December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

_PI_ was crap, but...
by Walter Burton 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

It did inspire me to consider an interesting line of thought: Maybe pi is the cyphertext and the 216-digit "Holy Unspeakable Name of God" is the Vegenere-ish key. I'll get to work and see if I can crack the message by lunchtime. \\/alter

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RE: Two Jims, Werner and Matt redefine socialism for their own ends
by Matthew James Gering 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

> The two largest employers round where I live are a > multinational bank and local government. I can vote > for my councillors. Some of them I my neighbours. So why can't your neighbors run a bank? > something like Belloc and Chesterton's "distributivism". Distribute what and created by whom? Need I point out the obvious fallacy that wealth is a static sum. It is not, wealth must be *created* before it exists to plunder and share. Abstract wealth and divorce it from the creator and you eliminate the motive to create. You can only live from plundered wealth so long before you slip into oblivion (see the Soviet Union). > How many of you have a mortgate or pay rent? Capitalism > means that someone else owns your house. No, capitalism allows you to leverage your future productive capacity to acquire capital assets you wouldn't otherwise have. That is your choice, and your benefit. > How many of you work for a corporation? Capitalism means > that someone else owns your job. No, capitalism allows you to trade your labor instead of your product. That is your choice, and your benefit. > And then Matt Gering replied to Ken Brown: > > >> A monopolisitic supplier of some good has a measure > >> of political power. > > > Political power comes at the mean end of a gun, what > > political power do monopolies have and how? > And I was almost knocked over by the innocence, ignorance and > naievety of such a statement. The question was not rhetorical. Do you care to answer? > What political power do monopolies have? The power > to deny you things you need to live. How? By denying the ability of others to supply them. By denying your right to create them. By (legitimately) denying your ability to steal them. > The power to deny you the means to earn a living. How? By denying your ability to create and dispose of your own wealth. By denying you the right to freely trade your labor or the right of others to purchase that labor. By denying your ability to accumulate capital. > If there is only one employer in a town then anyone born > there must either leave or knuckle under. Staying is a restraint that is self-imposed (provided government does not restrict freedom of movement). Why is there only one employer? > Unlike what Matt Gering said monopoly power *does* "come > out of the barrel of a gun" On the contrary I clearly stated it did. But if the monopoly does not have guns itself, whose guns are they? > - it is preserved by military and police authority. Exactly. So eliminate those guns. > Like money itself it exists because folk choose to believe > that it exists. If we all stopped behaving as if great > property existed, it would cease to exist. "Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away." -- Philip K. Dick Fine, stop believing in money, no one is forcing you to. Did it work? Oh, you mean *everyone* has to stop believing in it? Sounds like mass delusion to me, and metaphysical subjectivism. The fact that something exists or not is clearly independent of whether anyone believes in it or not. Money is a symbol. The valuation of any given monetary system is entirely irrelevant to the existence of that which money represents, and the failure of Fiat currencies does not abolish the existence of what they had represented. What is the root of money? http://www.ecosystems.net/mgering/money.html > That respect for money is buttressed by the state. Manipulation of the money supply by the state is tool for theft by the state and denial of economic reality. It had consequences in 1929, and it will again. Matt

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What Really Happened
by Paul H. Merrill 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

What Really Happened Some time ago Mr. Clinton was hosting a state dinner when at the last minute his regular cook took ill and they had to get a replacement at short notice. The fellow arrived and turned out to be a very grubby looking man named Jon. The President voiced his concerns to his chief of staff but was told that this was the best they could do at such short notice. Just before the meal, the President noticed the cook sticking his fingers in the soup to taste it and again he complained to the chief of staff about the cook, but he was told that this man was supposed to be a very good chef. The meal went okay but the President was sure that the soup tasted a little off, and by the time dessert came, he was starting to have stomach cramps and nausea. It was getting worse and worse till finally he had to excuse himself from the state dinner to look for the bathroom. Passing through the kitchen, he caught sight of the cook, Jon, scratching his rear end and this made him feel even worse. By now he was desperately ill with violent cramps and was so disorientated that he couldn't remember which door led to the bathroom. He was on the verge of passing out from the pain when he finally found a door that opened and as he undid his trousers and ran in, he realised to his horror that he had stumbled into Monica Lewinsky's office with his trousers around his knees. As he was just about to pass out, she bent over him and heard her president whisper in a barely audible voice, "sack my cook". And that is how the whole misunderstanding occurred.

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IP: Tracking: Machines to Check Airline Bags Mostly Idle, Report Says
by Vladimir Z. Nuri 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

From: believer(a)telepath.com Subject: IP: Tracking: Machines to Check Airline Bags Mostly Idle, Report Says Date: Sun, 11 Oct 1998 08:03:44 -0500 To: believer(a)telepath.com Source: New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/washpol/unused-bomb-detectors.html October 11, 1998 Machines to Check Airline Bags Mostly Idle, Report Says By MATTHEW L. WALD WASHINGTON -- The Federal Aviation Administration has spent more than $122 million on machines to detect bombs in checked baggage, but those machines that have been installed sit idle for most of the day, according to investigators from the Department of Transportation. The machines, which cost $1.3 million each to buy and install, are supposed to be capable of handling 225 bags an hour, but of 13 that were audited by investigators, nine handled fewer than 200 bags a day, according to a report released on Friday. Some got so little use that the operators could not maintain proficiency in running them, investigators said. "At some airports, they're sitting relatively unused," Lawrence Weintrob, an assistant inspector general of the Transportation Department, said in a telephone interview. "Some airports that are using them are using them rarely, or process relatively few bags through them." But Cathal Flynn, assistant administrator of the FAA for civil aviation security, said the average number of bags processed through each machine was rising sharply as airlines gained experience. Flynn and airline representatives said that part of the problem was that the computerized system for choosing which passengers' bags get scanned was still developing, and would not be fully implemented until the end of the year. "We haven't ironed out all the kinks in the process," said Susan Rork, managing director of security at the Air Transport Association, the trade group of the major airlines. The computerized system singles out individuals about whom there is too little information to conclude that they are not a threat, officials say. It also draws a sample from the group judged not to be a threat, to increase the chance that a terrorist would be caught, and to make the system fairer, Flynn said. One problem, he said, is that if the system were changed to require that a larger number of passengers have their bags scrutinized, then at peak periods people would be delayed so long they would miss their flights. "If you get people fuming at a line, that's not good either," Flynn said. That, he said, would probably discourage machine operators from doing their jobs right. And delays, he said, would damage public acceptance of security measures. In written comments responding to the report, the FAA said that the agency would "pursue a more coherent strategy with air carriers to ramp-up to a higher level of use." However, the agency said, it would be "many years" before technology allowed screening of all bags. Auditors also said that the machines in use could handle only about half as many bags as they did in lab tests, partly because they sound false alarms far more when in use at airports. Each false alarm requires time to resolve. (All alarms so far have been false, officials said, because no bombs have been detected.) The machines' higher false alarm rate is "probably a reason why they don't use it as often as they should," Weintrob said. Fifty-nine of the machines have been installed so far; plans are to have 74 in place by the end of the year, he said. Officials of airports where the machines are installed declined to comment and asked not to be identified. Under FAA rules, airport operators are responsible for various aspects of security, but not for screening bags. That responsibility falls to the airlines. Copyright 1998 The New York Times Company ----------------------- NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ----------------------- ********************************************** To subscribe or unsubscribe, email: majordomo(a)majordomo.pobox.com with the message: (un)subscribe ignition-point email@address ********************************************** www.telepath.com/believer **********************************************

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_PI_ was crap, but...
by Walter Burton 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 It did inspire me to consider an interesting line of thought: Maybe pi is the cyphertext and the 216-digit "Holy Unspeakable Name of God" is the Vegenere-ish key. I'll get to work and see if I can crack the message by lunchtime. \\/alter -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: PGPfreeware 6.0 for non-commercial use <http://www.pgp.com> Comment: For my public key, send a msg with "public key" in the subj. iQA/AwUBNiNatI0Llo1Bf1gWEQLIfACguQpfpZLC3cT0Iw/vj/ncDlHWcPIAn3W5 ZoMzjfYNl4sD+J2sqhtZ6fwU =GZcu -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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IP: ISPI Clips 5.30: U.S. lawmakers approve major wiretap law change
by Vladimir Z. Nuri 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

From: "ama-gi ISPI" <offshore(a)email.msn.com> Subject: IP: ISPI Clips 5.30: U.S. lawmakers approve major wiretap law change Date: Mon, 12 Oct 1998 00:08:52 -0700 To: <Undisclosed.Recipients(a)majordomo.pobox.com> ISPI Clips 5.30: U.S. lawmakers approve major wiretap law change News & Info from the Institute for the Study of Privacy Issues (ISPI) Monday October 12, 1998 ISPI4Privacy(a)ama-gi.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This From: Reuters News Service, (via Yahoo) October 8, 1998 http://biz.yahoo.com/ U.S. lawmakers approve major wiretap law change (adds Senate approval, FBI comment) http://biz.yahoo.com/rf/981008/b16.html By Aaron Pressman WASHINGTON, Oct 8 (Reuters) - Without debate or notice, U.S. lawmakers on Thursday approved a proposal long sought by the FBI that would dramatically expand wiretapping authority -- an idea Congress openly rejected three years ago. The provision, allowing law enforcement agencies more easily to tap any telephone used by or near a target individual instead of getting authorization to tap specific phones, was added to the Intelligence Authorization Conference report during a closed door meeting and filed with the House and Senate on Monday. The conference report was easily adopted by the House on Wednesday, despite an objection to the wiretapping provision from Georgia Republican Bob Barr, and by the Senate on Thursday. Neither the House nor the Senate had included the provision, known as roving wiretap authority, in their versions of the intelligence bill. But lawmakers drafting the conference report, essentially a reconciliation of the two versions, decided to include it. Civil liberties groups were outraged by the expanded wiretapping authority and the process of adding the provision in secret. ``Roving wiretaps are a major expansion of current government surveillance power,'' said Alan Davidson, staff counsel at the Center for Democracy and Technology in Washington. ``To take a controversial provision that affects the fundamental constitutional liberties of the people and pass it behind closed doors shows a shocking disregard for our democratic process.'' FBI officials said they needed to be able to get roving wiretap authority more easily to catch criminals taking advantage of new telecommunications technologies. ``This provision is just a refinement of the existing wiretap statute,'' said Barry Smith, supervisory special agent in the FBI's congressional affairs office. ``It's just a matter of ensuring we have the means to effectively pursue these violent criminals and terrorists.'' Under current rules, law enforcement agencies seeking roving wiretap authority from a judge must prove that an individual is switching telephones specifically for the purpose of evading a surveillance. The standard has been difficult to meet and kept the number of roving wiretaps approved to a minimum, a telephone industry official said. Without roving authority, police must get permission from a judge for each telephone line to be tapped. Under the change approved this week, the police would need show only that an individual's ``actions could have the effect of thwarting interception from a specific facility.'' The change removed the need to consider the target's motive in using different telephones. Copyright © 1998 Reuters Limited. --------------------------------NOTICE:------------------------------ ISPI Clips are news & opinion articles on privacy issues from all points of view; they are clipped from local, national and international newspapers, journals and magazines, etc. Inclusion as an ISPI Clip does not necessarily reflect an endorsement of the content or opinion by ISPI. In compliance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed free without profit or payment for non-profit research and educational purposes only. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- ISPI Clips is a FREE e-mail service from the "Institute for the Study of Privacy Issues" (ISPI). To receive "ISPI Clips" on a regular bases (up to 3 - 8 clips per day) send the following message "Please enter [Your Name] into the ISPI Clips list: [Your e-mail address]" to: ISPIClips(a)ama-gi.com . The Institute for the Study of Privacy Issues (ISPI) is a small contributor-funded organization based in Victoria, British Columbia (Canada). ISPI operates on a not-for-profit basis, accepts no government funding and takes a global perspective. ISPI's mandate is to conduct & promote interdisciplinary research into electronic, personal and financial privacy with a view toward helping ordinary people understand the degree of privacy they have with respect to government, industry and each other and to likewise inform them about techniques to enhance their privacy. But, none of this can be accomplished without your kind and generous financial support. If you value in the ISPI Clips service or if you are concerned about the erosion of your privacy in general, won't you please help us continue this important work by becoming an "ISPI Clips Supporter" or by taking out an institute Membership? We gratefully accept all contributions: Less than $60 ISPI Clips Supporter $60 - $99 Primary ISPI Membership (1 year) $100 - $300 Senior ISPI Membership (2 years) More than $300 Executive Council Membership (life) Your ISPI "membership" contribution entitles you to receive "The ISPI Privacy Reporter" (our bi-monthly 12 page hard-copy newsletter in multi-contributor format) for the duration of your membership. For a contribution form with postal instructions please send the following message "ISPI Contribution Form" to ISPI4Privacy(a)ama-gi.com . We maintain a strict privacy policy. Any information you divulge to ISPI is kept in strict confidence. It will not be sold, lent or given away to any third party. ********************************************** To subscribe or unsubscribe, email: majordomo(a)majordomo.pobox.com with the message: (un)subscribe ignition-point email@address ********************************************** www.telepath.com/believer **********************************************

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IP: Secret Marine training mission startles residents
by Vladimir Z. Nuri 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

From: believer(a)telepath.com Subject: IP: Secret Marine training mission startles residents Date: Mon, 12 Oct 1998 11:12:42 -0500 To: believer(a)telepath.com Source: Greensboro News & Record (N.Carolina) http://www.greensboro.com/nronline/news/helicopters9.htm Secret Marine training mission startles residents 10-9-98 By ANDREA BALL, Staff Writer Fisher Park resident Helen Ullrich was resting in bed when she heard the roar of the helicopters. The house shook. The windows rattled. Her first thought: A plane is going to crash. Her second: Where's it going to land? "For the first minute or two, that's what it was like," she said. "Just fear." Greensboro residents shuddered and gawked at the skies Wednesday night while nine military helicopters unexpectedly swarmed above their houses. The aircraft were involved in a two-hour training mission by the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit at Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune, said Capt. Bill Darrenkamp, public affairs officer for Camp Lejeune. The helicopters -- a Huey, two Cobras, two Super Stallions and four Sea Knights -- flew from Onslow Bay to practice long-range raids, Darrenkamp said. The local training session stretched from about 9:30 to 11:30 p.m. The Greensboro Police Department agreed to the mission about a month ago, Darrenkamp said. Nearly 200 families in the Huffine Mill Road area were told of the training a few hours before it began. The rest of the city was clueless. And that's the way the Marines wanted it, said Capt. Sammy Bell of the Greensboro Police Department. "We couldn't have notified the public on it because if we had, everyone and their brother would be out there trying to watch it," Bell said. Darrenkamp said the mission was kept quiet because Marines wanted the training to be as realistic as possible. They also wanted to keep crowds away from the planes when they landed because they can kick up dirt and debris, he said. The nine helicopters flew from outside Jacksonville to Piedmont Triad International Airport to refuel. Then they landed at the old Mt. Zion School on Huffine Mill Road, where 50 to 60 Marines enacted an invasion of enemy headquarters. They set off smoke grenades, shot blanks with their M-16s and blew off a door specially installed for the military activity. But the covert training alarmed people throughout the city. Although the helicopters were often 400 feet from the ground, Darrenkamp said they dipped much lower while landing. Some residents complained that the helicopters barely missed their houses. "That (height) was cleared, according to the military, by the FAA," said Capt. David Wray of the Greensboro Police Department. "We were assured that every safety measure would be taken." Residents in neighborhoods throughout the city -- including downtown, Lindley Park, Old Starmount, Forest Oaks and Lake Daniel -- heard or saw the deafening craft. And then the guessing began. Was it a crashing plane? An air search for an escaped convict? One of those medical helicopters? Brien Deutermanand her husband Bill were watching television in their Old Starmount home when they heard the helicopters. The couple, seated on their couch, whipped around to peer out their picture window. A plane was in trouble, they guessed. They thought of the recent accident in which a small plane crashed into a home in Winston-Salem. "It really startled us," Brien Deuterman said. "After what happened in Winston-Salem a few months ago, that was the first thing that ran through our minds." Helen Ullrich rushed outside her home on Isabel Street to find her pajama-clad neighbors standing in the street, squinting into the sky at the passing helicopters. Scared children clung to their parents, while adults slowly relaxed. Then came the jokes. The government is scaring us out of our houses to get an accurate census. If we're in danger, why are we all standing in the middle of the road? "Once we realized we were out of danger, we were just laughing about it," Ullrich said. Copyright © Greensboro News & Record, Inc. ----------------------- NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ----------------------- ********************************************** To subscribe or unsubscribe, email: majordomo(a)majordomo.pobox.com with the message: (un)subscribe ignition-point email@address ********************************************** www.telepath.com/believer **********************************************

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RE: Two Jims, Werner and Matt redefine socialism for their own en (fwd)
by Jim Choate 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Forwarded message: > From: Matthew James Gering <mgering(a)ecosystems.net> > Subject: RE: Two Jims, Werner and Matt redefine socialism for their own en > ds > Date: Mon, 12 Oct 1998 14:24:16 -0700 > > multinational bank and local government. I can vote > > for my councillors. Some of them I my neighbours. > > So why can't your neighbors run a bank? The same reason most people can't. Funny thing is, it's the same reason a lot of bankers can't run banks. > Distribute what and created by whom? Need I point out the obvious > fallacy that wealth is a static sum. Interesting. I don't see that particular axiom in my notes....what I see is the assumption that markets and their growth are unlimited. Pesky things like ecological impacts, social impacts, waste processing, etc. are no big percentage (as in completely ignored). > Abstract wealth and divorce it > from the creator and you eliminate the motive to create. An interesting but obtuse means of stating that economics are a result of human action and not a fundamental force in nature. > > And then Matt Gering replied to Ken Brown: > > > > >> A monopolisitic supplier of some good has a measure > > >> of political power. > > > > > Political power comes at the mean end of a gun, what > > > political power do monopolies have and how? > > > And I was almost knocked over by the innocence, ignorance and > > naievety of such a statement. > > The question was not rhetorical. Do you care to answer? Political power is actualy a much broader sword than Marx (and yourself apparently) would paint. It's invovled in such basic actions as saying thank you and holding a door open for somebody. The political aspect is a fundamental belief that what goes around comes around. If I, and enough other people walk around opening doors for each other, do this then when I can't open the door somebody likely will. It's a gamble in the basic nature of humans, to do the same basic things within the same social environment the same basic way. Things like economies of scale have fundamental bases in these sorts of psychological insights. Those comparable behaviours very seldom involve violence as a motive, let alone a method. People, all people, behave badly when violence is involved. Usualy violence is involved in creating a behaviour of compliance that runs contrary to some fundamental behaviour of the individual(s) or on the overt attempt to steal or kill (murder is incorrect because it implies a social structure that doesn't actualy exist at this fundamental level). > > What political power do monopolies have? The power > > to deny you things you need to live. > > How? By denying the ability of others to supply them. By denying your > right to create them. By (legitimately) denying your ability to steal > them. Monopolies have the power to decide *YOUR* tomorrow. It isn't theirs at the cost of a simple profit. > > - it is preserved by military and police authority. And social institutions. > Exactly. So eliminate those guns. Beeeep. We're so SORRY (not)!!!! That's absolutely the WRONG answer EVER. > "Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't > go away." -- Philip K. Dick > > Fine, stop believing in money, no one is forcing you to. Did it work? > Oh, you mean *everyone* has to stop believing in it? Sounds like mass > delusion to me, That is EXACTLY what I've been trying to say all along! Economics is a social institution that has fundamental roots in the base behaviours of the animals involved. > What is the root of money? > http://www.ecosystems.net/mgering/money.html Hunger. ____________________________________________________________________ To know what is right and not to do it is the worst cowardice. Confucius The Armadillo Group ,::////;::-. James Choate Austin, Tx /:'///// ``::>/|/ ravage(a)ssz.com www.ssz.com .', |||| `/( e\ 512-451-7087 -====~~mm-'`-```-mm --'- --------------------------------------------------------------------

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Your New Adobe Customer Number
by Adobe Systems 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Thank you for registering with Adobe Systems, Inc. Your new Online Customer ID is: 9062604113320310 The PIN you entered and confirmed has been encrypted and stored with your registration information. Please remember your Customer ID and PIN for the next time you login as an Adobe Customer on www.adobe.com.

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No Subject
by news＠quake.connectfree.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Connect FREE Newsletter October 98 Welcome to Connect Free, and thank you for joining our service. We hope you find our Second Newsletter informative. September's Newsletter can be viewed on our web site at the bottom of the FREE Internet page. FreeServe & Dixons Now we all know that Free Internet access is going to be the norm very shortly and users of the Internet like yourselves would like to have several connections to the Internet from different ISP's and of course you will choose the service that offers the best performance. With the launch of Dixons Freeserve service some of our users have taken the decision to have a second account - great idea. If you decide to use this service alongside your Connect FREE account please do not use the CD install that Dixons provide - if you do, then you may just find that your Connect FREE account will no longer work. It is possible to configure the Freeserve system manually and then you will be able to use any account on your system without problem. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Future Developments In November, Connect FREE will be able to offer an even better service because we will have 1Gig of Internet bandwidth for fast access to the Internet and thousands of modems and lines ensuring that you get a guaranteed first time connection every time. We will be spending one million pounds on new equipment, for example new modem racks, routers and servers. This new equipment will be housed at Telehouse, London, the main exchange for all UK Internet traffic. Connect FREE is aiming to be not only the first Internet Service Provider to offer FREE Internet access in the UK but also to be the Best. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- POP3 & SMTP Mail During November Connect FREE is going to be offering all it's customers FREE unlimited POP3 e-mail addresses and unlimited aliases to each e-mail account. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Free Web Space During December we plan to offer all our Connect FREE customers, FREE web space. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Proxy Server Connect FREE does not have a Proxy Server. If you find that you can connect to the Connect FREE service but you cannot view any web pages the likelihood is that you have the Proxy Server setting *Ticked* in your browser configuration. This can happen if you put another Internet Service Providers software onto your PC and the automatic configuration will enable this setting. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- News Server The automatic news configuration routine on our website does not work for everybody. If you have problems using this facility then we suggest you set-up News manually using something like Outlook Express. Our News Server address is: news.connectfree.net ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Change of Details If you need to change your personal details i.e. email address etc, then you will soon be able to do this via a web page on the Connect FREE website. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Information Line If you do need to contact Connect FREE by phone or email please ensure that you provide your LoginID & Password with every communication. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Improvements Connect FREE would like to hear from you, if there is any way in which you think we could improve our service to you, or add more content to the Connect FREE website. It is Connect FREE policy not to send unwanted rubbish by e-mail or junk advertising by any other means. All we ask is that you receive our monthly newsletter informing you of any changes to the service and any new service that may come available which you may benefit from. Contact us at info(a)connectfree.net or Telephone 0702 115 2525 No Catches, No Gimmicks, Just Connect FREE

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Re: FBI to inaugurate national DNA database
by Ernest Hua 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I think it would be a very bad idea for civil liberties groups to come out 100% against this. So far all they have said is that they intend to log all convicted criminals. If the C.L. groups complain about that, then it would be too easy for the FBI to turn around and say, "Geez! These guys complain about anything and everything we do!" It would serve the civil liberties causes (and in particular, the crypto cause) much better to view this with suspicion and caution and strongly point out that, while this, on its face, looks okay, the FBI have had a perfect record of always pushing for more surveillence and more record tracking than they previously promise to hold to. Secondly, it is much more important to focus law makers on the FBI's "constantly pushing for everything they can get away with while talking BALANCE" behavior than to nickle and dime every law favoring the FBI. They must be shown for their blatant lies rather than for their gray area behavior. Otherwise, it's a very very tough battle. Ern -----Original Message----- From: Jim Gillogly <jim(a)acm.org> To: cypherpunks(a)cyberpass.net <cypherpunks(a)cyberpass.net> Date: Monday, October 12, 1998 9:31 AM Subject: FBI to inaugurate national DNA database > >SJMC retails a report from today's NYT: > >http://www.sjmercury.com/breaking/docs/084314.htm > >Executive summary: > >- Computer at secret location >- Access limited to LE >- All sex offenders get to contribute; felons in some States; > other contributors not yet determined. > >-- > Jim Gillogly > Highday, 21 Winterfilth S.R. 1998, 16:12 > 12.19.5.10.14, 5 Ix 7 Yax, Seventh Lord of Night >

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FYI: More on WebTV security
by Robert Hettinga 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

--- begin forwarded text From: Pablo Calamera <pablo(a)microsoft.com> To: "'mac-crypto(a)vmeng.com'" <mac-crypto(a)vmeng.com> Subject: FYI: More on WebTV security Date: Mon, 12 Oct 1998 16:34:14 -0700 Sender: <mac-crypto(a)vmeng.com> Precedence: Bulk Don't know if you've seen this, but we were recently granted a license to ship 128-bit RC4 in our product. No key recovery, no key escrow. Here's the fluff: http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/1998/Oct98/EncryptionPR.htm --- end forwarded text ----------------- Robert A. Hettinga <mailto: rah(a)philodox.com> Philodox Financial Technology Evangelism <http://www.philodox.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'

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by randrent 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

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RE:
by Anonymous 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

paranoid, or enlightened? :) At 03:55 PM 10/10/98 , you wrote: >~> PS. there is someone on this list who knows who >~> i am. yes there is someone who knows who anon >~> posters are. we fucking hate you and am waiting >~> for you to take the trap and we will reveal your >~> identity scumbag. >

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Re:
by Secret Squirrel 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Anonymous wrote: > > > >HOW MUCH CODE DID 'CYPHERPUNK' TIM MAY EVER WRITE? > > > > How much code have you ever written? > > A DECENT AMOUNT. THE CRYPTO APPS I CREATED ARE SOMEWHAT UNIQUE, > SO IF I MENTIONED THEM YOU MIGHT FIGURE OUT WHO I AM. Did you rewrite your keyboard driver at the same time?

