Sen. Scott Brown has revealed he was sexually abused by a camp counselor as a child.Published February 16, 2011
FoxNews.com
The Massachusetts Republican, who rose to political stardom when he won the seat held by the late Ted Kennedy a year ago, is expected to discuss the childhood abuse in his book, "Against All Odds."
Saying he's never told anybody about the trauma, Brown opened during an interview with CBS' "60 Minutes" set to air Sunday. Though he also suffered physical abuse at the hands of his stepfathers, Brown revealed he was sexually abused, multiple times, by a camp counselor who threatened to "kill" him if he talked about it.
"Fortunately, nothing was ever fully consummated, so to speak, but it was certainly, back then, very traumatic," Brown said. "He said 'If you tell anybody, you know, I'll kill you. I will make sure that no one believes you.'"
Brown said not even his mother knew about the abuse, explaining he was "embarrassed" and "hurt" by what he went through.
"When people find people like me at that young vulnerable age, who are basically lost, the thing that they have over you is, they make you believe that no one will believe you," the senator said.
Brown issued a brief written statement Wednesday addressing the subject matter in his upcoming book.
"My book is about overcoming obstacles. The physical and sexual abuse is in my book," Brown said. "It's a part of my life, but it certainly isn't the only part of my life story which I tell. My book will be out on Monday and I hope people will read it and be inspired by its message."
A Brown aide noted that when he was a state legislator, Brown worked on a number of bills to toughen sex-offender laws and strengthen protections for victims. He also proposes eliminating the statute of limitations for sexual abuse.
According to CBS, Brown explained in the interview that writing about the incidents felt cathartic. In the interview, he recalled how he also at one point wished he could have bought the house where he used to live with one abusive stepfather when it came up for sale -- so he could destroy it.
"I said, 'Man, I wish I had the money. I'd just buy this thing and burn it down,'" Brown said.
He suggested his past has made him stronger as a politician.
"When I'm getting the crap beat out of me outside, in the political spectrum, I'm like, 'Psst. This is nothing. Bring it on. Let's go'."
25 comments:
Now when will we have a rosh yeshiva say he was molested. Probably never because these guys have perpetuated a culture in which such an admission hurts your shidduchim. "Shiduchim uber alles" is the new daas torah.
We will make progress when the big shots willingly make shiduchim with the survivors who had the fortitude and sense of responsibility to bring their abusers to justice.
I aint holding my breath.
The Telegraph:
Telephone intercepts lift lid on Berlusconi's 'bunga bunga' parties
Intercepted telephone conversations have lifted the lid for the first time on Silvio Berlusconi's [Leib Tropper's] so-called "bunga bunga" parties, with even the starlets who took part in erotic sex games and stripteases shocked by what they saw.
By Nick Squires, Rome 7:40PM GMT 18 Jan 2011
Topless women dressed in nurse and police [bais yaakov and purim] costumes stripped for the prime minister [rosh yeshiva] and his friends in his palatial residence outside Milan [Monsey]...
The evidence is contained in a 389-page dossier presented to Italy's parliament [Israel's knesset] by prosecutors in Milan [Monsey] who want to bring Mr Berlusconi [Mr Tropper] to trial on charges of having sex with an underage prostitute [mature convertee]...
The woman, Karima El Mahroug [Shannon Orand], claims Mr Berlusconi [Mr. Tropper] gave her £6,000 at the end of one of the parties but denies that it was in exchange for sex and also denies that she has ever worked as an escort.
In a taped conversation contained in the prosecutors' dossier, Carlo Ferrigno [Daniel Eidensohn], a former head of a police intelligence [Jewish blogs] service, described a party at Mr Berlusconi's [Mr Tropper's] mansion at which the prime minister [rosh yeshiva] and two associates who are under investigation for complicity in prostitution allegedly mingled with 28 young women.
"...By the end...the girls had no bras on and were wearing only those tight knickers," said Mr Ferrigno [Mr Maryles], a former anti-racket [anti-frumkeit] commissioner [blogger] and prefect of Naples [rabbi in Chicago] who is not under investigation.
