September 2001 - cypherpunks-legacy

Re: "Ending States That Support Terrorism"
by Alfred Qeada 14 Sep '01

14 Sep '01

At 02:36 PM 9/13/01 -0700, Eric Cordian wrote: >Anyone have the list of countries that Bush is planning on scheduling for >termination? If you work for a company that exports stuff, you can refer to list "C" which includes the largely moslem usual suspect countries. List "D" are the relics of the cold war. No beowolves in fuckistan. >I would imagine Afganistan and Iraq are the first two. Will he toss in >Syria, Sudan, and Libya as well? They're on the List. >Pakistan has even climbed aboard, in the hopes that we won't drop any >bombs on them on our way to Afganistan. They're also looking to curry favor, and distance India. They're nuclear; you have to give them respect. South Indian food is better though. Of course, they must prove their >loyalty by cutting off Afganistan's oil and gas, and permitting us to base >our troops there. All your colonies are ours. >Isn't playing these sorts of games with Saudi Arabia, the location of >Islam's most sacred sites, the reason Osama bin Laden is mad at the US to >begin with? Ten points to the man with the bugged apartment... >So when's the Congress going to outlaw encryption? I assume we'll all be >expected to make such small sacrifices for the larger good. The first day, there were plenty of "don't sacrifice our freedoms" calls; after three days, it was "we may have to sacrifice certain of our freedoms". Allah knows what we see in a week. >We're all supposed to fly American flags for the next 30 days to show our >support for all of this. I wonder if they'll be taking names. What if you fly it upside down? Too bad there wasn't an "Arabic, not Judaic" box on the census forms, eh? All those empty bunks in them private jails...

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How to win the new war
by Howie Goodell 14 Sep '01

14 Sep '01

Hi -- I just submitted the ff. article to my local newspaper. I suggest lots of you do something similar. Our best chance to keep crypto free is to present it loudly and clearly as the way for our countries to *achieve* security, not an irresponsible demand that they forgo it. BTW I wrote _Scientific American_ to ask that they re-post David Chaum's 1992 article, "Achieving Electronic Privacy" that makes this point so well. It's easily Googled if they don't, though. Howie Goodell -- Howie Goodell hgoodell(a)cs.uml.edu Pr SW Eng, WearLogic Sc.D. Cand HCI Res Grp CS Dept U Massachussets Lowell http://people.ne.mediaone.net/goodell/howie Dying is soooo 20th-century! http://www.cryonics.org ====================== How to Win the New War ====================== The U.S. and its citizens have just suffered the Pearl Harbor of post-national conflicts. We are in a different kind of war, and we must fight it in many different ways. Here are four of the many hats we need to wear: · Cop · M.A.D.D. · Safety Engineer · Judge Wapner Global cop America is frequently accused of being a global policeman; now is the time to do it well. Investigate and hunt down not just a few leaders, but every member of the terrorist groups that participated in these attacks. Where governments cooperate, we can try these vicious criminals individually. Where this is impossible, we may go back to our pre-Kennedy Cold War rules and assassinate them. M.A.D.D. (Mothers Against Drunk Driving) Beyond finding the specific perpetrators of this attack, lead a crusade (jihad) against terrorism worldwide. This is easy to say now, but it will need to be carried out for decades, with serious money and smart people and determined politics. This jihad also needs single-mindedness. We are after terrorism, not ethnicity; we will cooperate with all governments and groups who can help us, and spare none who oppose us in this. The stakes are too high to play favorites. Safety Engineer Despite our best efforts to eradicate terrorism, it will be a factor in all our lives from now on. A lot of engineering designs in the industrialized world didn't take terrorism into account, but that world changed September 11. Security must be a major design goal of many features of our society: airplanes and airports, subways, stadiums, water supplies, product packaging, personal identification. The vulnerabilities of existing systems need painstaking analysis. Some upgrades will be expensive, in many ways. Creative engineering and thorough debate of the options are essential to keep the costs bearable and our brave new terrorist-resistant world livable. One example: the IDs for airplane crews, and eventually everyone who travels or goes near an airliner, could be "smart cards" containing their owners' biometric identifiers -- like fingerprints, voice, picture, and retinal scan -- cryptographically signed by the agency that collected them. (That agency or foreign government should be required to back its credential with a huge insurance policy to ensure they take it seriously.) This would make it almost impossible to get an unauthorized person through security, but it could be verified in seconds, without consulting a central database of everyone's data. In fact the scanners could be designed without removable storage or communications links: after a few days they would erase their records unless they were read out after a hijacking. This last point is crucial. Most of the debate about personal identification assumes there is a fundamental trade-off between being insecure and becoming a police state; therefore democracies have to settle for some compromise that is only halfway secure and only halfway free. This is not true today. Electronic and cryptographic technology like David Chaum's "blind signature" and "personal representative" lets us design systems with both strong security and strong protection of privacy and individual freedom. (See his August, 1992 _Scientific American_ article, "Achieving Electronic Privacy".) Judge Wapner ("The People's Court") Nobody of any ethnicity sacrifices his life without a cause. In the long run, the best solutions to terrorism probably include making a few of those causes go away. Before courts and law enforcement reached some regions of our country, there were deadly feuds there, too. Now instead of the Hatfields and the McCoys shooting it out for decades, a judge looks at their case, hands down a decision, and it gets enforced. Maybe after this horror we should take the cause that undoubtedly drove these suicide bombers and make it disappear: we should lose our patience with that little piss-ant real estate disagreement in the Middle East. Give the Israelis and Palestinians a month to agree on a map, or we'll do it for them. Then we add a 10-mile-wide corridor in the middle, let the Army Corps of Engineers give it a year of loving care, and announce we will blow away anything that moves in it for the next few decades. Note the glassy pellets strewn along the middle: their radioactivity is intense but short-lived. 30 years from now you might survive a crossing. Jerusalem belongs to the U.N. now. All rise!