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Better than Viagra-Ask Mark McGwire
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17 Dec '03

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Between the Lines
by Edwin E. Smith 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Between the Lines Joseph Farah Disarm the BATF Another day, another debacle for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. This time, the scene is not Waco, Texas, or Ruby Ridge, Idaho, but Taft, California -- another hotbed of "anti-government activity." According to the federal government's own account, the BATF began an investigation into illegal firearms sales by people espousing anti-government rhetoric three or four years ago with an undercover agent allegedly making an illegal purchase of a .22-caliber pistol. It ended last week with one of the three targets of the federal government probe dead in a highly unusual -- and, yes, improbable -- incident. The official story goes something like this: Two BATF agents, a Kern County sheriff's deputy and Sgt. Ed Whiting of the Taft Police Department attempted to take into custody on illegal firearms trafficking charges, Darryl Howell, a 45-year-old grandfather and owner of a surplus store that sold, among other things, guns and ammunition. A struggle between the BATF agents and Howell ensued. The cops say he broke away from them, lunged for a .45-caliber handgun, put it into his mouth and fired a single shot. Whiting, the story goes, had become temporarily distracted during the scuffle. When he heard the single shot, he instinctively aimed his gun at Howell and fired three more shots into his already, presumably, lifeless body. Now, if you believe that, I have an intercontinental ballistic missile I'd like to sell you. I'm not a cop, and I've never played one on TV. But I have reported on enough crime stories in my day to know when one stinks to high heaven. And this one smells like a cattle ranch on a windless, summer day in California's Central Valley. Let me see if I have this straight. Four cops, one "suspect." This wanted outlaw -- so dangerous he's been under scrutiny of federal law enforcement for nearly four years -- is confronted not in his home, not on his lunch break, not on his way to work or after he locks up, but during the workday in a store loaded with firearms. Even though he's not accused of being on PCP or any other drugs, he cannot be physically subdued by four officers. They are unable to persuade him to come along peacefully or handcuff him involuntarily. Instead, he is permitted by these highly trained law enforcement professionals to grab one of his guns. But they don't shoot him right away. Oh no. They allow him to pick up the handgun, bring it all the way up to his mouth and pull the trigger. Only then, we are told, does one of the officers, who wasn't paying attention, pump the desperado full of lead. Do these BATF clowns ever learn? Either these guys are Washington's answer to the Keystone Kops, or we have on the loose a cold, calculating, professional, Gestapo-like killing machine designed to root out dissidents exercising their Second Amendment rights and blow them away without the messiness of trials and due process. How many times does America need to see such tragedies before it wakes up and disarms these dangerous, out-of-control, gun-slinging hitmen? The inmates are running the asylum, folks. Beam me up. There is no allegation made by any of these cowboys that Howell or any others charged in a series of raids in the town of Taft last week had provided weapons to criminals or represented a threat to law-abiding citizens anywhere. In fact, I personally would have felt a lot safer in Taft last week, before Mr. Howell was "suicided" than I would today. I think most Americans would. Let's suspend our own cognitive skills and good judgment for a moment and pretend the cops' story is 100 percent accurate. Was the four-year investigation worth it? Was it a prudent investment of taxpayer dollars? Why aren't these law-enforcement heroes out investigating real crimes of violence against innocent victims, instead of conducting secretive sting operations designed to entrap people into violating inherently unconstitutional laws? But, you know what? Such talk can get you in trouble these days. One of the BATF agents responsible for this tragedy said one of Howell's friends had (gasp!) complained about a ban on "assault weapons" and the actions of President Clinton, Attorney General Janet Reno and U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein. At the risk of inviting a similar assault on my home or business, let me pick up that cry: These are, indeed, some of the people who represent a real threat to our lives and liberty in America t

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RE: FBI to inaugurate national DNA database
by Brown, R Ken 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

> Ernest Hua[SMTP:hua@teralogic-inc.com] wrote: > > I think it would be a very bad idea for civil liberties > groups to come out 100% against this. So far all they > have said is that they intend to log all convicted criminals. > If the C.L. groups complain about that, then it would be too > easy for the FBI to turn around and say, "Geez! These guys > complain about anything and everything we do!" I think you are falling for the old bazaar bargaining trick. The guy wants to sell you a carpet that is worth a shekel. He reckons he can do you for ten shekels. So he starts the bidding at a hundred and you think you've done well when you've beaten him down to fifteen. America is - cypherpunks tell me - a country where people worry about their social security number being kept on databases, where caller id on phones can be a hot political issue. This DNA business is far more intrusive and dangerous than any of that. Don't fall for it! Don't fall for the argument that it is only the bad guys who get tagged. They can define anyone they want as a bad guy. How many people do you know who have never done anything for which they could be convicted as a criminal? Never driven a car faster then the speed limit, never smoked dope, never ridden a bicycle on the pavement, never been drunk in a public place? To a large extent the set of "convicted criminals" is governed by police or court decisions rather than by the actions of the criminals. Over here in Britain we've had a long succession of intrusive, abusive laws promulgated in the name of public safety, law and order, peace on the streets. The previous government had their absurd "dangerous dogs act" which became a laughing stock before the ink was dry then their horrendous and evil "Criminal Justice Bill" with racist provisions allowing the police to persecute travellers and uttely useless laws against "music with repetitive beats" not to mention new rules to control "young offenders, bailed persons, squatters, travellers, ravers, protesters, trespassers, arrested persons, defendants, hunt-saboteurs, pornographers, video pirates, obscene telephone-callers, prisoners, racists, terrorists, ticket touts, cannabis-smokers, serious fraudsters and not forgetting gay men under 18." The current lot aren't as bad, and are certainly more well-intentioned but they haven't repealed any of the earlier stuff and are, bit by bit, filling in the few gaps in the wall of regulation and legislation the Tories built around anyone who wasn't a middle-aged white man who worked 9 to 5, living in a suburb with a car and a mortgage, who never went out. Our current Home Secretary (cabinet minister with responsibility for police anong other things) was probably the first person in such a position in any major country who was brought up by a single mother on a violent estate (what you'd call a housing project in America) and he thinks he knows - no he *does* know - what most ordinary people in environments like that want from life. So he proposes law after law to make things better, to tell people how they ought to live, all with the best of intentions. Curfews for children (you ask questions and he will just come back at you and say "do you *really* think 9-year-old children should be wandering around on their own at night, or in gangs?" to which the honest answer is "no, but it's none of your business if they do"). Compulsory parenting education for parents whose children commit crimes. A national register of paedophiles - which is made public, so a couple of convicted child abusers, on being released from jail asked to be taken back in again because their life wasn't safe outside. Defining email that goes outside the country as "export" so that writing about bombs (or cryptography?) can come under the strategic arms export regulations. And so on. And all the while local councils put up cameras in every high street... And all the [...snip...] > Secondly, it is much more important to focus law makers > on the FBI's "constantly pushing for everything they can > get away with while talking BALANCE" behavior than to nickle > and dime every law favoring the FBI. They must be shown > for their blatant lies rather than for their gray area behavior. > Otherwise, it's a very very tough battle.

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BATF strike again
by Anonymous 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

CHRISTINE L. PETERSON Friends skeptical of official account October 8, 1998 http://www.bakersfield.com/top/i--1304241419.asp By CHRISTINE L. PETERSON Californian staff writer Disbelief permeated the tight-knit communities of Taft and Ford City Thursday as residents and friends of Darryl Howell questioned law enforcement's account of his death in his gun shop. The Kern County Sheriff Department's version of the events that the gun shop owner grabbed a loaded .45-caliber handgun Wednesday, struggled with officers and then placed the barrel in his mouth and pulled the trigger just didn't fit with what they knew of the father of two. Sheriff's officials said a Taft police officer, not knowing where the expended round went, immediately fired three rounds that struck Howell, 45, on the right side of his body. He died at the scene. "Everyone in Taft knows this is stupid," said Shannon Ong, 34, Howell's niece. "They think the police officers are trying to make it seem like he was a criminal." Ong believes there could be nothing further from the truth that the man who grew up in Taft and graduated from Taft Union High School where yearbooks say he played football and was in the band was a wonderful man who ran an upstanding business. While at least one family member and friends said Howell was vocal in support of gun rights, they did not believe he would condone any illegal behavior or sell illegal firearms. "The way that press release makes him sound, well, he just would have never done anything like that," Ong said after reading a copy of a sheriff's news release on the incident. ATF agents went to Alpha Omega Surplus and Supplies Store as part of a four-year firearms trafficking investigation, said ATF special agent Tracy Hite. She said ATF was assisted in serving a warrant by the Taft Police Department and Kern County Sheriff's Department. "This was a lengthy investigation that led us to several locations," Hite said, explaining that there were search warrants for five locations and arrest warrants for three people in Kern County. Ong estimated her uncle had the business for 15 to 20 years, first within Taft city limits and then in the county. At the business Thursday, some family members and friends gathered at the shop. A bumper sticker on a window bore the message: "Only tyrants and criminals fear honest armed citizens." Recorded programs blared from speakers outside the shop. "I just don't understand it," said friend Jamie Walchock. She said that while she didn't share Howell's support of guns, she respected him because he looked on the bright side of life, listened to and worked with people on their problems and was satisfied with making ends meet. She said Howell talked about moving. "In the 12 years I have known him, I have never seen him upset," Walchock said. To her, Howell was a law-abiding citizen; she said he didn't like helmets so he stopped riding his motorcycle when the helmet law went into effect. "I know in a million years he wouldn't ever shoot himself or lunge at a police officer," Walchock said. Ken Bishop, who would sometimes visit Howell at his shop, said Howell was "somewhat of a patriot" and would share his opinions about guns. He said that law enforcement's statement that Howell had illegal firearms seems "off the wall." Mike Hodges, the publisher of Golden Empire Review, said Howell asked to have a column printed in the paper titled, "Notes from Moron." Taft was called Moron in 1908, according to "Kern County Place Names." The city changed its name to Taft in 1909. In the column, Howell quotes several passages from the Bible. The column Hodges attributed to Howell states, "It is not an hone to be in the Militia! It is our God-given duty! We are commanded to be his soldiers. It is time to lay aside our daily' jobs and return to duty! R&R is over! To arms, to arms! Where are His soldiers? "Right now, where is your squad members? Right now can you honestly state that you are aware of their location and their ability to respond to duty?" Hodges said after Howell died, he reread the column. "It gave me an eerie, shaky feeling," Hodges said. He said he didn't believe Howell would ever resist arrest. While Howell didn't agree with some gun legislation, he abided by it, Hodges said. "I know Darryl wouldn't kill himself and he wouldn't hurt someone else," Hodges said. "My personal experience is he was a real giving person." 10/07/98 Article Man shot to death at Taft gun shop http://www.bakersfield.com/top/i--1304325052.asp

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TCR9 -- A Soldier of the Great War
by Robert Hettinga 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

--- begin forwarded text From: CONSILRPT(a)aol.com Date: Tue, 13 Oct 1998 04:44:22 EDT To: "The Consilience Report" <consilience-report(a)lists.lyris.net> Mime-Version: 1.0 Subject: TCR9 -- A Soldier of the Great War List-Subscribe: <mailto:subscribe-consilience-report@lists.lyris.net> List-Owner: <mailto:owner-consilience-report@lists.lyris.net> Reply-To: CONSILRPT(a)aol.com X-Message-Id: <bba934b5.362312e6(a)aol.com> Sender: bounce-consilience-report-262839(a)lists.lyris.net Precedence: bulk ____________________________________________________________ THE CONSILIENCE REPORT: A Bionomic Meditation Number Nine 10/13/98 _____________________________________________________________ A SOLDIER OF THE GREAT WAR Last Waltz in Vienna ================ In the summer of 1918 the Great War was grinding through its fourth year. Thirty millions already dead or wounded -- or more -- no one really knows -- and the wreck of Europe still staggered on, like a blind man into oncoming traffic. In Italy the Austrian army was making its last futile bid for a military victory with an attack across the Piave River. In ten days they would lose 100,000 men -- twice all the American deaths in Vietnam, but barely a footnote in the endless slaughter of WW1. If you had been on the Italian front that June -- if you had been, say, young Ernest Hemingway from Michigan, tending your ambulance -- and had looked up at just the right time and place, you might have seen one of the biplanes of that era: an observation craft buzzing westward from the Austrian lines. The skinny boy-officer in the rear cockpit was a spotter for an artillery regiment of the Austro- Hungarian army. He had dropped out of high school in his senior year to enlist and experience a small part of the catastrophe. He was Lieutenant Friedrich August von Hayek, eldest son of a distinguished family of the minor Austrian nobility. He was just nineteen years old and, like all the young men so engaged that year, had no good prospect of getting much older. Hayek had been born in Vienna in 1899, in the reign of "der Alte Kaiser," the Emperor Franz- Joseph, next-to-last of the durable Habsburg dynasty. Unlike many of his age and class, Lt. von Hayek survived his war. He contracted malaria in the long retreat in the fall of 1918 but made it back -- thin and sick, but alive -- to a city that was no longer the glittering capital of a polyglot empire. Vienna was now just the largest city in the tiny rump state of the Austrian Republic -- redundant, impoverished, and on the edge of starvation. But it still possessed enough intellectual and cultural capital for one last burst of achievement before the Nazis rolled in fifteen years later. Here, Hayek considered his prospects in a changed world and prepared to enter the University of Vienna. A Shift of Attention =============== His first love had been the natural sciences. His grandfather had been a prominent ornithologist and Hayek, like his father, had been a fervent amateur botanist. One of his brothers became an anatomist, the other a chemist. By the time he was sixteen he had progressed from a collector's interest in taxonomy to paleontology and evolutionary theory -- but the war changed things. The experience of serving in a multinational army, shifted his interest from the natural to the social sciences. As he drily remarked: I served in a battle in which eleven different languages were spoken. It's bound to draw your attention to the problems of social organiization. As unbearable as 1914-1918 had been, events were already in motion to ensure that the rest of the horrible twentieth century arrived on schedule. Austria's senior ally -- the other Kaiser -- had just put the Russian emigre Vladimir Ulyanov (nom de guerre: Lenin) into a sealed train bound for St Petersburg, like a plague bacillus into the artery of a sick man. And within a year another Austrian veteran, Adolph Hitler, would make his way to Vienna, tramping through a rougher neighborhood than Hayek's, completing his own education among the crackpots and anti-semites that had long been flourishing like weeds in the brilliant but decadent capital. Europe, broken and bleeding, waited patiently while the scenery was shifted and the principal players learned their lines for the next act. Hayek had little to do with that -- few would be ready to listen to him or his ideas until the National Socialists and Communists had shot their bolt, and not many even then. Some Piety ========= We would like to think that everyone knows of, and esteems Hayek but, for the benefit of students arriving late here is a brief recitation: F. A. Hayek (1899-1992) was one of the foremost economists of this century before he morphed into a later and even more important career as a social and political philosopher. He won the Nobel prize in economics in 1974 and America's presidential Medal of Freedom in 1991. Those are some of the bare facts as they are cited in reference books, but there is much more to be said: He was a mighty scholar, an original thinker, a gentleman in a nearly-forgotten sense of that word. Above all, he was a man of unflinching moral courage who did as much as anyone to keep the idea of individual freedom alive. In an age when many of our leaders have tried to tell us that liberty is an embarrassing relic of another age -- something that we should happily trade in for something shinier -- our nation, or our race, or equality, or security, or social justice, or some other fabulous chimera -- Hayek quietly, persistently said: No, we won't. For that, and for other things, we owe him. Hayek had a long and useful life, doing important work on into his 70s and 80s, but he won't quite have made it into his centenary year of 1999. We expect that hosannahs will be going up from all of the various libertarian enclaves as his 100th birth- day approaches, but TCR would like to be among the first to pay our respects. We expect we will need two or three more essays to talk about his life and work, connect it to our present concerns, and to try to make it clear that he is somewhat more than just another dead economist. There's something to be said for the old Greek ideal of piety -- civic reverence toward what has gone before -- and if anyone in our century deserves a bit of that, it is certainly he. London ====== Between the wars, even before the Nazis would have made his departure obligatory, Hayek left Vienna and alighted in London, a place he found very much to his liking. In 1895, Sidney and Beatrice Webb, doyen and doyenne of English socialism, had founded the London School of Economics and Political Science, intending for it to be the West Point of their sect. But things had loosened up a bit, and Lionel Robbins, the moderate scholar who headed the economics department, decided that a young visiting lecturer from Vienna was a comer. Robbins discovered that Hayek, notwithstanding his anti-socialist views, seemed to know more about the history of the English monetary system than any man in England. His English was passable and he was a genial, well-bred sort -- "clubbable" as the English say. Robbins offered young Dr Hayek a faculty position. LSE didn't have quite the cachet of Oxford or Cambridge but, for a young foreigner whose own country offered poor prospects, it was a plum. The Great Debate ============= In the small world that concerned itself with economic theory, Hayek emerged in the early Thirties as the great rival of John Maynard Keynes. In the journals, they conducted a public debate about monetary and fiscal policy and what, if anything, economists (and the governments they advised), could do about the Great Depression that seemed to be swallowing up the wealth of the planet. Keynes, brilliant and charismatic, had dabbled in several fields, but now believed he had solved the problem of booms and busts -- what the economists genteelly referred to as "economic fluctuations." When Keynes published his _Treatise on Money_, Hayek, uncharismatic but persistent, fired back with a series of penetrating criticisms. Later Keynes extended his ideas in_The General Theory of Employment, Credit, and Money_, and again Hayek returned fire. Personally, Keynes and Hayek became good friends, sharing a passion for history and book collecting. Publicly, they fought on. As we all know, Keynes won the debate and Hayek lost it, or so it seemed at the time, as governments gravitated to Keynesianism. Then came the Second War, which seemed to justify extension of government control over whatever bits of their economies that central planners in Washington and London had not already comandeered to fight the depression. We can't pause here to consider the substance of the Keynes-Hayek debate (and aren't compe- tent to do so), except perhaps to say that it was rooted in a basic conceptual clash about whether macroeconomics as proposed by Keynes and others really made any sense. Hayek (and the Austrian school from which he sprang) held that the aggregate measurements of economic activity -- which Keynes proposed to track and control through state action --were statistical illusions that could only mislead policy- makers about microeconomic reality. Later, Hayek himself said of the great debate: In the middle 1940s... I was known as one of the two main disputing economists: there was Keynes and there was I . Now Keynes died and became a saint; and I discredited myself by publishing _The Road to Serfdom ... A Discreditable Book ================ In the summer of 1939, even after Austria's annexation by Hitler, Hayek took train across Europe for his annual holiday in the Austrian Alps. He was a vigorous forty and an experienced mountaineer, confident that even if war befell, he could walk out of the country across the mountains, depending on his skills and knowledge to reach Switzerland. He did his best thinking in the mountains and here, perhaps, in Nazified Austria, he mapped out his own little piece of the next war. He had seen, at closer-hand than his English colleagues, the extinction of liberal Europe, the ascendency of barbarism, and the steps by which it had been wrought. He had already published a little article called "Freedom and the Economic System" in a popular magazine. It contained the germ for an argument he knew many people wouldn't want to hear. His loyalty was to England now, but he began to wonder if his new countrymen really understood how easily their liberty could slip through their fingers. An ex-enemy alien, with a German accent and a "von" in front of his name was not considered a suitable candidate for a government post -- it would have involved PR problems that Mr Churchill didn't need. So Robbins and Keynes became government advisors, while Hayek taught. His contribution to the war effort was philosophical and polemical rather than bureaucratic. And, as it turned out, the war that preoccupied his thougtsa wasn't precisely the same one that the English thought they were fighting. In his spare time between 1940 and 1943 he wrote _The Road to Serfdom_, and published it in Britain in 1944. It was a book that nearly ruined his reputation as an economist and set his life on a new course. On the Road ========= When Hayek was awarded the Nobel prize in 1974, the first reaction of many was surprise that he was still alive. A few recalled that he had debated Keynes many years ago, then he had published a polemic that upset everyone and wrecked his career. Where had he been? Unlike his friend and rival Keynes, Hayek didn't think of himself as a wit. When he dedicated RTS to "The Socialists of All Parties," he was not being arch or ironical. They were precisely the people he was addressing. If it was a polemic, it was an uncommonly polite one. In a long and disputatious life Hayek always carefully attributed only seemly motives to his opponents -- never suggesting that they sought anything but the good and the true. In his own case it may have been so, but he was a very unusual man. His opponents were often not so delicate. What he told them, in fine, was that he believed in their good intentions: There can be no doubt that most socialists still believe profoundly in the liberal ideal of freedom and that they would recoil if they became convinced that the realization of their program would mean the destruction of freedom. Then, for two hundred pages, he tried to so convince them and bring about that recoil. He argued that the planned economies to which so many well-meaning people had pinned their hopes for a better world would inevitably and tragically lead to a worse one. That all of their ideas had already been tried in Germany or Russia or both. That the results were there for anyone with the eyes to see them. That their good intentions would not save them. The book was written by an Austro-Englishman specifically to warn his new countrymen -- full of examples and arguments calculated to move an English mind. It received a respectful hearing there, where Hayek was something of a minor public figure. It never occurred to him that it would become a popular best-seller in the United States, where he was completely unknown. When Hayek arrived in the United States in the spring of 1945, he was planning to lecture to audiences of economists at a few universities. Instead, he discovered that RTS had been published not just by the scholarly University of Chicago Press, but had been condensed in The Readers' Digest, the largest-circulation magazine of its day, then re-printed in a cheap edition as a Book-of-the-Month. In the pre- television, pre-Internet world of 1945 it was a media blitz. He was astounded to discover that he was an instant celebrity. In New York, instead of lecturing to a few professors he found himself addressing an overflow crowd in a 3000-seat auditorium, and carried live on network radio. Aftermath ======== It would be pleasant to report that the socialists of all parties had actually been persuaded, or at least cowed, by RTS, but of course no such thing happened. Not then, and not now. Hayek had his bewildering few weeks of American celebrity, and here and there RTS penetrated deeply. Hayek continued to work and write, spent time in the United States and in liberated Europe, and did what he could to marshal a revival of what he quaintly still insisted on calling "liberalism." His American critics, calling themselves liberals, insisted that he was a reactionary conservative and an enemy of progress. A comedy of errors that persists to this day. Although Hayek and RTS outlived many critics -- always the most satisfactory way to win an argument -- there were plenty of them. One of the three American commercial publishers that rejected the book found it so politically repulsive that they reportedly said it was "unfit for publication by a reputable house." As he recalled it: The English socialists, with few exceptions, accepted the book as something written in good faith...In America it was wholly different... The great enthusiasm about the New Deal was still at its height...the American intelligentsia...felt that this was a betrayal of the highest ideals which intellectuals ought to defend. So I was exposed to incredible abuse... It went so far as to completely discredit me professionally. When efforts were made to bring Hayek to the University of Chicago a few years later, the school's economists rose in angry disdain. Hayek had to settle for a berth with the prestigious Committee on Social Thought, where he was pointedly not expected to profess economics. It was only in 1974 when he made his trip to Stockholm to receive his Nobel gong, that there was a general revival of interest in the forgotten man. And there the tale will have to rest for now. Postscript and Preview ================= At the Fourth Bionomics Conference in 1996, Eric B. Baum of the NEC Research Institute gave a workshop on genetic algorithms, featuring a program he called "The Hayek Machine." The name was not whimsical -- it pointed back to an obscure book by Hayek called _The Sensory Order_, a foray by the economist into theoretical psychology -- published in 1952, but based on notions he had sketched out in the 1920s. Genetic algorithms are a subset of artificial intelligence research, but they also have important implications for economics, psychology, biology, and other disciplines. Baum's Hayek1 and Hayek2 are "dumb" programs operating with limited infor- mation about their environment, but which manage to solve complex problems. It is Adam Smith's Invisible Hand, as enriched by F. A. Hayek and formalized by cutting-edge computer science. We think the value of history is self-evident, but our interest in Hayek is mainly forward-looking. He tried, very persuasively, to show us the social world as a field of self-organizing institutions co-evolving in an almost Darwinian fashion -- what he called spontaneous order. Hayek's work anticipated and partly inspired research now being carried out in many disciplines. It implies a world-view that is still inchoate and hard to encapsule in a word or a phrase. "Complex self-organizing systems" catches some of it. But it could just as well be called simply Hayekian. It also happens to be a way of looking at things that is congenial to libertarians. If the social world were not, in fact, essentially Hayekian, then order could never arise spontaneously. But our growing understanding of complex systems in many contexts is confirming the reasonings and intuitions of Hayek. Our human world is a place where order need not be imposed by planners and despots -- a world where a free society operating within an impersonal framework of basic rules is an available option. As intimated above, we hope to tease out various Hayekian insights in future TCRs: spontaneous organization, the role of information in the economy, and his re-thinking of the problem of constitutional govenment, among others. And along the way: an occasional nod of gratitude to the old soldier himself. ====================================== Resources: 1. A Soldier of the Great War Our title was swiped from the excellent novel of the same name by Mark Helprin. It is a fictional reminiscence of an old man who, in his youth, fought with the Italian Army in World War One. A convenient way to learn something about that war, which also happens to be a fine piece of writing. 2. Hayek had been born in Vienna... There are several biographical sketches of Hayek here and there, but no proper biography exists. For this essay we relied heavily on _Hayek on Hayek: An Autobiographical Dialogue Edited by Stephen Kresge and Leif Wenar_. It has been cobbled together from several tape- recorded interviews with Hayek in the 1970s and '80s, and gives us Hayek in his own words. It's a companion to the collected works of Hayek, being published in 20-odd volumes by University of Chicago Press with the support of a dozen classical liberal/libertarian groups in several countries, including Cato and the Reason Foundation. The introduction by Stephen Kresge is the best short summary of Hayek's life and works that we know of. The book includes some wonderful photos, including young FAH in the regalia of an Austrian officer, and writing al fresco in the Alps. All extended Hayek quotes arefrom this work. Available from Amazon (1994 HC edition) for $27.50: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/ 0226320626/002-2884821-8302613 2a. The Hayek Interviews One of the tapes included in _Hayek on Hayek_ is a 1977 interview conducted by Prof. Tom Hazlett. It was printed in Reason magazine in 1992 following Hayek's death. Available at: http://www.reasonmag.com/hayekint.html Also, for those who want to see and hear the man himself, several recordings are available from the Idea Channel. Selected clips can be seen/heard for no charge at their website: http://www.ideachannel.com/HayekDiscussions.htm 3. The Hayek-Keynes Debate No short piece can resolve this tangled and very theoretical fifty-year-old controversy. The most lucid and concise account of this dispute (for non-economists) we know of is an essay by Fritz Machlup in _Essays on Hayek_ (1976). Machlup is another eminent Austrian who taught at Princeton and is a past president of the American Economics Association. He is sympathetic to Hayek but fair to Keynes. The book is, unfortunately, out of print, but probably not difficult to find. As to the final fate of Keynes, we can only note that his reputation is much diminished in recent years, while Hayek's has risen. At the 1997 convention of the American Economics Association, there was a session called "Is there a Core of Practical Macroeconomcs That We Should all Believe?," suggesting that there is considerable disarray in the macro school which was once confident that it was smart enough to not only understand but "fine-tune" modern economies. See also: Ben W. Bolch, "Is Macroeconomics Believable?" in The Independent Review, vol 2, No4 (Spring 1998). 4. _The Road to Serfdom_ The fiftieth anniversary edition was published by University of Chicago in 1994, and is still in print. It includes a new introduction by Hayek's friend and fellow Nobel laureate Milton Friedman and Hayek's lengthy preface to the 1956 edition. RTS has been roundly praised, here and elsewhere, as a classic, and it surely is. But it should be noted that much of the book's argument turns on people, issues and events of the 30s and 40s which some readers born after WW II may find a bit murky. The "classical" central-planning socialism criticized by Hayek in 1944 has been succeeded by socialism "lite" -- the pervasive regulate-and- redistribute regimes with which we cope at century's-end, and a bit of translation is required to see that it is the same vinegary wine in a new bottle. A reader who wants a short, sharp summing-up adjusted for recent fashions in statism might prefer _The Fatal Conceit_ (1989), Hayek's parting shot in his ninetieth year. No single book encompasses all of Hayek's thought, but those who are not much interested in technical economics, are pressed for time, and want to read the best single, systematic statement of Hayek's philosophy might better take up his _The Constitution of Liberty_ (1960). RTS is available for a paltry $8.76 from Amazon at http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/ 0226320618/o/qid=908170736/sr=2-1/ 002-2884821-8302613 CoL (1978 trade PB edition) is $19.95: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/ 0226320847/qid%3D908170912/ 002-2884821-8302613 TFC (1991 trade PB edition) is $12.00: http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/ 0226320669/r/002-2884821-8302613 4. The "Hayek" genetic algorithm program... A brief abstract of Dr Baum's presentation is available at: http://www.bionomics.org/text/events/conf96/ abstracts/abBowlBaum.html 5. Hayek on the Web There are a number of good Hayekian resources on the Net, but the only one you really need is the excellent Friedrich Hayek Scholars' Page at http://members.aol.com/gregransom/ hayekpage.htm It's maintained by Professor Greg Ransom of Mira Costa College, and contains links to every substantial bit of Hayekiana on the Web. A cornucopia. ============================================== TCR is published by Steve Hyde and John LeGere, and written, more often than not, by John LeGere.. Comments, brickbats, and inquiries can be addressed to us at CONSILRPT(a)aol.com Please feel free to forward this issue to whomever you please, leaving our boilerplate intact. If you know discerning people who would like to receive TCR, send a subscription request to CONSILRPT(a)aol.com. =============================================== --- You are currently subscribed to consilience-report as: [rah(a)shipwright.com] To unsubscribe, forward this message to leave-consilience-report-262839E(a)lists.lyris.net --- end forwarded text ----------------- Robert A. Hettinga <mailto: rah(a)philodox.com> Philodox Financial Technology Evangelism <http://www.philodox.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'