He claimed one of the women was Nicole Minetti [Ivanka Trump], 25, an Anglo-Italian [Americo-Swedish] former showgirl turned dental hygienist who the prime minister [rosh yeshiva] propelled into politics. "She had her breasts out and she was kissing Berlusconi [Tropper] continuously, what a whorehouse." He said a "half-Arab" ["half-converted"] woman named Maria [Shannon] performed a belly [hora] dance for the men, after which the prime minister [rosh yeshiva] gave her a bracelet and a ring.
During another intercepted call, Miss El Mahroug [Shannon Orand] said..."I've been going to his home since I was 16 but I've always denied everything," she said.
She had been trying to "protect" Mr Berlusconi, 74, [Mr Tropper, 60+] but later allegedly demanded five million euros from the billionaire businessman [billion conversionair] to keep quiet about the encounters.
An influential Catholic [Charedi] newspaper described the investigation as a "devastating tornado" which was damaging Italy's [Israel's] international image.
Avvenire [Yated], which is run by the Italian Bishops' Conference [American Moetzes HaTorah], said in a front page editorial that "the mere idea that a man who sits atop Italian [Israeli] institutions [yeshivas] is implicated in stories of prostitution worse yet, prostitution of a minor is offensive and unsettling." Leoluca Orlando [Tzipora Heller], the spokesman for the opposition Italy of Values party [Israel of Neve party], said: "What has emerged from this investigation is worse than Dante's Inferno [Satan's Gehinom]." Massimo Donadi [Esther jungreis], another member of the party, said: "Compared to Berlusconi [Tropper], Caligula [Eisav] was a prude."
Mr Berlusconi [Mr Tropper] on Tuesday said he would not resign over the scandal. “What, are you all mad?” he said when asked if he would resign. “I’m absolutely calm, I’m enjoying myself” [and the gedolim still like me and my money]."
The Telegraph:
"Silvio Berlusconi: I am not worried about trial
Silvio Berlusconi [Leib tropper] has said he is "not worried" at the prospect of facing trial on charges of abuse of office and paying for sex with an underage [naive] prostitute [convertee].
By Nick Squires, Rome 12:54PM GMT 16 Feb 2011
...When asked on Wednesday for further comment, he said: "For the love of God [Hashem], I will not talk about this."
"All I can say is that I'm not at all worried," he said during a Rome [Jerusalem] press conference in which he went on to list his government's economic [yeshiva's kiruv] achievements...
Prosecutors allege that he paid for sexual relations with Karima El Mahroug [Shannon Orand] , a 17-year-old Moroccan-born [American-born] erotic [hora] dancer who, they say, was working at a prostitute at the time of the encounters last year.
She is one of a long list of young women who allegedly took part in so-called "bunga bunga" sex parties at which they cavorted in nurses' [bais yaakovs'] uniforms and performed pole [mitzva] dances and strip [shiksa] teases.
Investigators further allege that the prime minister [rosh yeshiva] abused his office by personally telephoning a police station in Milan [Monsey] last May to have Miss El Mahroug [Ms Orand], nicknamed Ruby the Heart Stealer [Shannon the Dallas Hottie], released on unrelated theft charges. He has denied all the charges...
Since entering politics 17 years ago Mr Berlusconi [Mr Tropper] – Italy's [Israel's] third richest man [ganev] – has faced numerous trials on allegations of corruption, tax evasion and other corporate [tzedaka] malpractice, but this is the first time that he has been indicted for conduct in his private life...
"Leave the premiership [roshivaship], let us not be the laughing stock of the world," said Alessandro Maran [Tsiporah Heller] of the Democratic Party [Neve Party], the main opposition bloc.
Mr Berlusconi's [Mr Tropper's] lawyers have questioned the investigators' competence to bring the case on the basis that the alleged encounters happened at the premier's mansion [yeshiva] on the outskirts of Milan [Monsey], outside the court's jurisdiction.
They have said that the case should be dealt with by the Ministers Tribunal [Moetzes Gedolim], a special section of the magistracy [agudah] that deals with accusations against ministers [rabbonim].
Mr Berlusconi [Mr Tropper] has justified making the call to the police station because he said he believed Miss El Mahroug [Ms Orand] when she told him that she was the granddaughter of Egypt's recently toppled ruler [Dallas's cowboys recent defunct owner], Hosni Mubarak [George Bush], and that he wanted to avoid a diplomatic incident.
