30 July 2012

Tor to Offer USG Funds for Exit Relays 2

Previous:

http://cryptome.org/2012/07/tor-exits-usg-funds.htm

Tor-talk unsubbed me yesterday, probably for publishing on Cryptome Eugen's forward of this thread's initial message from Roger Dingledine, with our additional pointers to enduring USG funding of the Tor Project.

That Tor Project has enlisted many dedicated participants around the world is most admirable. If it was not so jingoistic and US-promotional it would be a crowd-source service deserving of trustworthiness.

Its long-time funding by the USG propaganda agency, the Broadcast Board of Governors, as well as several front organizations, is not to be overlooked by incessant braggardy, technical conceit and thin-skinnedness by its spokespersons, primarily majordomos Andrew Lewman and Jacob Appelbaum, now joined by sub-lieutenants to admit no serious faults in the system. (The inventors and most capable technologists of Tor do not exaggerate its virtues.)

Tor Project's duplicity reminds of ICANN and a slew of other USG TLA initiatives to maintain control of the Internet while espousing a US-centric version of information freedom which actually serves as a component of the US national security regime.

State Department brags of the thousands of info fighters it is subsidizing, and NSA is openly recruiting hackers. It should be assumed that the TLAs have co-opted Anonymous-like initiatives in concert with pernicious sockpuppetry in social media.

Tor Project would benefit from escaping USG financial clutches, albeit difficult if dependency has become inured. The proposal to expand USG funding for exit relays -- its most vulnerable and compromisable aspect -- is a gift horse needing a dental check before buying in.