[Infowarrior] - Gmail may hand over IP addresses of journalists

[Richard Forno]

Gmail may hand over IP addresses of journalists
 From Wikileaks
Monday August 31, 2009
By Julian Assange (WikiLeaks)

http://www.wikileaks.org/wiki/Gmail_may_hand_over_IP_addresses_of_journalists

A California court has issued a subpoena demanding Google reveal the  
IP addresses of journalists writing for a corruption busting journal  
from the Caribbean.

The August 28 subpoena, issued by the Superior Court, County of Santa  
Clara, as part of a "libel tourism" action taken by non-US property  
developers, demands detailed information about the operators of "tcijournal at gmail.com 
". The account is the main email address of the TCI Journal, the most  
influential journal covering the Turks & Caicos Islands. The Islands  
are a tourist mecca and tax haven in the Caribbean sea, and until  
August 14 were an independent British protectorate.

Exposures in the Journal culminated in a dramatic UK governance  
takeover of the Islands on August 14.

A trail of evidence dug up by the TCI Journal, a UK commission of  
inquiry, and others, showed that foreign property developers were  
giving millions in secret loans and payments to senior Islander  
politicians, including an alleged $500,000 cash payment to the  
Island's now former Premier, Michael Misick.

The Commission of Inquiry Final Report was released on the 18th of  
July this year in significatly redacted form. A full version was  
released by WikiLeaks. A High Court case ensued which initially  
enjoined all media in the Islands from reporting the redacted  
findings, however within a few days this restriction was overturned.

The Gmail subpeona applicant, property developer Dr. Cem Kinay, along  
with his two companies, Turks Ltd, and Star Platinum Island, were  
mentioned several times during public oral hearings of the Commission  
of Inquiry and featured significantly in the redacted portions of the  
Commission's Final Report.

In particular there are allegations of bribery of public officials  
(e.g of the Premier with an irregular payment of $500,000), in the  
acquisition of public land valued by the government appraiser at  
approximately $60 - $100 million dollars U.S., for a price of $3.2  
million dollars.

On August 14, the UK announced that it had taken direct rule over the  
Islands and suspended its parliament.

According to the notifying letter from Google to the Journal, Google  
intends to hand over the requested records in just over two weeks,  
without any defense, and states that the Journal may file a counter- 
motion with the Santa-Clara court itself.

Subpoenas for records are rubber-stamped by US courts, meaning that  
anyone in a position to start law suits in California can obtain  
private information about Gmail users who are not in a position to  
respond in kind, including cash-strapped corruption busting  
journalists from the Caribbean.

Google has elected to keep extensive, non-anoymized records on its  
users, but not defend these records from disclosure. This combination,  
together with inequitable access to justice in Californian courts, is  
toxic.