Obama’s ‘Internet in a Suitcase’ sneaks free speech across borders

The Obama administration has invested $70 million to develop a “stealth internet” and cell phone system that will help dissidents in autocratic countries get around censorship and undermine dictatorships, the New York Times first learned from classified diplomatic cables leaked by Wikileaks.

Among these high-tech “secret” weapons is the Internet in a Suitcase:

“Financed with a $2 million State Department grant, the suitcase could be secreted across a border and quickly set up to allow wireless communication over a wide area with a link to the global Internet.

“The American effort, revealed in dozens of interviews, planning documents and classified diplomatic cables obtained by The New York Times, ranges in scale, cost and sophistication.”

Read the NYTimes story: U.S. Underwrites Internet Detour Around Censors

Clay Shirky elaborates on his quotes in the NYTimes piece:
Free speech Is Not A Pony « Clay Shirky.