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NSA Declassifications
by John Young 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Forward: A selection of National Security Agency declassification decisions is offered at http://www.fas.org/sgp/othergov/nsa/index.html ___________________ Steven Aftergood Project on Government Secrecy Federation of American Scientists http://www.fas.org/sgp/

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Re: TCQ ascii version
by Robert Hettinga 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

--- begin forwarded text X-Authentication-Warning: tarnhelm.blu.org: majordom set sender to owner-isig(a)blu.org using -f Date: Tue, 13 Oct 1998 03:08:01 -0400 (EDT) From: Charles Demas <demas(a)tiac.net> To: isig(a)blu.org Subject: Re: TCQ ascii version MIME-Version: 1.0 Sender: owner-isig(a)blu.org Precedence: bulk Reply-To: isig(a)blu.org On Tue, 13 Oct 1998, David Meyer wrote: > You are not the person who posted the original message, but I'll extend my > request to you: provide some reasonable, legitimate, requirement for > anonymity. How about a government employee taking part in political discussion without the fear of suffering some form of reprisal by their elected superiors? How about a gay person that's still in the closet that wants to discuss how to explain their situation to their family without the fear that their sexual preference would be exposed? How about those that are HIV positive looking for support while living in a small town that is very afraid of those with HIV, and where the knowledge that one is HIV positive has driven people from the community? How about someone that feels they may be getting sexually harassed but isn't sure that they want to confront their harasser, but wants some advice? How about a rape, incest, or domestic violence victim that is looking for some support group but doesn't want to go public yet? How about the alcoholic, drug user, gambler trying to come to terms with their problem. How about the relatives of those with that type of problem that are looking for a private way to deal/handle the problems associated with their relative's problem? How about the runaway that is looking for a way to go home, or the suicidal person that is looking for help. Must they go public to get that help, or should they be able to ask questions anonymously? How about the person that wants to turn in someone that's going to commit a crime? There are lots of good reasons that people want privacy and anonymity, and lots of them have to do with the prejudices of others about the issue that the person wants to keep private. Chuck Demas Needham, Mass. > I can think of one reason to treasure anonymity: fear of retribution. > For what? Oh, anything. Doesn't matter what. You are planning to do > something that will cause someone else to take notice of you and respond > in a way you fear. Send you to jail? Fire you? Break your fingers? Close > your internet access? The problem is that these things are seldom done > on a whim. Mostly, for just cause. Who says it is just? You do. You say > "I am about to do something that's going to bring heaven and earth down > around my shoulders if I do not protect my identity." This fear may be > real or imagined. > > Please explain, with some detail, what reason a sane, guiltless person > might have for anonymity. Giving away $million$? > > -- > To unsubscribe from this list, send mail to majordomo(a)blu.org > with the following text in the *body* (*not* the subject line) of the letter: > unsubscribe isig > Eat Healthy | _ _ | Nothing would be done at all, Stay Fit | @ @ | If a man waited to do it so well, Die Anyway | v | That no one could find fault with it. demas(a)tiac.net | \___/ | http://www.tiac.net/users/demas -- To unsubscribe from this list, send mail to majordomo(a)blu.org with the following text in the *body* (*not* the subject line) of the letter: unsubscribe isig --- end forwarded text ----------------- Robert A. Hettinga <mailto: rah(a)philodox.com> Philodox Financial Technology Evangelism <http://www.philodox.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'

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IP: [FP] Boiling the frog: Much will depend on 'electronic money'
by Robert Hettinga 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

--- begin forwarded text Delivered-To: ignition-point(a)majordomo.pobox.com From: "ScanThisNews" <mcdonalds(a)airnet.net> To: ignition-point(a)majordomo.pobox.com Subject: IP: [FP] Boiling the frog: Much will depend on 'electronic money' Date: Mon, 12 Oct 1998 20:27:18 -0500 Sender: owner-ignition-point(a)majordomo.pobox.com Precedence: list Reply-To: "ScanThisNews" <mcdonalds(a)airnet.net> ====================================================================== SCAN THIS NEWS 10/11/98 [Forwarded message] FROM MOUNTAIN MEDIA FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE DATED OCT. 4, 1998 THE LIBERTARIAN, By Vin Suprynowicz Boiling the frog: Much will depend on the new 'electronic money' EDITORS: A version of this feature first appeared in the October edition of Las Vegas Magazine. An Internet press release (how trendy) from the folks at MasterCard International, datelined "Purchase, N.Y., July 22, 1998," informs us: "MasterCard International hosted today an online forum with thought leaders from global business, government and research organizations to discuss lifestyle changes that will occur as smart card technology gains acceptance over the next five years. "Representatives from IBM, Hitachi, British Telecommunications plc, the U.S. federal government's General Services Administration, The Tower Group and Emerge Online participated in the roundtable, which was moderated by Richard Phillimore, Senior Vice President of MasterCard's Chip Card Business unit. "'Five years from now, multi-application smart cards will be an established technology in the payments business,' Phillimore said. 'As the benefits of multi-application smart cards are proven in the marketplace, the conversion from magnetic stripe to chip-based payment cards will be very rapid. By the year 2010, we expect all of MasterCard's credit and debit cards and terminals will be chip-based.' "Smart cards will deliver increased consumer value and utility to today's credit cards, Phillimore added. 'Chip technology will enable cardholders to use their cards for many more purposes, such as electronic ticketing, loyalty programs, and secure remote shopping -- a true Lifestyle Card that can be tailored to meet the unique needs and preferences of a single individual.'" When mentioning those ominous-sounding "loyalty programs," I should point out, the online MasterCard gang are referring not to government loyalty oaths of the "am not now and never have been a member of the Communist Party" variety, but rather a system in which cardholders receive discounts for "loyally" shopping through one company -- the system probably familiar to most consumers today via those "discount club cards" issued by your supermarket, offering you 30 cents off a package of toilet paper if you let the teller scan your card at the checkout stand. Of course, the store gets something back in return for that discount. In addition to the obvious hope that you'll keep going back to the store whose discount card you carry (essentially, a surcharge is being applied to "hoppers" who show no store loyalty), the management can now easily track how many of its outlets you visit, and what you buy there. The initial commercial applications may be innocent enough -- "Let's save postage by only sending coupons for this new brand of breakfast cereal to the home addresses of our shoppers who already buy the more expensive competitor." But you don't have to be the kind who walks stooped over to avoid the black helicopters to foresee the day when the government inspectors may arrive, asking to see the electronic profiles of all customers in a given geographic area who have used the fast-spreading cards to buy anything from home AIDS test kits to hydroponic "grow lights" to "High Times" magazine to pistol ammunition. It's all stored in the computer, you know. And how long do you think Jack, your friendly local produce manager, is really going to refuse to let the FBI access his computer without a court order? About as long as it takes them to ask for his Social Security number and threaten to call their friends at the IRS, suggesting Jack may be in need of an immediate tax audit? The cheerful little MasterCard press release doesn't take long to broach the subject of "expanded uses" for the new cards with their embedded memory chips: "The panel also addressed the use of smart cards for identification purposes. Many agreed that identification was the 'killer application' that would encourage adoption of smart card programs. Kotaro Yamashita, COO of Financial Services at Hitachi, Ltd. said, 'We see identification applications issued by governments as being big in many places outside of Asia, for example Central America.' However, Marty Wagner, Associate Administrator of the Office of Government wide Policy at the U.S. General Services Administration (GSA) cautioned that 'National identity card programs could run into trouble in the U.S. due to privacy concerns.' " # # # The process of accustoming Americans to carrying around cards which can be used to buy anything from a candy car to a soda pop to a round-trip airline ticket to London -- but whose embedded chips will also relay to corporate and government snoops the social security number and other personal information (and resultant tax obligations) of anyone making that purchase -- is well underway. There's an old folk warning that if you throw a frog in boiling water he will quickly jump out. But if you put a frog in a pan of cold water and raise the temperature ever so slowly, the gradual warming will make the frog doze happily, triggering the soporific response he instinctively displays when the sun shines on his lily pad ... In fact, the frog will eventually cook to death, without ever waking up. Likewise, some mighty high-powered public relations types are figuring ways to emphasize the convenience of "electronic cash" - and downplay the effect it may have in removing any remaining privacy from the way you spend your pay. The goal? To cook the frog, without any ruckus. Convenience, convenience, convenience, was the happy spin Time magazine put on a new "single electronic card that may replace everything in your wallet," in their issue of April 27, 1998. As the magazine was listing all the bothersome stuff you now have to lug around - cash, ATM cards, credit cards, proof of insurance - it made a not-so-subtle swipe at anyone who would resist the happy consolidation of such burdens: "Your ID cards. PRESENT: You lug various bits of your legal identity. FUTURE: Non-conspiracists could consolidate pertinent info in one place." Get that? If you don't want the government tax man to see your bank balance and a record of how many times you've flown to Zurich or the Cayman Islands, if you don't want the theater manager to see your alimony payments or your concealed-carry handgun permit, if you don't want your boss to see your prescription for post-cancer-surgery drugs, if you don't want EVERYONE to gain a precise accounting of how much you spent last month at Frederick's of Hollywood, or renting X-rated videos, or shacked up in a motel room across town, or purchasing alcoholic beverages, or buying vaginal contraceptive foam (including which brand you prefer), why, you're just some loony "conspiracist." Also note that "could" ... as though we'll still have any choice. But why worry? Digital cash will be great, argues Joshua Cooper Ramo in the big "Future of Money" piece in the April 27 Time: "Think about the $2,000 check you send to your daughter at college for expenses. How is that money really spent? Books ... or beer? Electronic cash takes that relatively simple transaction -- passing an allowance -- and makes it into a much more intelligent process. ... "Your daughter can store the money any way she wants -- on her laptop, on a debit card, even (in the not too distant future) on a chip implanted under her skin. And, perhaps best of all, you can program the money to be spent only in specific ways. You might instruct some of the digits to go for books, some for food and some for movies. Unless you pass along a few digits that can be cashed at the local pub, she'll have to find someone else to buy the drinks." Ha ha. Kind of cute, isn't it? But look again. Isn't the underlying theme one of "control"? Try substituting a different scenario for Mr. Ramo's. How about: "Think about the $1,000 Social Security check your agency sends a retiree in Las Vegas. How is that money really spent? Food and lodging ... or blackjack, roulette, and Margaritas?" If the purpose of government retirement insurance is to make sure old folks have food and a roof over their head, doesn't the government have an OBLIGATION to "earmark" portions of those checks so they can only be used to buy certain things, once the new e-cash technology gives them that capability? Couldn't we set e-cards to freeze a recipient's account if she tried to use any of the "money" to pay for a second prescription of pain pills written by a doctor other than her ASSIGNED doctor, or to buy a naughty book about how to evade taxes, or how to move money into offshore accounts? For that matter, what if your boss started earmarking parts of your electronic paycheck for rent or groceries -- at certain stores that pay for the consideration -- all "for your own good," you understand? After all, the kind of soccer moms who elected Bill Clinton can be counted on to favor almost (start ital)any(end ital) additional Big Brother controls over those irresponsible men in their lives, frittering away their paychecks on bar tabs, dirty magazines, power tools, and fancy chrome doo-dads for their pickup trucks. # # # Donald S. McAlvany, editor of the economic and geopolitical newsletter "The McAlvany Intelligence Advisor," is a fellow who has been looking into the move toward trackable "electronic cash" for some time. The lead article in the July, 1998 edition of his 16-page newsletter is headlined "Toward a Cashless Society: Implementing an Electronic Currency in America," and spells out a very different view of these developing trends from the one embraced by the jovial publicists at Time: "The global socialists who dominate America and most of the governments of the western world today (especially Western Europe) have long had a goal of moving the world away from the use of cash and into an electronic funds currency system, wherein virtually all cash in use is 'electronic currency,' " writes Mr. McAlvany. "If all financial transactions are forced through an electronic banking system ... the ultimate 'people control' system could be established. ..." Citing George Orwell's classic novel "1984," Mr. McAlvany reminds us: "Privacy is a major element of freedom, without which people and nations cannot remain free. Today, we have dozens of privacy-destroying systems being put in place by governments all over the world. They include video camera surveillance in public places; electronic eavesdropping on computers, phones and faxes; dozens of computerized files on each adult American - compiled from credit card, banking, and tax records; physical surveillance of homes, in whole areas via satellite, helicopters, and other aircraft; the growing use of Social Security numbers to extract all kinds of information on Americans from business, banking, and government data cases; photo IDs required at airports; and the push by the Clinton Administration for a computerized (smart card) national identification card for all U.S. citizens. "But the greatest privacy-destroying system of all, one which would have made Big Brother's, Adolf Hitler's, Mao's, Lenin's or Stalin's mouths water is the elimination of cash and the forcing of all citizens into the computerized banking system for (start ital)all(end ital) transactions. Ultimately these transactions can be monitored, recorded, profiled, and used in 'people control.' If all of your personal transactions can be so tracked, a socialist government bent on identifying, profiling and controlling its 'politically incorrect' citizens or 'religious fanatics' or Bible-believing Christians; gun owners; critics of the government; non-tax compliers, can easily scrutinize and build a profile on such individuals. It can also, in the absence of a cash-spending alternative, deny the privilege to buy and sell to those who are politically or religiously incorrect." Since one of the main problems banks may have during the anticipated computer crisis brought about by the turning of the century is clearing checks written on other banks -- banks whose computers may not agree with the home bank's "fix" for the transition from year date 99 to year date 00 -- Mr. McAlvany suggests that crisis might present a perfect opportunity to effectively require bank customers to change over from paper checks to "electronic cash." "Remember that during the financial crisis of the 1930s, when Franklin Roosevelt presented the American people with the alternative of a bank holiday/gold confiscation/Draconian financial controls (start ital)or(end ital) financial destruction, they willingly chose the former and gave up a major portion of their financial freedom." # # # The removal of cash, of course, will be advertised as having many benefits. Since drug dealers buy and sell their product with suitcases full of hundred-dollar bills, it will be alleged that the switch will end the drug trade (as though a multi-billion-dollar industry won't promptly hire both fancy accountants and computer geniuses to figure out how to "go electronic" without throwing blips on the IRS radar screens -- or as though they won't just add newly "illegal" hundred-dollar bills to the list of contraband they now freely move outside official channels.) Expect a public relations campaign to expose the "health hazard" of all those dirty pennies and nickels you have lying around the house. Passed from hand to hand among AIDS patients and tuberculosis-ridden junkies, how can you let your children handle such stuff? Instead, buy Sean and Alysson a new pair of color-coordinated, his-and-hers Kiddie Smart Cards, which neatly deduct exactly $1.77 from their accounts when they buy lunch at school, without burdening them down with filthy, wasteful, inconvenient (and expensive to produce) coins ... coins they might otherwise save up, after all, to buy dirty magazines, or reefer, or who knows what else? Yep, it's all for your health, safety, and convenience. And why would anyone object ... unless, of course, they had something to (start ital)hide(end ital). What was your name again? And could I have your 18-digit bank tracking number, please? You (start ital)are(end ital) in this country legally, aren't you? Not some kind of a federal fugitive/deadbeat dad? There, that's better. See how easy things are when you cooperate? Just slide your card through the security/debit slot. Now pass your wrist over the scanner to make sure your embedded personal chip has the matching security code. Thank you; you may now move along. We know you have a choice when you dine out; thank you for patronizing Burger World. # # # A full transcript of the "smart card online forum" session referred to at the beginning of this essay, as well as a biography and smart card white paper from each chat participant, can be accessed at http://www.golinharris.com/mastercard. Subscriptions to The McAlvany Intelligence Advisor ("in no way involved in the tax resistance, militia, or sovereign citizens movements in the U.S.") run a substantial $115 per year. Send subscription info to P.O. Box 84904, Phoenix, Ariz. 85071, or telephone 800-528-0559. Vin Suprynowicz is the assistant editorial page editor of the Las Vegas Review-Journal. Readers may contact him via e-mail at vin(a)lvrj.com. Vin's twice-weekly newspaper column, "The Libertarian," is syndicated in the United States and Canada via Mountain Media Syndications, P.O. Box 4422, Las Vegas Nev. 89127. Watch for Vin's book, "Send in the Waco Killers," coming from Huntington Press in early 1999. *** Vin Suprynowicz, vin(a)lvrj.com Education rears disciples, imitators, and routinists, not pioneers of new ideas and creative geniuses. The schools are not nurseries of progress and improvement, but conservatories of tradition and unvarying modes of thought. -- Ludwig von Mises The most difficult struggle of all is the one within ourselves. Let us not get accustomed and adjusted to these conditions. The one who adjusts ceases to discriminate between good and evil. He becomes a slave in body and soul. Whatever may happen to you, remember always: Don't adjust! Revolt against the reality! -- Mordechai Anielewicz, Warsaw, 1943 * * * ======================================================================= Don't believe anything you read on the Net unless: 1) you can confirm it with another source, and/or 2) it is consistent with what you already know to be true. ======================================================================= Reply to: <fingerprint(a)networkusa.org> ======================================================================= To subscribe to the free Scan This News newsletter, send a message to <majordomo(a)efga.org> and type "subscribe scan" in the BODY. Or, to be removed type "unsubscribe scan" in the message BODY. For additional instructions see www.efga.org/about/maillist.html ----------------------------------------------------------------------- "Scan This News" is Sponsored by S.C.A.N. Host of the "FIGHT THE FINGERPRINT!" web page: www.networkusa.org/fingerprint.shtml ======================================================================= ********************************************** To subscribe or unsubscribe, email: majordomo(a)majordomo.pobox.com with the message: (un)subscribe ignition-point email@address ********************************************** www.telepath.com/believer ********************************************** --- end forwarded text ----------------- Robert A. Hettinga <mailto: rah(a)philodox.com> Philodox Financial Technology Evangelism <http://www.philodox.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'

