Make No Mistake About It,

You Are Being Monitored

In late August, 2002, I received from unrelated sources the following item that appeared in the August 25, 2002 issue of MIM Notes (No. 264, p. 9) [www.etext.org/Politics/MIM/mn/mn264.pdf], "The Official Newsletter of the Maoist Internationalist Movement (MIM)".

[You cannot gain access to the MIM site from here. You have to copy and paste the the URL into your browser's "Open Location" (IE) or "Location in Navigator" (Netsacape) located in the "File" pull-down menu.]

marx2mao.org
is a
security risk

A major website containing documents from Marx, Lenin and Mao contains an unusual security risk for its users. A MIM investigation has uncovered that www.marx2mao.org has released detailed reports on its individual users, information including the interests of the users.
MIM has never endorsed www.marx2mao.org; although it has obvious usefulness at least in concept. The "RCP-USA" links to it from its webpage, http://www.rwor.org/s/mlm_arc.htm
We warn readers once again, that they must see to their security first. Not every website set up on the Internet has good intentions. Some in fact are meant to lure people to gather information on them as individuals. It is a challenge to the proletariat to spread information as widely and quickly as possible while keeping in mind that not every MIM Notes distributor, not every persyn calling him or herself "Maoist" and not every reference website can be counted on as sincere. This is a typical security challenge to the proletariat when it is not in state power. Comrades can read our security FAQ on the web page [www.etext.org/Politics/MIM/faq/security.html] for a little more help.

The clear implication of the above "news" item is that From Marx To Mao was established as a means "to lure people" to the site in order "to gather information on them as individuals", and further, that I have indeed gathered information, "including the interests of the users", and prepared and "released detailed reports on . . . individual users". The upshot of it all is that I am consciously working in the service of the State to develop profiles and acquire the IP addresses of cyber-revolutionaries. But NOWHERE in the MIM "news" release is there any attempt to present even the slightest bit of evidence to support the charges it has directed against me. Indeed, its tactic is very much akin to the tactics of police dis-information that it decries.

I sent an e-mail to MIM (mim3@mim.org) in late August asking for some evidence, but I never received a reply. I again sent a message in early October, and I received the following reply which I leave for the reader to evaluate.

"David J. Romagnolo" said:

"mim3,

"I see in your August 25, 2002 Newsletter that MIM has "investigated" me and my site and "uncovered" information that has lead you to conclude that I regularly collect information of visitors and that I have "released detailed reports on its [i.e., the site's] individual users, information including the interests of the users." Would you be so kind as to provide some bit of evidence (if it doesn't breech your security) to sustain the charges you have directed against me?

"In late August I sent you an e-mail asking that you confirm that this was your position and at that time I asked for some evidence of your accusation. I received no reply. Once again, I ask that MIM produce some evidence.

"I have no doubt that the State knows of the site (I know that at least one small section of the military has used the material in the site because they wrote me and asked for my permission!), but if it is monitoring who comes and goes, and where such visitors go within the site, what keys words are entered into the search engine (reader's interests"?), I have no control over this and short of closing the site altogether there is nothing I can do to prevent it."

mim3@mim.org replies: If you are going to contend that someone else released this info and not you, then what you can do is release the materials of your website, and I'd suggest forwarding them to a number of alternative websites. I would then link to those websites, announce your effort to spread the works around and shut down your old way of doing things. I would contend that even without what happened, it would be in the interests of the proletariat to spread the works of MLM around so as not to rely on one machine.

If the motivation is to spread classics of Marx, Lenin and Mao, one sort of actions is dictated. If the motivation is something else, then we can see why they were done the way they were.

[my note continues . . .]
"That you have choosen to tar both me and the site before the "public" as effectively agents of the State without the slightest bit of evidence serves only to demonstrate a contempt for the masses that is unworthy of an organization that calls itself proletarian."

mim3@mim.org replies: We are not going to discuss this with you. If you have read Lenin and Mao, then you know not all means of struggle are in the open and you already know you are using bourgeois society's Liberal assumptions against us.

[my note ends . . .]
"Once again I ask that you provide some evidence for the charges you have levelled against me and the site such that others might be able to reach their own conclusions.

Dave Romagnolo"

Now, does this mean that individuals who log into this site are secure from snooping? Of course not. We already know that MIM engages in such activity, that is, if we take it at its word, for how else could its "investigation" have possibly "uncovered" that I supposedly "released detailed reports on its [i.e., the site's] individual users"?, and moreover, how could MIM have knowledge that the "information" in these so-called "reports" included "the interests of the users"? MIM's own "investigation" had to have involved some pretty heavy-duty snooping of its own to have "uncovered" all that it claims to have "uncovered". Short of this, they would have to have direct access to the "reports" presumably held by the powers that be. But MIM is one of the good guys, you know, so there is no reason to worry. Rest assured, such information is safe in its hands.

But what about the bad guys? That is, do agencies of the State monitor who visits From Marx to Mao and how often an individual accesses the site, as well as the texts ("interests of the users"?) an individual downloads? In short, does the State conduct a regular survaillance of this site? Hell, I haven't the faintest idea. I am only CERTAIN that one branch of the U.S. military knows about the site and probably even uses its contents on an as needed basis! (In the first week of December, 1998, I received, from a representative of the Naval War College of Newport Rhode Island, a request asking for permission to downloan, and then make 300 copies of, Mao's text "On Protracted War"!) I simply assume the State knows of the site.

For those who are particularly concerned with security while connected to the internet, accessing the net via public libraries, college and university libraries provides anonymity, as do coffee-shop/diner establishments in some large cities that cater to internet users. For more detailed information on matters of security, you can't do any better that starting with MIM's own site [www.etext.org/Politics/MIM/faq/security.html]. Given their expertise in such matters, I simply presume it is secure. And if you should come upon their reading list, rest assured that if you "click" their links, MIM will not be "gathering information" on "the interests of the users". Most, if not all, of the links take you to amazon.com, which apparently is a very security-conscious site (for there is no reason to believe that MIM would ever direct its visitors to an insecure site) which would not at all be inclined to gathering information on who comes and goes, what people look for and what they purchase, etc.

17 October 2002

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