[Peace-discuss] Web Warfare Comes to America

[David Green]

In the wake of the web-based antics of our very own
agent provacateur Max Weissberg, I find this article
to be quite revealing:

> Web Warfare Comes to America
> by Lawrence Davidson
> 
> A new front in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict has
> been opened in the 
> United States. This has not been done by Islamic
> fundamentalists, or 
> radical Palestinians. It has been done by American
> and Israeli computer 
> hackers. Action on this new front has taken the form
> of identity theft, 
> harassment, incitement to harassment, defamation of
> character, and 
> malicious misrepresentation through the misuse and
> misappropriation of 
> computer e-mail facilities and lists. In the
> process, the reliability of 
> the web based system of communication has been
> undercut, the integrity of 
> some very prestigious universities have been called
> into question, and the 
> judgment of law enforcement authorities made to look
> tainted with bias. Let 
> me give a number of examples.
> 
> In early July a recent graduate of the University of
> Pennsylvania by the 
> name of Marc Dworkin, using a university e-mail
> account, sent a message to 
> recipients of his e-mail lists directing them to
> harass Professor Mona 
> Baker at England's University of Manchester
> Institute for Science and 
> Technology. His exact words, after giving Professor
> Baker's e-mail address 
> and telephone number, were "harrass (sic) the
> motherfucker." This was Mr. 
> Dworkin's way of expressing his disagreement with
> Professor Baker over her 
> support of the boycott of Israel. Soon Professor
> Baker was receiving 
> hundreds of obscene and threatening communications.
> When the University of 
> Pennsylvania's Vice President for Information
> Systems and Computing, Ms 
> Robin Beck, was informed of this incident her reply
> to Baker was that a 
> "careful assessment based on what we currently know,
> does not reveal either 
> a violation of University policy, nor a violation of
> law." When it was 
> pointed out to University of Pennsylvania officials
> that Dworkin's actions 
> had indeed violated Penn's policies on "Acceptable
> Use of Electronic 
> Resources" and "Guidelines on Open Expression" (his
> behavior is also a 
> possible violation of the Pennsylvania law on
> "harassment and stalking by 
> communication or address") they still refused to
> take any action. Why 
> should the University of Pennsylvania refuse to move
> against someone using 
> their e-mail accounts in a fashion that undermines
> its educational purpose, 
> violates its own policies, and possibly constitutes
> criminal behavior?
> 
> In late August Professor Shahid Alam at Northeastern
> University in Boston, 
> Massachusetts wrote a piece in CounterPunch, later
> reprinted at Al-Ahram 
> Weekly On Line, in which he made a case for the
> boycott of Israeli academia 
> as one example of a non-violent alternative to the
> increasingly desperate 
> violent resistance of the Palestinians. In the
> process he explained the 
> conditions of Israeli occupation that had resulted
> in the various forms of 
> violent Palestinian struggle, including suicide
> bombings. The piece was 
> reconstructed and misrepresented in the Jerusalem
> Post to make it appear 
> that Alam "justified terror attacks against
> Israelis." On September 4th the 
> Boston Herald, apparently not checking the accuracy
> of the Jerusalem Post 
> report, announced "Professor Shocks Northeastern
> with Defense of Suicide 
> Bombers." Almost immediately Professor Alam began
> receiving a large number 
> of harassing e-mails. In addition, in an act of
> identity theft, e-mails 
> misrepresenting his position were forged and sent
> out under Alam's name. 
> Northeastern University's response to the Boston
> Herald report was to 
> "distance" itself from Alam. The professor's remarks
> were his alone and the 
> University did not "condone or officially recognize
> them." The impression 
> was left that Northeastern assumed the Herald piece
> accurate. Why should 
> Northeastern University react in such a timid
> fashion to an incorrect 
> report that threatened the reputation of one of
> their own faculty members?
> 
> Throughout July and August, numerous organizations
> and individuals who 
> support the Palestinian cause, oppose war in the
> Middle East, support human 
> rights, and are just generally critical of Israel,
> were harassed and 
> interfered with. Among the victims was Monica
> Terazi, Director of the New 
> York office of the American Arab Anti-Discrimination
> Committee (ADC). She 
> was harassed and her identity stolen by hackers with
> the result that, for a 
> time, Yahoo Groups took her account off line. When
> she reported this 
> assault to the FBI, their response was that no law
> had been broken: no 
> money stolen, no computers physically damaged,
> public safety had not been 
> endangered. The entire hacker operation, according
> to the FBI, was simply 
> an exercise protected by the First Amendment. Why
> should the FBI take such 
> a dismissive position on activities which, in many
> states of the Union, are 
> now recognized as a form of, to quote the
> Pennsylvania statute, "harassment 
> and stalking by communication?"
> 
> Ultimately, it was not the law enforcement agencies
> or university 
> administrators that investigated the hackers who had
> harassed, abused, and 
> misrepresented so many people over the summer
> months. It was private 
> individuals such as Professor Bassam Shehadeh of
> Iowa State University. He 
> managed to track down some of the sources of abuse
> to sites in Israel and 
> its West Bank colonies. The Israelis had committed
> their acts of harassment 
> by accessing an ISP called Palnet.com on the West
> Bank. When the Israeli 
> army went about systematically destroying the
> electronic communications 
> facilities on the West Bank they spared Palnet. To
> what end? Well, the 
> result has been its misappropriation in the manner
> described here.
> 
> This form of harassment via electronic
> communications is on-going. It is 
> being used to intimidate and emotionally punish
> American and British 
> academics, as well as many others, who are critical
> of Israel and its 
> policies. Yet nothing of significance is being done
> about it by authorities 
> capable of curbing such behavior. For all intents
> and purposes, the 
> inaction of academic and law enforcement authorities
> has created legal 
> space for what are ordinarily illegal acts:
> harassment, incitement to 
> harassment, identity theft, and malicious
> misrepresentation. At least this 
> seems to be so when these assaults are directed
> against those critical of 
> positions favored by influential and powerful
> interest groups. One can ask 
> the question--would the FBI or the administrators at
> the University of 
> Pennsylvania or Northeastern University have taken
> the positions they now 
> do, if such organized and extensive harassment and
> identity theft had been 
> directed against American Zionists by supporters of
> the Palestinians?
> 
> The implications of this episode of "web warfare"
> goes beyond the present 
> situation. The hands off position taken by the FBI
> and university 
> authorities sets a precedent for the future. While
> critics of Israel are 
> now the main targets of web based harassment and
> misrepresentation, there 
> is no reason why the circle of victims cannot become
> much larger. After all 
> it is a "virtual world" now and thus it is
> impossible to keep such behavior 
> "local." It seems we have found a new technological
> way of assaulting each 
> other on a worldwide basis. It was Ortega Y Gasset
> who once observed that 
> "hatred is a feeling which leads to the extinction
> of values." The present 
> campaign of intimidation is certainly hate filled
> and it is likely that 
> others who hate will learn of these techniques and
> use them. Those who can 
> stop this behavior now, but have chosen not to,
> ought to think again before 
> the future of communications becomes "extinct of
> values."
> 
> Lawrence Davidson is a professor of history at West
> Chester University in 
> Pennsylvania.
> 
> 

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