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Re: IP: [FP] Boiling the frog: Much will depend on 'electronicmoney'
by Robert Hettinga 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

> Below, please find the canonical anti-book-entry settlement privacy rant, >written by one of my favorite ranters in general, Vin Suprynowicz. ...which, of course, we've seen already. Sheesh. Sorry about that, folks. Call it mail-buffer overload, or something. :-). Sometimes it's not the the cross-fire, it's the ricochets which get you. Cheers, Bob Hettinga ----------------- Robert A. Hettinga <mailto: rah(a)philodox.com> Philodox Financial Technology Evangelism <http://www.philodox.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'

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_PI_ movie
by Walter Burton 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 My wife and I went and saw the movie _PI_ this past weekend. I was attracted to it 'cause of the subject matter. One reviewer wrote that the protagonist was a "tortured genius steeped in an intriguing blend of advanced mathematics and mystical Jewish cabala." I suspect a fair number of cypherpunks' curiosity would be piqued by such a description. Well, don't waste the 5 bucks. It's self-indulgent, pretentious, second-year-film-student crap. It's whiny, "woe-is-me-tortured-genius" drivel. It's "squinty-cinematography-for-the-sake-of-squinty-cinematography" effluvium. Here's the plot, in a nutshell: 1. Ah, I understand advanced mathematics SO WELL; I see patterns EVERYwhere! But alas, I cannot enjoy life's pleasures because I am, de rigueur, a TORTURED GENIUS! 2. And my mentor USED to be a TORTURED GENIUS, but he stopped studying THE PROFOUND MYSTERIES, and now he's happy and FUN! What a WUSS! [Oh yeah, and I suffer REALLY bad migraines.] 3. Isn't PI cool? 4. Aren't Fibonacci numbers neat? 5. Whaddya suppose The Holy Unspeakable Name of God is? 6. Oh, easy, it's 9049348384737...[insert 198 digits here]...32343. 7. I RUSH to tell my mentor what I've discovered, but, alas, my ruthless taunting prompted him to re-open his investigation of THE PROFOUND MYSTERIES and he couldn't hack it -- his brain overloaded and he died of a stroke. Damn! 8. So I dramatically BURN all my PROFOUND MYSTERIES conclusions and the director inserts the requisite "shocking scene everyone will be talking about" by having me lobotomize myself with an electric drill. 9. Next, I'm sitting on a park bench, playing games with a child (Quintessential Innocence). I am finally ENJOYING LIFE, appreciating the leaves on the trees and such. But this kid, she wants to play math games with me, which of course symbolizes the fact that IT'S NOT OVER! 10. The end. And it's all shot on shitty stock in crackly black and white. So basically, it's about two gay cowboys and some pudding. \\/alter -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: PGPfreeware 6.0 for non-commercial use <http://www.pgp.com> Comment: For my public key, send a msg with "public key" in the subj. iQA/AwUBNiM/4I0Llo1Bf1gWEQJmsQCfXb10feuUz/N/Jn5zxkFqymmS+gQAoI/8 4QQzJGO4rtATMDQ7zbfm0I8P =kw8W -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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Re: Hidden WebTV signatures
by Anonymous 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- I have no idea to wherre to begin an analysis.... The begining is noticably the same. with more variation the farther along. A header or version identifier? obviosly can't be a straight hash. At 04:55 PM 10/11/98 , you wrote: > >On 11 Oct 1998 15:57:33 -0500, Anonymous <nobody(a)replay.com> wrote: > >> >>Peter Gutmann writes: >> >>> For those of you who don't read sci.crypt, Robert Ames <gnome(a)istar.ca> has >>> posted an article in which he observes that all WebTV posts contain an >>> X-WebTV-Signature: line containing base64-encoded data. For samples of >>> WebTV-generated posts, try the alt.weemba newsgroup, which is filled with >>> WebTV-user drool (caution: remember to employ protection when exposting your >>> mind to the content of the messages). Some samples: >>> >>> X-WebTV-Signature: 1 >>> ETAsAhQDqtur/jfleJ2CDOnNrVoeyALEQAIUOQyCBbzjx5HHfxeMERDgCjztXOU= >>> X-WebTV-Signature: 1 >>> ETAtAhUAmCCzQt+Tqt6fNX+L9+gDCECaqQkCFA0YCPz5tk85mUgq7iX/u4vWvOgG >> >>Could someone grep their news spool for a few hundred of these signatures >>and post them here? We can do statistical analysis on them and determine >>whether they all appear to be modulo the same q value. > > >Here ya go. 313 webtv sigs > >-- Phelix > > > > ETAtAhQeHk0+b8Au0iGpkJrZtwhsU2MVoAIVAJR/nr45zMDoq1G526NRP+3jHVIb > ETAtAhUAiWMjaBJx75P5wCgIxslClcSUU4cCFHT6dVYU49dtEvX4HCI4bcmEiKBU > ETAsAhRLS36vm1OTCBG3CIAwMpdtg3fR1gIUdgWUE1cbbagEl7VbQvsengViPHc= -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: PGP Cyber-Knights Templar build 5.5.3ckt iQEVAwUBNiNNzaKPqmf00ZAbAQGtuwf8DCEKYf1rBbNCgCraoROS/62RfvZ6pmau nvt+5lF5r6Lk6xEEFz5XoMz+loIW/Y2MRZ9Wly9t9pIDa6r+o+g6AI3RMpjio0Mn b04MZL3uHLcKaxo7yThocc8CVUlQRoap7FfHPkMoUH04CpfJtWcS/E3IfsAPXovW w2XG6N9bEJbLyxc1I9dGSb63WRHE5ADbzgGkUKhNJirgZukdBLn/KMrnhsjeOlUT +sLMTHiH5/5NbXl+Te7+jV/BBUgYDnz3kZAZrQo0XTBzgG4J8ORg8s3NmCA0j120 vxpXTRgay43OYJEACLeRWhUcONdmdffuqqUQ5AmAaTDj9hRPZlPXNA== =U1Fq -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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Re: FYI: More on WebTV security
by Robert Hettinga 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

--- begin forwarded text X-Sender: dstoler(a)gptmail.globalpac.com Mime-Version: 1.0 Date: Tue, 13 Oct 1998 05:38:59 -0700 To: Pablo Calamera <pablo(a)microsoft.com>, rah(a)shipwright.com, mac-crypto(a)vmeng.com From: dstoler(a)globalpac.com (dstoler) Subject: Re: FYI: More on WebTV security Cc: jimg(a)mentat.com Dear all, This message discusses Microsoft's recent press release where they announce unlimited 128 bit RC4 export approval for WebTV users in Japan and the UK with no key escrow. They announce secure email between WebTV users in addition to security for financial services, web shopping, etc. http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/press/1998/Oct98/EncryptionPR.htm (See the end of this message for key paragraphs of the press release.) I rarely post messages on the crypto mailing lists. I am sufficiently disturbed by Microsoft's recent WebTV press release that I feel compelled to comment. The press release implies that there is secure end-to-end email between two WebTV customers. Perhaps I am overly cynical, but I am guessing that they are using SSL (TLS) from a web based email application on the client to WebTV's servers. I presume email data is decrypted at the servers, then re-encrypted to the recipient when she uses the WebTV client to read email. This approach would allow access to private email at the servers by WebTV employees or law enforcement agencies. Note the careful use of the phrases "unauthorized party" and "without posing undo risks to national security and law enforcement" in the press release. I believe that WebTV's email security is directly coupled to their ability to establish and enforce good security policy within their operation and the trustworthiness of the employees who have access to sensitive data. I am concerned that carefully constructed wording of Microsoft's press release implies stronger email security than really exists. I hope I am wrong. David Stoler Key paragraphs from Microsoft's press release: WebTV Networks has been granted the first export license to use strong 128-bit encryption for any user and any application in Japan and the United Kingdom. So, for example, an e-mail message with personal information sent from a WebTV subscriber in Japan to a second WebTV subscriber in Japan will be sent securely because there is no known technology by which an unauthorized party could intercept and decipher it. Therefore, as part of the WebTV Network, the WebTV-based Internet terminal (starting at under $100) is now the most secure communications device available from a U.S. company. "WebTV Networks' export approval is a significant step for industry and reflects the U.S. government's commitment to promoting e-commerce abroad," said William Reinsch, U.S. undersecretary for export administration. "The WebTV Network provides secure communications for its customers and partners without posing undue risks to national security and law enforcement." --- end forwarded text ----------------- Robert A. Hettinga <mailto: rah(a)philodox.com> Philodox Financial Technology Evangelism <http://www.philodox.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'

4 4

_PI_ movie
by Walter Burton 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

My wife and I went and saw the movie _PI_ this past weekend. I was attracted to it 'cause of the subject matter. One reviewer wrote that the protagonist was a "tortured genius steeped in an intriguing blend of advanced mathematics and mystical Jewish cabala." I suspect a fair number of cypherpunks' curiosity would be piqued by such a description. Well, don't waste the 5 bucks. It's self-indulgent, pretentious, second-year-film-student crap. It's whiny, "woe-is-me-tortured-genius" drivel. It's "squinty-cinematography-for-the-sake-of-squinty-cinematography" effluvium. Here's the plot, in a nutshell: 1. Ah, I understand advanced mathematics SO WELL; I see patterns EVERYwhere! But alas, I cannot enjoy life's pleasures because I am, de rigueur, a TORTURED GENIUS! 2. And my mentor USED to be a TORTURED GENIUS, but he stopped studying THE PROFOUND MYSTERIES, and now he's happy and FUN! What a WUSS! [Oh yeah, and I suffer REALLY bad migraines.] 3. Isn't PI cool? 4. Aren't Fibonacci numbers neat? 5. Whaddya suppose The Holy Unspeakable Name of God is? 6. Oh, easy, it's 9049348384737...[insert 198 digits here]...32343. 7. I RUSH to tell my mentor what I've discovered, but, alas, my ruthless taunting prompted him to re-open his investigation of THE PROFOUND MYSTERIES and he couldn't hack it -- his brain overloaded and he died of a stroke. Damn! 8. So I dramatically BURN all my PROFOUND MYSTERIES conclusions and the director inserts the requisite "shocking scene everyone will be talking about" by having me lobotomize myself with an electric drill. 9. Next, I'm sitting on a park bench, playing games with a child (Quintessential Innocence). I am finally ENJOYING LIFE, appreciating the leaves on the trees and such. But this kid, she wants to play math games with me, which of course symbolizes the fact that IT'S NOT OVER! 10. The end. And it's all shot on shitty stock in crackly black and white. So basically, it's about two gay cowboys and some pudding. \\/alter

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Crypto Laxatives
by John Young 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Senators Lott and Kerrey have made crypto core dumps in recent days: http://jya.com/lott100998.txt http://jya.com/kerrey101298.txt Lott says 56-bit crypto is bad, and recites its weaknesses, reading a script he doesn't know shit about, hair and mind immutably fixatived. Kerrey Lincoln Monuments long dead Nat sec with Info Tech faux marbre, frutilessly limoing around DC torrist piles looking for The American People, while Super-Coifed Cohen aimlessly sends Cold War B52s to PR-bomb Menwith Hill targets -- unruly wildhair ups -- protecting what Kerrey can't find. Clinton and Yeltsin will shortly morph into Serbian hair ball.

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Re: Soccer Moms?
by Jim Gillogly 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Ken Brown wonders about this phrase: >> After all, the kind of soccer moms who elected Bill Clinton >"Divided by a common language" as I am I genuinly don't know what that >means. And I can't even guess from context. "Soccer moms" are the suburban mothers who efficiently perform any number of child-rearing tasks, including taking their kids in a sports utility vehicle (an awful invention) to soccer practice. Soccer is increasingly popular and available to girls as well as boys. Women in general favored Clinton, and soccer moms in particular are the women most likely to vote... since they're doing everything else, working in a trip to the polls is nothing to them. Probably sounds as arcane as "Sloane Rangers" does over here, eh? -- Jim Gillogly Sterday, 22 Winterfilth S.R. 1998, 15:20 12.19.5.10.15, 6 Men 8 Yax, Eighth Lord of Night

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Crescendo News - October 1998
by LiveUpdate News 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

CRESCENDO NEWS - October 1998 Well, we're back from Internet World, and have a lot of exciting things to let you know about! The foliage in Massachusetts is finally turning color, the air is crisp, and it's almost time to start thinking about tuning up the snowboard. Here are some of the items covered in this newsletter: * Paula Cole's "I Don't Want To Wait" streams with Crescendo Forte * Crescendo Forte featured at Fall Internet World * Behind the scenes - how to create Crescendo Forte music * EP Release by Crescendo Forte artist "Gigi" * What is a "SYSX"? * Powerful authoring tools available in our online store * Subscribing / Unsubscribing ---------------------------------- PAULA COLE STREAMS WITH CRESCENDO FORTE Have you visited the Crescendo Forte Showcase lately? The latest addition to our growing showcase is the Crescendo Forte version of Paula Cole's hit single "I Don't Want To Wait". This is a historic event - Paula has become the first major artist *ever* to have her content featured using Crescendo Forte. As the winner of the 1998 Grammy for "Best New Artist", Cole's latest album "This Fire" has fostered three major singles including "I Don't Want To Wait," which has been pegged as the theme to the new hit TV series, Dawson's Creek. KizoMusic produced this incredible demo using Crescendo Forte to add high-quality drums, piano, and bass guitar to a RealAudio-encoded version of the original cut from the CD. You don't need anything more than a 28.8 modem and a Pentium-class PC to enjoy both the video and audio versions of this song. See and hear it for yourself at the Crescendo Forte Showcase, http://www.liveupdate.com/cforte/showcase.html. ---------------------------------- CRESCENDO FORTE FEATURED AT FALL INTERNET WORLD At the Fall Internet World conference earlier this month in New York City, standing-room-only crowds watched on and listened as RealNetworks presented the latest technology for music broadcast on the Internet. Featured in their presentation was Crescendo Forte, playing a video clip from Paula Cole. If you weren't able to make it to Internet World, you can still see and hear the Paula Cole clip by visiting the Crescendo Forte Showcase at http://www.liveupdate.com/cforte/showcase.html. ---------------------------------- BEHIND THE SCENES - HOW TO CREATE CRESCENDO FORTE MUSIC So your band has a CD to promote and you want to make the highest quality presentation over the Internet? RealSystem G2 and Crescendo Forte together deliver a rich listening experience requiring very low bandwidth. Learn how to take your existing music and publish it using Crescendo Forte with our new step-by-step production guide, available on-line at http://www.liveupdate.com/cforte/authoring.html. When you're done, send us your files for review and we may feature your music on the Crescendo Forte Showcase area! ---------------------------------- CD RELEASE BY CRESCENDO FORTE ARTIST "GIGI" If you liked what you heard from Gigi in the Crescendo Forte Showcase, you'll love her new 6-song CD! Part of Crescendo Forte's appeal is that it allows less-well-known acts such as Gigi to get broad exposure. To thank all of you for listening to her music, she has agreed to distribute her new CD, "Tinted Window", which contains full studio productions of her songs that are highlighted on the showcase, for just $6.95 including shipping & handling. Order on-line today at https://secure.liveupdate.com, and you'll receive the CD by mail, so that you can enjoy her music both on and off-line. ---------------------------------- WHAT IS A "SYSX"? You have probably seen an option in the Crescendo pull-down menu titled "Enable SYSEX Messages", and might have wondered what the option means. Crescendo PLUS supports playback of System Exclusive (SYSX) messages. Ever wonder how that General MIDI song you downloaded automatically configures delay, reverb, distortion, and patch edits while it plays? MIDI files use embedded SYSX messages to control synthesizer settings. Crescendo PLUS will detect and send these hidden SYSX messages to your synthesizer or sound card. Many commercially manufactured MIDI files contain SYSX messages, so you may not hear what the MIDI musician intended until you get Crescendo PLUS. Crescendo PLUS is available for $19.95 at our on-line store, https://secure.liveupdate.com. Get it now, and hear what you've been missing! ---------------------------------- POWERFUL AUTHORING TOOLS AVAILABLE IN CRESCENDO ONLINE STORE With the right tools, you can be a Crescendo composer. The Crescendo PLUS Roland Edition for Windows 95/98 has everything you need to create and play great music on the Internet. Here's what you get: *Cakewalk Express - record, edit, mix, and publish your own MIDI files *Do Re Mix - drag and drop ready-made musical parts to create instant songs *Crescendo PLUS for Internet Explorer and Netscape - play streaming music over the Internet *Virtual Sound Canvas software synthesizer - Orlando's wavetable instrument sounds for your PC *Plus over 100 ready-made MIDI song files to use in your productions The Crescendo PLUS Roland Edition, with all of the above, is available for $65, including shipping and handling! Visit http://www.liveupdate.com/soundcanvas.html for more details, or to order now. ---------------------------------- SUBSCRIBING / UNSUBSCRIBING You're receiving this email because you downloaded Crescendo in the past, and we want to keep you up to date with some of the exciting things that are happening at LiveUpdate. We hope you are enjoying Crescendo! Note: Messages from LiveUpdate to this list will not be sent any more frequently than once a month, and your information has not, and will not, be given to others or sold. If you wish to unsubscribe from this list, or if this message has been forwarded to you by a friend and you would like to subscribe to our newsletter, please send a message to newsletter(a)liveupdate.com. ******************************************* Spread the Music!

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Re: FBI to inaugurate national DNA database
by Ernest Hua 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I'm not talking about whether the FBI/NSA is setting us up politically; they may very well be doing just that. The point is that we need to win wars by winning battles, but it's hard to win battles by sticking to absolute principles and eventually third parties looking no longer find you credible. If we can stick to pointing out just how similar GAK/KR is to cameras in every bedroom, then we can win the battles and the war. If we just stick to either we get 100% of what we want or we don't want it, then the FBI/NSA can manipulate the public into thinking that we would never agree to anything the FBI/NSA wants. Remember ... we don't have what we want yet ... despite some of the rhetoric on this list, and the FBI/NSA is trying to win a war of attrition. Ern -----Original Message----- From: Brown, R Ken <brownrk1(a)texaco.com> To: cypherpunks(a)cyberpass.net <cypherpunks(a)cyberpass.net>; 'Ernest Hua' <hua(a)teralogic-inc.com> Date: Tuesday, October 13, 1998 2:56 AM Subject: RE: FBI to inaugurate national DNA database >> I think it would be a very bad idea for civil liberties >> groups to come out 100% against this. So far all they >> have said is that they intend to log all convicted criminals. >> If the C.L. groups complain about that, then it would be too >> easy for the FBI to turn around and say, "Geez! These guys >> complain about anything and everything we do!" > >I think you are falling for the old bazaar bargaining trick. The guy >wants to sell you a carpet that is worth a shekel. He reckons he can do >you for ten shekels. So he starts the bidding at a hundred and you >think you've done well when you've beaten him down to fifteen. America >is - cypherpunks tell me - a country where people worry about their >social security number being kept on databases, where caller id on >phones can be a hot political issue. This DNA business is far more >intrusive and dangerous than any of that. Don't fall for it! > >Don't fall for the argument that it is only the bad guys who get tagged. >They can define anyone they want as a bad guy. How many people do you >know who have never done anything for which they could be convicted as a >criminal? Never driven a car faster then the speed limit, never smoked >dope, never ridden a bicycle on the pavement, never been drunk in a >public place? To a large extent the set of "convicted criminals" is >governed by police or court decisions rather than by the actions of the >criminals. > >Over here in Britain we've had a long succession of intrusive, abusive >laws promulgated in the name of public safety, law and order, peace on >the streets. The previous government had their absurd "dangerous dogs >act" which became a laughing stock before the ink was dry then their >horrendous and evil "Criminal Justice Bill" with racist provisions >allowing the police to persecute travellers and uttely useless laws >against "music with repetitive beats" not to mention new rules to >control "young offenders, bailed persons, squatters, travellers, >ravers, protesters, trespassers, arrested persons, defendants, >hunt-saboteurs, pornographers, video pirates, obscene telephone-callers, >prisoners, racists, terrorists, ticket touts, cannabis-smokers, serious >fraudsters and not forgetting gay men under 18." > >The current lot aren't as bad, and are certainly more well-intentioned >but they haven't repealed any of the earlier stuff and are, bit by bit, >filling in the few gaps in the wall of regulation and legislation the >Tories built around anyone who wasn't a middle-aged white man who >worked 9 to 5, living in a suburb with a car and a mortgage, who never >went out. > >Our current Home Secretary (cabinet minister with responsibility for >police anong other things) was probably the first person in such a >position in any major country who was brought up by a single mother on a >violent estate (what you'd call a housing project in America) and he >thinks he knows - no he *does* know - what most ordinary people in >environments like that want from life. So he proposes law after law to >make things better, to tell people how they ought to live, all with the >best of intentions. Curfews for children (you ask questions and he will >just come back at you and say "do you *really* think 9-year-old children >should be wandering around on their own at night, or in gangs?" to which >the honest answer is "no, but it's none of your business if they do"). >Compulsory parenting education for parents whose children commit >crimes. A national register of paedophiles - which is made public, so a >couple of convicted child abusers, on being released from jail asked to >be taken back in again because their life wasn't safe outside. Defining >email that goes outside the country as "export" so that writing about >bombs (or cryptography?) can come under the strategic arms export >regulations. And so on. > >And all the while local councils put up cameras in every high street...