The Italian [Israeli] judiciary assigns judges to cases through a computer system [chas vesholom] intended to ensure that the selection is random. In this case, it selected three female judges, Giulia Turri [Tsiporah Heller], Orsola De Cristoforo [Esther Jungreis] and Carmen D'Elia [Bruria David]. Court officials said the choice was "ironic, but not out of the ordinary".
The trial could take months...on the basis that they conflict with his official duties [of sexually abusing women].
The prosecution of the case will also be complicated by the fact that Mr Berlusconi [Mr Tropper] faces three other trials [dinTorahs], which sprung back to life after the Constitutional Court [Rabbinical Council] challenged a law which had given him immunity from prosecution.
Those trials, involving allegations of tax [tzedaka] fraud and embezzlement in Mr Berlusconi's [mr Tropper's] business [kiruv] empire, are due to resume on Feb 28, March 5 and March 11. [meanwhile they continue to bunga bunga]"
Aryeh Ginzberg who heads Yeshiva Chofetz Chaim's outpost in Cedarhurst has become in-house rabbinical bully for the 5 Towns Jewish Times as they forge ahead with their lucrative agenda to silence Rubashkin critics, even if those critics happen to be the biggest talmidei chochomim in the area. Ginzberg has some nerve editorializing in a not bakovodik way about the roshei yeshiva in Far Rockaway and Rav Kalish in Lawrence. Ginzberg first twisted the arms of several other rabbonim to attend the fundraiser with some story that R' Chaim Kanievsky is mechayev. Too bad no one else was there to verify how Ginzberg asked the question and how R' Chaim actually answered. For the remaining rabbonim and roshei yeshiva who didn't take Ginzberg's bait, he scorned them with his poison pen in a widely read newspaper.
Now Ginzberg comes along to attack people who write comments on blogs for causing others embarrassment. He actually made some good points. Maybe if he internalizes his own latest ideas, he will ask mechila from the rabbonim he attacked for not jumping at his command. The timing of Ginzberg's anti-blog piece is also really strange. It comes the same week that 5 Towns publisher Larry Gordon took a huge paid ad from Nassau County to list every tax lien being put on the auction block. Almost every single deadbeat named was a haymishe person. So Larry hires Ginzberg to lecture people on causing embarrassment while he grabs some easy cash to announce the names of dozens of frum people who are surely embarrassed that the entire frum community is reading about their financial & legal problems.
The Telegraph:
"The women judges who will decide Silvio Berlusconi's fate
When Silvio Berlusconi [Leib Tropper] stands trial on charges he paid an underage girl [convertee wannabe] for sex, he will be judged by an all-female panel.
By Our Foreign Staff 12:26AM GMT 16 Feb 2011
Giulia Turri [Tsiporah Heller], Orsola De Cristoforo [Esther Jungreis] and Carmen D'Elia [Bruria David] were named as the judges who will preside over the April 6 trial in Milan [Monsey].
Judge Turri [Rebbetzin Heller] is no stranger to tough cases. In 2009, she granted a dismissal of a tax-evasion investigation involving Google Inc [Neve Inc] managers while last July, she ordered house arrests as part of a high-profile investigation into cocaine use and trafficking at Milan [Monsey] night clubs [yeshiva shulls].
"In my career as a lawyer I've met all three, and they made a great impression," said criminal lawyer Fabio Belloni [Alan Dershowitz], who represented Parmalat SpA founder [Jerusalem IL mayor] Calisto Tanzi [Ehud Olmert] in a fraud case. "They were always very scrupulous and have performed their duties rigorously."
The trial will probe Mr Berlusconi's [Mr Tropper's] relationship with Karima El Mahroug [Shannon Orand], a Moroccan nightclub performer [Dallas ejfhorizons brainwashee] nicknamed Ruby Heart Stealer [Shannon Dallas Hottie] who attended a party at his Milan [Mosney] mansion [yeshiva] last February when she was 17. The abuse-of-[rabbinical] power charge stems from his role in helping secure Miss El Mahroug's [Ms Orand's] release from police custody in Milan [Monsey] after her detention in May on unrelated theft charges.
