August 2002 - cypherpunks-legacy

Drop da Bombe!
by Matthew X 01 Aug '02

01 Aug '02

http://www.donet.com/~danderson/bombe/index.html The US Navy's Enigma code-breaker, the Bombe, first publicly exhibited the summer of 1990 at the Smithsonian Would you like to learn more about codes and ciphers, or try your hand at some crypto puzzles? · A fun site to visit: · Tales of the Encrypted · A good information and links page, just titled · Enigma, sponsored by a hardward/software firm in the Netherlands ·Just when I thought everything that could be said about WWII cryptography had been said -- · Enigma -- The Movie!!!

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Shrub insults your intelligence and a nuclear armed State.
by Matthew X 01 Aug '02

01 Aug '02

Back peddling on whistle blowers and now this...White House defends Bush's omission of Hinduism WASHINGTON: White House press secretary Ari Fleischer had a tough time explaining why President George W Bush failed to mention Hinduism among the religions practised in the US, even as he asserted that in line with the country's pluralistic traditions, the President had equal regard for people from all faiths.Bush had reportedly failed to list Hinduism among the religions practised in America, though he took Christianity, Judaism and Islam in the reckoning. Shrub has clearly earned ringbarking.

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Active2: Anatomy of a Cryptographically Distributed Database,
by Matthew X 01 Aug '02

01 Aug '02

Active2Dev - ImcTech MoinMoin Wiki ... A Language for the Active2 Project: Active2Language. Meetings: 2002-04-24 MeetingAgenda2002Apr24 MeetingLog2002Apr24 Meeting2002SummaryApr24. ... kropotkin.indymedia.org/moin/moin.cgi/Active2Dev - 21k - Cached - Similar pages Active2Language - ImcTech MoinMoin Wiki ... 1 A Common Language for the Active2 Project. 1.1 Proposal. There are two global entity-spaces in Active2: the file-space and the user-space. ... kropotkin.indymedia.org/moin/moin.cgi/Active2Language - 10k - Cached - Similar pages [ More results from kropotkin.indymedia.org ] tech.indymedia.org - ... and local indymedia tech collectives. Project Summaries: Periodic imc-tech updates ... Server Problems? J2 7:39pm. Active2: Understanding the basics of algorithms ... Description: Maintains a number of GPL'ed codebases as well as a global network of servers and anarchist/hard-left... Category: News > Politics > Progressive and Left > Indy Media tech.indymedia.org/ - 22k - 30 Jul 2002 - Cached - Similar pages tech.indymedia.org - webcast article administration ... 406, showing, Active2: Anatomy of a Cryptographically Distributed Database, meta, Not ... 369, showing, Post-Active Project IRC meeting, christopher mitchell, Not rated. ... tech.indymedia.org/display.php3?led=y - 101k - Cached - Similar pages [ More results from tech.indymedia.org ]

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Re: A Q&A exchange between me and Eugene Volokh
by A.Melon 01 Aug '02

01 Aug '02

On Tue, 30 Jul 2002 22:50:35 -0400 (EDT), you wrote: > > A Q&A exchange between me and Eugene Volokh: > [Eugene's responses in square brackets.] > > The topic was Gilmore v. Ashcroft -- FAA ID Challenge in which John > Gilmore is suing the Feds to be allowed to fly domestically without ID. > > So, does John have a chance? > > [No.] > > So it is your view that the Feds can ban anyone (except those wealthy > enough to rent, buy, or build their own aircraft) from flying, for life, > using secret orders, and without any > access to judicial process. > > Seems a bit extreme to me. To put this in a broader and an historical perspective, let me point out that the government of the United States moved from the eloquent ideals and words of the Declaration of Independence, to a law that declared that any treasonable activity, including the publication of "any false, scandalous and malicious writing," was a high misdemeanor, punishable by fine and imprisonment, in just 22 years and 10 days. By virtue of this legislation, twenty-five men, most of them editors of Republican newspapers, were arrested and their newspapers forced to shut down.(The Sedition Act, 1798, Section 2, http://earlyamerica.com/earlyamerica/milestones/sedition/s-2.html ). As the newspapers were shuttered, the 1st amendment was only 6 and a half years old. I would submit for your consideration that governments of whatever stripe tenaciously and constantly move to expand the span and scope of their control, either with support of seemingly innocuous "stepping stone" laws, or by blatant disregard of law, precedent, or whatever else impedes that expansion. The most favorite tactic of those governments pretending western-style democracy is to implement secret, draconian controls and chilling surveillance to "protect the children" or "wage war on terrorism" or other real and imagined violent threats, over-hyped. The government uses the same pitch that comes from organized crime: "You want protection (security), you have to give up some money (freedom). You are either with us or against us. We cannot wait while dangers gather." Want to put a couple hundred thousand US citizens in concentration camps because of their ancestry? The Supreme Court sees nothing in the constitution to interfere with that. The DOJ today is quite adept at actions which it holds to be immune from judicial review, so the inconvenience of a judicial rubber stamp is no longer needed. And you wonder if the government can require a licence to be a passenger on an airliner? They can require a license to leave your house on foot, and they are in the process of doing so. "Have papers? Proceed. No papers, oh, you are not under arrest, but we need to check into a few things. This will only take a couple of hours or so and then you'll be on your way (to the next checkpoint). It's for the children, you know?" The first step will likely be for airline flight. With travel security papers, come to the airport 1 hour before departure. Without travel security papers, come to the airport 3 hours before departure. Then we can expect to hear, "May I have your travel security number please?" You know the drill. In about 27 minutes, the credit information service companies will also have that number. It will be your license, revocable at will, to move about the country, to buy, to own, to lodge. Has the president suspended the writ of habeas corpus? Sorry, that's secret, and since you asked, we must watch you carefully, because as our Attorney General says, civil liberties questions like that just give comfort to the enemy. I know full well that a substantial percentage of readers sees this line of thinking as paranoia. I expect that percentage to drop rapidly. "What do you have to hide?"