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Re: What it's like to get a subpoena (re Toto) (fwd)
by Jim Choate 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Forwarded message: > Date: Tue, 13 Oct 1998 21:14:41 +0100 > From: Adam Back <aba(a)dcs.ex.ac.uk> > Subject: Re: What it's like to get a subpoena (re Toto) > Perhaps they lack proof that the message in question was sent to the > list, very little is signed, and Toto surrounded himself with > forgeries. True, there is also the issue of SMTP forgeries. Since there is no host authentication your security is as strong as your trust. His signing the message raises some interesting issues, especialy with the subsequent developments related to signature strength. > Not that it makes much difference that I can see -- the issue is > surely whether CJ wrote the post, and whether the post and the AP > mockup constitutes a credible threat. (That they apparently think > Toto's AP mockup was credible shows a lack of understanding). The officers I talked to in person admitted to not knowing about Bell or AP. Their interest seemed to be related solely to issues about threats to specific individuals or locations within the IRS infrastructure. My impression was that from their perspective this was just another subpeona delivery and interview. They each had a list of questions/notes and they basicly looked to be going down the list and filling in blanks. > I don't see why they're bothering you, I wonder if the other majordomo > operators have received, or shortly will receive similar visits. I raised the same issue with the agent in Seattle via phone. He seemed to comprehend the mundane role a mailing list operator leads, especialy since I don't keep archives nor moderate the traffic. He was at least willing to discuss depositions and such. If luck is on my side they'll let me explain how SSZ works in regards the CDR as well as what Toto/CJ/aka said to me directly via phone and in person. > Perhaps we could send archive URLs to Jeff Gordon. I made sure to explain how to get Cypherpunks archives via Yahoo with the two agents this morning. I also explained the very ad hoc nature of participation in the CDR and why users come and go. I even got to explain how the remailer works by using an example involving a spammer. They were quite clear on what a spammer was and how they distribute traffic. > > Please don't call or send private email requesting further > > details. They didn't ask me to keep any of our discussion > > confidential but until I better understand what is going on I'm > > taking the conservative course (I had a big fight with myself about > > whether to even post this). > > Well thanks for making it. I say make it all public, FWIW. I agree in principle. Now whether particular circumstances will allay their wills to mine is another issue entirely. In particular since I'm going to be testifying before a grand jury in Washington state versus Texas is something that tells me I don't know all the ground rules possibly. Especialy since I can't have a lawyer present during questioning (and I thought the only stipulation with council was a value exceeding $20), that bothers my Constitutional constitution more than I care to admit. ____________________________________________________________________ To know what is right and not to do it is the worst cowardice. Confucius The Armadillo Group ,::////;::-. James Choate Austin, Tx /:'///// ``::>/|/ ravage(a)ssz.com www.ssz.com .', |||| `/( e\ 512-451-7087 -====~~mm-'`-```-mm --'- --------------------------------------------------------------------

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New Technologies for Espionage
by Tim May 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

It seems that the "old technologies" are approaching their end. This guy got caught by having too many physical contacts: -- walking into the Soviet embassy (well-known to be under surveillance) -- presumably using dead drops to exchange documents and money -- relying on a physical contact with an unknown person (whom he thought to be KGB, incorrectly) Digital dead drops and digital cash will eventually revolutionize spying. The digital dead drops are here now, though not the digital cash. --Tim May Tuesday October 13 11:49 AM EDT Ex-U.S. Army Analyst Arrested On Spy Charges WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A former U.S. Army intelligence analyst has been arrested on charges of spying for Russia by allegedly passing to KGB agents highly classified documents from 1988 to 1991, federal law enforcement officials said Tuesday. They said David Sheldon Boone, who worked for the military's super-secret National Security Agency, was scheduled to appear in federal court in Alexandria, Virginia, later Tuesday. According to the criminal complaint, Boone, who was arrested Saturday, began spying in 1988 after he walked into the Soviet embassy in Washington and volunteered his services. He was charged with meeting his Russian handler about four times a year between late 1988 and when he retired from the Army in 1991. Boone allegedly was paid more than $60,000 for the highly sensitive, top-secret documents he gave them. He allegedly gave the Russians documents about the capabilities and movements of Soviet forces and about Soviet tactical nuclear weapons. He also allegedly gave the Russians a document based on information that the National Security Agency, which conducts eavesdropping operations around the world, had intercepted. Boone was arrested after he was contacted in September by an individual who worked on behalf of the FBI, but whom he believed to be a Russian agent. According to the complaint, he had agreed to resume his espionage activities.

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RE: INTERNET STOCKWATCH! I S M R
by wllstrtmore＠digisys.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Company: Internet Stock Market Resources Symbol: I S M R Price: 2 1/4 ($2.25/share) " I S M R is evolving into one of the internet's main financial web portals not unlike E*Trade in its future potential." As a featured stock in both Success and Opportunist magazines and as a content partner with Time Warner's Web TV I S M R is rated a "VERY STRONG BUY". For more information on I S M R go to: http://quote.yahoo.com/ plxII7.

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by STUFFED WED OCT 14 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

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What it's like to get a subpoena (re Toto)
by Jim Choate 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Hi, Just thought I'd pass along the latest news in the Toto/Carl Johnson/aka situation. I was visited by two nicely mannerd IRS agents this morning. We talked for about an hour or so about Cypherpunks, CJ, Austin, majordomo, etc. In the process I was served with a subpoena from the Western District of Washington to appear on Nov. 18, 1998 at 1:15pm in room 311 of the United States Courthouse (5th & Madison, Seattle, 98104). I explained how majordomo works, how to manipulate majordomo to get lists of subscribers (I used the SSZ subscriber list as an example), and described the time in July (I believe) when CJ/Toto/aka visited the local meeting. We also discussed the potential for altering email traffic through a remailer. I've made it clear I have no problems answering their questions but have no desire to go to Seattle in Nov. or any other time. They are looking into whether a deposition given here would be sufficient for their needs. Until then I'm getting ready for a 2-3 day trip to Seattle in Nov..... I'm currently trying to decide whether to scan and post the subpoena on the SSZ webpage. It's interesting that they requested archives of the list. I explained that I didn't archive the Cypherpunks or any of my other lists and that other than minimal configuration issues I don't even archive the OS that runs einstein (as it takes about 2 hours to rebuild from scratch from CD). Please don't call or send private email requesting further details. They didn't ask me to keep any of our discussion confidential but until I better understand what is going on I'm taking the conservative course (I had a big fight with myself about whether to even post this). ____________________________________________________________________ To know what is right and not to do it is the worst cowardice. Confucius 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 Value of Anonymous Remailers vs. Abuse Complaints and Abusive Comp
by Pallas Anonymous Remailer 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

fa161f121ec06c2dd5b366ff7460fb12(a)anonymous.poster> >The most frequent request we have been receiving >so far is, in fact, about the idendity of the >originator of the anonymous messages. Some >people are being polite, others are not. >Basically, all the ones who write to abuse(a)*.* >want to know the email address of the one who >has offended/harassed/spammed/blackmailed them. The idea to get across is that that information is not available. The snail mail services in various countries allow anonymous mail, after all, so why should e-mail be any different? People can deposit mail in public mailboxes with no return address on the envelope. People can call from payphones and not have the call traceable back to them. People should also be educated that a From: address, even when attached, cannot be relied upon for accuracy. At least anonymous e-mail lets the recipient know, in advance, that the sender wishes to conceal his/her true identity. >That is, it is true that a very significant % of >all messages which pass thru the mixmaster >network is just trash. > >Comments, anyone? Even "trash" is valuable as cover traffic to thwart traffic analysis, especially in the Mixmaster world where packets are intended to be virtually indistinguishable. Once remailer-operators get involved in value judgements as to which anonymous e-mail transactions have redeeming social value, we have sown the seeds of censorship. We empower the Gary Burnores of the world to censor by intimidation when content neutrality is not maintained. For example, if a certain signal to noise ratio were to be used as a criteria for the validity of the remailer net, then a self-destruct device has just been built into it. An attacker need only inject enough noise to exceed the threshold and bring the network down. Consider the episode last year with Gary Burnore and DataBasix vs. Jeff Burchell and his Mailmasher and Huge Cajones machines. Made-to-order abuse appeared right on cue to reinforce the claims that Burnore and his girlfriend Belinda Bryan had made. And now we've learned the real truth behind the whole episode. While Gary Burnore was living with another girlfriend in Santa Clara, CA, he was also molesting her teenaged daughter. An anonymous whistleblower attempted to warn the girl's mother as well as her school officials by anonymous e-mail. Burnore went ballistic and falsely claimed "harassment". But the whistleblower was ultimately vindicated when Burnore pled guilty to the molestation charge, was placed on probation, and was required to register as a sex offender. Unable to silence the whistleblower, Burnore began a campaign of harassment against the operators of the remailers that were being used to expose him. IOW, if you can't refute the message, shoot the messenger. And if you can't shoot the messenger, attempt to disable his means of communication (the remailers net). I recounted this case history, which can be researched in various usenet archives by anyone interested, just to demonstrate that one man's "harassment" can well be another man's investigative journalism, even if the journalist or whistleblower is not in a position to expose him/herself to retaliation by the wrongdoer, which has been (coincidentally?) reported by virtually anyone who has dared to challenge Gary Burnore publicly.

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The guitar video everybodies talking about
by steelin＠hotmail.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

___________________________________________________________ Howdy! Just wanted to drop you a note to let you about my Video "Steelin' from the Steel",. If your anything like me, your always looking for something new that will help you spice up your playing and phrasing without too much effort, make you a better player...This is the video for you!!!! This video easily fills up your" bag of licks" with phrases that will make you a much more creative musician, than by learning a bunch of penatonic blues scales which have been taught into the ground. This video is by far the most interesting guitar instruction available. I sat down in the studio with one of the greatest L.A. tele players around. I'm on pedal steel and I proceeded to play all the interesting sounds on the steel guitar and Mike on tele plays them EXACT and explains how to play them. The sounds coming off his guitar and the new ideas that can come from these chord bends will open up some serious musical doors for you. We go through bends, fills, intros and licks galore... For the beginer to advanced player, very easy concepts to pick up and use in any style of music. It's nice to know you can easily become a much more creative musician with just a little effort and "Steelin' from the Steel." If your interested just click the link below and it will take you to my page offering the Video...I appreciate your time and till we meet out on the road....Gotta keep pickin'....Kevin http://www.clublickit.com/video3.htm

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Re: What it's like to get a subpoena (re Toto)
by Anonymous 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I haven't. >I don't see why they're bothering you, I wonder if the other majordomo >operators have received, or shortly will receive similar visits.

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IRS wants cypherpunks archives
by Adam Back 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Jeff, and fellow agents seem to be interested in cypherpunks archives (as evidenced by asking Jim Choate who operates one of the mailing list nodes, but who does _not_ offer archived list traffic). Jeff is Cc'd on this post to be helpful (who says cypherpunks aren't helpful -- you only have to ask). This archive seems to be operational: http://www.inet-one.com/cypherpunks/ And looks to cover the last year or so at least. The one at minder.net says 0 items available: http://www.minder.net/cgi-bin/lwgate.cgi/CYPHERPUNKS/archives/ so something appears wrong with that one (Brian?) and Ryan's sof.mit.edu archive is down still since the disk crash. Are there any others? I do have a reasonable set of archives going back to May '96 in RMAIL format, but am not too keen on mailing them due to bandwidth -- would take a few hours at 28.8k baud. (Also there seem to be some older archives on Remo Pini's crypto CD, but I think they are too old to be of interest to IRS). Adam -- print pack"C*",split/\D+/,`echo "16iII*o\U@{$/=$z;[(pop,pop,unpack"H*",<> )]}\EsMsKsN0[lN*1lK[d2%Sa2/d0<X+d*lMLa^*lN%0]dsXx++lMlN/dsM0<J]dsJxp"|dc`

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IP: Tracking: F.B.I.'s new national DNA database
by Vladimir Z. Nuri 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

From: believer(a)telepath.com Subject: IP: Tracking: F.B.I.'s new national DNA database Date: Mon, 12 Oct 1998 02:05:53 -0500 To: believer(a)telepath.com Source: WorldNetDaily http://www.WorldNetDaily.com/exclusiv/981012_fbis_new_national_d.html F.B.I.'s new national DNA database Secret computer set to open for business The FBI is set open a new national DNA data base tomorrow, The New York Times reports. The data base, with a new generation of forensic DNA techniques, is designed to catch repeat offenders, but civil libertarians fear it will be expanded from people convicted of crimes to include almost everyone, giving the government inordinate investigative powers over citizens. The national DNA data base, housed in a secret location, actually consists of 50 data bases run by the states but unified by common test procedures and software designed by the FBI. As of tomorrow, the Times reports, it will be possible to compare a DNA sample from a suspect or crime scene in one state with all others in the system. © 1998 Western Journalism Center ----------------------- NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ----------------------- ********************************************** To subscribe or unsubscribe, email: majordomo(a)majordomo.pobox.com with the message: (un)subscribe ignition-point email@address ********************************************** www.telepath.com/believer **********************************************

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RE: DNA
by Michael Motyka 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

> If we had a DNA sample of all world citizens, then the pesky problem > of the whole "it was either O.J. that was the killer or there's a one > in five billion chance it was someone else" would simply disappear. I'm not a biochemist but I don't think that this is accurate right now. I think modern DNA analysis yields data that bear more resemblance to a spectrum than anything else. In this case there is always a good possibility for error. Remember how large a project the Human Genome thing is? That is an actual sequencing project. ***** Rather than use this technology for law enforcement why not really try to make a Tyrannosaurus? That would seem to be a higher use. ***** When this new FBI project gets established just watch how wide a net they cast when defining who will be compelled to submit a sample! Then we'll have some crooked fuck selling info to the insurance companies. Or it will be legislated by the other crooked fucks. And pattern analysis will identify the guilty before they even think about committing an offense. Hell, they'll probably be able to ID the bad ones from samples coerced/stolen at birth and then all future opportunity and resource allocation will be effectively decided by the government, inc. Compromise? If this thing is not implemented with strict controls defining the type of offenses included then it is as offensive a totalitarian tool as anything else discussed on this list Mike Is there perhaps a good point to getting everybody in the country on this DNA database? Could it be that a single sample of DNA can be used to produce a large supply of that DNA which could then be used to fabricate evidence? You might say that the existence of the fabrication technology and the availability of seed material invalidates the evidence.

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IP: ISPI Clips 5.32: FBI & Privacy Advocates Battling Over Wiretapping
by Vladimir Z. Nuri 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

From: "ama-gi ISPI" <offshore(a)email.msn.com> Subject: IP: ISPI Clips 5.32: FBI & Privacy Advocates Battling Over Wiretapping Date: Mon, 12 Oct 1998 00:10:29 -0700 To: <Undisclosed.Recipients(a)majordomo.pobox.com> ISPI Clips 5.32: FBI & Privacy Advocates Battling Over Wiretapping News & Info from the Institute for the Study of Privacy Issues (ISPI) Monday October 12, 1998 ISPI4Privacy(a)ama-gi.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This From: ABCNews.com, October 8, 1998 http://www.abcnews.com Privacy on the Line http://www.abcnews.com/sections/tech/DailyNews/wiretap981006.html Law enforcement and privacy advocates are battling over wiretapping boundaries in the digital age. By Michael Martinez ABCNEWS.com The FBI wants to be able to tap your cell phone. And it wants your phone company to pay for the privilege of allowing the FBI to tap your cell phone. That, at least, is the contention of privacy advocates and of the telephone industry, which is under federal mandate to open all new telecommunications technologies to wiretap access. Under the Communications Assistance to Law Enforcement Act, telecommunications companies are required provide wiretap capabilities for all of their new systems. Passed by Congress in 1994, CALEA mandated that telecommunications companies comply with access requirements by Oct. 25 of this year. That deadline, however, has been pushed back until June 2000 by the Federal Communications Commission as it tries to sort out just what the FBI is entitled to, and how much reimbursement telecom companies should get. Originally, CALEA set aside $500 million to pay for infrastructure upgrades on systems installed prior to Jan. 1, 1995. The United States Telephone Association and other industry groups want that cutoff point extended until 2000 as well, so that current systems are covered. Voice Mail for Dope Dealers? The telecommunications industry has introduced a wide range of popular and profitable services in recent years, everything from prepaid calling cards to Internet telephony to three-way calling. Cellular phones have become nearly ubiquitous, and newer models are almost entirely digital. Many customers have turned to third party voice-mail systems for message services. When most of these systems were designed and implemented, no thought was given to allowing federal or local law enforcement agencies access. The FBI says its entitled to access these services under current wiretap laws. Privacy advocates disagree. The FBI has been trying to use CALEA to greatly expand its surveillance capabilities in ways never anticipated by Congress when it passed the law, contends Barry Steinhardt, executive director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation. The telephone companies also disagree, at least in principle. More important, if forced by the government to comply, they want the federal government to pay for the technology necessary to make it happen. The FBI claims that a compromise proposal by the USTA, which represents local telephone companies, was too narrow, and excluded many of the technological advances that have made law enforcements job more difficult. There have been situations in which weve obtained permission to wiretap, and weve been frustrated by the technology, says Stephen Colgate, assistant U.S. attorney general for administration. And the criminals know it. Things like voice mail and prepaid calling cards, these are the things used by the dope dealer or the bomb maker. The Communications Haystack The USTA, however, says the FBI is overreaching by including services not covered by the original law. The rules the FBI put forth in CALEA dont follow the intent of Congress, says Michelle Tober, communications manager for the USTA. If the FBI wants this capability, it has to be granted to them by the FCC or under a new law by Congress. The Electronic Frontier Foundation, along with the American Civil Liberties Union and the Electronic Privacy Information Center, have petitioned the FCC to limit law enforcements ability to gain access to new telecommunications services. The problem with a wiretap is that its a general search, Steinhardt says. Only one in six conversations that are recorded are criminal in nature. Increasing law enforcements powers will mean more conversations recorded that have no bearing on investigations. Were giving them the power to find a needle in a haystack. The FBI defends its proposed rules, saying that they still fall under the original law allowing wiretaps, and that privacy will still be protected by the judiciary system. We still have to go before the judge. We still have to justify the invasion of privacy in the courts, Colgate says. Were not lowering the bar by any means. This industry has been investing significant amounts of capital into the infrastructure, and weve been losing (wiretap) capability steadily. Copyright (c)1998 ABCNEWS and Starwave Corporation. --------------------------------NOTICE:------------------------------ ISPI Clips are news & opinion articles on privacy issues from all points of view; they are clipped from local, national and international newspapers, journals and magazines, etc. Inclusion as an ISPI Clip does not necessarily reflect an endorsement of the content or opinion by ISPI. In compliance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed free without profit or payment for non-profit research and educational purposes only. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- ISPI Clips is a FREE e-mail service from the "Institute for the Study of Privacy Issues" (ISPI). To receive "ISPI Clips" on a regular bases (up to 3 - 8 clips per day) send the following message "Please enter [Your Name] into the ISPI Clips list: [Your e-mail address]" to: ISPIClips(a)ama-gi.com . The Institute for the Study of Privacy Issues (ISPI) is a small contributor-funded organization based in Victoria, British Columbia (Canada). ISPI operates on a not-for-profit basis, accepts no government funding and takes a global perspective. ISPI's mandate is to conduct & promote interdisciplinary research into electronic, personal and financial privacy with a view toward helping ordinary people understand the degree of privacy they have with respect to government, industry and each other and to likewise inform them about techniques to enhance their privacy. But, none of this can be accomplished without your kind and generous financial support. If you value in the ISPI Clips service or if you are concerned about the erosion of your privacy in general, won't you please help us continue this important work by becoming an "ISPI Clips Supporter" or by taking out an institute Membership? We gratefully accept all contributions: Less than $60 ISPI Clips Supporter $60 - $99 Primary ISPI Membership (1 year) $100 - $300 Senior ISPI Membership (2 years) More than $300 Executive Council Membership (life) Your ISPI "membership" contribution entitles you to receive "The ISPI Privacy Reporter" (our bi-monthly 12 page hard-copy newsletter in multi-contributor format) for the duration of your membership. For a contribution form with postal instructions please send the following message "ISPI Contribution Form" to ISPI4Privacy(a)ama-gi.com . We maintain a strict privacy policy. Any information you divulge to ISPI is kept in strict confidence. It will not be sold, lent or given away to any third party. ********************************************** To subscribe or unsubscribe, email: majordomo(a)majordomo.pobox.com with the message: (un)subscribe ignition-point email@address ********************************************** www.telepath.com/believer **********************************************

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IP: Tracking: NYT on FBI's Nat'l DNA Database
by Vladimir Z. Nuri 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

