September 2001 - cypherpunks-legacy

RE: Manhattan Mid-Afternoon
by dmolnar 12 Sep '01

12 Sep '01

On Wed, 12 Sep 2001, Sunder wrote: > I'd still fucking rush them if I had been there. If anything it would > wake everyone else up to do the same. I'd like to think I would have, but honestly I don't know. Also, if the first rusher is killed, that acts as a negative example for the others. The scene from "Sunshine" where Fiennes is berated for standing aside and watching his father die keeps coming back. Keep in mind that the hostages likely did not know the terrorists were planning to down the plane. For all they knew, they were going to be exchanged for prisoners in Israeli jails. By the time it became clear what was going to happen (if it ever did), it might have been too late. Then it's not "my life vs 20,000" but "my life vs squat if they kill me and retain control." -David

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SIG: Linux Today - Ideas: The SSSCA and its potential effects
by Jim Choate 12 Sep '01

12 Sep '01

http://linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=2001-09-11-011-20-OP-HW-SW -- -- ____________________________________________________________________ natsugusa ya...tsuwamonodomo ga...yume no ato summer grass...those mighty warriors'...dream-tracks Matsuo Basho The Armadillo Group ,::////;::-. James Choate Austin, Tx /:'///// ``::>/|/ ravage(a)ssz.com www.ssz.com .', |||| `/( e\ 512-451-7087 -====~~mm-'`-```-mm --'- --------------------------------------------------------------------

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Report: Five Suspects Identified in NYC Attack
by Jim Choate 12 Sep '01

12 Sep '01

http://us.news2.yimg.com/f/42/31/7m/dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010912/ts/at… -- -- ____________________________________________________________________ natsugusa ya...tsuwamonodomo ga...yume no ato summer grass...those mighty warriors'...dream-tracks Matsuo Basho The Armadillo Group ,::////;::-. James Choate Austin, Tx /:'///// ``::>/|/ ravage(a)ssz.com www.ssz.com .', |||| `/( e\ 512-451-7087 -====~~mm-'`-```-mm --'- --------------------------------------------------------------------

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The 4th Airliner Shot Down?
by John Young 12 Sep '01

12 Sep '01

Somebody who claims to be from inside the Pentagon is saying an F16 shot down the airliner that crashed in Pennsylvania. Are there news reports of this? Also that a number of generals were killed in the Pentagon. Any news of this?

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12 Sep '01

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press on post-WTC policy
by Eugene Leitl 12 Sep '01

