How to Use P2P Networks - outragedmoderates.org

Introduction | Access P2P Networks | BitTorrent Links | Verify Downloaded Documents | Other Political P2P Sites

INTRODUCTION

Peer-to-peer file sharing, or "P2P," is best known for the role it has had in transforming the music industry. But what about using P2P to provide people with a way to rapidly transmit large amounts of political information? This isn't a new idea - other groups, including the Libertarian Party, have used P2P to transmit political information before. But P2P hasn't realized its full political potential until it has had a significant impact on the national political conversation.

I think the time is right. The Download For Democracy campaign is currently offering PDF's of over a thousand government memos, communications, and reports, all of which were obtained from mainstream media sources, respected legal or academic groups, or the federal government itself. For a listing of the documents that are currently available, and source information, go to the Government Document Library. Since late March, over 3 million pages of government documents have been downloaded from outragedmoderates.org via P2P.

To understand why I'm so excited about this political application of P2P technology, take the example of the energy task force documents obtained by the Natural Resources Defense Council in the group's suit against Vice President Cheney. [NRDC] The NRDC has posted these documents online in batches of roughly 25 pages. It took me about 4 hours, and in my estimation, at least 2,000 mouse clicks, to download all of the batches individually, and save each one to my computer.

ACCESS P2P NETWORKS

The Download For Democracy is currently offering downloads exclusively through BitTorrent. Links to several BitTorrent clients (programs) are listed below. Azureus and Shareaza are probably the simplest for beginners.

BitTorrent (original program) [Download]
Azureus [Download]
Shareaza [Download]

Once you have a BitTorrent client installed, click on one of the torrent links below to begin downloading. When the prompt comes up, save the torrent to a folder or to your desktop. Once the torrent has saved, open the torrent, and your BitTorrent client should begin downloading the files. In addition to these BitTorrent clients, a number of other P2P programs, such as Limewire, can download BitTorrent files when set as your default magnet link handler.

The filenames of the documents featured in the Download For Democracy campaign include the source information. For example:

Energy_Task_Force-Iraq _Oil _Map-Judicial_Watch

BITTORRENT LINKS (must have a BitTorrent client installed; torrents hosted by Prodigem - the free, fool-proof way to put stuff on BitTorrent)