From: believer(a)telepath.com Subject: IP: Tracking: NYT on FBI's Nat'l DNA Database Date: Mon, 12 Oct 1998 03:10:00 -0500 To: believer(a)telepath.com Source: New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/national/dna-data-base.html October 12, 1998 F.B.I. Set to Begin Using National DNA Database By NICHOLAS WADE In a computer at a secret location, the FBI will open a national DNA database on Tuesday that advocates say could significantly reduce rape and other crimes by helping to catch repeat offenders earlier. The data base, with a new generation of forensic DNA techniques, promises to be so efficient that some civil libertarians fear it will be expanded from people convicted of crimes to include almost everyone, giving the government inordinate investigative powers over citizens. The national DNA data base consists of 50 data bases run by the states but unified by common test procedures and software designed by the FBI. As of Tuesday, it will be possible to compare a DNA sample from a suspect or crime scene in one state with all others in the system. The national data base has been nearly a decade in the making. The final pieces fell into place in June when Rhode Island became the last state to set up a DNA data base. But the system still faces many unresolved issues, which are likely to play out according to the reaction from the public and the courts. One such issue is what types of offenders should be included. Another is whether the mass screening of suspects' DNA will prove constitutional. DNA, the chemical that embodies a person's genetic programming, can be found almost everywhere. People shed a constant torrent of dead skin cells. Criminals leave blood when breaking and entering; they shed hair and skin cells in fights, deposit saliva on glasses and leave sweat stains in head bands. From only a few cells in such sources, enough DNA can be extracted to identify the owner. A DNA database of sufficient size could presumably help solve many crimes. The crime-fighting potential of DNA data bases is becoming evident from the experiences of Britain, which started earlier and has had fewer administrative and constitutional hurdles to overcome. The data base there initially focused on sex offenses but has spread to include burglaries and car theft because of the high number of DNA matches that police forces were obtaining. Moreover, there was considerable crossover at least in Britain, among different kinds of offenses. "People who commit serious crime very often have convictions for petty crime in their history, so if you could get them on the data base early you may prevent serious crime," said David Werrett, manager of the DNA data base for England and Wales. The English DNA data base includes entries from crime scenes and from everyone convicted of a crime, as well as from suspects in unresolved cases. Since the system's debut in 1995, it has matched 28,000 people to crime scenes and has made 6,000 links between crime scenes. The data base now holds 360,000 entries and Werrett said he expected it would eventually include one third of all English men between 16 and 30, the principal ages for committing crimes. Werrett said that the data base has grown because police forces in England, which pay $55 for a DNA analysis, are finding it cost effective. Recently the Police Superintendents Association called for the entire population to be DNA tested. Forensic use of DNA in the United States is unlikely to go as fast or as far as in Britain. "Their system makes a tremendous amount of sense the way they approach it, but in the United States we have a different perspective on privacy and on the extent to which we would be willing to depend on a data base," said Christopher Asplen, executive director of the national Commission on the Future of DNA Evidence. One major privacy safeguard in the FBI's system is that only a minute fraction of a person's genetic endowment becomes part of the data base. Under a new DNA profiling system known as STR's, for short tandem repeats, a person's DNA is tested at 13 specific sites at which a short length of DNA is repeated in a kind of stutter. The number of repeats is highly variable from one person to another, so that measuring the number of repeats at the 13 designated sites gives a way of identifying each individual with a probability of one in several billion. The blood or other samples donated by individuals are retained by the states in collections known as DNA banks. All that goes into the computerized DNA data bases is the set of 13 numbers from the STR measurements. Only identifying information, and nothing about a person's health or appearance, can be divined from the STR's. Access to the DNA data base is permitted only for law enforcement purposes, with a $100,000 fine for unauthorized disclosures. No known breaches of the system have occurred. One major unresolved issue is that of the types of offenders from whom DNA profiles should be taken. All states require people convicted of serious sexual offenses to donate blood samples, but differ on requiring samples from other groups such as people convicted of violent felonies, juvenile offenders and parolees. Four states -- Virginia, Wyoming, New Mexico and Alabama -- require all people convicted of a felony to provide samples for DNA profiling. Louisiana allows DNA to be taken from people merely arrested in a crime, a practice that has not been tested in the courts. State laws establishing DNA data bases have been challenged in 13 jurisdictions and have been upheld in all but one, in Massachusetts. Some states have revised their original legislation to add offenses. "I think the trend is that 10 years from now all felonies will be covered," said M. Dawn Herkenham, chief of the FBI's Forensic Science Systems Unit in Washington. "We recommend that all violent felonies, burglaries, juveniles and retroactivity for people on parole be included." >From his office in Birmingham, England, last week, Werrett said, "Today we have issued matches on three murders, five rapes, nine serious robberies, two abductions and two violent burglaries." No state DNA data base has acquired the critical mass to furnish such a hit rate. Many state laboratories are understaffed and have large backlogs of DNA samples to analyze. The backlogs are particularly worrisome in the case of rapes where specimens may lie unanalyzed while the rapist assaults more victims. "People may be appalled to know how many rape suspect kits are out there untouched," Ms. Herkenham of the FBI said. "The hit ratio depends on whether we can go back and examine all the evidence that comes in the door," said Dr. Barry Duceman, director of biological science in the New York State Police Forensic Investigation Center in Albany. "We are trying to address a crushing case backlog and to get the technology on line -- you'd be hard pressed to say we are overstaffed." The case backlog problem is compounded because state laboratories are switching to the STR method of DNA profiling from an older method of analysis called RFLP (for restriction fragment length polymorphism). All the samples analyzed by RFLP must be redone by STR if they are to be searchable in the new data base. When these teething problems are overcome, many experts believe that the state and national DNA data base systems may have a significant effect, particularly in reducing crimes like rape that often involve repeat offenders. By scoring a "cold hit" between crime scene data and a person, DNA data bases can be particularly effective in solving cases with no suspects. "Once we get that infrastructure in place and start getting those hits, the benefits will lead to higher utilization," Asplen said. But like other experts involved with DNA testing, he expressed concern that DNA profiling be developed in a publicly acceptable way. "The public does need to have a trust level with this and be assured that law enforcement is not going to abuse this powerful tool," he said. One practice likely to raise eyebrows, if not hackles, is mass screening, which is widely used in the United Kingdom but not yet commonplace here. In high profile crime cases, police in Britain often ask, and can require, all members of a town or building to give DNA samples so as to prove themselves guiltless and help narrow the search for the culprit. The National Commission on the Future of DNA Testing is examining under what circumstances the donation of samples can be considered voluntary. In an office, where employees who declined to donate a sample might be fired, a police request for DNA might be coercive. A future use of DNA testing is that of phenotypic analysis. It will soon be technically possible to infer from the genes in a person's DNA many probable aspects of their appearance, such as hair, skin and eye color. Werrett said the main problem with such predictions would lie in training police to understand their probabilistic nature: told there is a 90 percent chance that the suspect has red hair, investigators should not ignore the 10 percent chance that he does not. DNA reveals so much about a person that behavioral geneticists might wish to search through state data banks for genetic variants linked to criminal behavior. Most states say their DNA data banks can be accessed only for law enforcement purposes, like the data bases. But Alabama authorizes the use of its samples for "educational research or medical research or development," an apparent invitation to genetic inquiry. An impending issue is whether states should retain their DNA samples once the information has been entered into the DNA data base. Forensic managers like to retain samples as a hedge against changing technology. Others say the DNA sample banks create an opportunity for abuse, and that if there is another change in technology the government should just rebuild its data base from scratch. Because DNA can be found at so many crime scenes, DNA data bases promise to be powerful aids in catching criminals. But what thrills forensic experts tends to chill civil libertarians. "The DNA data base started out with pariahs -- the sex offenders -- but has already been enlarged to include other felons and will probably be extended to include everyone, giving elites the power to control 'unruly' citizens," said Philip Bereano a professor of technology and public policy at the University of Washington in Seattle. Dr. Eric Juengst, a bioethicist at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland and a member of the FBI's DNA Advisory Board, said the original policy in setting up the DNA data base was that it was "suitable only for our most serious category of criminals," and that it would be a breach of that policy to expand its scope. The risks raised by Bereano are worth watching, Juengst said, "but as a society we have to learn how to control powerful tools of all kinds, like nuclear power. I don't see it as an endless slippery slope." Copyright 1998 The New York Times Company ----------------------- NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ----------------------- ********************************************** To subscribe or unsubscribe, email: majordomo(a)majordomo.pobox.com with the message: (un)subscribe ignition-point email@address ********************************************** www.telepath.com/believer **********************************************

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IP: "The Billion Dollar Terror Rumor"
by Vladimir Z. Nuri 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

From: believer(a)telepath.com Subject: IP: "The Billion Dollar Terror Rumor" Date: Tue, 13 Oct 1998 06:31:30 -0500 To: believer(a)telepath.com Source: Salon Magazine http://www.salonmagazine.com/news/1998/10/08newsa.html The billion-dollar rumor How unsubstantiated reports that the World Trade bombers may have included nerve gas in their arsenal led to some pretty pricey public policy. BY JEFF STEIN It began as rumor, then became fact. Fact became alarm. And alarm led to a rallying cry for a multimillion-dollar federal program that has now itself ricocheted out of control. Kenneth Starr's investigation of President Clinton? No, it's the federal budget for countering a doomsday attack by terrorists armed with chemical and biological weapons. The rumor in this case was that terrorists had put deadly sodium cyanide into the monstrous February 1993 World Trade Center bomb that killed six people, injured more than 1,000, blasted a seven-story hole underneath the twin towers and created panic in the streets of lower Manhattan. The blast should have turned any sodium cyanide present into hydrogen cyanide, unleashing a poisonous cloud that could have instantly killed hundreds or thousands more people. That is, had any sodium cyanide been there. According to a thorough, as yet unpublished study of the incident by an arms-control think tank at the Monterey Institute for International Studies, there is no evidence to support the long-swirling assertion, which first surfaced in the solemn pronouncement of a respected federal judge in 1994. The rumor then made its way into scores of newspaper articles and was cited by leading U.S. senators to support anti-terrorist initiatives that have amounted to billions of dollars, many of them unaccounted for, according to a recent investigation by congressional auditors. John Parachini, a senior associate at the Monterey Institute, made a draft of the study available after being contacted by Salon. Word of his findings has been circulating in the community of Washington terrorism experts. "I'm not against spending money for defending against chemical and biological weapons," Parachini said in an interview, "but we ought to know why we're spending for it, and to get the facts straight." In his study, Parachini noted that the World Trade Center bombers considered using chemical weapons, but did not -- an important fact for government terrorism specialists to ponder. "Examining the motivations and behaviors of terrorists who would have used a chemical weapon if it was available, but did not, may offer important lessons about how to thwart such attacks in the future," he writes. Parachini traced the origins of the cyanide gas story to the first trial of World Trade Center bombers in 1994, when federal prosecutors raised the specter of a chemical bomb, no doubt to darken the jury's view of the defendants. The theme was picked up by presiding federal Judge Kevin Duffy in his sentencing statement to the stone-faced defendants. "You had sodium cyanide around, and I'm sure it was in the bomb," the judge intoned. "Thank God the sodium cyanide burned instead of vaporizing. If the sodium cyanide had vaporized, it is clear what would have happened is the cyanide gas would have been sucked into the north tower and everybody in the north tower would have been killed. That to my mind is exactly what was intended." The judge may have been "sure it was in the bomb," but the defendants were never even charged under anti-terrorism statutes that make mere possession of potential chemical and biological weapons a federal crime, Parachini noted. The rumor's origins date back to an earlier raid by the FBI of a New Jersey storage shed rented by the suspects. The agents found one sealed bottle of sodium cyanide in aqueous form. Aqueous sodium cyanide is used for photographic purposes and can cost less than $3 per pound, Parachini noted in his study, after consulting chemical experts. But it is sodium cyanide in solid form, usually briquettes costing many hundreds of dollars more, that can be effective as a chemical weapon when it's converted to hydrogen cyanide gas by a blast. Nevertheless, the federal prosecutor in the initial World Trade Center trial raised the idea of a chemical bomb when questioning a senior FBI official, Steven Burmeister, about the consequences of mixing sodium cyanide with other chemicals present in the bomb. Burmeister testified that "if you breathe that gas I'm afraid you've breathed your last breath." Despite this "chilling testimony," however, "Burmeister never suggested during the trial that his investigation had led him to believe that the bomb actually contained sodium cyanide," Parachini writes -- and the trial transcript proves. In addition, an FBI chemist who participated in the case told Parachini flatly, "There is no forensic evidence indicating the presence of sodium cyanide at the bomb site." Judge Duffy's statement to the contrary, however, gave legs to the notion that the defendants had made -- or tried to make -- a chemical bomb. No less an authority than Maj. Gen. George Friel, the former head of the U.S. Army's Chemical and Biological Defense Command, told Gannett News Service that the World Trade Center bombers may have attempted to mix a toxic agent -- most likely arsenic -- with the bomb they planted in the garage of the building. That was a new one to federal investigators. Neither FBI agents nor prosecutors mentioned arsenic as a bomb ingredient in the trial. Despite the nonexistent evidence, however, Judge Duffy's charge was taken up by two influential senators, Richard Lugar, R-Ind., and Sam Nunn, D-Ga., who called it "a warning bell." "The trial judge at the sentencing of those responsible for the World Trade Center bombing pointed out that the killers in that case had access to chemicals to make lethal cyanide gas ... and probably put those chemicals into that bomb that exploded," Nunn said during a 1996 floor debate on a multibillion-dollar bill aimed at bolstering U.S. defenses against weapons of mass destruction. Lugar also cited Judge Duffy's statement as evidence of "how close we have come to witnessing acts of terrorism involving weapons of mass destruction directed toward the United States." He urged his Senate colleagues to "listen to Judge Duffy," and compared the World Trade Center bomb to both the 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway by Japanese cultists and the placement of a radioactive package in a Moscow park. The media were next to pick up Duffy's theme. One typical story, in the Los Angeles Times in July 1996, stated, "The World Trade Center bombers had sodium cyanide, which if used ... would have released poison gas, vastly increasing the fatalities in New York, intelligence officials said." Syndicated columnist Trudy Rubin cited Judge Duffy in the course of applauding "some farsighted lawmakers trying to confront the unthinkable." The Nunn-Lugar bill, which included $235 million for training local "first responders" to a chemical or biological attack, passed 100-0. But that was merely the gateway to a mushrooming federal anti-terrorism crusade that now costs upwards of $1 billion a year -- and perhaps twice that, according to some experts -- and that last week led to the creation of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, which will "spend hundreds of millions of dollars in research for better sensors and technology to detect biological and chemical weapons," according to the Associated Press. Counter-terrorism may be the magic word for funding programs in Washington today, but a withering audit by the General Accounting Office has raised questions about where the money is going: "More money is being spent to combat terrorism without any assurance of whether it is focused in the right programs or in the right amounts,'' said Richard Davis, a GAO auditor specializing in weapons of mass destruction. "Billions of dollars are being spent by numerous agencies with roles or potential roles in combating terrorism, but because no federal entity has been tasked to collect such information across the government, the specific amount is unknown,'' the GAO said in its most recent report on terrorism. "Further, no government-wide spending priorities for the various aspects of combating terrorism have been set.'' Meanwhile, past studies have cautioned that while chemical or biological weapons may be cheaper and easier to make than nuclear bombs, terrorists have shied away from using them. Despite past allegations, neither the Red Army Faction, the Beider-Meinhof Gang nor the Weather Underground ever used them, Parachini concluded. Ramzi Ahmed Yousef, the convicted mastermind of the World Trade Center blast, made the point himself while flying back in custody from Pakistan, where he was captured in 1996, the Monterey Institute study notes. "Yousef ... revealed to U.S. Secret Service agent Brian Parr that the WTC bomb did not contain sodium cyanide or any other poison, but that he had planned to use 'hydrogen cyanide in some other form of a bomb, not as large a bomb, but a different type of bomb to disperse that [poison] in the Trade Center,'" the study says. "Yousef told Parr that he had decided not to take this approach because 'it was going to be too expensive to implement.'" The judge may have been "sure it was in the bomb," but the defendants were never even charged under anti-terrorism statutes that make mere possession of potential chemical and biological weapons a federal crime, Parachini noted. The rumor's origins date back to an earlier raid by the FBI of a New Jersey storage shed rented by the suspects. The agents found one sealed bottle of sodium cyanide in aqueous form. Aqueous sodium cyanide is used for photographic purposes and can cost less than $3 per pound, Parachini noted in his study, after consulting chemical experts. But it is sodium cyanide in solid form, usually briquettes costing many hundreds of dollars more, that can be effective as a chemical weapon when it's converted to hydrogen cyanide gas by a blast. Nevertheless, the federal prosecutor in the initial World Trade Center trial raised the idea of a chemical bomb when questioning a senior FBI official, Steven Burmeister, about the consequences of mixing sodium cyanide with other chemicals present in the bomb. Burmeister testified that "if you breathe that gas I'm afraid you've breathed your last breath." Despite this "chilling testimony," however, "Burmeister never suggested during the trial that his investigation had led him to believe that the bomb actually contained sodium cyanide," Parachini writes -- and the trial transcript proves. In addition, an FBI chemist who participated in the case told Parachini flatly, "There is no forensic evidence indicating the presence of sodium cyanide at the bomb site." Judge Duffy's statement to the contrary, however, gave legs to the notion that the defendants had made -- or tried to make -- a chemical bomb. No less an authority than Maj. Gen. George Friel, the former head of the U.S. Army's Chemical and Biological Defense Command, told Gannett News Service that the World Trade Center bombers may have attempted to mix a toxic agent -- most likely arsenic -- with the bomb they planted in the garage of the building. That was a new one to federal investigators. Neither FBI agents nor prosecutors mentioned arsenic as a bomb ingredient in the trial. Despite the nonexistent evidence, however, Judge Duffy's charge was taken up by two influential senators, Richard Lugar, R-Ind., and Sam Nunn, D-Ga., who called it "a warning bell." "The trial judge at the sentencing of those responsible for the World Trade Center bombing pointed out that the killers in that case had access to chemicals to make lethal cyanide gas ... and probably put those chemicals into that bomb that exploded," Nunn said during a 1996 floor debate on a multibillion-dollar bill aimed at bolstering U.S. defenses against weapons of mass destruction. Lugar also cited Judge Duffy's statement as evidence of "how close we have come to witnessing acts of terrorism involving weapons of mass destruction directed toward the United States." He urged his Senate colleagues to "listen to Judge Duffy," and compared the World Trade Center bomb to both the 1995 sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway by Japanese cultists and the placement of a radioactive package in a Moscow park. The media were next to pick up Duffy's theme. One typical story, in the Los Angeles Times in July 1996, stated, "The World Trade Center bombers had sodium cyanide, which if used ... would have released poison gas, vastly increasing the fatalities in New York, intelligence officials said." Syndicated columnist Trudy Rubin cited Judge Duffy in the course of applauding "some farsighted lawmakers trying to confront the unthinkable." The Nunn-Lugar bill, which included $235 million for training local "first responders" to a chemical or biological attack, passed 100-0. But that was merely the gateway to a mushrooming federal anti-terrorism crusade that now costs upwards of $1 billion a year -- and perhaps twice that, according to some experts -- and that last week led to the creation of the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, which will "spend hundreds of millions of dollars in research for better sensors and technology to detect biological and chemical weapons," according to the Associated Press. Counter-terrorism may be the magic word for funding programs in Washington today, but a withering audit by the General Accounting Office has raised questions about where the money is going: "More money is being spent to combat terrorism without any assurance of whether it is focused in the right programs or in the right amounts,'' said Richard Davis, a GAO auditor specializing in weapons of mass destruction. "Billions of dollars are being spent by numerous agencies with roles or potential roles in combating terrorism, but because no federal entity has been tasked to collect such information across the government, the specific amount is unknown,'' the GAO said in its most recent report on terrorism. "Further, no government-wide spending priorities for the various aspects of combating terrorism have been set.'' Meanwhile, past studies have cautioned that while chemical or biological weapons may be cheaper and easier to make than nuclear bombs, terrorists have shied away from using them. Despite past allegations, neither the Red Army Faction, the Beider-Meinhof Gang nor the Weather Underground ever used them, Parachini concluded. Ramzi Ahmed Yousef, the convicted mastermind of the World Trade Center blast, made the point himself while flying back in custody from Pakistan, where he was captured in 1996, the Monterey Institute study notes. "Yousef ... revealed to U.S. Secret Service agent Brian Parr that the WTC bomb did not contain sodium cyanide or any other poison, but that he had planned to use 'hydrogen cyanide in some other form of a bomb, not as large a bomb, but a different type of bomb to disperse that [poison] in the Trade Center,'" the study says. "Yousef told Parr that he had decided not to take this approach because 'it was going to be too expensive to implement.'" SALON | Oct. 8, 1998 Jeff Stein covers national security issues for Salon. ----------------------- NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ----------------------- ********************************************** To subscribe or unsubscribe, email: majordomo(a)majordomo.pobox.com with the message: (un)subscribe ignition-point email@address ********************************************** www.telepath.com/believer **********************************************

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IP: Fw: Every word on the Internet is recorded for ALL time
by Vladimir Z. Nuri 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

From: Jon Roland <jon.roland(a)constitution.org> Subject: IP: Fw: Every word on the Internet is recorded for ALL time Date: Mon, 12 Oct 1998 17:09:43 -0800 To: "C.Bryson Hull" <cbryson(a)hotmail.com>, misc-activism-militia(a)moderators.uu.net ------------------------ From: "Adolph V. Stankus" <Adolph(a)Stankus.com> Subject: Every word on the Internet is recorded for ALL time Date: Mon, 12 Oct 1998 15:13:34 -0700 To: A Message For You <Adolph(a)Stankus.com> http://search.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/1998-10/11/129l-101198-idx.ht ml Washington Post, Sunday, October 11, 1998; Page C01 Your Past Is Your Future, Web-Wise By Joseph D. Lasica SAN FRANCISCO, Calif.-Our past now follows us as never before. For centuries, refugees sailed the Atlantic to start new lives. Easterners pulled up stakes and went west to California. Today, however, reinvention comes less easily and second chances seem more remote. You may leave town, but your electronic shadow stays behind, as anyone who has ventured onto the Internet well knows. We often view the Internet as a communication medium or an information-retrieval tool, but it's also a powerful archiving medium that takes snapshots of our digital lives--which can be stored forever. It's not just official documents or consumer profiles about us that are being collected, but the very essence of our daily online existence: Our political opinions, prejudices, religious beliefs, sexual tastes and personal quirks are all becoming part of an immense media goop that is congealing into a permanent public record. What is different about the digital archiving phenomenon is that our beliefs, habits and indiscretions are being preserved for anyone to see--friends, relatives, rivals, lovers, neighbors, bosses, landlords, and even obsessed stalkers. Take all those ordinary Web pages that many of us have created in a burst of enthusiasm with the new medium. People assume that their home pages disappear once they pull the plug. Not necessarily. Sure, browsers and search engines give you a "404: File Not Found" message when you call up outdated Web pages. But those pages live on in other electronic nooks and crannies. Since 1986, the Internet Archive, a kind of digital warehouse, has been trolling the Web and hoarding everything it comes across--text, images, sound clips. Every two months, it scoops up the entire Web and stores the results on its virtual shelves. It has preserved my expired site, and it may well have yours. Similarly, postings to the Internet's 33,000 news groups may fall off the edge of Usenet after a week or so, but they live on in databases such as Deja News and the Internet Archive. Marie Coady, a freelance writer in Woburn, Mass., was appalled to discover that her posts to online-news, a small, cozy listserv of 1,350 news professionals, was available to anyone through dozens of search engines on the Web. "I consider it an invasion of privacy to have words typed in response to a query chiseled in stone," she said. "In light of our litigious society, it could be dangerous to post any message at all." Many moderators post occasional notices about a list's public archiving policy. But not all do, and few users read the fine print, anyway. "The odd thing is, we perceive the Net as a conversation and not as public record, and it turns out to be public record to a larger extent than people are aware of," said Bruce Schneier, a cryptography consultant and co-editor of "The Electronic Privacy Papers," a 1997 book. "You can easily imagine in 20 years a candidate being asked about a conversation he had in a chat room while he was in college. We're becoming a world where everything is recorded." Beyond the question of informed consent lie larger questions: Should all of this electronic flotsam and jetsam be archived in the first place? What are the consequences for us if our digital footprints survive indefinitely? Who should decide whether they do survive? The answers are hardly comforting, especially for those given to strong displays of emotion or opinion online. "We're now entering an era where tens of millions of people are speaking on the record without any understanding of what it means to speak on the record, and that's certainly unprecedented," says David Sobel, general counsel for the Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington. "It is suddenly becoming impossible to escape your past." Your children and grandchildren not yet born will be able to reconstruct a record of your digital life--not just the good stuff but also the best-forgotten postings to alt.sex.fish or rec.nude. The Web shrine you once erected to an old flame, with its hyperventilating vows of eternal devotion, may give pause to a new lover in your life. The union solidarity page you put up at your first job--years before you were bucking for senior management--may come back to haunt your efforts to get a promotion. And who would have predicted that your Senate candidacy would go down in flames when your political opponent uncovered the image-rich homage to porn star Ashlyn Gere you posted in college? Most people don't have posterity in mind when they fire off notes or post Web pages. Observes Schneier: "When you're in college and posting things online, you're young and immortal and you don't think about the impact your words will have five minutes from now, much less five, 10 or 20 years down the road." We can already see the outlines of this new world. When you apply for a job in the high-tech sector, there's a fair chance your prospective employer will use a search engine to scout out your online postings, from late-night musings to intemperate rants fired off to a political news group. Would an employer's decision be colored by information that has nothing to do with a candidate's job qualifications, such as your out-of-the-mainstream religious beliefs, sexual orientation, HIV status or personal habits? Absolutely, and without apology. After all, "character" counts, too. Federal law makes it a crime for agencies to compare most digital information about U.S. citizens, points out Fred Cate, a law professor at Indiana University and author of "Privacy in the Information Age." But nothing prevents private companies or individuals from doing so. Criminal convictions, driving records, property records and voter registration records might be available with a few keystrokes. Should employers, neighbors and descendants not yet born be able to poke around in the digital attic for information about you? Cate believes there are good reasons why we shouldn't be so concerned. "It's the democratizing of Big Brother, and that's not such a bad thing," he says. "You can find out as much about your boss as he can about you. I'm not really happy that someone down the hall can follow me and make a database about me, but that's the way it is in the digital age. If your feelings get bruised, tough. If the information's true and not distorted, then you're stuck with the things you said online years ago. I don't see this as a privacy issue." Perhaps not in the narrowest sense. But if every online expression becomes fodder for somebody's professional, personal or political agenda, clearly we lose certain freedoms of expression in the bargain. Do you really want to live next door to Big Brother, even a more democratic one? Sobel says, "If you define privacy as the right of individuals to control information about themselves--as we do--then mega-archiving systems clearly raise significant privacy issues. These systems convert every passing thought and contemporaneous musing into a permanent, retrievable record--without, in many cases, the knowledge or consent of the creator." Even Brewster Kahle, who founded the nonprofit Internet Archive (www.archive.org) and its commercial offshoot, Alexa Internet (www.aorg) says, "There are some tricky issues here. A lot of this material is public, but is it really meant to endure?" What Kahle is doing is nothing less than astonishing. Alexa's 32 employees, working in a century-old building in San Francisco's Presidio, sends out "spiders" to crawl the Web and Usenet and store the text, video and audio on a digital jukebox tape drive. It takes about two months to capture all 300 million publicly accessible Web pages. So far they've scooped up 10 terabytes of content, or 10 trillion bytes. Kahle says he launched his project because "we need to preserve our digital heritage. Unless we start saving it, every passing day we're losing the record of one of the great turning points in human history." His Internet Archive and Alexa have drawn widespread praise from academics, historians and Net luminaries concerned that the Web's pioneer days may soon become irretrievably lost. For researchers and scholars, it's a field day. For the rest of us, it's a mixed blessing. Sobel points out that individuals can't even prevent private indiscretions from winding up as part of the Internet's global voyeurism machine. "I just got a phone call from a distraught mother whose 16-year-old daughter's ex-boyfriend posted nude photos of her on the Web. The photos were consensual when they were taken. So suddenly it's part of the public domain, and even if the mother persuades him to take them down, he may no longer have control over how long this stuff is out there. This teenage girl may have to live with that for the rest of her life." Kahle offers another example: "The president's personal home page is probably in our archives now--the person who'll become president in 20 or 30 years. You know that he or she is the kind of person who already has a Web page up in college." Are we condemned, then, to a future where journalists will pore over every online college-age musing of a prospective president? It appears that way. "I'm still struggling with the issues raised by this," Sobel says. "We need a public debate to redefine the concepts of what should be private and public. Should anyone be able to type your name into a search engine and come up with public records about your private life? What good are laws that expunge a crime from your record if the old records remain accessible to anyone on the Net? What about information that's misleading, inaccurate, or that you had no idea was out there in cyberspace?" Kahle is well aware of the debate, and he's working with legal experts, historians and privacy advocates to determine the best way to make archived material available. "I used to be very oriented toward privacy, trying to keep track of who knows what about me," he said. "I've become less fanatical about it, because I find that it's more valuable to be found than for me to be obscure. For those who don't want to be found, we should let them be." One may well ask: Do we have that option anymore? As the Net becomes ubiquitous, its underlying essence of interconnectedness and community come with a price: the loss of anonymity. We are being drawn forcibly, inexorably, into the global town square. That is no reason to avoid the Internet (as if we could!). It is becoming inextricably woven into the fabric of our everyday lives. As it should be, for the Net is a gift, connecting us with like-minded individuals around the world and allowing us to interact in soul-stirring ways. But we need to be aware that our digital footprints are permanent ones. Once, words were spoken and vanished like vapor in the air. No longer. Our pasts are etched like a tattoo into our digital skins. For better or worse, we're no longer a people who can reinvent ourselves. Joseph Lasica writes frequently about new media. (c) Copyright 1998 The Washington Post Company ---------------End of Original Message----------------- =================================================================== Constitution Society, 1731 Howe Av #370, Sacramento, CA 95825 916/568-1022, 916/450-7941VM Date: 10/12/98 Time: 17:09:43 http://www.constitution.org/ mailto:jon.roland@constitution.org =================================================================== ********************************************** To subscribe or unsubscribe, email: majordomo(a)majordomo.pobox.com with the message: (un)subscribe ignition-point email@address ********************************************** www.telepath.com/believer **********************************************

