October 2001 - cypherpunks-legacy

Re: Neverending Cycle ( was : Re: USPS: glowing by leaps and bounds )
by mmotyka＠lsil.com 24 Oct '01

24 Oct '01

David Honig <honig(a)sprynet.com> wrote : > >Personally I'd prefer a non-colonial foreign policy that doesn't generate >such antipathy. > >The message of the WTC is this: regular ole' non-mil sheeple *are* held >responsible for >the actions of their government. *Even* in the US. What a concept. >I suppose the sheeple in Dresden (etc.) know what that's like. > >When the US populations' endocrines settle down, maybe they'll clue in to >cause and effect. Doubt it. Getting involved in others' family feuds is just >too much fun. > >What was it General Washington said about foreign entanglements? I'd tattoo >it onto every congressvermin's forehead. > Not that it isn't a good direction to head but I wonder what your time-scale is for the conversion of a society that cannot survive without an influx of inexpensive resources from foreign sources into something less colonial? It has to be decades at a minimum. In the meantime how do we deal with the Islamic Fundamentalist nutters? Or our own Christian Fundamentalist nutters for that matter. I don't want to hear about good and evil, Christian vs. Muslim, True faiths vs. ersatz faiths or right vs. wrong. The crew that did the WTC is dangerous. Those who are sending anthrax through the mails are dangerous. Near-term solutions are called for. I would like to see solutions that don't involve further trashing of our civil rights but I have no compassion for the terrorists or freedom fighters or whatever the hell you want to call them. Mike

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Re: Retribution not enough
by Tim May 24 Oct '01

24 Oct '01

On Monday, October 22, 2001, at 06:03 AM, Sampo Syreeni wrote: > > Sure, unions are good and using coercion to stop them from coming into > being is bad. But that only applies as long as unions are granted no > legal > status apart from other voluntary organizations, and participating in a > strike is taken as what it is, a refusal to work. Likely a breach of an > enforceable contract, too. Any "workers' rights" beyond that are > something > you'll have a *really hard time* justifying. Asymmetry does not help, > either. > "Sure, unions are good" is not at all obvious to me. Why do you claim this? Most labor unions are simply rent-seeking clubs designed to cement the status quo. Teacher's unions in the U.S. are a prime example: once the union got powerful enough, it fought for a tenure-type system which made it nearly impossible to remove those who taught poorly and to reward those who taught especially well. I've never belonged to a labor union of any kind, and they are essentially absent from the chip and computer industries. From what I have seen, labor unions are a collectivist evil. --Tim May "The only purpose for which power can be rightfully exercised over any member of a civilized community, against his will, is to prevent harm to others. His own good, either physical or moral, is not a sufficient warrant." --John Stuart Mill

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Re: Market Competition for Security Measures
by mmotyka＠lsil.com 24 Oct '01

24 Oct '01

You seem to have left out the fact that the single largest player in the "market" today is the government. The security measures that are now in place for air travel are IMHO an abuse by regulators that amounts to using a private actor as a proxy for an illegal search : to whit names, flight numbers and dates. Feinstein was on the news this morning talking about using airlight flight manifests to develop databases for tracking movements. As far as I am concerned an airline ticket should be a bearer instrument entitling the holder to passage. Their job is to get people from A to B. I should be able to travel as Ben Franklin with an ID I printed myself as long as the fare has been paid. The reasons for my travel, how and when I paid for my ticket and the date of my return trip are irrelevant. Had the cockpit doors been secure, the pilots able to watch CCTV of the passenger areas, plainclothes police been aboard and the info gained from Ramzi Yousef's PC captured in Manila been incorporated into hijack training and protocols 911 would not have happened even if half of al Quaeda had been flying United that day. About the only implementation of a trust certificate that would be acceptable is one that was issued after convincing the issuer that you were a "good guy" and was tied to you by perhaps a biometric and a PIN attribute but for which all connections to your identity were not stored. IOW, "we don't know who you are but we believe the certificate belongs to you, we trust the issuer and they trusted you so off you go then." I'm sure there are protocols for proving membership without betraying identity. I want a choice in whether I leave a record of my travels or not. For estate reasons I may want to escrow my travel records for the duration of the trip. Bottom line : I want more control, more freedom, not less. Mike

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USPS: glowing by leaps and bounds
by Karsten M. Self 24 Oct '01

24 Oct '01

Irradiation equipment is being considered for mail processing, heard both over NPR's Morning Edition, and referenced in a story posted to Yahoo!: http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ksat/20011022/lo/932238_1.html KSAT Monday October 22 08:39 PM EDT Safety Concerns Grow Among Postal Customers, Inspectors [...] The U.S. Postal Service said Monday that it is looking into a technological method that could block the movement of anthrax in the mail. Postal Inspector Doug Turner said the postal service has studied how radiation equipment used to kill bacteria in foods could help against the germ threats. "The radiation would kill the bacteria that might be involved with the mail," Turner said. But there is no official word on whether the irradiation equipment would make it's way to San Antonio. [...] I would hope that relatively short-term leases are being considered. Or is this going to be a long-term threat? Any pointers on packaging for photographic and/or magnetic media through mail to survive irradiation equipment? How about the magstrips on all those credit cards issued through the mail? Peace. -- Karsten M. Self <kmself(a)ix.netcom.com> http://kmself.home.netcom.com/ What part of "Gestalt" don't you understand? Home of the brave http://gestalt-system.sourceforge.net/ Land of the free Free Dmitry! Boycott Adobe! Repeal the DMCA! http://www.freesklyarov.org Geek for Hire http://kmself.home.netcom.com/resume.html [demime 0.97c removed an attachment of type application/pgp-signature]

