ARAB VOICES; U.S. BACKS EFFORTS TO KEEP COMMUNICATIONS OPEN.(Opinion)(Editorial)

"We see more and more people around the globe using the Internet, mobile phones and other technologies to make their voices heard as they protest against injustice and seek to realize their aspirations," said U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton recently. "There is a historic opportunity to effect positive change, change America supports. ... So we're focused on helping them do that, on helping them talk to each other, to their communities, to their governments and to the world."

As a U.S. senator representing New York state, Clinton made a priority of extending broadband coverage to the rural reaches of the Adirondacks and the North Country. Now she has made a signature issue of what is being called "liberation technology" -- promoting ways to allow citizens around the world to keep talking even if repressive regimes censor or otherwise unplug telecommunication networks.

Despite diplomatic pique and real risks to dissidents in nations like Iran, Syria, Afghanistan, China and North Korea, the low-profile efforts of the State Department and the Pentagon could be a key to maintaining the momentum of democracy uprisings that swept across the Arab world this spring.

On Sunday, New York Times reporters James Glanz and John Markoff offered a fascinating glimpse at the high-tech wizardry of the "stealth Internet" project -- an initiative in a dozen countries that the U.S. government has invested at least $50 million in so far. The details of "suitcase" communication networks that link cellphones and computers while bypassing state-controlled media are the stuff of Third World science fiction. Working out those details in Washington is an unlikely crew that includes a young programmer with pierced ears and leather bracelet, a veteran hacker, a computer security expert, and Sascha Meinrath, director of the activist New American Foundation's Open Technology Initiative.

Some worry the projects could backfire, allowing enforcers with sophisticated surveillance technology to track and capture dissidents. Could stealth communications in the hands of terrorists enable them to carry out their clandestine plots?

The benefits of open communications are undeniable. Before he left office, Egypt's Hosni Mubarak nearly shut down his nation's Internet system. In Syria, Basher al-Assad's regime also disrupted communications for a while, impeding protesters' coordination and mobilization efforts. In Iran, the authorities disabled the Internet during the 2009 protests.

As for terrorists, they have more to fear than gain from open communications. In Afghanistan, the Taliban have targeted telecommunication networks. A U.S.-sponsored effort is under way to evade Taliban attacks through networks of cellphones.

Not surprisingly, U.S. officials don't talk about this technology as a tool to oppose regimes, but rather as a means of protecting free speech, civil and human rights. If this under-the-radar spread of stealth communications bedevils authoritarian rulers and provokes the wrath of the Taliban and the remnants of al-Qaida's terrorist network, so much the better.

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The Associated Press

U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE Hillary Clinton arrives June 9 for a news conference during an international meeting on Libya in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.