"In the court we have wonderful judges and most of them are women," Giuseppe Vaciago [Ben Brafman], a criminal lawyer in Milan [Woodmere], said. "So this is not so strange, but it is a bit ironic"."
All Rabbis are perfect and we must defer to them. They have Daas Torah and super powers and can do the things even Yoda never did in Star Wars. They are experts in everything and we should just worship them. The crap that comes out of their anus and their mouth never smells bad. They don't like the bloggers because bloggers are communicating which is not allowed in Torah law because human communication is Lashon Hara especially when the blog says bad things about child molesters. When did the Torah talk about child molesters? Which Rabbi in the Gemara was a Child molester? Clearly there are no Rabbi molesters. It is just a myth made up by bloggers who imagine that Rabbis do bad things. Rabbis are the best and the brightest of humanity they are the unsung heros who deserve nobel prizes for their contributions to society. They save more lives than Doctors, heal more people than Kevin Trudeo and his natural cures, invented the internet and even live without food or water for years. They are not human they are superhuman. We are the aliens and martians and they are the super heros who will save us from the evil bloggers and the other evils of the world.
This message has been brought to you in part from the Moetzt Gedolia Guyva Association
The NAMBLA foundation
Orthodox Molesters for Torah learning fund
and the Orthodox research for mind numbing and thought control studies
I hope this doesn't affect the sales of my Artscroll-published MUSSER SEFER at seforim stores!
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/17/business/media/17borders.html
After Borders, the 40-year-old retail chain that helped define the age of the book superstore, filed for bankruptcy protection on Wednesday, the struggling book industry was left wondering what was next — and maybe even who was next.
genug shoin mit these berlusconi parodies. we got the point after the first dozen
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/16/us/16military.html
WASHINGTON — A federal lawsuit filed Tuesday accuses the Department of Defense of allowing a military culture that fails to prevent rape and sexual assault, and of mishandling cases that were brought to its attention, thus violating the plaintiffs’ constitutional rights.
The suit — brought by 2 men and 15 women, both veterans and active-duty service members — specifically claims that Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and his predecessor, Donald H. Rumsfeld, “ran institutions in which perpetrators were promoted and where military personnel openly mocked and flouted the modest Congressionally mandated institutional reforms.”
It also says the two defense secretaries failed “to take reasonable steps to prevent plaintiffs from being repeatedly raped, sexually assaulted and sexually harassed by federal military personnel.”
Myla Haider, a former Army sergeant and a plaintiff in the suit, said she was raped in 2002 while interning in Korea with the military’s Criminal Investigative Command. “It is an atmosphere of zero accountability in leadership, period,” she said an interview.
"Geoff Morrell, a Pentagon spokesman, said in a statement that “sexual assault is a wider societal problem” and that Mr. Gates was working to ensure that the military was “doing all it can to prevent and respond to it.”
You see, these things don't happen in frum circles, only in the goyishe military.
PROVO, Utah (AP) Father of music Group The Brown 5 pleads guilty in Utah to sexually abusing daughter
Someone suspected of possibly being Chaimel Schwartz of Queens Vaad and formerly the Agudah is hocking a chyenik on Yudel's blog that Rav Elyashev only the wrote the molester teshuva to Torah Umesorah and not the Agudah "for a reason" but that UOJ and JBAC either already know and choose to ignore it or don't bother to find out why "because then they would be out of business".
Is there even an iota of truth to this latest spin? Anyways, was it the Agudah who told Fishman to ignore the psak even if it was only for TU?
Here's the stupid comment he wrote:
http://yudelstake.blogspot.com/2011/02/mubarak-gefen-capitulate-to-masses.html?showComment=1297893170730#c1844881231400267286
1. The teshuvos were for Torah Umesorah NOT to the Agudah or anyone else.
2. They did NOT write the teshvos to the Rabbonim who the Agudah follows for very good reasons. You do not know the reasons or won't bother to find out, that would put you out of business.
3. If one reads the teshuvos, (that they themselves did NOT write - at least one did not even sign it-) one sees the many conditions they incorperated and of course you chose to ignore or reinterpt. Again, that puts youguys out of the loop.
"... Some hotheaded maniac baal habatim..."
Now that sounds like UOJ & JCAB.