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[RANT] National ID Card System Failing to Attract Supporters
by attila! 24 Oct '01

24 Oct '01

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More on F(u)ck Nortel & F(u)ck China's Golden Shield & JungleMUX
by Matthew Gaylor 24 Oct '01

24 Oct '01

[Note from Matthew Gaylor: I purposefully choose the "F" word to describe my utter contempt of Nortel for supplying the technology to China used to suppress free speech and freedom. Several of my readers did the usual hand wringing worrying about getting the "F" word in their Dilbertized corporate business environments. Of special interest to the Brin watchers out there is "the promotion of JungleMUX which allows video surveillance data to be transported from remote cameras back to a centralized surveillance point at the Chinese Ministry of Public Security (MPS)". Naturally several of my subscribers didn't get an opportunity to even read my original uncensored post due to their filtering software catching the dreaded "F" word and rejecting my post. Here are a couple of examples: At 12:04 PM -0400 10/22/01, postmaster(a)bellsouth.com wrote: >From: postmaster(a)bellsouth.com >Date: Mon, 22 Oct 2001 12:04:59 -0400 >To: freematt(a)coil.com >Subject: Re: Fuck Nortel & Fuck China's Golden Shield > >WE CANNOT HANDLE ANY REQUESTS THAT DO NOT FOLLOW THE INSTRUCTIONS IN >THIS EMAIL ----- Based on an automated review of the content in a >message you sent to BellSouth personnel, the message appears to be >unsolicited commercial e-mail or to contain content that we deem >inappropriate for our business environment. The message has been >blocked from delivery. BellSouth.com is the BellSouth corporate >domain and messages addressed to users at this domain are for >delivery to BellSouth personnel on BellSouth corporate e-mail >systems. If you intended to send your message to a user at BellSouth >Internet Services, our public Internet service provider, please >readdress it to <user>@bellsouth.net. If your message was intended >for BellSouth personnel and feel you received this message in error, >please forward this message, the address that you are trying to send >to, and any questions to postmaster(a)bellsouth.com ><mailto:postmaster@BellSouth.com>.(Q1-1) And At 11:47 AM -0400 10/22/01, <MAILER-DAEMON(a)picker.com> wrote: >Date: Mon, 22 Oct 2001 11:47:58 -0400 >X-Autogenerated: Reply >From: <MAILER-DAEMON(a)picker.com> >To: Matthew Gaylor <freematt(a)coil.com> >Subject: Bad words.. > >Matthew Gaylor <freematt(a)coil.com>! >We got your message <v04220804b7f9e8a91d7c(a)[198.4.94.208]> >on Mon, 22 Oct 2001 11:27:59 -0400. >With the Subject: >Fuck Nortel & Fuck China's Golden Shield >Please remove the bad word from the Subject and send again. Nortel helping China to overhaul state surveillance architecture <http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/55/22401.html> By John Leyden Posted: 22/10/2001 at 16:40 GMT Human rights activists have launched an attack on Nortel Networks, accusing it of contributing to human rights violations in China by helping the country overhaul its ageing surveillance technologies. The "Great Firewall of China", which controls content entering the country, is failing, largely due to the increased volume of Internet traffic in China, so the Chinese are looking to build a more sophisticated system involving content filtration, and the monitoring of individual users. That's one of the main conclusion in a report by The International Centre of Human Rights & Democratic Development (ICHRDD) which states: "Old style censorship is being replaced with a massive, ubiquitous architecture of surveillance: the Golden Shield." "Ultimately the aim is to integrate a gigantic online database with an all-encompassing surveillance network - incorporating speech and face recognition, closed-circuit television, smart cards, credit records, and Internet surveillance technologies," it adds. Many other Western firms are also involved in the development of China's state security apparatus but Nortel, which like the human rights group, is based in Canada, has come in for particular criticism in ICHRDD's report. Among the Nortel projects singled out for criticism are: Nortel's joint research with Tsinghua University on speech recognition technology, for the purpose of automated surveillance of telephone conversations The Canadian firm's support for FBI plans to develop a common standard to intercept telephone communications, known as CALEA, in conjunction with technology transfer through its joint venture, Guangdong Nortel (GDNT) The promotion of JungleMUX which allows video surveillance data to be transported from remote cameras back to a centralized surveillance point at the Chinese Ministry of Public Security (MPS) The deployment of Nortel's "Personal Internet" suite in Shanghai, "greatly enhancing the ability of Internet service providers to track the communications of individual users" A US$10 million project, involving Nortel, to build a citywide fibre-optic broadband network in Shanghai (OPTera) enabling central authorities to monitor subscribers at the "edge" of the network, principally through the Shasta 5000 firewall. Nortel's integration of face recognition and voice recognition technology in collaboration with AcSys Biometrics, a subsidiary of Canadian firm NEXUS Nortel is no stranger to controversy with its Personal Internet technology, which was criticised on its announcement in February by consumers activists and anti-junk mail campaigners, and has rejected ICHRDD criticism. "Nortel Networks categorically rejects in the strongest possible terms the notion that we are collaborating with any government to repress the human rights or democracy of its citizens," a statement by Nortel said. "Nortel Networks is a longstanding supplier of advanced telecommunications products and technology in China where we have a broad range of customers. Nortel Networks sells the same range of products and solutions in China as we do elsewhere." This response cut little ice with ICHRDD which believes Nortel's technology will be used to clamp down on political dissent. On September 28, four Chinese citizens were tried for subversion for participating in an on-line pro democracy forum. The four are but the most recent of several arrests in recent years for Internet-related crimes. Pacific rim leaders are expected to announce an "anti-terrorism" pact at the APEC summit this week which human rights advocates fear could be used to excuse increased crackdowns on Internet privacy and human rights, particularly in authoritarian states such as China. R --- ************************************************************************** Subscribe to Freematt's Alerts: Pro-Individual Rights Issues Send a blank message to: freematt(a)coil.com with the words subscribe FA on the subject line. List is private and moderated (7-30 messages per week) Matthew Gaylor, (614) 313-5722 ICQ: 106212065 Archived at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/fa/ **************************************************************************

