<nettime> ...VIEQUES DECLARES VICTORY...

[diane ludin <duras@thing.net>]

> VIRTUAL SIT-IN FOR VIEQUES DECLARES VICTORY IN
> NETSTRIKE AGAINST US NAVY
>
> 6/13/1: The Virtual Sit-in for Vieques declared
> victory today after nearly
> 1,300 people worldwide participated in an electronic
> civil disobedience
> action targeted at the US Navy's website. The action
> was in protest against
> the Navy's preparation today for continued bombing
> exercises on the island
> of Vieques, Puerto Rico.
>
> The electronic action worked by automatically
> filling out the Navy's online
> enlistment form (http://www.navy.com/join_now.jsp)
> with a protest message in
> place of the name, address, and other information
> fields (Name: Que se Vaya,
> Last name: la Marina, Address: de Vieques, Coņo!
> 00911).
>
> Around 6pm a Navy web administrator called
> organizers with a plea for an end
> to the action, exclaiming "You've flooded the
> enlistement database with
> thousands of messages and now our servers are
> slowing down, you've got to
> stop it." Organizers called a stop to the action,
> which was not intended to
> slow Navy servers but rather to flood the
> recruitment database with protest
> messages, and declared victory.
>
> The action was organized with support from the
> Electronic Disturbance
> Theater and the Comite Pro Rescate y Desarollo de
> Vieques. The purpose of
> the site, as posted online during the action:
>
> "Why a Virtual Sit-In? To support the demand that
> the US Navy cease their
> wargames and leave Vieques in peace. To add our
> virtual bodies to the
> presence of the physical bodies of Puertorican
> activists who will occupy the
> bombing ranges of la Isla Nena. To attract media
> attention by engaging in a
> new form of protest action. To send a message to the
> United States
> government that we will not be silenced until the
> people of Vieques can live
> without the sound of jets screaming overhead,
> without the destruction of
> their beaches and coral reefs, without the high
> cancer rates caused by
> depleted uranium found in bullets and shell casings,
> without the
> 'accidental' deaths of civilians. To add our voices
> to the cry "Deja Vieques
> en Paz! Ni Una Mas! [leave Vieques in peace! Not one
> more Bomb!]"
>
> The Virtual Sit-in site:
> http://www.freespeech.org/provieques
> Vieques Libre: http://www.viequeslibre.org
>
> ----------------------
> For more information on this electronic action,
> contact:
> Sasha Costanza-Chock
>
>              617.968.5273
>
> trabalengua@hotmail.com

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