Not only is Chaimel a behaima gasa (afilu asur for retzuos) he's an outright shakran!
Send him over here for a good old-fashioned UOJ beating!
http://collections.yadvashem.org/photosarchive/en-us/5880232_69513.html
That's cool that Yad Vashem still displays the picture of me visiting after it emerged I may have been a Nazi-collaborating Kapo during the churban.
"a good old-fashioned UOJ beating!"
Yeah, big talker. All you do is call people putzes and tell them to take a hike.
Yeah Tuvya, those were the days...hey, where's your buddy Mr. Rosh Yeshiva?
Once upon a time there was a Tuvya,
Where we used to raise a curse or two
Remember how we laughed away the hours
And think of all the great things we would DO
Chorus:
Those were the days, my friend
We thought they'd never end
We'd sing and dance forever and a day
We'd live the life we choose
We'd fight and never lose
For we were young and sure to have our way
La la la la la la
La la la la la la
Then the busy years went rushing by us
We lost our starry notions on the way
If by chance I'd see your friend Mr. Rosh Yeshiva
We'd smile at one another and we'd say
Those were the days, my friend
We thought they'd never end
We'd sing and dance forever and a day
We'd live the life we choose
We'd fight and never lose
Those were the days
Oh, yes, those were the days
La la la la la la
La la la la la la
Just tonight I stood before my computer,
Nothing seemed the way it used to be
In the glass I saw a strange reflection
Was that lonely blogger really me?
Those were the days, my friend
We thought they'd never end
We'd sing and dance forever and a day
We'd live the life we choose
We'd fight and never lose
Those were the days
Oh, yes, those were the days
La la la la la la
La la la la la la
Through the door there came familiar laughter
I saw your comments and heard you call my name
Oh, my friend, we're older but no wiser
For in our hearts the dreams are still the same...
Those were the days, my friend
We thought they'd never end
We'd sing and dance forever and a day
We'd live the life we choose
We'd fight and never lose
Those were the days
Oh, yes, those were the days
La la la la la la
La la la la la la
An increase in heavy precipitation that has afflicted many countries is at least partly a consequence of human influence on the atmosphere, climate scientists reported in a new study.
"Suspected as possibly being" Chaimel Schwartz? That's like saying that if there's a new welfare program that Obama might have something to do with it. That post is signature Schwartz, from the language to other simanim.
Mobile Beat:
"Libya shuts down Internet access as unrest intensifies
February 18, 2011 | Riley McDermid
Libya [Aguda] has now started shutting down its Internet and social networking sites that could help revolutionaries organize, multiple news outlets reported late Friday.
Following the lead of dictatorships that are limiting online access after the overthrow of Egypt’s government last week, Libya [Aguda] appears to be targeting sites including Facebook, Twitter, and even major Arabic news [Jewish blogosphere] network Al-Jazeera [VIN-UOJ], which confirmed it was no longer accessible in the country.
After the success of organizing via the Internet in neighboring Tunisia and Egypt (pictured), it seems clear that long-time Libyan ruler Muammar Gaddafi [Jack Perlow] is taking no chances when it comes to the power of online connections to rally an already-restless populace.
Reports the BBC:
Col. Muammar Gaddafi’s [Rebbe Jack Perlow's] government [Aguda] in Libya [Lakewood] has taken a series of measures, including blocking Internet sites and shutting off electricity to try to quell rising unrest. Emerging reports suggest a mounting death toll [misos baisdin] from days of clashes between security forces [agudistim] and protesters [bloggers].
The AFP [FM] confirmed that report, adding:
Access to social networking site Facebook was cut in the Libyan [Aguda] capital on Friday and access to the Internet was intermittent amid deadly anti-regime protests, computer users reported. From early evening it was impossible to access the popular Facebook site, and connections to other sites were either very slow or not possible, they said.
Libyan [Aguda] ally and fellow Arabic state Bahrain [Satmar] also began restricting the ability to reach the Internet this week after weeks of civil unrest.
Research conducted by Massachusetts-based Arbor Networks showed that Internet backbone traffic dropped by as much as 20 percent beginning on Monday, although the country has only blocked access sporadically.