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Cheering WTC Exports
by John Young 14 Sep '01

14 Sep '01

The NY Times has a brief story today about the arrest of five guys in Jersey busted for celebrating the takedown of WTC. They are identified as Israelis, and "exportable."

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RE: Cypherpunks and terrorism
by Nomen Nescio 14 Sep '01

14 Sep '01

Greg Broiles writes: > I propose that this sort of discussion - about whether or not, in the face > of violence and tragedy, some aspect of human freedom and expression can be > suitably "justified" to satisfy every self-appointed devil's advocate - is > absolutely unproductive and serves only to suck energy and concentration > from more interesting projects. It's astonishing that you should say this. It is at exactly this time that soul searching is most appropriate. Now is when you should ask yourself: Am I doing the right thing? Am I making the world a better place? You don't have to convince some devil's advocate. Just convince yourself. You're about to begin running a remailer. Apparently you haven't done so before. Well, it should be quite an education. Keep it up for a year and you'll be more qualified to judge whether this technology is good or bad, on balance. One thing is certain: if you go into it just because you think it will be an "interesting project", you won't stay with it for long.

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Many bin Ladens
by John Young 14 Sep '01

14 Sep '01

The Germans report that Ata and others planned the attacks while at an electrical engineering school in Germany and so far no connection to bin Laden has been found. That a small, smart, talented group could conceive and carry out the attacks may be inconceivable to those who believe in massive, overwhelming power, is apt indication of the long-livenedness of those who just don't buy the effectiveness of guerillas working in tiny cells and executing non-heirachical operations. The oft-cited Clauzewitz and Lao Tsu have misled planners now for a generation, a generation hoping to erase Viet Nam, Cuba, Ceylon, and a plethora of asymmetrical victories. "Lessons learned," is a favorite phrase now used by giant organizations to figure out why best laid plans failed. Still, the giant organizations continue to perpetuate themselves by arguing the virtues of massive retaliation and minimizing their ineffectivenss at prevention of what they rush to avenge, wildly attacking targets but never reaching disappearing attackers hiding in the underbrush near homebases. Whether the lessons learned in this case will prevent massive overwhelming attacks on foreign and domestic innocents is a lesson yet to be learned, and learned, and learned. But no matter what, the display of force will give comfort to scared shitless believers in idiotic concepts of good and evil hiding venal intentions. Would Clinton have APed bin Laden if the disappearing devil was found hiding in NY's Metropolitan Detention Center or elsewhere in the USA or Germany under a false dentity? Who's allegedly under house arrest in Afghanistan? Not Osama, who is nowhere near where the oil pipelines are to be built. See the UK Ministry of Defense's analysis of why an Afghan coup is needed to update the overthrow of Iran by MI6 and CIA in 1953: http://cryptome.org/afghan-coup.htm

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The Enemies List
by Tim May 14 Sep '01

14 Sep '01

On Friday, September 14, 2001, at 05:13 AM, chefren wrote: > On 13 Sep 2001, at 20:38, Tim May wrote: > >> On Thursday, September 13, 2001, at 06:22 PM, chefren wrote: >> >> Cypherpunks, I am forwarding this complete with names of cc:s attached >> to show you some of the enemies out there. I've gotten several personal >> e-mails. I am asking Declan, my friend, NOT to forward my posts to his >> various lists., > > So why do you forward this to the cypherpunks list? What > gives you the moral right? So that they will know their enemy. --Tim May

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RE: "Attack on America" - a Personal Response (fwd)
by Trei, Peter 14 Sep '01