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dans le cul
by Matthew X 01 Aug '02

01 Aug '02

http://www.rsf.fr/article.php3?id_article=3193 Threat to Internet freedom posed by new security law RSF has expressed its serious concern further to the French government's introduction of a bill concerning the general direction and programme planning of internal security (Loi d'orientation et de programmation sur la sécurité intérieure, LOPSI). The National Assembly adopted the bill at the first reading on 17 July 2002. It outlines the present and future security policies of the Interior Ministry and government as a whole. The Senate will examine the bill on 30 and 31 July. In a 29 July letter to French Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, the organisation denounced "the latest step to be taken concerning security matters. [The organisation is] alarmed by the setback for civil, collective and individual rights brought on by this bill." "It is generally recognised that the Assembly's adoption of the very controversial Law on Daily Security (Loi sur la sécurité quotidienne, LSQ) in November 2001, and the European Parliament's 30 May adoption of the disturbing amendment to the Directive on the Protection of Telecommunications Data and Information have already restricted these fundamental constitutional liberties. This bill threatens to simply erase decades of struggle for their establishment and preservation," stated RSF Secretary-General Robert Ménard. "We deplore the general climate of surveillance that is introduced by the new measures submitted to the legislature ; the universal climate of suspicion that is encouraged by the fact that, henceforth, each citizen is considered a possible offender or terrorist, and the serious attacks on freedom of expression and the confidentiality of work-related and private correspondence. Our organisation specifically questions the possibility of guaranteeing the confidentiality of journalists' sources, to the extent that data from Internet connections and e-mail exchanges (Internet connection logs) could be requisitioned and examined with disconcerting ease by police officers," underlined Ménard. These concerns are amplified by the objective outlined in the bill to allow, "judicial police officers, acting in the context of an official investigation, and with a magistrate's authorisation, to gain direct access to computer files and enable the long-distance seizure, via telematic or electronic means, of information that appears necessary to the establishment of the truth". This excerpt refers to the authorities' licence to carry out off-property "searches" of Internet service providers' computer servers, which store logs of users' online activity, and automatically seize the information stored therein. RSF has, therefore, asked the interior minister : to specify the exact details of implementation under which the authorities will have access to data from Internet connections, sent and received e-mails and specify the policies governing the "seizure" of personal information ; to reaffirm his commitment to the protection of the confidentiality of professional exchanges, and especially the basic principle of confidentiality of journalists' sources to ensure, together with the Justice Ministry, that a sufficient number of magistrates who are experienced with these issues are given the means to deal calmly and impartially with police officers' requests for examination and seizure. RSF also renewed its 6 June appeal to Internet service providers, asking them not to retain user data, and urged Internet users in general, and journalists in particular, to use cryptography software in order to preserve the confidentiality of their exchanges. http://www.w3perl.com/fun/misc/tetedscul.html

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Nuclear armed dictatorships and allies.China-Pakistan.
by Matthew X 01 Aug '02

01 Aug '02

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow.asp?art_id=17649040 China modernising Pak infrastructure PTI [ THURSDAY, AUGUST 01, 2002 11:40:28 AM ] BEIJING: As part of Beijing's efforts to supplement its strong political and military ties with Islamabad, China is actively helping develop Pakistan's key infrastructure sectors like roads, ports and railways. The leadership of the two countries during their recent meetings has decided to establish a "comprehensive partnership" in all fields of mutual interest, particularly in the economic field, official sources said. I just spewed coffee out of my nose.