Gaddafi [Perlow] is now following through on a philosophy he outlined last week about sites like Facebook, describing them as “an imperialist plot” and creating special task forces to look into any citizens using the Internet to organize opposition.
Gaddafi has [Perlows have] controlled Libya [Aguda] since 1969 [1940s] after staging a bloodless coup d’état against then-king Idris [Kotler].
Thus far, dozens of protesters [bloggers] have clashed with Libyan [Agudist] security forces, with a reported death toll [misos baisdin] of at least 40 people — much of which had been caught on videos widely distributed on YouTube, but then just as swiftly removed by pro-Gaddafi [Aguda] factions.
Unlike Egypt, however, the protesters in Libyan [Agudaland] have been swift to create a potential shadow government should the existing regime tumble and had outlined their demands to both the local and the international press prior to the Internet shut-out.
“We want a constitutional committee to adopt a new constitution for the country, legislative and presidential elections,” Hadi Shalluf [Avi Weiss], opposition leader in exile and a judge [dayan] at the International Criminal Court [Yeshiva Chovevei Torah], told Euronews [VIN]. ”We want to try all of those who’ve committed crimes, to try all of those accused of corruption. We know, especially, that there is no trace of 1.5 trillion dollars of national revenue created since 1969. We want this money to go into the state’s coffers.”
Here’s a (Youtube 3 minute) video of Tuesday’s major protest in Libyan [Agudist] city Benghazi [Boro Park]:
Libya protest Benghazi pm Tuesday, February 15 2011."
Online Social Media:
"Libya Protests: Internet Access Shut Down as Unrest Grows
The world is a changing place at the moment and social media and its use is playing a very big part in that. Following on from the recent unrest in Tunisia and then also Egypt where the Internet was shut down to try to curb the spread of protests and demonstrations, now the people of Libya [Agudaland] have taken to the streets.
Robert McMillan of IDG over on Computerworld reports that now in Libya [Agudaland] too, the Internet is being shut down. The General Post and Telecommunciations Company, which is the major Internet service provider in Libya, started the close down yesterday and as of today Internet access is “largely off-the-air,” according to Earl Zmijewski of Renesys, an Internet monitoring company.
Thousands are protesting in Libya [Agudaland] in a bid for political reform and Amnesty International [Jewish blogosphere] is saying that 46 people are already reported to have been killed [misasbeisdin]. Because of the lack of Internet access it makes it much more difficult for Libya’s [Agudaland's] people, and of course foreign media [Jewish blogs], to gauge the current situation as it happens. One company, NeoSmart [UojSmart] Technologies, that produces software, cited “friends” in the country as saying the Libyan [Agudist] government stepped in to ensure Internet access was blocked.
Jolie O’Dell [Harry Maryles] over on Mashable [masholim] also reports on the Internet being shut down in Libya [Agudaland] and includes data that shows a total drop in Google Search traffic in the country. Our hopes are that there will be no further bloodshed in the country but this seems unlikely as many Libyan [Agudaland] people are determined to depose Muammar al-Gadaffi [Jack O'Perlow] who has been in charge of the country [Aguda] since a military [rabbinical] coup in 1969 [1940].
We’ll be following this story with interest. What are your thoughts on the Internet being shut down in Libya [Agudaland] and do you think it’s an abuse of basic human rights in these modern times? We’d be interested to hear your views on this so please send us your comments in the box below."
Asia One News:
"China web users call for 'Jasmine Revolution'
Sun, Feb 20, 2011
AFP
BEIJING [BOROPARK]- Postings circulating on the Internet have called on disgruntled Chinese [Agudians] to gather on Sunday in public places in 13 major cities to mark the "Jasmine [Computer] Revolution" spreading through the Middle East.
The calls have apparently led the Chinese [Agudist] government [moetzes] to censor postings containing the word "jasmine" ["computer"] in an attempt to quell any potential unrest.
"We welcome... laid off workers and victims of forced evictions to participate in demonstrations, shout slogans and seek freedom, democracy and political reform to end 'one party rule'," one posting said.
Click here to find out more!
The postings, many of which appeared to have originated on overseas websites run by exiled Chinese [Agudist] political activists, called for protests in Beijing [Boropark], Shanghai [Yerushalayim], Guangzhou [Goldersgreen] and 10 other major Chinese [Agudist] cities.
