Privacy is not terrorism

groente — Thu, 08 Jan 2015 15:42:07 +0000

On Tuesday 16th December, a large police operation took place in the Spanish State. Fourteen houses and social centres were raided in Barcelona, Sabadell, Manresa and Madrid; books, leaflets and IT material were seized; and eleven people were arrested and sent to the Audiència Nacional, a special court handling issues of "national interest", in Madrid. They are accused of incorporation, promotion, management and membership of a terrorist organisation. However, lawyers for the defence denounce a lack of transparency, saying that their clients have had to make statements without knowing what they are accused of [2]. "[They] speak of terrorism without specifying concrete criminal acts, or concrete individualised facts attributed to each of them.” [1] When challenged on this, Judge Bermúdez responded: "I am not investigating specific acts, I am investigating the organization, and the threat they might pose in the future" [1]; making this yet another case of apparently preventative arrests. Four of the detainees have been released, but the remaining seven have been jailed pending trial. The reasons given by the judge for their continued detention include the posession of certain books, "the production of publications and forms of communication”, and the fact that the defendants “used emails with extreme security measures, such as the server RISE UP.”[2]

There were several cases in the last decade where people were accused because of "conspiratorial behaviour". In Germany, in 2007, 4 people were arrested. One of them because he met with another suspect twice more than in the previous five months, leaving mobile phones at home for some meetings, and so on. [3]
Nearly the same thing happened in Austria in 2008 when 13 people were arrested. One reason was: they were using encrypted e-mail.
In both cases and in several others this kind of "conspiratorial behaviour" has been used as a reason to keep people in jail during the investigation period. In the eyes of investigators, every meeting/email/phonecall of which the contents are not known, is “conspiratorial.” The legitimate protection of the private sphere is criminalised and - in the eyes of state prosecutors - constitutes proof of terrorist organisation.

We are appalled that the use of our services - and privacy measures in general - is considered tantamount to terrorism. No one is a terrorist because of protecting ones privacy. In a world where our every move is monitored by state and corporate interests, the use of encryption is an essential self-defense towards maintaining personal integrity. As such, every email provider should enable "extreme security measures". We as hosting provider commit ourselves to protecting the data of our users in every way possible for us. We will not sell or hand out the data of our users. The state may thus think of us as supporting terrorism, but the only terror we see connecting the aforementioned cases is that of arbitrary repression aimed at those who do not want to voluntarily expose their private lives.

[1]: https://directa.cat/actualitat/pandora-empresonada
[2]: https://directa.cat/jutge-gomez-bermudez-envia-preso-set-de-onze-persone...
[3]: http://einstellung.so36.net/en/1363
[4]: http://antirep2008.org/?p=14&lang=en

Ubica evicted :(

groente — Tue, 28 May 2013 11:33:47 +0000

Fridaynight Ubica, the squat that has kindly given a physical space to PUSCII, got evicted. With the eviction, an end has come to one of the last autonomous spaces in Utrecht. When it was squatted in 1992, the building had suffered from a fire that had ravaged most of the inside. With a lot of hard work and investment, the squatters have managed to renovate the building in a DIY spirit. During its 21 year squatted existence, Ubica became not only a home to many people, it has also offered space to a wide variety of social and political activities. There was PUSCII, vegan restaurant Black Lentil, infoshop Schism, swopshop Tranendal, anarchist library De Zwarte Wurm, Food not Bombs, art-expositions, concerts, film evenings, a free hostel for touring bands, a meetingspace for political groups, cargo-bikes to be borrowed, a workspace for motorized cargo-bikes, etc. etc. The eviction was preceded by a messy series of several courtcases between the owner, the aspiring new owner and the squatters. The current owner, Vloet, is a notorious realestate criminal, infamous and convicted for his abuse of tennants with bizarre extremes including the smearing of feces on the walls of their rooms. Last year, Vloet made an arrangement with Klaassen, who wishes to buy the Ubica and turn it into a fancy hotel. However, after Klaassen acquired all the necessary permits for the rebuilding, Vloet stated he no longer wanted to sell the Ubica. In the meantime, the sale was already used as a ground for eviction. Yet another courtcase, which is planned for next week, is to determine who will become or remain owner of the Ubica... The eviction itself was a fine display of burning streets, fireworks, paintbombs and barricades made of steel and concrete that kept the cops busy for over 15 hours. Excellent diy footage can be found on the Pinknoise website and there's a gallery with pictures here. Sadly, it has left us with 10 comrades imprisoned. Solidarity actions will be announced on indymedia. PUSCII will be organising its events in the ACU (Voorstraat 71) from now on.

PUSCII blog - repression

Privacy is not terrorism

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Ubica evicted :(

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