According to Army Lt. Col. Samuel House, who spoke with the AP, the shutdown was a response to a May 6 press release from Anonymous, titled “We are closing Guantanamo Bay for good.” The release lists the phone numbers of the White House, US Southern Command, and the Department of Defense, links to a Change.org petition to close Guantanamo, and urges readers to “join global actions on the ground and hacktivist protests as well as twitterstorms, email bombs, and fax bombs, in 3 days of nonstop action.”

Unlike in earlier operations, where Anonymous has threatened to “lay waste to…servers” in response to human rights violations in Bahrain or to prevent the State of the Union from being broadcast online, the #OpGTMO press release doesn’t appear to contain any specific hacking-related threats. In fact, I can’t find anything “threatening” at all about this entirely legitimate call to legal civic action.

I’m left wondering: why, exactly, was shutting down wifi and access to social media an appropriate response? (And furthermore, how would these measures—especially blocking Facebook and Twitter—even make a difference, were Anonymous or others to decide to launch a DDoS attack against US military servers?) So far the best commentary I can find on this issue comes from Brittany Hillen at Slashgear:

It is worth noting the press release doesn’t say anything about hacking or cyberattacking the network, instead urging the public to bombard the powers that be with denouncements of the prison’s conditions, actions, and continued existence. As such, it has been pointed out on the Operation Guantanamo’s Twitter account that the base has taken itself offline, with the hacking collective not having to do anything, seemingly fulfilling the purpose it was assumed Anonymous sought to achieve.

There’s no word on when the network will be available again.

Ahem.

(Relatedly: does anyone know what the non-military Internet access options are for military service members on the island? General Internet access in Cuba is fairly dismal, but I’m wondering what other options, if any, exist for the average sailor/Marine.)

The ICC: I do not think it means what you think it means.

(h/t @Wronging Rights)

Boston-area folks: it’s also playing at the Salem Film Fest on March 12, 2013. It’s not available in the States yet, so this might be your only chance to see it for a while.

— William Allen White, “A Song for Kansas Day”

She geotagged the album as taking place in Uganda, and when I clicked on the “Uganda” link, mistaking it for the album title…

…I was redirected here:

Once again, for those of you who missed it:

I clicked on:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Uganda/106029926094101

and was redirected to:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Joseph-Kony/112208505457015?rf=106029926094101

Dear Facebook: WHAT THE FUCK.

(Also: 70,000 people “like” Kony on Facebook. WHAT DOES IT MEAN.)

UPDATE: As of Wednesday morning EST, this appears to be fixed. The country page for the United Kingdom, however, redirects to a page for the Britanica Summer Academy.

That is all.

(I ran a half marathon today.)

Blogren, perchance we can assemble a UBHH?

IT WILL BE FUN.

(Spoiler: it TOTALLY WAS.)