Citing interviews, planning documents, and classified diplomatic cables, the plan “ranges in scale, cost and sophistication.”

But its aim, The New York Times says, is to “deploy ‘shadow’ Internet and mobile phone systems that dissidents can use to undermine repressive governments that seek to silence them by censoring or shutting down telecommunications networks.”

It describes a mix of technology being developed under the auspices of the United States and independent projects that have arisen as part of the global “liberation-technology movement.”

The New York Times says the plan has picked up steam since President Hosni Mubarak’s ill-fated regime shut down the Internet in Egypt in the days before he was ousted in February.

It identifies one project as “Internet in a suitcase,” delivering quick wireless access to a broad area in an easily transportable manner. Another entails the creation of a parallel cell-phone network in Afghanistan to counter militants’ efforts to shut down official channels of communication.

The Obama administration has authorized the State Department to spend $70 million by the end of the year on systems that would allow text and video to be shared electronically before it eventually reaches the Internet, the report said.

Among others, the governments of China, Syria and Egypt have used censorship to shut down Web sites or the entire Internet to stop dissident activity, while in Afghanistan, militants freeze communications to hamper the government.

In an e-mail to the Times, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said as valuable as the Internet can be, alternate systems need to be developed to detour censorship.

“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,” Clinton wrote. “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.”

The recent and ongoing uprisings in Tunisia, Egypt, Yemen, Syria, Libya, Algeria and other parts of the Middle East/North African region have led to many a discussion on technology and its use in nonviolent civil resistance. While Facebook (News - Alert) and other means of social networking have been the mediums in which to disseminate information, their platforms are hardly a replacement for political action. They are but tools to aid protestors and gauge a wider interest in the issues at hand.

The transformation of the Middle East has bloggers and journalists as being the primary targets. Not only is their cause worthwhile on principle, but they put together an attractive, convincing message and all with the start of a page, a tweet or blog entry.

However, some groups are not as civil when it comes to resistance and censorship.

A group of hackers known as Anonymous has taken down a Turkish government website in a protest against recently introduced Internet filters that many consider to be censorship.

“(The Turkish government) has blocked thousands of websites and blogs while abusive legal proceedings against online journalists persist. The government now wants to impose a new filtering system on the 22nd of August that will make it possible to keep records of all the people’s internet activity. Though it remains opaque why and how the system will be put in place, it is clear that the government is taking censorship to the next level,” said Anonymous in a message on its website (currently offline).

Turkish police have arrested the 32 hackers who are suspected to be members of the hacktivist group.

The arrests follow other arrests of three Anonymous members in Spain. The arrests took place in Barcelona, Valencia and Almeria Friday morning and a server hosted in Gijon was seized as part of the operation. The trio is suspected of being leaders in a key cell of the digital vigilante group that breaks into computers and systems online to pursue political activism. The hacktivists are accused of hacking the Sony PlayStation network, as well as the sites of major banks BBVA and Bankia, Italian power company Enel, and the governments of Egypt, Algeria, Libya, Iran, Chile, Colombia and New Zealand.

Want to learn more about the latest in communications and technology? Then be sure to attend ITEXPO West 2011, taking place Sept. 13-15, 2011, in Austin, Texas. ITEXPO (News - Alert) offers an educational program to help corporate decision makers select the right IP-based voice, video, fax and unified communications solutions to improve their operations. It's also where service providers learn how to profitably roll out the services their subscribers are clamoring for – and where resellers can learn about new growth opportunities. To register, click here.