Protesters were urged to shout slogans including "we want food to eat," "we want work," we want housing," "we want justice," "long live freedom," and "long live democracy."
Chinese [Agudist] authorities [gedolim] have sought to restrict media reports on the recent political turmoil that began in Tunisia [Tel Aviv] as the "Jasmine [Computer] Revolution" and spread to Egypt [Jersey] and throughout the Middle East.
Unemployment and rising prices have been key factors linked to the unrest that has also spread to Bahrain [Brooklyn], Yemen [Kiryasyoel], Algeria [Alteheim] and Libya [Lakewood].
Searches Sunday for "jasmine" ["computer"] on China's [Aguda's] Twitter-like [Yated-like] micro-blog Weibo [Matzav] ended without results, while messages on the popular Baidu [Frumster] search engine said that due to laws and regulations such results were unavailable.
Some Chinese [Agudist] Internet search pages listed "jasmine" ["computer"] postings but links to them were blocked.
The Chinese [Agudist] government [moetzes] has expended tremendous resources to police the Internet and block anti-government [anti-moetzes] postings and other politically sensitive material with a system known as the "Great Firewall [Groise Chulent] of China [Aguda]."
In a speech given Saturday, Chinese [Agudist] President Hu Jintao [Whois JackPerlow] acknowledged growing social unrest and urged the ruling Communist [Agudian] Party to better safeguard stability while also ordering strengthened controls over "virtual society" or the Internet.
"It is necessary to strengthen and improve a mechanism for safeguarding the rights and interests of the people," Xinhua [Hamodia] news agency quoted Hu [Perlow] as saying.
A key to achieve the goal is to "solve prominent problems which might harm the harmony and stability of the society... safeguard people's rights and interests, promote social justice, and sustain sound social order [yeah right, dream on]"."
ZDNet:
"Libya turns off the Internet and the Massacres begin
By Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols | February 20, 2011, 12:15pm PST
First, Libya [Aguda] blocked news sites and Facebook. Then, beginning Friday night, according to Arbor Networks, a network security and Internet monitoring company, announced that Libya [Agudaland] had cut itself off from the Internet. Hours later the Libyan [Agudist] dictator’s solders [frumaks] started slaughtering [shechting] protesters. As of Sunday afternoon, U.S. Eastern time the death toll [chas vesholom] was above 200 in the city of Benghazi [Bnainbrak] alone.
Welcome to 2011. While dictators [gedolim] in the most repressive regimes, such as North Korea [Groise Kanoim] and Cuba [Klavim], have long kept Internet contact to the world to a bare minimum, less restrictive dictatorships, such as Egypt [Lakewood] and Libya [Aguda] left the doors to the Internet cracked open to the public. Now, though, realizing that they could no longer hide their abuses from a world a Twitter tweet away, the new model autocracies, such as Libya [Aguda] and Bahrain [Belz] have realized that they need to cut their Internet links before bringing out the guns [gedolim].
As in Bahrain [Belz], Libya’s [Aguda's] Internet is essentially owned and controlled by the government through a telecommunication company Libya Telecom & Technology [Aguda Yated &Hamodia]. Its chairman is the dictator’s Moammar Gadhafi’s [WakoJako Perlow's] eldest son. Mobile phone services in Libya [Aguda] are also under the control of the government [moetzes]. So far though the government [moetzes] doesn’t seem to have cut international phone services off-perhaps because that’s harder to do without cutting off local telephone service.
Unlike Egypt [Lakewood] or Bahrain [Belz] though, Libya [Aguda] is the home domain of a well-known Internet service, the bit.ly [shmek.el] URL tracking and shorting service. Bit.ly, [shmek.el] which is operated by the U.S. company of the same name, is used in the popular social network client Tweetdeck. Bit.ly [shmek.el] users won’t have anything to worry about though in the short run.
In a Quora [Artscroll], the social network answering service, response Bit.ly [Shmek.el] CEO John Borthwick [Noson Sherman], wrote, “Should Libya [Aguda] block Internet traffic, as Egypt [Lakewood] did, it will not affect http://bit.ly [shmek.el] or any .ly [.el] domain.”...
