It’s unclear from this story who did what and why.
It appears an international treaty is involved, but it doesn’t appear that spokespeople for different countries are able to say much.

Indymedia, which is an internet group established in 1999 has had a server harddrives taken by the FBI in London.

The FBI acknowledged that a subpoena had been issued but said it was at the request of Italian and Swiss authorities.

“It is not an FBI operation,” FBI spokesman Joe Parris told AFP.

“Through a legal assistance treaty, the subpoena was on behalf of a third country.”

The FBI spokesman said there was no US investigation but that the agency cooperated under the terms of an international treaty on law enforcement.

A political spokesperson for the Italian Green party reacted.

Italian news reports said access to Indymedia had been cut as a result of an FBI operation at US and British locations.

Mauro Bulgarelli, a member of Italy’s Green party, called it a “provocation and intimidate effort” against the alternative media.

Indymedia issued a statement.

…”had been asked last month by the FBI to remove a story about Swiss undercover police from one of the websites hosted at Rackspace.”

The statement added, “It is not known, however, whether Thursday’s order is related to that incident since the order was issued to Rackspace and not to Indymedia. According to Rackspace, they ‘cannot provide Indymedia with any information regarding the order.’”