Indymedia.us is happy to announce that we've managed, after nearly a year of legal action on our behalf by the Electronic Frontier Foundation, to successfully fight back against a bogus subpoena request issued by the FBI in conjunction with a grand jury investigation. The request demanded we turn over all IP address logs for a day in June of 2008 - not only did Indymedia.us object to this blatantly illegitimate and overly broad request, but, per accepted Indymedia best practices, we do not keep such logs in the first place, in order to maximally ensure the privacy of our site users. Also troubling was the fact that the indymedia.us sysadmin who received the subpoena was also bound by its gag order provision, making her unable to discuss the legal issue with the broader network of collectives cooperating on the indymedia.us site. We're happy that the EFF was ultimately able to get this demand for silence shown to be illegitimate as well —- one can only wonder how many ISPs silently capitulate to similarly broad and unconstitutional requests. Rochester Indymedia does not log IP addresses or any other information about users when they visit our site. This story is why!

Additional Information: From EFF's Secret Files: Anatomy of a Bogus Subpoena —- How the Government Secretly Demanded the IP Address of Every Visitor to Political News Site Indymedia.us | DeclanMcCullagh: Justice Dept. Asked For News Site's Visitor Lists | List of previous incidents of legal repression of Indymedia centers | Interview with Indymedia sys admin Kristina Clair | US-Behörde wollte illegal an Nutzerdaten von indymedia.us gelangen | Interview with EFF lawyer Kevin Bankston | Other links

Related Coverage: PCJF wins settlement in illegal arrest case in D.C. | Second Subpoena Issued for Iowa Grand Jury | The FBI Comes Calling, And The Struggle Continues…….

Read more; Click here!

Protesters chanting “Hey Obama let mama marry mama” and “LGBT we demand equality” gathered in front of the Federal Building on November 4 to condemn actions in the nearby state of Maine. Earlier in the year, courts in Maine determined that marriage was a civil right under the state's constitution and extended that right to all couples. Those rights were then taken away by a close ballot referendum on November 3. The protest was organized by the Civil Rights Front and participants included the Gay Alliance, Pride At Work, International Socialist Organization and Students For A Democratic Society. Read more; click here!

Video: From the Maine Video Activists Network: Gay Marriage and Petitioning

Additional Information: Chicago IMC: Maine: Analyzing Failure #31 | Seattle IMC: November 14th: Victory! Approve 71 Thank-You Rally

Last weekend, I had the pleasure of attending the 10-year Indymedia Anniversary Gathering in Troy, NY.

Ten years ago this month, thousands of peaceful protesters faced down a massive paramilitary force in Seattle—successfully preventing the World Trade Organization from meeting and marking a new era of resistance to corporate globalization.

Their struggle was documented on the ground by a new media activist phenomenon called Indymedia, which has since spread around the world.

Listen to the audio reports below to hear Indymedia activists from Troy, Rochester, Worcester and Woodstock discuss the last 10 years of Indymedia and where we go from here.

• Interviews From 10-year IMC Anniversary Gathering (mp3 version)
• Interviews From 10-year IMC Anniversary Gathering (ogg version)

Related: LA Indymedia: Celebrating 10 Years Since the Battle of Seattle

On this Veterans Day, let us remember the soldiers and veterans that have died from injuries sustained in war, but go unacknowledged. I am speaking of the thousands of men and women who have taken their own lives as a result of the US government sending them to war, often repeatedly.

Additional Information: Suicide Epidemic Among Veterans | US military suicide rate at record high | Massive Suicide Rate for Vietnam Veterans’ Children | Current Trends Postservice Mortality Among Vietnam Veterans | VA: Overview of Homelessness | Deadly aftermath for Vietnam veterans. | Vietnam Veterans who have Died from Agent Orange | Agent Orange: Treatment For Vets Still Lagging, Says Report | Uncle Sam's Human Lab Rats | Mapping Trauma and its Wake: Autobiographic Essays by Pioneer Trauma Scholars (.pdf) | Multiple Deployments May Raise Risk of Military Spouse Suicide | Germ War: The US Record | Casualties in Iraq

Mikey Weinstein, founder of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation and author of the book “God on our Side” spoke at the Rochester Institute of Technology on October 17th. He emphasized that the greatest threat to our national security was the Dominionist Fundamentalist Evangelical Christian take over of our military.

Mr. Weinstein also spoke about the proselytizing that goes on within the military, not just amongst the US military personnel, but also in the countries that the US now occupies. Mr. Weinstein stated and that American Fundamentalists Christians had been embedded with the US solders and that they had distributed over 1.8 million of their bibles while in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Video: Mr. Weinstein at RIT

Additional Information: Military Religious Freedom Foundation's Urgent Issues