, The Brearley School, New York, U.S.A.
40.Jamil Rashid, Professor: Social Sciences, Kingston, Ontario, Canada
41.Jeff Redding, Oscar M. Ruebhausen Fellow in Law, Yale Law School, New Haven, U.S.A.
42.David Rosenberg, teacher and writer, Member of the National Union of teachers
London, U.K.
43.Shahnaz Rouse, Professor of Sociology, Sarah Lawrence College, New York
44.Gita Sahgal, film maker and writer, U.K.
45.Beena Sarwar, journalist & Fellow, Carr Center for Human Rights Policy, Harvard University, U.S.A.
46.Malik Sarwar, Senior Vice President, Permal Group, NY, U.S.A.
47.Najmi Sarwar, Vice President Citibank, Executive Director Developments In Literacy, New York, U.S.A.
48.Sehba Sarwar, Founding Director, Voices Breaking Boundaries, Houston, U.S.A.
49.Mohsin Sayeed, journalist, Karachi, Pakistan
50.Shaheen Sehbai, media professional, Washington, DC, U.S.A.
51.Dr. Awab Alvi, Blogger & Dentist, Karachi, Pakistan}

If you would also like to join this action group then simply pen your name below, it would serve the cause best if you were to include your name, qualification and location – so that the statement of support is taken more seriously, but if you still choose to remain anonymous then again sign it anyway

In February 2006, Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) -the Internet regulators in Pakistan asked the bandwidth providers and ISPs to block various web sites because they carried a variety of blasphemous material (See actual notification here). Two of these sites were hosted on blogger a popular blogging service (now acquired by Google). Since the PIE (Pakistan Internet Exchange – A PTCL subsidiary) as well as the other main providers of bandwidth like TW (Transworld) do not have any sophisticated means to block specific websites, they usually block the IP addresses associated with the websites. As a result, the whole blogspot domain was inaccessible for a long time.

However blogger.com remained accessible and people were able to post the blogs. Then in mid 2006, Google started blogger beta, but its server farm was the same as that of blogspot and thus was blocked. From that time until now, blogger.com as well as blogs hosted on blogspot.com gets blocked every now and then and many people are not able to access blogspot.com and blogger.com.

A friend asked me for a workaround, and this morning while I and my colleague were discussing the web based editors, I remembered that writely,(now purchased by Google and integrated into Google Docs) used to have a functionality to publish blog entries. I tried it and it worked without any issues on the new blogger.

The only negative point is that, blog title will not be set which you’ll need to go and set manually in blogger. Just to demonstrate, I am writing this blog entry from inside Google Docs.

Following is a summary of the steps you’ll need to perform:

• 1. Navigate to http://docs.google.com/ (if you are using it for the first time, you might need to provide some additional information)
• 2. Click on New Document link which is available in the top-left corner
• 3. A new window should appear, or if you use Firefox, it might be a new tab
• 4. Type your blog entry in writely and save it by using the save button available in the top section of the page
• 5. After you are done with the post, click on Publish link available in the top-right corner
• 6. Here, you’ll be able to provide your blog settings by clicking on set your blog site settings link
• 7. On clicking the link, a new window will appear displaying various options. Use the following settings:

• i. Select the radio button ‘Hosted provider‘
• ii. In provider combo box, select Blogger.com (beta version)‘ – (I also tried blogger.com and it works as well, so you can choose either)
• iii. In User Name and password text fields, enter your Google Account user name and password
• iv. In the Blog ID / Title text field, enter your Blog Title exactly as it is set, otherwise it’ll post the blog to the first available blog (if you have multiple)
• v. Select the check box Include the document title when posting (This has currently no affect, but just in case they implement it in future)

Below are some screen shots to explain the steps listed above
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