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IP: ISPI Clips 5.35: F.B.I. Set to Begin Using National DNA Database
by Vladimir Z. Nuri 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

From: "ama-gi ISPI" <offshore(a)email.msn.com> Subject: IP: ISPI Clips 5.35: F.B.I. Set to Begin Using National DNA Database Date: Tue, 13 Oct 1998 00:39:34 -0700 To: <Undisclosed.Recipients(a)majordomo.pobox.com> ISPI Clips 5.35: F.B.I. Set to Begin Using National DNA Database News & Info from the Institute for the Study of Privacy Issues (ISPI) Tuesday October 13, 1998 ISPI4Privacy(a)ama-gi.com ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ This From: The New York Times, October 12, 1998 http://www.nytimes.com F.B.I. Set to Begin Using National DNA Database http://www.nytimes.com/yr/mo/day/news/national/dna-data-base.html "The DNA data base started out with pariahs -- the sex offenders -- but has already been enlarged to include other felons and will probably be extended to include everyone, giving elites the power to control 'unruly' citizens." By NICHOLAS WADE n a computer at a secret location, the FBI will open a national DNA database on Tuesday that advocates say could significantly reduce rape and other crimes by helping to catch repeat offenders earlier. The data base, with a new generation of forensic DNA techniques, promises to be so efficient that some civil libertarians fear it will be expanded from people convicted of crimes to include almost everyone, giving the government inordinate investigative powers over citizens. The national DNA data base consists of 50 data bases run by the states but unified by common test procedures and software designed by the FBI. As of Tuesday, it will be possible to compare a DNA sample from a suspect or crime scene in one state with all others in the system. The national data base has been nearly a decade in the making. The final pieces fell into place in June when Rhode Island became the last state to set up a DNA data base. But the system still faces many unresolved issues, which are likely to play out according to the reaction from the public and the courts. One such issue is what types of offenders should be included. Another is whether the mass screening of suspects' DNA will prove constitutional. DNA, the chemical that embodies a person's genetic programming, can be found almost everywhere. People shed a constant torrent of dead skin cells. Criminals leave blood when breaking and entering; they shed hair and skin cells in fights, deposit saliva on glasses and leave sweat stains in head bands. From only a few cells in such sources, enough DNA can be extracted to identify the owner. A DNA database of sufficient size could presumably help solve many crimes. The crime-fighting potential of DNA data bases is becoming evident from the experiences of Britain, which started earlier and has had fewer administrative and constitutional hurdles to overcome. The data base there initially focused on sex offenses but has spread to include burglaries and car theft because of the high number of DNA matches that police forces were obtaining. Moreover, there was considerable crossover at least in Britain, among different kinds of offenses. "People who commit serious crime very often have convictions for petty crime in their history, so if you could get them on the data base early you may prevent serious crime," said David Werrett, manager of the DNA data base for England and Wales. The English DNA data base includes entries from crime scenes and from everyone convicted of a crime, as well as from suspects in unresolved cases. Since the system's debut in 1995, it has matched 28,000 people to crime scenes and has made 6,000 links between crime scenes. The data base now holds 360,000 entries and Werrett said he expected it would eventually include one third of all English men between 16 and 30, the principal ages for committing crimes. Werrett said that the data base has grown because police forces in England, which pay $55 for a DNA analysis, are finding it cost effective. Recently the Police Superintendents Association called for the entire population to be DNA tested. Forensic use of DNA in the United States is unlikely to go as fast or as far as in Britain. "Their system makes a tremendous amount of sense the way they approach it, but in the United States we have a different perspective on privacy and on the extent to which we would be willing to depend on a data base," said Christopher Asplen, executive director of the national Commission on the Future of DNA Evidence. One major privacy safeguard in the FBI's system is that only a minute fraction of a person's genetic endowment becomes part of the data base. Under a new DNA profiling system known as STR's, for short tandem repeats, a person's DNA is tested at 13 specific sites at which a short length of DNA is repeated in a kind of stutter. The number of repeats is highly variable from one person to another, so that measuring the number of repeats at the 13 designated sites gives a way of identifying each individual with a probability of one in several billion. The blood or other samples donated by individuals are retained by the states in collections known as DNA banks. All that goes into the computerized DNA data bases is the set of 13 numbers from the STR measurements. Only identifying information, and nothing about a person's health or appearance, can be divined from the STR's. Access to the DNA data base is permitted only for law enforcement purposes, with a $100,000 fine for unauthorized disclosures. No known breaches of the system have occurred. One major unresolved issue is that of the types of offenders from whom DNA profiles should be taken. All states require people convicted of serious sexual offenses to donate blood samples, but differ on requiring samples from other groups such as people convicted of violent felonies, juvenile offenders and parolees. Four states -- Virginia, Wyoming, New Mexico and Alabama -- require all people convicted of a felony to provide samples for DNA profiling. Louisiana allows DNA to be taken from people merely arrested in a crime, a practice that has not been tested in the courts. State laws establishing DNA data bases have been challenged in 13 jurisdictions and have been upheld in all but one, in Massachusetts. Some states have revised their original legislation to add offenses. "I think the trend is that 10 years from now all felonies will be covered," said M. Dawn Herkenham, chief of the FBI's Forensic Science Systems Unit in Washington. "We recommend that all violent felonies, burglaries, juveniles and retroactivity for people on parole be included." >From his office in Birmingham, England, last week, Werrett said, "Today we have issued matches on three murders, five rapes, nine serious robberies, two abductions and two violent burglaries." No state DNA data base has acquired the critical mass to furnish such a hit rate. Many state laboratories are understaffed and have large backlogs of DNA samples to analyze. The backlogs are particularly worrisome in the case of rapes where specimens may lie unanalyzed while the rapist assaults more victims. "People may be appalled to know how many rape suspect kits are out there untouched," Ms. Herkenham of the FBI said. "The hit ratio depends on whether we can go back and examine all the evidence that comes in the door," said Dr. Barry Duceman, director of biological science in the New York State Police Forensic Investigation Center in Albany. "We are trying to address a crushing case backlog and to get the technology on line -- you'd be hard pressed to say we are overstaffed." The case backlog problem is compounded because state laboratories are switching to the STR method of DNA profiling from an older method of analysis called RFLP (for restriction fragment length polymorphism). All the samples analyzed by RFLP must be redone by STR if they are to be searchable in the new data base. When these teething problems are overcome, many experts believe that the state and national DNA data base systems may have a significant effect, particularly in reducing crimes like rape that often involve repeat offenders. By scoring a "cold hit" between crime scene data and a person, DNA data bases can be particularly effective in solving cases with no suspects. "Once we get that infrastructure in place and start getting those hits, the benefits will lead to higher utilization," Asplen said. But like other experts involved with DNA testing, he expressed concern that DNA profiling be developed in a publicly acceptable way. "The public does need to have a trust level with this and be assured that law enforcement is not going to abuse this powerful tool," he said. One practice likely to raise eyebrows, if not hackles, is mass screening, which is widely used in the United Kingdom but not yet commonplace here. In high profile crime cases, police in Britain often ask, and can require, all members of a town or building to give DNA samples so as to prove themselves guiltless and help narrow the search for the culprit. The National Commission on the Future of DNA Testing is examining under what circumstances the donation of samples can be considered voluntary. In an office, where employees who declined to donate a sample might be fired, a police request for DNA might be coercive. A future use of DNA testing is that of phenotypic analysis. It will soon be technically possible to infer from the genes in a person's DNA many probable aspects of their appearance, such as hair, skin and eye color. Werrett said the main problem with such predictions would lie in training police to understand their probabilistic nature: told there is a 90 percent chance that the suspect has red hair, investigators should not ignore the 10 percent chance that he does not. DNA reveals so much about a person that behavioral geneticists might wish to search through state data banks for genetic variants linked to criminal behavior. Most states say their DNA data banks can be accessed only for law enforcement purposes, like the data bases. But Alabama authorizes the use of its samples for "educational research or medical research or development," an apparent invitation to genetic inquiry. An impending issue is whether states should retain their DNA samples once the information has been entered into the DNA data base. Forensic managers like to retain samples as a hedge against changing technology. Others say the DNA sample banks create an opportunity for abuse, and that if there is another change in technology the government should just rebuild its data base from scratch. Because DNA can be found at so many crime scenes, DNA data bases promise to be powerful aids in catching criminals. But what thrills forensic experts tends to chill civil libertarians. "The DNA data base started out with pariahs -- the sex offenders -- but has already been enlarged to include other felons and will probably be extended to include everyone, giving elites the power to control 'unruly' citizens," said Philip Bereano a professor of technology and public policy at the University of Washington in Seattle. Dr. Eric Juengst, a bioethicist at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland and a member of the FBI's DNA Advisory Board, said the original policy in setting up the DNA data base was that it was "suitable only for our most serious category of criminals," and that it would be a breach of that policy to expand its scope. The risks raised by Bereano are worth watching, Juengst said, "but as a society we have to learn how to control powerful tools of all kinds, like nuclear power. I don't see it as an endless slippery slope." Copyright 1998 The New York Times Company --------------------------------NOTICE:------------------------------ ISPI Clips are news & opinion articles on privacy issues from all points of view; they are clipped from local, national and international newspapers, journals and magazines, etc. Inclusion as an ISPI Clip does not necessarily reflect an endorsement of the content or opinion by ISPI. In compliance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed free without profit or payment for non-profit research and educational purposes only. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- ISPI Clips is a FREE e-mail service from the "Institute for the Study of Privacy Issues" (ISPI). To receive "ISPI Clips" on a regular bases (up to 3 - 8 clips per day) send the following message "Please enter [Your Name] into the ISPI Clips list: [Your e-mail address]" to: ISPIClips(a)ama-gi.com . The Institute for the Study of Privacy Issues (ISPI) is a small contributor-funded organization based in Victoria, British Columbia (Canada). ISPI operates on a not-for-profit basis, accepts no government funding and takes a global perspective. ISPI's mandate is to conduct & promote interdisciplinary research into electronic, personal and financial privacy with a view toward helping ordinary people understand the degree of privacy they have with respect to government, industry and each other and to likewise inform them about techniques to enhance their privacy. But, none of this can be accomplished without your kind and generous financial support. If you value in the ISPI Clips service or if you are concerned about the erosion of your privacy in general, won't you please help us continue this important work by becoming an "ISPI Clips Supporter" or by taking out an institute Membership? We gratefully accept all contributions: Less than $60 ISPI Clips Supporter $60 - $99 Primary ISPI Membership (1 year) $100 - $300 Senior ISPI Membership (2 years) More than $300 Executive Council Membership (life) Your ISPI "membership" contribution entitles you to receive "The ISPI Privacy Reporter" (our bi-monthly 12 page hard-copy newsletter in multi-contributor format) for the duration of your membership. For a contribution form with postal instructions please send the following message "ISPI Contribution Form" to ISPI4Privacy(a)ama-gi.com . We maintain a strict privacy policy. Any information you divulge to ISPI is kept in strict confidence. It will not be sold, lent or given away to any third party. ********************************************** To subscribe or unsubscribe, email: majordomo(a)majordomo.pobox.com with the message: (un)subscribe ignition-point email@address ********************************************** www.telepath.com/believer **********************************************

3 2

IP: Privacy Fears: FBI's DNA Database
by Vladimir Z. Nuri 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

From: believer(a)telepath.com Subject: IP: Privacy Fears: FBI's DNA Database Date: Tue, 13 Oct 1998 08:54:57 -0500 To: believer(a)telepath.com Source: San Jose Mercury News http://www.mercurycenter.com/premium/front/docs/dnadata12.htm Published Monday, October 12, 1998, in the San Jose Mercury News DNA database offers promise -- and privacy fears BY NICHOLAS WADE New York Times In a computer at a secret location, the FBI will open a national DNA database Tuesday that advocates say could significantly reduce rape and other crimes by helping to catch repeat offenders earlier. The database, with a new generation of forensic DNA techniques, promises to be so efficient that some civil libertarians fear it will be expanded from people convicted of crimes to include almost everyone, giving the government inordinate investigative powers over citizens. The national DNA database consists of 50 databases run by the states but unified by common test procedures and software designed by the FBI. As of Tuesday, it will be possible to compare a DNA sample from a suspect or crime scene in one state with all others in the system. The national database has been nearly a decade in the making. The final pieces fell into place in June when Rhode Island became the last state to set up a DNA database. But the system still faces many unresolved issues, which are likely to play out according to the reaction from the public and the courts. One such issue is what types of offenders should be included. Another is whether the mass screening of suspects' DNA will prove constitutional. DNA, the chemical that embodies a person's genetic programming, can be found almost everywhere. People shed a constant torrent of dead skin cells. Criminals leave blood when breaking and entering; they shed hair and skin cells in fights, deposit saliva on glasses and leave sweat stains in head bands. >From only a few cells in such sources, enough DNA can be extracted to identify the owner. A DNA database of sufficient size could presumably help solve many crimes. Britain's experience The crime-fighting potential of DNA databases is becoming evident from the experiences of Britain, which started earlier and has had fewer administrative and constitutional hurdles to overcome. The database there initially focused on sex offenses but has spread to include burglaries and car theft because of the high number of DNA matches that police forces were obtaining. Moreover, there was considerable crossover, at least in Britain, among different kinds of offenses. ``People who commit serious crime very often have convictions for petty crime in their history, so if you could get them on the database early you may prevent serious crime,'' said David Werrett, manager of the DNA database for England and Wales. The English DNA database includes entries from crime scenes and from everyone convicted of a crime, as well as from suspects in unresolved cases. Since the system's debut in 1995, it has matched 28,000 people to crime scenes and has made 6,000 links between crime scenes. The database now holds 360,000 entries and Werrett said he expected it would eventually include one-third of all English males between 16 and 30, the principal ages for committing crimes. Werrett said the database has grown because police forces in England, which pay $55 for a DNA analysis, are finding it cost-effective. Recently the Police Superintendents Association called for the entire population to be DNA-tested. Forensic use of DNA in the United States is unlikely to go as fast or as far as in Britain. ``Their system makes a tremendous amount of sense the way they approach it, but in the United States we have a different perspective on privacy and on the extent to which we would be willing to depend on a database,'' said Christopher Asplen, executive director of the national Commission on the Future of DNA Evidence. One privacy safeguard One major privacy safeguard in the FBI's system is that only a minute fraction of a person's genetic endowment becomes part of the database. Under a new DNA profiling system known as STRs, for short tandem repeats, a person's DNA is tested at 13 specific sites at which a short length of DNA is repeated in a kind of stutter. The number of repeats is highly variable from one person to another, so that measuring the number of repeats at the 13 designated sites gives a way of identifying each individual with a probability of one in several billion. The blood or other samples donated by individuals are retained by the states in collections known as DNA banks. All that goes into the computerized DNA databases is the set of 13 numbers from the STR measurements. Only identifying information, and nothing about a person's health or appearance, can be divined from the STRs. Access to the DNA database is permitted only for law enforcement purposes, with a $100,000 fine for unauthorized disclosures. No known breaches of the system have occurred. One major unresolved issue is that of the types of offenders from whom DNA profiles should be taken. All states require people convicted of serious sexual offenses to donate blood samples, but states differ on requiring samples from other groups such as people convicted of violent felonies, juvenile offenders and parolees. Four states -- Virginia, Wyoming, New Mexico and Alabama -- require all people convicted of a felony to provide samples for DNA profiling. Louisiana allows DNA to be taken from people merely arrested in a crime, a practice that has not been tested in the courts. Databases upheld State laws establishing DNA databases have been challenged in 13 jurisdictions and have been upheld in all but one, in Massachusetts. Some states have revised their original legislation to add offenses. ``I think the trend is that 10 years from now all felonies will be covered,'' said M. Dawn Herkenham, chief of the FBI's Forensic Science Systems Unit in Washington. ``We recommend that all violent felonies, burglaries, juveniles and retroactivity for people on parole be included.'' >From his office in Birmingham, England, last week, Werrett said, ``Today, we have issued matches on three murders, five rapes, nine serious robberies, two abductions and two violent burglaries.'' No state DNA database has acquired the critical mass to furnish such a hit rate. Many state laboratories are understaffed and have large backlogs of DNA samples to analyze. The backlogs are particularly worrisome in the case of rapes where specimens may lie unanalyzed while the rapist assaults more victims. The case backlog problem is compounded because state laboratories are switching to the STR method of DNA profiling from an older method of analysis called RFLP, for restriction fragment length polymorphism. All the samples analyzed by RFLP must be redone by STR if they are to be searchable in the new database. When these teething problems are overcome, many experts believe that the state and national DNA database systems may have a significant effect, particularly in reducing crimes such as rape that often involve repeat offenders. But like other experts involved with DNA testing, Asplen expressed concern that DNA profiling be developed in a publicly acceptable way. ``The public does need to have a trust level with this and be assured that law enforcement is not going to abuse this powerful tool,'' he said. ----------------------- NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ----------------------- ********************************************** To subscribe or unsubscribe, email: majordomo(a)majordomo.pobox.com with the message: (un)subscribe ignition-point email@address ********************************************** www.telepath.com/believer **********************************************

1 0

IP: FBI Intentionally Obstructing Justice: TWA800
by Vladimir Z. Nuri 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

