Texas-based web hosting company Rackspace Managed Hosting handed over two UK based servers containing Indymedia websites to government agents Thursday morning. The order was apparently issued by a U.S. District Court and served by the FBI, on behalf of a foreign government. Rackspace has refused to comment on what information had been requested or why the servers were confiscated, citing the court order.
Indymedia has learned that the request to seize Indymedia servers hosted by a US company in the UK originated from government agencies in Italy and Switzerland. More than 20 Indymedia sites, several internet radio streams and other projects were hosted on the servers.
According to Italian news agency reports and an Agence France-Presse (AFP) interview with FBI spokesman Joe Parris, the FBI acted on Italian and Swiss requests. "It is not an FBI operation," Parris told AFP. "Through a legal assistance treaty, the subpoena was on behalf of a third country."
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