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Training Central for digital activists is the Alliance for Youth Movement

Digital activists in Egypt being trained by internet experts in New York



image The revolution in Egypt is being masterminded by a phalanx of young Internet executives in the Big Apple’s SoHo, specially set up for fomenting revolutions, and the unwitting American taxpayer is paying for it.

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When it comes to Revolution, today’s third world, digital activists are being better trained than anything to be found in Sun Tzu’s famed Art of War, and the ultimate fate of countless people who have never met them is being determined from afar by government-funded computer geeks. Stealth and the cover of anonymity keep the internet warrior trainers safe in offices and homes, but not the tens of thousands on the ground. Identifying revolution rabble rousers would be akin to tracing back flash mobs. Training Central for digital activists is the Alliance for Youth Movement (AYM), a non-profit organization dedicated to promoting, connecting, and supporting digital activists from around the world. The April 6 group, identified as the main mastermind behind the violent protests in Egypt has roots in the Alliance of AYM--tentacles of which reach all the way into the US State Department. image “AYM hosts annual conferences, events, and trainings that link influential leaders in technology, media, private and public sectors with some of the world’s most promising digital activists. The organization’s website, Movements.org serves as a hub for discussion, resources, and news about digital activism around the world.” (Wikipedia). imageJared Cohen, AYM’s co-founder, Director of Google Ideas, an Adjunct Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, cut his teeth as a previous member of the Secretary of State’s Policy Planning staff, where he was a close adviser to both Condoleezza Rice and later Hillary Clinton. Cohen served as a Member of the Secretary of State’s Policy Planning Staff from 2006-2010. Having been brought in at age 24, he is the youngest person to ever serve in this capacity. Kept on by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Cohen helped develop what became known as “21st century statecraft”. Now 30 years of age and with a name that is synonymous with the internet, according to his Wikipedia entry, Cohen can boast “the third largest number of Twitter followers in the US government” behind only Barack Obama and John McCain. Cohen’s influential AYM is home to Ahmed Salah, co-founder of the Shabab 6 April; Movement and an AYM Senior Fellow. AYM do international conferences in GoToMeeting type style. According to the New York Post, AYM has already held three international conferences to arm the digital activists--including members of the Egyptian opposition. The US and British governments fund the groups, the State Department kicking in $220,000 to the group in 2009. The UK gave $350,000, and Pepsi gave $20,000. The money went to organize conferences where hundreds of activists from around the globe networked and got tips on how to use the Internet to get their messages across. “Among those invited to the group’s 2008 conference at Columbia University was a member of Egypt’s April 6 group, which is at the forefront of the current protests.” (New York Post, Feb. 6, 2011). “The unidentified activist reported discussing with other activists there how “April 6 members could more effectively evade harassment and surveillance...with technical upgrades such as consistently alternating computer SIM cards,” according to a WikiLeaks diplomatic cable released last month. “The organization’s Movements.org Web site offers tips on staying connected to the Internet if the government shuts it off, organizing protests using cellphone apps, and expanding a movement’s Facebook base. There is a Twitter feed with updates from Egypt and links to protest organizations. “We believe that technology empowers unlikely leaders to do amazing things,” said Jason Liebman, 35, a founder of the Alliance who also co-founded HowCast Media, a web site of how-to videos. “Today, with only a laptop computer or a mobile phone, people can connect, organize and share at unprecedented levels.” Meanwhile, not since Tokyo Rose has information from afar been manipulated with such ease. Generations indoctrinated by the US’s left-leaning public education system are now 30-year-old Internet executives who wield a power far more deadly than the globe’s most dreaded Armies. And they don’t need a face mask to hide their identities. See list of the Alliance for Youth Movement corporate partnerships here:

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Judi McLeod -- Bio and Archives -- Judi McLeod, Founder, Owner and Editor of Canada Free Press, is an award-winning journalist with more than 30 years’ experience in the print and online media. A former Toronto Sun columnist, she also worked for the Kingston Whig Standard. Her work has appeared throughout the ‘Net, including on Rush Limbaugh and Fox News.

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