12 Sep '01

-- Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://www.lrz.de/~ui22204/">leitl</a> ______________________________________________________________ ICBMTO : N48 10'07'' E011 33'53'' http://www.lrz.de/~ui22204 57F9CFD3: ED90 0433 EB74 E4A9 537F CFF5 86E7 629B 57F9 CFD3 http://www.dailypennsylvanian.com/vnews/display.v?TARGET=printable&article_… In eyes of experts, a new age has dawned By Gregory Richards and Tristan Schweiger September 12, 2001 As the world reels from the worst terrorist attack in history, observers are predicting a drastic overhaul of America's domestic and international policy. Specialists in political science, international relations and history say that domestic security will be stepped up in the wake of the attack. Penn Political Science Professor Stephen Gale, who teaches a popular seminar on terrorism, likened yesterday's events to the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941. "An event like this is a turning point," Gale said. "This changed the world for the United States." According to Gale, America may have to resort to the high level of security under which Israel operates on a daily basis. "There's only one country that's ever tried to live under this kind of terrorism -- that's Israel," Gale said. Throughout yesterday, as Americans struggled to comprehend the severity of the terrorist attacks, millions were asking who was responsible for the horrible tragedy. Although no group or individual has yet claimed responsibility for yesterday's attacks, Political Science Professor Ian Lustick said he believed that it may be the work of Saudi dissident Osama bin Laden, who is believed to be responsible for the U.S. embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania. "He's got the motive, he's got the capability and he's made the threats," Lustick said. "Anyone who watches crime television knows that knows that you have to look in that direction first." A follower of bin Laden, Ramzi Yousef, masterminded the 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center. Political Science Professor Anne Norton said that the attack will force Americans to question their security. "When wars were fought by armies, we thought we were pretty safe," Norton said. "But when wars are fought by individuals, we're not safe at all." She also predicted stronger criticism for Defense Department spending, especially the large allocation of money for a national missile defense system. "One [response] will say, `You guys dropped the ball -- we're not going throw any more money at you until you've cleaned up your act,'" Norton said. "Another possibility is `You're spending money on the wrong things. You've been spending money on traditional warfare and the infrastructure for traditional warfare. That's not the threat you're going to face.'" Regardless, military spending will likely increase, she said. "It is generally true that when there's a threat or an attack, the Pentagon appropriation goes through like a greased pig," Norton said. Others said that the events will force America to re-evaluate its policy concerning the Middle East, specifically regarding the Israeli-Arab conflict. Lustick said that "eventually, Americans could start to reevaluate [their] relationship with Israel." "It's such a huge attack that this could actually lead to Americans asking what we're doing over there," Lustick said. Political Science Professor Joanne Gowa said that if the attacks turn out to be sponsored by bin Laden or other Middle Eastern fundamentalists, it could cause the United States to bolster its support of Israel. "The only thing that strikes me as topical is that President Bush might see a stronger reason to try to intervene in the conflict in Israel," Gowa said. Lustick also said that American airports need to adopt higher security measures reminiscent of European airports. Specifically, Lustick predicted the use of elaborate, multiple check points, guards with machine guns and less accessibility to the general public. Several other experts were hesitant to speculate on the long-term international effects of the attacks until it is confirmed that the attacks were, in fact, carried out by foreign terrorists. Gowa recalled the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, when the attackers turned out to be American reactionaries. "First we have to be clear that this is actually an act of foreign terrorism," Gowa said. "Because when the Oklahoma City bombing occurred, [foreign terrorism] is what everybody assumed, but it turned out not to be the case." Furthermore, Gowa said that the effectiveness of security thus far has caused her to question whether the attack was actually masterminded by a foreign terrorist group. "I've always been surprised that there weren't more successful terrorist attacks in the U.S.," Gowa said. "That always meant to me that we had a very effective system.... That's why it's not completely obvious to me that this attack is foreign-sponsored." Lustick disagreed with Gowa's assessment of America's preparedness. "I think this was a humiliation for American intelligence," he said, pointing out that when an alleged Algerian terrorist was recently arrested in Seattle, he gave police the names of top terrorists that "they had never heard of." Both Gale and Lustick said they were worried about the consequences of a strong American response to the attack. "If [the response is similar to that of Pearl Harbor], the scary aspect is that much of that response could occur in the United States," Lustick said. And Gale said that Americans would not tolerate too great a change in their lives or an infringement on their personal rights. "Most Americans do not want to have their lives changed," Gale said. "The cure may be worse than the problem." Furthermore, some experts said that Arab Americans may become the victims of misdirected hostility. Political Science Professor Robert Vitalis stressed that many such citizens may have been victims of the attack. "Many Arab Americans and Muslims were probably in that building," Vitalis said. Gale recalled the movie The Siege, in which terrorism causes the United States to intern Arab Americans. But perhaps the strongest question on anyone's mind is how this event could have happened. According to Nagel, Americans have all been overwhelmed by "the sense of fragility and vulnerability." http://www.usatoday.com/life/cyber/tech/2001-02-05-binladen.htm 06/19/2001 - Updated 05:05 PM ET Terror groups hide behind Web encryption By Jack Kelley, USA TODAY WASHINGTON - Hidden in the X-rated pictures on several pornographic Web sites and the posted comments on sports chat rooms may lie the encrypted blueprints of the next terrorist attack against the United States or its allies. It sounds farfetched, but U.S. officials and experts say it's the latest method of communication