It can’t be easy maintaining the belief that the protests in the Middle East hadn’t US backing in the face of reports like this one in the San Francisco Chronicle:

The Obama administration may not be lending arms to dissidents in the Middle East, but it is offering aid in another critical way: helping them surf the Web anonymously as they seek to overthrow their governments.

Federal agencies – such as the State Department, the Defense Department and the Broadcasting Board of Governors – have been funding a handful of technology firms that allow people to get online without being tracked or to visit news or social media sites that governments have blocked. Many of these little-known organizations – such as the Tor Project and UltraReach – are unabashedly supportive of the activists in the Middle East.

…

The technology that is now taking off in Egypt, Tunisia and Libya through word of mouth began as tools of digital disobedience elsewhere. In general, these programs work by redirecting users’ Web traffic to servers outside their country. That makes it more difficult to identify the users while giving them access to blocked sites.

Federal agencies have funded these companies through grants and contracts. By late spring, the State Department is expected to begin doling out even more money – about $30 million – to technology firms and human rights groups to help people shatter firewalls and surf the Web without being tracked.

More than 60 nonprofit groups and other organizations have applied for awards, which range from $500,000 to $8 million.

Submitted by Aletho News on Sun, 2011-03-13 03:59

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