Comments on: America, Georgia & Russia http://www.picnic-publishing.co.uk/political-blog/index.php/2008/08/america-georgia-russia/ Political Blog Sun, 13 Jun 2010 15:27:40 +0100 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 hourly 1 By: Robin Ramsay http://www.picnic-publishing.co.uk/political-blog/index.php/2008/08/america-georgia-russia/comment-page-1/#comment-11 Robin Ramsay Mon, 25 Aug 2008 17:47:39 +0000 http://www.picnic-publishing.co.uk/political-blog/?p=19#comment-11 I hadn't noticed the controversy on the Simkin website but anything which tries to deal rationally with these tricky politica/parapolitical areas is going to mired down in amateur spook-spotting. It's an occupational hazard. I know because I was once prone to it, thinking I could see beneath the cover and identify the 'obvious spook'. Sometimes you can - eg disinfo in the media - but mostly you can't; or can't reliably. And, of course, the nature of the Interent encourages this kind of activity: there is no (or very little) threat of legal action. (In retrospect it is rather curious how little I have accused of being an agent for this or that country/interest. Or maybe just an indicator of how insignificant I have been!) I don't know how to deal with this other than to rely on the moderator of the site to refuse to post accusatory material without evidence. How much attention the security and intelligence services pay to these Internet activites is unknown. My guess would be relatively little: they can rely on freelancers to scew things up themselves....and with the Islamist question they have an awful lot on their agenda for the forseeable future. I hadn’t noticed the controversy on the Simkin website but anything which tries to deal rationally with these tricky politica/parapolitical areas is going to mired down in amateur spook-spotting. It’s an occupational hazard. I know because I was once prone to it, thinking I could see beneath the cover and identify the ‘obvious spook’. Sometimes you can – eg disinfo in the media – but mostly you can’t; or can’t reliably. And, of course, the nature of the Interent encourages this kind of activity: there is no (or very little) threat of legal action. (In retrospect it is rather curious how little I have accused of being an agent for this or that country/interest. Or maybe just an indicator of how insignificant I have been!)
I don’t know how to deal with this other than to rely on the moderator of the site to refuse to post accusatory material without evidence.
How much attention the security and intelligence services pay to these Internet activites is unknown. My guess would be relatively little: they can rely on freelancers to scew things up themselves….and with the Islamist question they have an awful lot on their agenda for the forseeable future.

]]> By: Andrew http://www.picnic-publishing.co.uk/political-blog/index.php/2008/08/america-georgia-russia/comment-page-1/#comment-10 Andrew Sun, 24 Aug 2008 23:31:18 +0000 http://www.picnic-publishing.co.uk/political-blog/?p=19#comment-10 Robin, I'm sure you have more than 3 readers already, so I wouldn't worry about that! This is unrelated to the post, but I came across the following interview with yourself on "The Education Forum", here: http://tinyurl.com/4ny8td The reason I mention this is that, on further inspection, I was dismayed to find this forum preoccupied by accusations of disinformation and false identities. It struck me that this is an endemic feature of all forums that try to cover these "conspiracy" areas, it becoming very difficult to tell who, if anyone, might be an agent. When faced with such confusion the simple truth could be that there is no agent there, just the combination of viewpoints that form a confusing lens on people's behaviour, and on their expectations of each other. The overall effect leads one to just stay away from anything of the sort, which achieves the alienation of similarly-minded people from each other, which must be a central goal of any opposition, regardless of ideology. I'm not asking you to say anything on behalf of this forum, but the internet must be a key area the security services would like to exploit to further their goals, whatever they are. The problem is, how would you know the difference from behind a monitor? That is a problem for every internet forum moderator, and the fact that it is even a question has to be some sort of victory for the security services. Robin, I’m sure you have more than 3 readers already, so I wouldn’t worry about that!

This is unrelated to the post, but I came across the following interview with yourself on “The Education Forum”, here: http://tinyurl.com/4ny8td

The reason I mention this is that, on further inspection, I was dismayed to find this forum preoccupied by accusations of disinformation and false identities. It struck me that this is an endemic feature of all forums that try to cover these “conspiracy” areas, it becoming very difficult to tell who, if anyone, might be an agent. When faced with such confusion the simple truth could be that there is no agent there, just the combination of viewpoints that form a confusing lens on people’s behaviour, and on their expectations of each other. The overall effect leads one to just stay away from anything of the sort, which achieves the alienation of similarly-minded people from each other, which must be a central goal of any opposition, regardless of ideology.

I’m not asking you to say anything on behalf of this forum, but the internet must be a key area the security services would like to exploit to further their goals, whatever they are. The problem is, how would you know the difference from behind a monitor? That is a problem for every internet forum moderator, and the fact that it is even a question has to be some sort of victory for the security services.

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