being used by Osama bin Laden and his associates to outfox law enforcement. Bin Laden, indicted in the bombing in 1998 of two U.S. embassies in East Africa, and others are hiding maps and photographs of terrorist targets and posting instructions for terrorist activities on sports chat rooms, pornographic bulletin boards and other Web sites, U.S. and foreign officials say. "Uncrackable encryption is allowing terrorists - Hamas, Hezbollah, al-Qaida and others - to communicate about their criminal intentions without fear of outside intrusion," FBI Director Louis Freeh said last March during closed-door testimony on terrorism before a Senate panel. "They're thwarting the efforts of law enforcement to detect, prevent and investigate illegal activities." A terrorist's tool Once the exclusive domain of the National Security Agency, the super-secret U.S. agency responsible for developing and cracking electronic codes, encryption has become the everyday tool of Muslim extremists in Afghanistan, Albania, Britain, Kashmir, Kosovo, the Philippines, Syria, the USA, the West Bank and Gaza and Yemen, U.S. officials say. It's become so fundamental to the operations of these groups that bin Laden and other Muslim extremists are teaching it at their camps in Afghanistan and Sudan, they add. "There is a tendency out there to envision a stereotypical Muslim fighter standing with an AK-47 in barren Afghanistan," says Ben Venzke, director of special intelligence projects for iDEFENSE, a cyberintelligence and risk management company based in Fairfax, Va. "But Hamas, Hezbollah and bin Laden's groups have very sophisticated, well-educated people. Their technical equipment is good, and they have the bright, young minds to operate them," he said. U.S. officials say bin Laden's organization, al-Qaida, uses money from Muslim sympathizers to purchase computers from stores or by mail. Bin Laden's followers download easy-to-use encryption programs from the Web, officials say, and have used the programs to help plan or carry out three of their most recent plots: Wadih El Hage, one of the suspects in the 1998 bombing of two U.S. embassies in East Africa, sent encrypted e-mails under various names, including "Norman" and "Abdus Sabbur," to "associates in al Qaida," according to the Oct. 25, 1998, U.S. indictment against him. Hage went on trial Monday in federal court in New York. Khalil Deek, an alleged terrorist arrested in Pakistan in 1999, used encrypted computer files to plot bombings in Jordan at the turn of the millennium, U.S. officials say. Authorities found Deek's computer at his Peshawar, Pakistan, home and flew it to the National Security Agency in Fort Meade, Md. Mathematicians, using supercomputers, decoded the files, enabling the FBI to foil the plot. Ramzi Yousef, the convicted mastermind of the World Trade Center bombing in 1993, used encrypted files to hide details of a plot to destroy 11 U.S. airliners. Philippines officials found the computer in Yousef's Manila apartment in 1995. U.S. officials broke the encryption and foiled the plot. Two of the files, FBI officials say, took more than a year to decrypt. "All the Islamists and terrorist groups are now using the Internet to spread their messages," says Reuven Paz, academic director of the Institute for Counter-Terrorism, an independent Israeli think tank. Messages in dots U.S. officials and militant Muslim groups say terrorists began using encryption - which scrambles data and then hides the data in existing images - about five years ago. But the groups recently increased its use after U.S. law enforcement authorities revealed they were tapping bin Laden's satellite telephone calls from his base in Afghanistan and tracking his activities. "It's brilliant," says Ahmed Jabril, spokesman for the militant group Hezbollah in London. "Now it's possible to send a verse from the Koran, an appeal for charity and even a call for jihad and know it will not be seen by anyone hostile to our faith, like the Americans." Extremist groups are not only using encryption to disguise their e-mails but their voices, too, Attorney General Janet Reno told a presidential panel on terrorism last year, headed by former CIA director John Deutsch. Encryption programs also can scramble telephone conversations when the phones are plugged into a computer. "In the future, we may tap a conversation in which the terrorist discusses the location of a bomb soon to go off, but we will be unable to prevent the terrorist act when we cannot understand the conversation," Reno said. Here's how it works: Each image, whether a picture or a map, is created by a series of dots. Inside the dots are a string of letters and numbers that computers read to create the image. A coded message or another image can be hidden in those letters and numbers. They're hidden using free encryption Internet programs set up by privacy advocacy groups. The programs scramble the messages or pictures into existing images. The images can only be unlocked using a "private key," or code, selected by the recipient, experts add. Otherwise, they're impossible to see or read. "You very well could have a photograph and image with the time and information of an attack sitting on your computer, and you would never know it," Venzke says. "It will look no different than a photograph exchanged between two friends or family members." U.S. officials concede it's difficult to intercept, let alone find, encrypted messages and images on the Internet's estimated 28 billion images and 2 billion Web sites. Even if they find it, the encrypted message or image is impossible to read without cracking the encryption's code. A senior Defense Department mathematician says cracking a code often requires lots of time and the use of a government supercomputer. It's no wonder the FBI wants all encryption programs to file what amounts to a "master key" with a federal authority that would allow them, with a judge's permission, to decrypt a code in a case of national security. But civil liberties groups, which offer encryption programs on the Web to further privacy, have vowed to fight it. Officials say the Internet has become the modern version of the "dead drop," a slang term describing the location where Cold War-era spies left maps, pictures and other information. But unlike the "dead drop," the Internet, U.S. officials say, is proving to be a much more secure way to conduct clandestine warfare. "Who ever thought that sending encrypted streams of data across the Internet could produce a map on the other end saying 'this is where your target is' or 'here's how to kill them'?" says Paul Beaver, spokesman for Jane's Defense Weekly in London, which reports on defense and cyberterrorism issues. "And who ever thought it could be done with near perfect security? The Internet has proven to be a boon for terrorists."

