[Kaitain]

Ah, so they've been caught in the act, this time. It's funny that we've made a meal out of companies facilitating foreign governments' censorship policies, yet have completely failed to address those of our own government.

Our respective governments have had an unhealthy interest in information control ever since the value of information became known. Don't forget that WW2 was won both in Germany and Japan by superior information systems, not by any military advantage (indeed, in Europe, the Allies fought at a disadvantage). This is a lesson learned, and well learned.

Information control is paramount: you can lie to people if they cannot disprove you. You can tell barefaced lies if people cannot back up their suspicions. You can change your story halfway through, but if you can assert strongly enough that you have always held these opinions, people will believe you.

I really wish I'd had the wit in 2002 to take newspaper cuttings of the buildup to the latest Iraq war. I would love to have evidence of the number of times the general populace has been persuaded to believe changing stories. I would also love to compare the cuttings I would have filed with those in the British Library today... would be highly revealing if they were different.

Gizmo, you're right we need to call our politicians to account, re-invigorate the meaning of democracy, and reclaim some of the rights we've foolishly allowed to slip. How to go about persuading an apathetic, politically dim-witted population to take notice, though....