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"Lets HACK!"
by Matthew X 01 Aug '02

01 Aug '02

The social hack."...comparisons to the days of civil rights activism, Rosa Parks and the Black Panthers: people fighting for rights they should inalienably have." http://www.kuro5hin.org/story/2002/7/31/75737/5587 "...Civil disobediance is social engineering; it is a hack. Rosa Parks put a clog in the works by doing something no one expected, and modeling a simple, easy to emulate means of protest that soon led to diner sit-ins and boycotts of all kinds. The Black Panthers in Los Angeles expertly manipulated the "rules of the system" to their benefit, policing the police and arming themselves under full protection of law; even Neo, the latter-day hacker icon from The Matrix, could learn a thing or two from the Panthers about making the system work for you."

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IDQuantique-China rights
by Matthew X 01 Aug '02

01 Aug '02

ID Quantique Id Quantique, a quantum leap for cryptography Description: Site Of id Quantique, Inc. Products include a quantum random number generator,and a quantum cryptography... Category: Computers > Computer Science > Theoretical > Quantum Computing www.idquantique.com/ - 6k - Cached - Similar pages China's human rights policy, and American criticism of it, have formed a centerpiece of U.S.-China difficulties ever since 1989, when pro-democracy protests on Beijing's Tiananmen Square ended in bloodshed. Hundreds, perhaps thousands, died. In the years afterward, many in the U.S. Congress demanded that renewal of China's "most-favored nation" trade status be contingent on human-rights progress by the communist government. Most-favored nation status by the United States for China is now permanent. China insists it is making great progress in its own way and must be given leeway to balance the difficulties of governing 1.3 billion people through a period of great change with what it has acknowledged is the necessity of human rights. Human rights groups say China's harsh treatment of Tibetans, ethnic Uighurs and members of the Falun Gong spiritual movement demonstrates its lack of progress on the issue. China and the United States are attending the ASEAN Regional Forum as two of several nations who are not members of the 10-country Association of Southeast Asian Nations but have security interests in the region. Chinese President Jiang Zemin is scheduled to visit the United States later this year in what many perceive as a farewell trip before his expected retirement.

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War of the flea
by Matthew X 01 Aug '02

01 Aug '02

Finland's Smart Mobs Howard Rheingold: Helsinki's Aula.The Aula community in Helsinki and cyberspace is still my favorite smart mob - five hundred Finns who design and use mobile media to flock and blog, socialize and collaborate in geographic and virtual places simultaneously. When I spent an evening in June, 2002 with some of the Aula members, I had the opportunity to hang out in the "urban living room for the networked society" they were still constructing when I first met them, a year previously. Howard's upcoming book, "Smart Mobs", has been getting lots of press lately including this piece in the Washington Post. I visited Aula just before it opened a year ago, and was dazzled by its founders' ideas. Howard has captured perfectly what's happening there. The smart mobs notion is going to turn into a meme. Count on it. http://www.rand.org/publications/MR/MR1382/

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Terra phone
by Matthew X 01 Aug '02

01 Aug '02

Terror phone link By MARK DUNN 01aug02 AN al-Qaeda lieutenant linked to hijacker Mohammed Atta phoned Australian contacts several times before the September 11 attacks. Imaz Eddin Barakat Yarbas, also known as Abu Dahdah, phoned people in Australia between 1996 and the 2001 attacks on the World Trade Centre and Pentagon. Dahdah, a Syrian whose contact details were found in the diary of one of Atta's subordinates, is now in custody in Spain with several other alleged al-Qaeda members. Atta died at the controls of American Airlines flight 11, which hit New York's World Trade Centre first, in the attacks that killed 3056 people. Dahdah reportedly met Osama bin Laden at least twice. Spanish prosecutors have said one of Dahdah's co-accused, Luis Jose Galan Gonzales, trained in an Indonesian terrorist camp in July last year. The Spanish indictment alleges the cell's members "had been directly related to the preparation and development of the attacks". The US State Department has listed Australia as a known country where al-Qaeda has operated. Attorney-General Daryl Williams has confirmed ASIO is aware of Dahdah's connection to Australia. But Mr Williams' office has refused to release details about what investigations have been conducted or whether individuals have been spoken to about calls they may have received from Dahdah. It is the fourth time evidence of an al-Qaeda operative with Australian contacts has been made public. Mr Williams' spokeswoman Carina Tan Van Baren said ASIO would not comment on the strength of the Australian links. Visa checks had established none of the 20 named September 11 hijackers had visited Australia under their real names, she said. Mr Williams' office has also refused to comment further on statements he made in December that two other Australians, aged 25 and 28, had trained with al-Qaeda and were believed missing in Afghanistan. Those men have been identified as Mathew Stewart of Queensland and Jack Terrence Thomas of Melbourne. The families of both men have denied their sons' links to the organisation. The Attorney-General would also not comment on the state of Australian-based businesses or groups it has previously claimed were being monitored for suspected terrorism links. One organisation in Melbourne, Al Barakat, voluntarily closed after its money transfer business was frozen by Australian Federal Police. Other al Barakat companies in the US, Somalia and Dubai have been forcibly closed. http://www.heraldsun.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5478,4815410%255E661,00 .html

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