14 Sep '01

> Riad S. Wahby[SMTP:rsw@mit.edu] wrote: > > > As to the point, if nations can't participate in terrorism then exactly > > what is it that Afghanistan is being theatened with for harboring the > > raghead? Exactly why did their leaders go into hiding again? Exactly why > is > > Pakistan running around like a sub-woofie? Exactly why did the US use > > F-111's to drop bombs on a particular 'rogue state' for engaging in > > 'terrorism' (ie Libya)? What exactly do you thing Amin was doing, > besides > > killing croc's that is... > > None of the above is relevant. According to 22 USC Sec. 2656f(d) [1]: > > the term "terrorism" means premeditated, politically > motivated violence perpetrated against noncombatant > targets by subnational groups or clandestine agents > > The House Subcommittee on National Security, Veterans' Affairs, and > International Relations has stated that the above sets the standard > for a terrorist act [2]. > > By this definition, it's pretty clear that the events of 9/11 were > terrorism. > Riad: Two points: 1. Goverments misdefine things whenever it fits their purposes. I don't see that other have to automatically bow before their definition. 2. *Even if*, for the sake of argument, we decide to use the text you quote as a definition; I fail to see how it rules out the possibility of nations engaging in terrorism - because of the phrase 'clandestine agents'. Clandestine agents include secret services. To give just two example: When Libyan agents carried out the bombing over Lockerbie, was that terrorism, or an act of war? When the CIA secretly mined the harbors of Nicaragua, was that terrorism, or an act of war? Peter Trei

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Minaret of Freedom Institute- libertarian Muslim's Statement
by Matthew Gaylor 14 Sep '01

14 Sep '01

"The Minaret of Freedom Institute condemns the apparent terrorist attacks that have taken place this morning Tuesday, Sept. 11, 2001 and expresses our sympathy to the victims and their families. We call on American Muslims to volunteer to give blood to assist at this time of crisis and need" This Muslim libertarian site is an excellent resource for those wanting to know about pro-liberty Muslim beliefs and activities. Among their declared goals: "Counter distortions and misconceptions about Islamic beliefs and practice; demonstrate the Islamic origins of modern values like the rule of law and sciences like market economics; expose both American and Islamic-world Muslims to free market thought; advance the status of Muslim peoples maligned by a hostile environment in the West and oppressed by repressive political regimes in the East." <http://www.minaret.org/> Minaret of Freedom Institute / 4323 Rosedale Avenue / Bethesda, MD 20814 contact us: Minaret of Freedom Institute / mfi(a)minaret.org ************************************************************************** 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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"Ending States That Support Terrorism"
by Eric Cordian 14 Sep '01

14 Sep '01

Anyone have the list of countries that Bush is planning on scheduling for termination? I would imagine Afganistan and Iraq are the first two. Will he toss in Syria, Sudan, and Libya as well? It looks like the game that is being played here, is that all countries are being given an opportunity to pledge unconditional support and cooperation for Bush's "War" against those rendering aid to terrorism, now declared to be the primary focus of his administration, and whoever declines will constitute the enemy. Pakistan has even climbed aboard, in the hopes that we won't drop any bombs on them on our way to Afganistan. Of course, they must prove their loyalty by cutting off Afganistan's oil and gas, and permitting us to base our troops there. Isn't playing these sorts of games with Saudi Arabia, the location of Islam's most sacred sites, the reason Osama bin Laden is mad at the US to begin with? Is this how Hitler started? While all of this is transpiring, a smirking Ariel Sharon, the war criminal elected by acclaimation, will be taking more of the Palestinians' land. So when's the Congress going to outlaw encryption? I assume we'll all be expected to make such small sacrifices for the larger good. We're all supposed to fly American flags for the next 30 days to show our support for all of this. I wonder if they'll be taking names. -- Eric Michael Cordian 0+ O:.T:.O:. Mathematical Munitions Division "Do What Thou Wilt Shall Be The Whole Of The Law"

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Remailers and Greg Broiles (was RE: Cypherpunks and terrorism)
by noisebox remailer admin 14 Sep '01

14 Sep '01

I'd like to take the opportunity now to do something I should have done over a year ago. Last year, a Scientologist attorney threatened my DNS provider, resulting in the immediate termination of my remailer's hostname. Greg Broiles graciously and promptly offered the use of remailer.org to the noisebox remailer, which I gratefully accepted. Thank you very much. -- noisebox remailer admin. On Fri, 14 Sep 2001, Nomen Nescio wrote: > You're about to begin running a remailer. Apparently you haven't done > so before. Well, it should be quite an education. Keep it up for a > year and you'll be more qualified to judge whether this technology is > good or bad, on balance. One thing is certain: if you go into it just > because you think it will be an "interesting project", you won't stay > with it for long.

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