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U.S. Seizes IndyMedia's Hard Drives

By Jeralyn, Section Media
Posted on Fri Oct 08, 2004 at 04:14:04 PM EST
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U.S. authorites obtained a federal order to seize Indymedia's webservers in the U.S. and London.

Why? IndyMedia is in the dark. Here's what Rackspace, its hosting company had to say:

"In the present matter regarding Indymedia, Rackspace Managed Hosting, a U.S. based company with offices in London, is acting in compliance with a court order pursuant to a Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT), which establishes procedures for countries to assist each other in investigations such as international terrorism, kidnapping and money laundering. Rackspace responded to a Commissioner’s subpoena, duly issued under Title 28, United States Code, Section 1782 in an investigation that did not arise in the United States. Rackspace is acting as a good corporate citizen and is cooperating with international law enforcement authorities. The court prohibits Rackspace from commenting further on this matter.

In other words, Rackspace is gagged. Note that a search warrant wasn't used. Only an administrative subpoena. An end run around the 4th Amendment. Here are the questions IndyMedia has at this time.

1) Why was the hardware sized? The order was issued to Rackspace and they have not been able to give Indymedia any details, nor were any US authorities. Indymedia has been trying to find this out and is still doing so.

At least 4 different stories are spread worldwide at the net as possible reason, some of them more likely then others. However, we do not have any confirmation on any of them.

2) Who issued the order where? We understand that the FBI contacted Rackspace in the US, even though the hardware in question is physically hosted in the UK. If anybody has confirmed information on this, please tell us.

3) What hardware was removed? We don't know exacetly whether the complete servers or the hardware were removed. However, we know that at least two servers went offline.

Stay tuned.

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