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News website reference - may not be slashdotted yet.
by Bill Stewart 12 Sep '01

12 Sep '01

>Sender: Law & Policy of Computer Communications <CYBERIA-L(a)LISTSERV.AOL.COM> >From: Robert Helmer <roberthelmer(a)EARTHLINK.NET> >Subject: Re: Helping the New Yorkers >To: CYBERIA-L(a)LISTSERV.AOL.COM > >Here's a news site with a great variety of stories >about the attack, best I've been able to find: > >http://www.ananova.com/news/index.html?keywords=Trade+Centre+crash&nav_src=… > >Cnn was down--Annanove is lesser known. Speedy access. > >Bob Helmer >Daily Rotation >http://www.dailyrotation.com >Shell Extension City >http://www.shellcity.net >St. Louis, Missouri

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Re: What's going on? World Trade Center, Pentagon, Old Executive Office Bldg
by Bill Stewart 12 Sep '01

12 Sep '01

At 10:18 AM 09/11/2001 -0500, Joseph Ashwood wrote: >To avoid slashdotting my source so I can still get the information I'm = >just going to copy and paste the page: I apologize for posting html but = >the formatting and pictures don't show up in text. The mailbot deleted the pictures. >1-800 phone calls apparently not working... That's not a nationwide thing or an all-phone-companies thing - most NYC-based numbers would be hard to reach, and maybe some long distance carrier's database is in NYC, but it's unlikely they'd have only a single database. >Pentagon has confirmed that they major loss of life because of explosion >F16 fighters forced down the plane that was heading to pentagon .. they = >forced that plane down near Camp David I'd heard there was a crash in Camp David - this is first I'd heard of this. >Supposedly the president was supposed to be heading back from Florida. = >I'm sure that's going to be detoured somewhere else. He was making speeches from an AFB in Louisiana. The logical places to go would be Camp David (guess not...) or Andrews AFB or the Fort Ritchie, MD emergency site. The less logical place to go is back to the White House - it's a bit riskier, but would make good PR.

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Re: The 4th Airliner Shot Down?
by Sunder 12 Sep '01

12 Sep '01

On Tue, 11 Sep 2001, Jim Choate wrote: > There was also several eye witnesses that said the first tower was hit by > a missile... They were right. The plane was effectively a missle, and come to think of it not a bomb. Bomb is something that isn't launched, it's carried or dropped. A missle is launched, it flies. Like the planes. Yes, of course plane!=missle, but in this case, it effectively was. Granted, there will almost always be a witness that will say it was aliens from the 8th dimention too... > Clearly these people don't have a clue of the size differential. > > I would be so bold to say that since the New York crash a few years ago > that there will almost always be a witness that saw a 'missile'.

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Re: [psychohistory] What can a Society Do?
by Jim Choate 12 Sep '01

12 Sep '01

Actually it isn't Godel's (which just says some statements can't be found definitively true or false - it is undecidable). However, Arrow's Impossibility Theorem does(!) do exactly what you want. On Wed, 12 Sep 2001, Chen Yixiong, Eric wrote: > Notes: Godel's Incompleteness Theorem forbids any system that claims to > cater for all people in all situations. Surely, the claims by > capitalist-anarchists do not work because of such. While the Theory of > Evolution may *appear* to apply to human society, it fails (as the > Theorm predicts) to apply to human societies because humans can and will > think out of the system. Placed in simple terms, humans can and do > exploit the social systems they encounter. This ability confers the > ability to lie, to see through paradoxes and to "make-believe", and > confers the greatest difference between a human and a Turing machine. > Evolution Theory applies well only to beings simple enough to remain > within the system rules. -- ____________________________________________________________________ natsugusa ya...tsuwamonodomo ga...yume no ato summer grass...those mighty warriors'...dream-tracks Matsuo Basho The Armadillo Group ,::////;::-. James Choate Austin, Tx /:'///// ``::>/|/ ravage(a)ssz.com www.ssz.com .', |||| `/( e\ 512-451-7087 -====~~mm-'`-```-mm --'- --------------------------------------------------------------------

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