September, 2005
AOL Spying, Censorship and Sabotage
I hate AOL! I always have. Let me explain. Firstly, over a period of the past ten (10) years many of my messages to persons using AOL as a service provider have been censored, sabotaged, derailed or sent into the purgatory of cyber-space, never to be seen again.
And those particular messages always had content which the government spooks and goons would have considered "subversive".
Since investigating and exposing government corruption is my line of work, it made it nearly impossible to communicate with anyone using AOL. Though I told my associates this, most have been unwilling to get rid of the Big Government Spies at AOL. So after awhile, I usually just gave up on trying to contact them.
I myself have only used AOL once, since I've been on the Internet. That was in January 2002, while I was traveling across the country on an investigation related to the Denver Connection to crime and corruption by government officials, which also involved the Denver FBI (Division 5.)
I used AOL (on a temporary basis) since I had no other choice. I was travelling with a lap top which I used in hotels. One day, in my hotel room in Denver, I was writing a report which needed to be posted within a certain time frame.
I had spent the better part of an hour on this report, and had just about finished when suddenly, BAM! One of the AOL "instant messages" flashed onto the screen and wiped out the whole report. I was so outraged I could have smashed the computer! (Yes, I have quite a temper.) But what good would that have done?
The instant message had been sent by a person (who shall remain nameless and has been forgiven) whom I had told NEVER, EVER to send me these damned-to-hell AOL instant messages. Never, for any reason, even if it were life or death. He did it anyway and AOL ruined my whole day, as I was forced to cancel a meeting to rewrite the report.
Now, once again, AOL is up to its usual dirty tricks. Below is a message I got from these rat bastards about an e-mail I tried to send to XXX. Included in the message was a photo of myself and my son which I plan to use on my new website.
The Subject line reads: WANTED!....BY THE BUSH CRIME LORDS....
For subversive activities.
If you see these dangerous outlaws, contact your local U.S. Marshals.
Barbara Hartwell and son Keith Maximilian Hartwell, October 2004
(Photo courtesy of Secret Service, Kennebunkport, Maine.)
But anyway, on this occasion, after an agent had followed me and my son around town for about an hour, to Union Square, in the middle of town, I finally said to him, Why don't you make yourself useful and take a picture of me and my son? He said he'd be happy to.
The agent was a great photographer! He actually got me to smile, which I don't normally do. I'm camera shy, as most of the photos ever taken of me have been without my consent, by people I don't like, who work for the government.
I liked the photo so much, I decided to use it on my new website.
Which is why I sent it to XXX, as he's helping me to construct my site. But out of all the many, many tries I made to send this message, over a period of three (3) days, XXX received only one. As for the others, I got a bunch of messages from AOL, like the one below (edited to protect privacy.)
----- Original Message -----
From: Mail delivery subsystem
Sent: Monday, September 19, 2005 9:59 AM
Subject: Returned mail: see transcript for details
The original message was received at Wed, 14 Sep 2005
The following addresses had permanent fatal errors
[XXX address]
Transcript of session follows
[XXX address] Deferred
Message could not be delivered for 5 days
Message will be deleted from queue
From: "Barbara Hartwell" To: "XXX"
Subject: Fw: WANTED!... BY THE BUSH CRIME LORDS......
Date: Wed, 14 Sep 2005 09:07:31 -0400
Organization: Legal Defense & Research Fund
Now, here's the interesting part: The exact same e-mail message, complete with photo, was sent to several other friends, over a period of about six months. Those to whom I sent the message include Rick Stanley; Stew Webb (who posted it on his website, along with the text, meant as a joke...well, sort of...though the photo quality didn't come out the best); and Wayne Blanchard. All of them (can I get a witness?) received the message with no problem, on the first try. None of them use AOL.
Recently, an associate of a friend of mine had two federal agents show up at his door, at midnight, as he and his wife were about to retire for the night. Why? Because they had intercepted a message my friend (who is considered a dissident) sent from AOL.
Unbelievable. The Police State of America.
I realize that AOL is not the only server who engages in these unconscionable and unconstitutional invasions of privacy, censorship and sabotage. As John Perna has pointed out in his reports, the whole Internet is under surveillance, and censorship abounds.
And John, unlike me (I'm the one they write the "Internet for Dummies" manuals for) has the expertise with computers to know what he is talking about. But in my opinion, based only on my own experiences, AOL has got to be the absolute worst.
And I have only one more thing to say: Please, please do not e-mail me (as some have done in the past) with some trumped up explanation as to what REALLY happened.
I know what happened. AOL happened.
They are a gang of fascist scumbags who do not respect the privacy of anyone; and further, who enjoy sabotaging anyone who refuses to toe the Big Government line. And reporting back to their masters, the tyrants, criminals and traitors who run the U.S. Government.
And rake in the big bucks doing it.
I would advise anyone using AOL to ditch them and also to publish their own testimony of sabotage and invasions of privacy by AOL.
For those who don't use AOL, don't start now. Boycott them and encourage others to do so. Expose these rat bastards for what they are.
AOL...Go to Hell.
Barbara Hartwell
September 20, 2005