American Revolution documents (22.6 MB zip file - hi-resolution PDFs from the National Archives & Records Administration's "100 Milestone Documents" Collection, including images of original copies of the Declaration of Independence, The Treaty of Paris, the US Constitution, the Bill of Rights, George Washington's 1789 inaugural address, and the original design of the Great Seal of the United States)
Civil War documents (26 MB - hi-resolution PDFs from the National Archives & Records Administration's "100 Milestone Documents" Collection, including images of the telegraph announcing the surrender of Fort Sumter, the Emancipation Proclamation, the Gettysburg Address, Lincoln's second inaugural speech, the Surrender of Robert E. Lee's Army of Northern Virginia, and the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments  - details)
World War II documents (18 MB zip file - includes Surrender of Germany, FDR's Address to Congress on 12/08/41, page from Manhattan Project Notebook - details)
Al Qaeda documents (5 MB zip file - includes the Al Qaeda training manual released by the Department of Justice and several pre-9/11 letters and notes between Al Qaeda members on the group's attempts to obtain biological weapons, which were obtained under FOIA by Ross Getman - details)
527 Group Data from PublicIntegrity.org (13.1 MB - data compiled by The Center for Public Integrity on contributions to, and expenditures by, 45 major 527 groups during 2004. In addition to 90 text files of contributions and expenditures, the zip file includes two slide shows created by The Center for Public Integrity, titled "The 527 Phenomenon" and "527s in the 2004 Election" - details)
Nixon phone call with "Deep Throat" (16.8 MB - three mp3 audio files from the Nixon Tapes involving former FBI official Mark Felt - details)
British Iraq documents (5.8 MB zip file - includes the Downing Street Memo dated 7.23.02, Attorney General Lord Goldsmith's memos from 3.10.03 and 3.17.03, the British dossiers on WMD and Human Rights, the Hutton Inquiry, the Butler Report and
two other post-war intelligence reviews - details)
US documents on handling of Koran (16.6 MB zip file - 2,500 pages of FBI documents, including interviews with Guantanamo prisoners, released by the ACLU on 5/25/05-5/26/05; the Department of Defense memo on the handling of Korans, dated 1/19/03; and the US Southern Command's Koran Inquiry, released on 6/3/05 - details)
ACLU Army FOIA documents (56 MB zip file - 2,000 pages of Army FOIA documents released by the ACLU on 5/18/05, including the investigation into two detainees' deaths in Bagram, Afghanistan - details)
Return of the Fallen (181 MB zip file - 363 hi-res photos of fallen soldiers' return to the US, released by the Department of Defense under a FOIA lawsuit brought by Univ. of Delaware Professor Ralph Begleiter, with the support of the National Security Archive and the Washington, D.C. office of the law firm Jenner & Block. These somber photos are from the NSA's Electronic Briefing Book No. 152, Return of the Fallen.)
Country Reports on Terrorism (12.8 MB - The State Department's Country Reports on Terrorism for 2004, and the NCTC's Chronology of Significant International Terrorism for 2004, which provides the data left out of the State Department report; as well as the 2003 version of the State Department's report, Patterns of Global Terrorism 2003, including the revised Appendices A and G, which reflected higher numbers of attacks and fatalities than the original report)
Bolton Nomination Interviews (1.0 MB - 9 documents from the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, including interviews with four former intelligence officers, and statements by Committee Chairman Lugar and Ranking Minority Member Biden)
UN Oil-for-Food documents (62.0 MB zip file - 72 documents from the IIC-OFFP
headed by Paul Volcker, including the First and Second Interim Reports, 58 internal audit reports, and the Committee's briefing papers and status reports)
Commission on Intelligence Capabilities WMD report (6.4 MB zip file - the Commission on Intelligence Capabilities WMD report - and - the "Key Findings" section from the Duelfer CIA report on Iraq WMD; the "Conclusions" section from the Senate Intelligence Committee's report on Iraq; the 45 PowerPoint slides on WMDs Colin Powell presented to the UN on 2/5/03; and the Forged Iraq Uranium documents)
MGM v. Grokster Briefs (20.7 MB zip file - all 74 of the briefs submitted to the Supreme Court re: MGM v. Grokster)
Betamax legal documents (4.7 MB - 41 legal documents and briefs from the Supreme Court's 1984 Betamax decision from the Electronic Frontier Foundation)
Betamax mp3s - (52.7 MB - 2 mp3s of the oral arguments in the Supreme Court's 1984 Betamax decision from the Electronic Frontier Foundation)
National Security Archive Pre-9/11 intelligence documents - (12.2 MB - 10 documents from the National Security Archive on pre-9/11 intelligence, including the "Bin Ladin Determined to Strike in US" briefing of 8/6/01, Richard Clarke's memo to Condoleeza Rice dated 1/25/01, and a declassified 9/11 Commission staff report.
Saudi Flights After 9-11 - (4.6 MB - 2 FBI documents and 1 Homeland Security document obtained by Judicial Watch, and the manifest for the "Bin Laden Flight")
9-11 Commission documents (30.0 MB zip file - the Complete 9-11 Commission Report, the Monographs on Terrorist Financing and Terrorist Travel, the 17 Staff Statements, and 46 PDFs of testimony by Bush and Clinton administration officials
and local government officials, from 9-11commission.gov)
Colin Powell's presentation to the UN (1.4 MB - the 45 PowerPoint slides on WMDs presented to the UN on Feb. 5, 2003, and the White House's press release)
Iraq WMD documents (195.5 MB - entire Duelfer CIA report on WMD & the 4 forged Iraq uranium letters)
Forged Iraq uranium documents (221.8 KB - just the 4 letters)
Halliburton documents (62.1 MB - 15 documents, including the "coordinated w VP's office" email, the no-bid Restore Iraqi Oil contract, the LOGCAP contract, and five former employees' testimony on wasteful practices)
Torture scandal documents (32.5 MB - 30 memos, reports, and sworn statements)
Featured Energy Task Force documents (10.1 MB - 19 key documents, most of them from the NRDC, featured in outragedmoderates.org's document analysis posts on the Energy Task Force, including the Iraq Oil Map, the "If You Were King" email, and Executive Order 13211)

Check out other political P2P sites offering a variety of torrents.