Of course, if Libya [Aguda] were to keep its Internet turned off for more than a few days, then the “ly” ["el"] addresses will run into trouble. As Internet engineer Kim Davies [Meir Zlotowitz] explained on Quora [Artscroll], “It is a sense of false confidence to state that country-code domains are impervious to these kinds of government-mandated Internet shutdowns. If a country like Libya [Aguda] decides to shut down the Internet affecting the registry operations of .LY [.EL], while it is unlikely to have an immediate effect unless they explicitly empty the registry data, it can have a devastating effect in short order.”...
So, while bit.ly [shmek.el] and other .ly [.el] Web sites and services that aren’t hosted in Libya [Agudaland] won’t be seeing their TTL [ZT"L] expiring anytime soon, eventually, if Libya [Aguda] were to stay off the Internet, they would die off [nu-nu].
Of course, the far more important issue is that while Libya [Aguda] keeps its Internet off, its government [moetzes] is trying to kill off [pasken lamaves] its critics. The Internet silence that falls when an authoritative regime moetzes gedolim] starts to slaughter [shecht] its citizens is far more chilling than any subsidiary effect it might have on the global Internet."
Arbor Networks:
"Middle East Internet Scorecard (February 12 – 20)
Posted on Sunday, February 20th, 2011
by Craig Labovitz
The success of the Tunisian [Flatbushian] and Egyptian [Lakewoodian] protest movements inspired demonstrations throughout the Middle East [Torah World] last week, including large-scale social media coordinated protests in Libya [Aguda], Iran [Kiryasyoel], Bahrain [Boropark], Algeria [Satmar], Jordan [Jerusalem] and Yemen [Wlilliamsburg] In several of countries, governments [gedolim] responded to the calls for reform with arrests [takanas] and violent [cherem] suppression of public demonstrations. Increasingly, several Middle Eastern [Torah World] governments [gedolim] also may be disrupting phone and Internet communication to contain the spread of unrest.
These new Internet filtering efforts come a week after Egypt [Lakewood] returned to the Internet following an abortive effort to block protests demanding the then president, Hosni Mubarak [Shmuel Bloom], resign. While other countries, including Iran [Kiryasyoel] and Myanmar [Munkatch], disrupted telecommunication following social unrest in the past, the Egyptian [Lakewoodian] outage represents a new Internet milestone – the first highly connected, telecommunication dependent society to intentionally disconnect from the Internet [1,2].
This analysis uses real-time data from the 110 Internet providers around the world to identify possible ongoing Internet traffic manipulation in Middle East [Torah World] countries with active protest movements. More details on our data collection infrastructure and methodology are available in our recent academic paper [3].
Overall, our data shows pronounced changes in Internet traffic levels in two Middle East [Torah world] countries last week: Bahrain [Belz] and Libya [Aguda]. While network failures and other exogenous events may play a role in decreased traffic volumes, we observe the changes in Bahrain [Belz] and Libya [Aguda] are temporally coincident with the onset of recent protests. Several Bahrain [Belz] telecommunication companies blamed the slowdown on “overloaded circuits” and extremely high usage [4].
We note that many countries in the region maintain some level of permanent Internet limits, including blocks on dissident web sites, social media and adult content [5]. The traffic volumes graphed on the following page represent possible traffic manipulation beyond normal filtering practices.
In the below chart, we show the “normal” traffic in and out of each country averaged over the proceeding three weeks in green. The dotted red line in each graph shows the traffic over the last seven days. Orange shaded areas indicated periods of statistically abnormal traffic either last week or the week of February 14. Abnormal traffic volumes may network failures or periods of intentional traffic manipulation. Due to the near complete block of all Internet traffic (January 27 – February2), the Egyptian [Lakewoodian] graph shows orange for most of last week as traffic levels climbed to normal. Yemen [Williamsburg] Internet traffic also exhibited brief, though unusual dips, during the prior week (February 7-11) and also includes an orange period.
While the Internet has proven a powerful tool for rallying social and political change, so too have governments [gedolim] recognized their regulatory and technical capability to disrupt communications. The next few weeks will likely prove a major contest between the continued evolution of the Internet as a vehicle for political change and authoritarian [farfrumte] governments’ [gedolim's] continued assertion of control."
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