Amazon Dumps Wikileaks From Its Servers, US Gov't Tightens Security - DailyTech

Wikileaks accuses Amazon of violating free speech

As reported earlier this week, following its leak of 250,000 classified U.S. State Department diplomatic cables, Wikileaks was targeted by a distributed denial of service attack.  The site, which had been hosted primarily on Swedish hosting service Bahnhof, went down for a while on Sunday following the leak.

By Monday it was back up again.  According to details newly released from the site, its restoration came as it switched to Amazon's EC2 cloud computing platform, a service that allows users to rent as many virtual servers as they want.

Wikileaks Gets Dumped

The bad news for Wikileaks is that Amazon apparently dumped it sometime yesterday.

Wikileaks posted on Twitter:

WikiLeaks servers at Amazon ousted. Free speech the land of the free--fine our $ are now spent to employ people in Europe.

And then...

If Amazon are so uncomfortable with the first amendment, they should get out of the business of selling books.

The quote represents a fundamental misunderstanding of the first amendment, which is perhaps understandable given that the Wikileaks folks by and large aren't from the U.S.  The First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution protects the government from infringing on your free speech, but it's perfectly legal in the U.S. for businesses to kick you out and deny you access to their property if they don't like what your saying.

According to The Seattle Times, Amazon was contacted by a Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee official who pressured the company to dump the site.  Much as it might have agreed to ditch an Al Qaeda site, Amazon agreed to dump Wikileaks, a site whose primary focus over the last several years has been against the U.S. government.

Moved back to Bahnhof, Wikileaks appears to be up and responsive at the present.

Government Beefs up Security

U.S. President Barack Obama has set up a special panel to assess the fallout of the leaked cables and determine steps to secure confidential government data better in the future.  The embarrassing deluge of private diplomatic observations of the government has convinced many that some sort of shake up is necessary.

The relative insecurity of classified government data is largely a result of post-9/11 efforts to share more information between various intelligence and defense agencies.  That effort resulted in low level military analysts having access to a wealth of confidential information.  One such analyst, a disgruntled soldier name Bradley Manning, was responsible for the recent leaks to Wikileaks, a move he made after he was demoted.

One problem, though, is that officials can't seem to agree on how to enhance security.  The National Counterintelligence Executive, part of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, the most senior U.S. intelligence official was going to set up teams of inspectors to assess each agency's security policies.  However, the U.S. military apparently complained, fearful of interference from intelligence agents.  As a result the idea has been scrapped.

What is clear is that the U.S. government needs to do something to secure its information from malicious governments like China or organizations like Wikileaks.  What is less clear is how that should be accomplished exactly.

"Let's face it, we're not changing the world. We're building a product that helps people buy more crap - and watch porn." -- Seagate CEO Bill Watkins
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Euro to struggle vs dollar and pound: Reuters poll - Reuters

By Jonathan Cable

LONDON | Thu Dec 2, 2010 7:17am EST

LONDON (Reuters) - The battered euro will fail in the coming year to recoup its recent sharp losses as the debt crisis in the bloc rumbles on and fears over the economic stability of periphery members weighs on minds, a Reuters poll found.

The poll of 60 foreign exchange strategists, taken this week ahead of the European Central Bank's announcement on monetary policy, predicted the euro would be trading at $1.31 in a year's time, weaker than the $1.33 predicted in last month's poll.

The euro, trading around $1.31 on Thursday, is seen at $1.32 in one and six months, significantly down from the respective $1.40 and $1.35 predicted last month.

"EMU tensions continuing to affect the EU periphery will easily represent a source of volatility for EUR-USD until the end of the year and likely throughout Q1 2011," said Roberto Mialich at UniCredit.

The ECB is under pressure to act when it meets later on Thursday to help the euro zone contain a crippling debt crisis that has stoked contagion fears in the United States and Asia.

After an Irish rescue package of 85 billion euros from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund announced this week, worries remain that bailouts will be needed in other euro zone countries.

Hopes that the ECB will rush through new anti-crisis measures, such as expanding its government bond buying, helped the euro -- which posted its biggest one-day rise in more than a month on Wednesday -- stabilize and lifted stock markets on Thursday.

But the central bank risks disappointing markets if, as several analysts predict, it will only decide at its monthly meeting that its liquidity taps for euro zone banks will stay wide open and merely hint at more government bond purchases.

A Reuters poll published on Tuesday predicted the ECB would not announce the return of competitive auctions for its three-month refinancing operations and keep its supply of unlimited funds open to help struggling banks in the euro zone's periphery.