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Re: FBI considers torture as suspects stay silent
by mmotyka＠lsil.com 24 Oct '01

24 Oct '01

"Jon Beets" <Jon.Beets(a)pacer.com> wrote : > >The military's rules of engagement are very explicit... Anyone giving an >order to break those rules are themselves committing a crime.. The integrity >to stand up and say its wrong is what has been taught in the military over >the past few years as "Moral Courage"... I am not saying the rules don't get >broken but if even one person speaks up about what happened then your >looking at a very long time of making big rock into little rocks..... > Most likely any high-value prisoners would be transferred to non-military actors and whisked away. The sole obligation of the military would be to keep quiet. > At the same time would we risk torturing prisoners > when we have preached for years for other countries > to stop this exact same thing... > Absolutely YES, if the stakes are high enough. The potential for these guys having acquired or manufactured exotic weapons and their apparent willingness to use them makes it a high-stakes game. >My bets are on the Al Qaeda personnel who want to tell all.. The ones who >are so proud of what they have done they will let you know whatever you >want... > They generally seem to do a good job at staying mum in the US courts. >Jon Beets > Mike

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Cypherpunks idiots list
by Nomen Nescio 24 Oct '01

24 Oct '01

Posters to the cypherpunks list can be divided into idiots and others. Idiots seldom contribute anything useful and love to fasten onto threads which require no more than their uninformed opinions. Interestingly, many of the idiots work at low-paying jobs like system administration, and several of them are unemployed. The lists below can't cover everyone, but here is a sampling of recent posters. Note: if you are an idiot, you may not like being informed of this fact. Nevertheless you will find few non-idiots who will disagree with your classification. Go ahead and ask for anyone on the non-idiots list to vouch for you, if you have the balls. Idiots Jim Choate (lifetime member) Harmon Seaver Karsten Self J.A. Terranson Steve Furlong James B. DiGriz Reese Non-idiots Tim May Bill Stewart Sandy Sandfort Greg Broiles John Young James Donald Lucky Green Eric Cordian Declan McCullagh (marginal) Adam Back Adam Shostack Eugene Leitl

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Just A Coincidence <nod-nod> <wink-wink>
by sonofgomez709 24 Oct '01

24 Oct '01

Since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, three major web sites dealing with mind control have disappeared with no explanation or contact from their owners: http://www.mindcontrolforum.com http://www.ritualabuse.net (and ../MCF/) http://www.cahe.org CJ Parker <sonofgomez709(a)yahoo.com> http://profiles.yahoo.com/sonofgomez709 http://members.w-link.net/~sog/INDEX.HTM http://jya.com/cejfiles.htm "The True Story Of The InterNet" The Xenix ChainSaw Massacre http://www.technopagan.org/politics/xenix/ WebWorld & The Mythical Circle Of Eunuchs http://www.technopagan.org/politics/webworld/ InfoWar: Final Frontier Of The Digital rEvolution http://www.technopagan.org/politics/infowarriors/ Space Aliens Hide My Drugs http://www.technopagan.org/politics/sahmd/

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MATT DRUDGE // DRUDGE REPORT 2001�
by Jim Choate 24 Oct '01

24 Oct '01

http://www.drudgereport.com/matth2.htm -- -- ____________________________________________________________________ The people never give up their liberties but under some delusion. Edmund Burke (1784) The Armadillo Group ,::////;::-. James Choate Austin, Tx /:'///// ``::>/|/ ravage(a)ssz.com www.ssz.com .', |||| `/( e\ 512-451-7087 -====~~mm-'`-```-mm --'- --------------------------------------------------------------------

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