The United States Federal Reserve said last month it would buy $600 billion worth of U.S. government debt by June 2011 to boost the country's economic recovery but knocking the greenback.

Uncertainty in the market was seen driving up volatility for the euro and the yen this month. Analysts say the divergence of forecasts in Reuters currency polls offers a leading indicator of exchange rate volatility in the following month.

POUND GAINS SOME WEIGHT

Sterling will hold in a relatively tight trading band against the dollar over the coming year as a fairly strong economic recovery is offset by the impact of deep government spending cuts.

The poll showed cable at $1.57 in one month before nudging up to $1.59 in six and holding there for a further six months, compared to 1-,6- and 12-month forecasts of $1.60, $1.59 and $1.58 in November's poll.

A Reuters poll published on Wednesday showed the chances of the Bank of England echoing the Fed and extending its own quantitative easing program were diminishing but did not see a hike from record low interest rates until next October at least.

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Post Carbon: Obama administration reimposes offshore oil drilling ban - Washington Post

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar announced Wednesday afternoon that the Obama administration will not allow offshore oil drilling in the eastern Gulf of Mexico or off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts as part of the next five-year drilling plan, reversing two key policy changes President Obama announced in late March.

"We are adjusting our strategy in areas where there are no active leases," Salazar told reporters in a phone call, adding that the administration has decided "not expand to new areas at this time" and instead "focus and expand our critical resources on areas that are currently active" when it comes to oil and gas drilling.

In March--less than a month before the BP oil spill--Obama and Salazar said they would open up the eastern Gulf and parts of the Atlantic, including off the coast of Virginia, to offshore oil and gas exploration. On both of those new areas, the administration said it would start scoping to see if oil and gas drilling would be suitable. The eastern Gulf remains closed to drilling under a congressional moratorium, but the White House indicated it would press to lift the moratorium if necessary.

Wednesday's announcement is sure to please environmentalists while angering oil and gas companies as well as some lawmakers from both parties who have pressed for continued offshore energy exploration in the wake of massive Gulf of Mexico spill.

Salazar said while the administration will still allow offshore drilling in both the central and western Gulf of Mexico and in the Arctic, it will delay lease sales planned for March and August in the gulf to conduct additional environmental reviews, and will prepare a new environmental assessment of Shell's proposal to drill in Alaska's Beaufort Sea next year. Shell officials warned that the additional review could jeopardize its ability to explore for oil and gas in the Arctic in 2011.

Marilyn Heiman, director of offshore energy reform for the Pew Environment Group, welcomed the announcement but questioned why the administration is still leaving open the possibility of leasing areas in the Chukchi and Beaufort Seas between 2012 and 2017.

"Much more needs to be done to ensure there is adequate spill response capability that is proven to work in Arctic conditions before drilling can be considered," she said.

Sen. Bill Nelson (D-Fla.), who has consistently pushed to restrict drilling in the eastern gulf, also welcomed the news. Salazar called the senator Wednesday morning, according to Nelson spokesman Dan McLaughlin, but the two men did not speak yet because Nelson is chairing a hearing.

"Drilling off Florida's Gulf coast is banned at least until 2022, under a 2006 law passed by Senator Nelson," McLaughlin said. "The senator is pleased the White House has decided rightly to keep the area off-limits. He hopes Florida's next governor and the Legislature similarly will commit to protecting the state's tourism economy and unique environment."

Activists such as Margie Alt, executive director of Environment America, also praised the administration's plan, saying, "Today, anyone who loves our beaches, who fishes in the ocean or who depends on a healthy coastal economy can thank the Obama administration for protecting the Atlantic and Pacific coasts and the west coast of Florida from oil drilling. The BP disaster earlier this year was a tragic reminder that drilling is a dirty and dangerous business. The only way to truly keep our coasts and ocean ecosystems safe is to keep them rig free."

But the move could spark a backlash from business interests as well from both many congressional Republicans and conservative Democrats such as Sen. Manry Landrieu, who argue that curbing offshore energy exploration could exacerbate the nation's economic woes.

Karen Harbert, president and CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce's Institute for 21st Century Energy, said in a statement, "The Administration is sending a message to America's oil and gas industry: take your capital, technology, and jobs somewhere else."

Rep. Doc Hastings (Wash.), the top Republican on the House Resources Committee, issued a statement Wednesday afternoon accusing the administration of "taking the wrong approach in responding to the BP spill and creating energy and energy jobs in this country. The answer isn't to give up and say, 'America can't figure it out, we'll rely on other countries to produce our energy.' The answer is to find out what went wrong and make effective, timely reforms to ensure that U.S. offshore drilling is the safest in the world."

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