From: believer(a)telepath.com Subject: IP: FBI Intentionally Obstructing Justice: TWA800 Date: Mon, 12 Oct 1998 11:25:58 -0500 To: believer(a)telepath.com Source: The Winds http://www.TheWinds.org/ TWA FLIGHT 800 ANALYSTS SAY FBI IS INTENTIONALLY OBSTRUCTING JUSTICE "I will probably never watch national television news again, and take it at face value for the rest of my life." -- Comdr. William S. Donaldson The FBI and the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) intentionally lied to Congress and the public concerning key evidence about the downing of Trans World Airlines Flight 800. So indicates recent evidence brought to light in a tape-recorded conversation with James Kalstrom, the FBI Special Agent in charge of the disaster investigation. On that tape, obtained by Accuracy In Media (AIM) Chairman Reed Irvine, Special Agent Kalstrom is allegedly heard to admit that U.S. Naval vessels were present in the immediate area where, on July 17, 1996, TWA Flight 800 was blown out of the sky along with its 230 passengers and crew. Previously, the federal agencies contended publicly and in testimony before Congress that the closest military asset other than an unarmed navy aircraft, a P-3 Orion, was the USS Normandy, 185 miles away. However, speaking on condition of anonymity, a reliable source confirmed to The WINDS that the claims Irvine is making as to the contents of the tape are indeed accurate. In the recording, the details of which were disclosed privately to a meeting of Washington's Judicial Watch, Irvine alleges that Agent Kalstrom is clearly heard to confirm that there were in fact three U.S. Navy vessels within three to six nautical miles of the crash site. These ships, according to Kalstrom, were on a highly classified mission. This information is enormously important because it greatly strengthens the already formidable position of those claiming that a missile strike was responsible for the Flight 800 disaster. Commander William S. Donaldson, USN Ret., a longtime thorn in the side of the federal agencies investigating Flight 800, informed The WINDS that he also has personally heard, and has a copy of, the aforementioned tape recording. He quotes Special Agent Kalstrom as saying, in reference to mysterious unnamed radar surface targets the FBI refused to identify, "We know what they were...they were navy ships on classified maneuvers." Of the two factions hotly advocating the facts indicating a missile strike, one believes it was an errant U.S. Navy anti-aircraft missile launched from those very ships the FBI and NTSB claims were not present. The other position of the pro-missile group asserts that the ships were present because the navy knew that there was a threat of terrorist activity in the area and failed in an attempt to intercept the terrorists and thwart the destruction of the airliner. This is seemingly corroborated by eyewitnesses who claim to have observed a previous attempt that failed, only because the vessel launching the missiles was too far offshore and out of range. Attempts to locate the craft bearing the terrorists and their portable missiles were apparently the reason for the "classified" naval presence in the area. It would also explain the presence of the P-3 Orion which is technically a navy sub-chaser but, according to Comdr. Donaldson, can be used as a reconnaissance platform with its forward-looking infrared (FLIR) optics and radar. Comdr. Donaldson claims to also have obtained testimony from several witnesses, one of whom "is an ex-Navy Bombardier/navigator aboard A6 Intruders, who observed an Aegis Cruiser to the west of the air disaster." An Aegis is a highly sophisticated Virginia Class guided missile cruiser with radar and electronic counter measures (ECM) that would be immensely suitable in searching for and neutralizing a seaborne terrorist threat. Because of the highly trained nature of men such as the A6 bombardier/navigator, Donaldson, in his words, considers the identification of the Aegis Cruiser to be "positive, with 100% credibility." Interestingly, the USS Normandy, the one warship the navy admits was 185 miles away, is also an Aegis Guided Missile Cruiser of the Ticonderoga Class, stationed out of Norfolk, Virginia, less than 300 nautical miles away--an easy and quick journey for the nuclear-powered cruiser. Either the former A6 crewman has extraordinarily good over-the-horizon eyesight, or the Normandy (or another Aegis Cruiser) was much nearer the scene than the navy and FBI are willing to admit. Much to the dismay and irritation of federal authorities from both the FBI and the NTSB, the specter of TWA Flight 800 simply will not go away. Special Agent Kalstrom went on record as angrily denouncing those responsible for perpetuating American consciousness of the tragedy--and who disagree with their official position of cause for the disaster: an internally ignited center wing fuel tank. Kalstrom is also quoted in Salon Magazineas arrogantly admonishing that "these people should get a life." [1] In that article entitled, "The Buffoon Brigade," Salonrefers to those opposing the government's declaration as to the cause of the crash as a "motley army". That "motley army"--the one advised by Special Agent Kalstrom to pursue a worthwhile existence--is composed of such as: Pierre Salinger: once Press Secretary to President John F. Kennedy former ABC News commentator Admiral Thomas H. Moorer, USN, Retired: Former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, arguably the most powerful visible position in America outside the presidency (with the possible exception of Federal Reserve Chairman) Commander William S. Donaldson, USN Retired: Former Navy combat pilot 89 combat missions over Viet Nam Several years as a highly trained aviation accident investigator and team leader in a dozen or more military crash investigations Richard Russell: Former 747 pilot for United Airlines Over 26 years experience with the Airline Pilots Association investigating commercial aviation accidents serving as the Air Safety Representative for the agency Former U.S. Army Major Fredrick Meyer: Army combat helicopter pilot Extensive combat extraction experience in Viet Nam with firsthand witness of thousands of detonations of military explosives ordinance Currently an attorney and Air National Guard helicopter pilot First person on the scene of the Flight 800 incident after he and his copilot witnessed from their ANG helicopter what he says he would "swear to God, was [exploding] military ordinance" bringing down the TWA jet.[2] "Motley army"? Could it be surmised that many on Salon Magazine's staff--and the FBI--would kill (metaphorically speaking) to obtain such a life as have those men--that is, if intellect and integrity are any longer deciding factors in the definition of "a life". With the exception of Fredrick Meyer, who The WINDS has already interviewed extensively for previous articles on Flight 800, and Adm. Moorer, this agency spoke at length with each of the aforementioned individuals. "IT IS VERY CLEAR IT WAS A NAVAL MISSILE" Pierre Salinger has informed this agency that he is in possession of what he refers to as "new information that makes it very, very clear it's a naval missile [that brought down Flight 800]....and very hot information about the number of naval ships that were in that area--much more than anybody thought." He said he was unable, at this time, to share details of that information with The WINDS, but directed this office to a source which would. The information Mr. Salinger alluded to, it turns out, is the same as what was revealed on the aforementioned AIM tape recording. Mr. Salinger has been the target of innumerable attacks by the media and the U.S. Government for the position he has taken on the Flight 800 disaster. "I've been so attacked by the press and everybody else," Salinger told The WINDS, that he said he would not speak publicly on the TWA matter "until the government comes out with what they claim to be a solution. If what they say is something that we do not believe, then I'm definitely going to start speaking." Interestingly, Salinger, and the unofficial truth about the downing of the TWA jet, are taken quite seriously outside the United States media. In a previous article, for example, The WINDS quoted The Times of London,a newspaper of no small reputation, as reporting that "satellite images have proved FLT 800 was tracked and hit by a sophisticated missile. 'An American spy satellite positioned over the Brookhaven National Laboratory on Long Island is said to have yielded important information about the crash. A law enforcement official told The New York Postthat the satellite pictures show an object racing up to the TWA jet...and smashing into it.'" "There was extraordinary information that was being dug up by other news organizations that was blocked and never ever went to the press," James Sanders, author of The Downing of TWA 800told this office, "and yet the most moronic government statement would go to the head of the line in each and every case." According to current knowledge there is, it seems, as much firsthand corroboration that the aircraft was downed by an errant or intentionally launched missile as there is for the fact that Americans have landed on the moon. Yet, the obfuscation in which the FBI, NTSB and other federal agencies are engaged seems to effectively blot that fact from their conscious thinking. "That's something very weird," Salinger said, "because at that time, as a matter of fact, at the top of [Agent] Kalstrom's list was the missile theory. So why," Salinger asked, "was he attacking me when I said it was a missile? The reason he did is that I was talking about a naval missile--that's why. He himself was thinking at that time that it was a missile," Mr. Salinger continued. "And you know there were 350 witnesses that saw the missiles." When asked if he thought that the media assault on him was orchestrated by the government he replied, "I don't have any actual facts but I have had people tell me that it resulted because the FBI was in touch with the media." Of the two positions previously mentioned as to the origin of the missiles that destroyed Flight 800 in the eastern sky that July evening, the one headed by Comdr. Donaldson holds that the missiles were SA6 SAMs (surface-to-air missiles) of Soviet origin, launched by terrorists. The other view, espoused by Pierre Salinger and James Sanders, et. al., is that the missiles were errantly fired by the U.S. Navy ships in the vicinity. There is, however, no dissension between the camps on the fact that irrefutable data points to some manner of anti-aircraft missile ordinance, whatever its origin, as the source of the tragedy and definitely away from the absurdities of, as Sanders puts it, "moronic government statements". In his interview with The WINDS Mr. Sanders, expressing his frank admiration for the former Navy Commander, admitted, "I really didn't have the ability to get at the things that Donaldson has gotten at." Comdr. Donaldson's chief logical argument against a failed navy missile test comes from his many years experience with naval operations. He claims that the navy would never test fire a missile off the U.S. coast with the capability, should it malfunction, of reaching land. The fact that it is now apparently confirmed that there were, indeed, naval warships in the near vicinity of the Flight 800 downing should cause critics to look more closely at the facts and compare them with what is becoming even more confused and bewildered government explanations of the incident. But will this new evidence of a government cover-up make any difference as to whether the truth will be heard and accepted? This is the haunting question that pursues those who are perhaps getting their first real experience into the power that the New World Order exercises over information flow. Their power for creating media stupefaction was vividly presented in the opening paragraph of a recent Village Voice?article. "In January more than twenty-five reporters attended the Washington, D.C. press conference," Voicecorrespondent Robert Davey reported in July, "--virtually a military briefing that for all the actual media coverage it received might as well have been labeled Top Secret. At the widely ignored event retired Navy pilot Commander William S. Donaldson and former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Thomas H. Moorer announced that evidence existed to suggest that a surface-to-air missile brought down TWA Flight 800." Davey shared, on the syndicated Mike Jarmus radio talk show, that he had first become interested in the TWA Flight 800 affair "in Christmas of '96 after Pierre Salinger came out with his charges," he said. "And it struck me as interesting the way he was greeted with such hostility and so disparaged in the media." AS AIRTIGHT AS IT GETS: Commander William Donaldson pulls the flowers out of the FBI's garden. In a stinging letter to FBI Director Louis Freeh, Comdr. Donaldson presents a most cogent and concise assembly of facts, decimating the government's position on the cause of the tragedy. In that document, a copy of which Comdr. Donaldson submitted to The WINDS, he begins: "Considering your New York office's recent abandonment of its law enforcement responsibilities, let me refresh your memory and provide the following reality check: FACTS In the entire history of American turbine powered civilian air transport, there has never been an in-flight fuel tank explosion in any aircraft caused by mechanical failure! (Laws of probability do not support the NTSB theory). Jet A-1 fuel used by FL800 is safer than all its predecessors. It cannot be made to explode in-flight unless the tank is first exposed to shock (chemical properties of the fuel do not support the NTSB theory)." Commander Donaldson informed The WINDS of an experiment he had conducted for Fox Television News and other news organizations in which he demonstrated by the use of Jet A-1 fuel in a tank at the same vapor concentration that would have been present in Flight 800's center wing tank that it could not have exploded as the federal authorities contend. None of the footage, Donaldson said, ever made it on the air. Donaldson continues: The fuel temperature in TWA 800's center wing tank (CWT) was well below minimum flammability much less at explosive vapor temperatures. (Environmental conditions do not support the NTSB theory). There is no source of ignition in the B747 CWT (aircraft design does not support the NTSB theory). Conventionally designed aircraft cannot fly much less generate lift to climb absent the gross tonnage of fuselage forward of the wing. (Laws of physical science and principles of aerodynamics do not support the NTSB theory). The twelve or more explosive chemical residue hits by BATF's EGIS 3000 equipment are physical evidence of high explosive involvement. (Leading edge hi-tech forensic evidence does not support the NTSB theory). Testimony from eyewitnesses along eleven nautical miles of shore front show first sightings of ascending objects that cross correlate to a launch position well away from FL800's track. (Eyewitness testimony does not support the NTSB theory). The medical examiners' report shows a uniform instantaneous cause of death and evidence of high velocity metal in the cabin. (Post mortem examinations do not support the NTSB theory). The debris field shows that TWA FL800's nose forward of the wing was shattered after being hit from the left by a huge force that distributed the gross tonnage as much as 2900 ft. right of the projected aircraft track. (Debris field evidence does not support the NTSB theory). Comdr. Donaldson's letter to Director Freeh continues in considerably more technical detail with each point followed by the parenthetical summation ending with "(...does not support the NTSB theory)." Other points including those summations are: (Ballistic geometry does not support the NTSB theory). (The historical record of airframe damage during in-flight center wing tank explosions does not support the NTSB theory). The forward cabin debris shows through-holes from left side to right side [those that would have been made by a high-speed object such as a missile passing through the 747's fuselage]. (The forward cabin debris does not support the NTSB theory). The debris field shows initial cabin integrity was lost, 16 feet forward of the center wing tank at FS800, forward left hand cargo bay. (The cabin break-up sequence does not support the NTSB theory). Comdr. Donaldson then concludes his list of details, with which he is at odds with federal authorities, with the pointed comment: The FBI has withdrawn before the cause has been determined. (The FBI does support the NTSB theory). Why? Under the heading: "Collusion with NTSB Goals, Suppression of Eyewitness Evidence" Donaldson continues to flay the FBI director with his eminently logical analysis of the incident. Mr. Freeh I will be candid, the fact that the FBI is now joining in lockstep with the NTSB political script sadly was not a surprise to me, because of what I had discovered on Long Island. Mr. Kalstrom's agents who 'who turned over every rock ten times' failed to tape critical eyewitness testimony, failed to establish visual bearing lines from the witnesses who observed ascending objects, failed to get elevation measurements, failed to get relative motion statements and in some cases failed to even go to the observation point, that is except from some eyewitnesses who didn't see the missile!... Multiple witnesses tell me agents on rare second or third visits to persons who saw ascending objects tried to get the witnesses to change their original stories? Many of these people are now afraid of and disgusted with their own government, the administrative mantra "no evidence of criminal act" is turning normal American citizens into bitter cynics." Referring to the FBI's tightly choreographed control and feed of the media Comdr. Donaldson seems to have no other recourse than to resort to sarcastic humor in making his point on the ridiculous show produced for public consumption. "It was entertaining," Donaldson told Director Freeh, referring to the CIA's 14-minute animated video on the disaster, "but like most cartoons [it] grossly abused universal laws of nature. Like: Newton's law of gravitation, Newton's first and second law of dynamics, Newton's' law of hydro-dynamic resistance and fundamental principles of aerodynamic lift, drag, dynamic stability and jet engine mechanics. Other than that," Donaldson cynically observes, "it was a media masterpiece....Perfect junk science fluff for television." The former navy commander continues to thoroughly wrap the extraordinarily flawed FBI investigation in his Gordian Knot of logic as he, point-by-point, encases the agency and the NTSB within a web of seemingly inescapable logic. At one point he berates Freeh's organization by telling him that if his "people had continued the commendable job the county police started and actually developed witnesses who observed ascending objects, as they [the county police] were doing, you would have provided the CIA with data showing the object was moving three times faster than a 747 and was first sighted close to shore." Donaldson calls the CIA's "cartoon" a "most outlandish abridgment of testimony and obstruction of justice" referring to the "amateurish depiction of sound analysis which claims that only the sound of the aircraft was actually heard during the disaster. This, Comdr. Donaldson claims, fails "to consider the number of explosions heard by witnesses." Responding to the bizarre assumption that a noseless 747 could continue to climb another 3,000 feet when it was already just above stalling speed, the former U.S. Naval aviator asks rhetorically, "why doesn't the New York office just have the cartoon changed and get the 747 to zoom climb to 30,000 feet...[?] After all, the cartoon's pilotless 747 [pilotless because the nose section of the fuselage containing the pilots had been sheared off] is already the current record holder in the zoom climb category." To this contention by the FBI and NTSB that the aircraft continued to climb for another 3,000 feet after losing nearly everything forward of the leading edge of the wings, the Pensacola News Journalcites Donaldson as saying, "The final readings show chaos in the sky - with airspeed dropping instantly by almost 200 knots, the pitch angle jumping five degrees, altitude DROPPING 3,600 feet in about three seconds, the roll angle going from zero to 144 degrees (the airplane almost inverted), and the magnetic heading changing from 82 degrees [just North of due East] to 163 degrees [just East of due South]."[emphasis supplied]. By Donaldson's account it appears that only if one were standing on their head while evaluating the data, could it have been misconstrued as the aircraft CLIMBING 3,000 feet. "'There couldn't have been an aviator at CIA who had anything to do with that,' Donaldson said, 'They were laughed out of town by pilots.'" [ibid.] "They [the CIA] failed to address the two 'bright', 'hard', 'high velocity', 'ordinance"' explosions three seconds apart, in addition to the large petroleum [fuel] explosion agreed to by witnesses airborne, on land and sea." Donaldson continues by explaining in detail how the linear scattering of the 747's debris is impossible to explain by any other theory than a high velocity inertial and explosive impact crossing the aircraft's flight path. As mentioned before, Comdr. Donaldson's logic seems inescapable and has not been intelligently refuted in any government press release or document The WINDS has been able to obtain. With his particularly blunt humor the former naval officer, under the subheading, "The Train Wreck at 13,700 Feet" makes the assertion: From a physics point of view, TWA FL800, at the time of the incident, represented a force of about 465 million foot pounds of inertia oriented on a vector of 071 [degrees] at 13,700 ft. In order to deflect the gross tonnage of debris to the positions found in the field, much of it thousands of feet right of course, either the aircraft was hit by an Amtrak metro-liner on the left side or by a powerful anti-aircraft weapon. Much of the forward fuselage debris is strung out on a 160-degree axis which closely matches observed eyewitness missile intercept angles as well as known fuselage through-holes. Because the wind was very light and almost on the tail, the maximum windage offset of falling metal debris would be approximately an additional 200 ft. downrange. The same offset would be nearly universal throughout the field on similar heavy debris, but proportionally further for light debris. This massive deflection of tons of debris to the right...are absolute and irrefutable physical evidence of a massive blow to the forward fuselage from the left side. Comdr. Donaldson then proceeds to confront the FBI director with even more serious charges. Under the heading of "Obstruction of Justice by Political Intercept" Donaldson charges, Mr. Freeh, I am keenly aware of the justice department's suppression of the EGIS 3000 high explosive residue evidence gathered by BATF. Having consulted with both the equipment manufacturer and independent high explosive experts, the picture is clear. Donaldson then explains for Director Freeh that the EGIS 3000, the most advanced and sensitive state-of-the-art chemical analysis instrument currently in existence, determined in no less than twelve instances that residue from the high explosive PETN was present on parts of the aircraft's wreckage. PETN is an explosive used in, among other applications, the detonation of plutonium-based nuclear weapons, as well as some commercial employment. The flight data recorder apparently presents another critical piece of evidence pointing to a cover-up. According to a report published by the Pensacola News Journalin January of this year the NTSB is said to have explained why the transcript of the last five seconds of Flight 800's data recorder was cut. They claimed it was a leftover segment from a previous flight. "'The only reason you put flight data recorders into an airplane at millions of dollars' cost,'" the newspaper quotes Commander Donaldson as saying, "'is to capture this last data line.'"[3] The explanation given by the NTSB is that the last five seconds were left over from a preceding flight. The paper quotes TWA pilot Howard Mann as saying, "not possible - it's erased - there's just no way." [ibid.] RADAR TAPE AUTHENTIC - - FBI FRANTIC Richard Russell, former 747 pilot for United Airlines with twenty-six years experience in airline accident investigation with the Airline Pilots Association, obtained another crucial piece of evidence in the damning mosaic that describes the last moments of the life of Trans World Airlines Flight 800 and its occupants. Through undisclosed sources Mr. Russell came into possession of a copy of the FAA radar video tape of the sky from which the ill-fated jet fell. When the FBI discovered that he had it, Russell told The WINDS, they immediately confiscated it. "After obtaining a copy of the tape," Russell said, "I studied it--I've worked with air traffic control problems for years and years and I know what's on that tape. I can read it. What was on that tape," he asserts, "was not an electronic glitch. This was an unidentified rogue target going some place in a big hurry--not a ghost target. But it is a definite rogue target that appears for four sweeps and then disappears." A rogue target, Russell explained, differs from a ghost in that the rogue is very real--just unidentified-- whereas a ghost target is a glitch, an electronic artifact that doesn't exist in real life. "The interesting part about this," Russell added, "is that this target appeared just seconds before TWA 800 blows up. The speed of the target during those four sweeps indicates something that was traveling very fast. They have never talked about it," Russell elaborates. "They still will not talk about it. Several controllers, I'm not sure how many, actually reported that it was a missile." When The WINDS asked Mr. Russell if he had been able to extrapolate the speed of the object from the radar images, he declined to share that data at this time. He merely stated that "it's faster than any jets that we have presently operating except for the Concord, and this was not a Concord." Russell then makes what, under normal circumstances, would seem an incredible allegation. Concerning those controllers who claimed they saw a radar missile track arcing toward Flight 800, "James Hall, the NTSB chairman, told Barry Valentine--at that time acting head of the FAA--to obtain signed statements from all the controllers that they were mistaken as to what they saw. Barry Valentine, as far as I'm concerned, was the only guy in the FAA who had any guts. He said, 'I won't do it.' None of them signed the statement and, apparently because of that, Barry Valentine was involuntarily retired." Author James Sanders is another who has felt the intense displeasure of the government for his activities in exposing the cover-up of what has become the most investigated air disaster in history. Sanders is currently under indictment for receiving stolen wreckage of Flight 800.[4] He is accused of asking a TWA pilot, Terrell Stacey, to obtain parts of the aircraft including a piece of seat material from the Flight 800 wreckage, even though the "hanger man", as Sanders refers to him in his book, testified that he provided Sanders with the material "of his own volition"--without being asked. The government is proceeding with its prosecution of Sanders and his wife, even in the face of federal case law that gives journalists the right to request such services. An interesting study in paradoxical hypocrisy is that Special Agent Kalstrom, himself, took pieces of the aircraft as souvenirs for certain people, according to Sanders, Donaldson and other sources. This was done about ten days after the incident, Sanders says, which was before anyone knew what potential investigation value any debris pieces might have. Yet, Kalstrom suffers no legal problems from his action even though the law, Sanders claims, clearly defines the act of retrieving such material for souvenir purposes to be illegal--while, at the same time, defining Sanders' actions as permissible for journalists. "Both my wife and I were in hiding from the FBI and she was under psychiatric care," Sanders told The WINDS. Part of what caused the government to go after Sanders and his wife, Elizabeth, was his insistence that the clearly visible reddish stain that contaminated row 14 of the TWA jet was, in reality, rocket fuel residue. Sanders claims that the federal agencies are afraid to do an analysis of the substance. "I have a legally tape-recorded conversation with a government official, Dr. Merrit Burgee," Sanders claims, "who was the senior scientist for the NTSB in Calverton Hanger [where Flight 800 wreckage is stored]. I have him on tape admitting that they never intended to find out if my residue was from a missile or not. On that tape," the author explains, the chemist "very clearly says that several times, and then he gives the very telling statement that 'Boy, if we had analyzed it and it came out wrong, then what do we do? We could never put this thing to bed.'" The FBI claimed, in March of last year, that the residue was glue. However, Sanders claims that Charles W. Bassett [the chemist in charge of Flight 800 chemical analysis] agreed to him with a notarized affidavit concluding "absolutely that the residue the FBI and NTSB were calling glue most certainly was not." Sanders claims many witnesses have seen the plain reddish trail left on the aircraft's seats as something passed through the cabin forward of the wings. He also contends that all of the foam rubber from the backs of those seats that had the red stains had been mysteriously and purposely stripped away, but none had ever been submitted for chemical analysis. Interestingly, Comdr. Donaldson has suffered no harassment whatever for his most active role in shining the spotlight on government blunders and cover-ups. This is something he attributes to his extensive, unimpeachable military record. Because of the multiple references and relationships he maintains with fleet admirals and CINCPAC (Commander in Chief of Naval Operations, Pacific) the "footprint" he lays down under that umbrella of credibility is formidable enough that federal authorities apparently dare not do more than just wish he would go away. Others, such as Pierre Salinger and James and Elizabeth Sanders, have not been so fortunate. Richard Russell has had his share of government and media aggravation. He told The WINDS that the FBI made multiple visits to his home attempting to determine how he obtained that FAA radar tape--the same one they first claimed was bogus; then admitted it was genuine. Mr. Russell went on to make some very ominous statements in relation to the strange manner in which the accident investigation was carried on. When, according to Russell, the Airline Pilots Association representative, whose name he declined to disclose, arrived on the scene of the Flight 800 crash, "he was greeted by 500 police officers, several hundred FBI agents and twenty-three CIA agents." "He went to the head APA official and asked, 'What the hell is going on here?' The official said, 'I wondered how long it would take you to figure this out.'" "Normally," Russell continued, "investigators will take their clipboards and cameras out and record the scene. When any of the investigators attempted to photograph the area the FBI would forbid it." The APA investigator told Russell that there were as many as two to six agents shadowing every investigator, watching every move they made. If one would closely examine a piece of metal, for instance, and lay it down, it would disappear when the investigator was not present. "He also told me that if you would pick up a fragment and call another investigator over to look at it with obvious interest, an FBI agent would come over and take it out of your hands and you would never see it again. "This information comes from somebody on the inside and I cannot reveal their names to you, but this is what went on there." Russell said he first got interested in the disaster when the Defense Department got involved at the outset. "Why is the Pentagon making an announcement of a civil airplane disaster?" Russell asked himself. "I couldn't believe that." "The second thing that occurred to me," Mr. Russell shared, "was why is the military involving themselves in this immediately? Generally speaking, the military is brought into an accident investigation only after the civil authorities are unable to do the job." The NTSB is the chief authority in investigating aircraft accidents-- even above the FBI which, to Russell, made a strange scenario even stranger. "The night of the disaster the navy provided a DC-9 in Washington and loaded up the FBI and the navy people--and even though there were seats available, they would not allow the NTSB Go-Team to ride with them. They had to wait until the next day. By that time the FBI had taken over and never relinquished control. "The most important data is the eyewitness reports. And they would not even allow them to be interviewed by the NTSB people--only the FBI who are not qualified to investigate accidents. But in this case they just blundered through with brute force and kept everyone at bay." Any application of normal logic would clearly seem to indicate that this type of activity portends far more than the government merely covering up the fact of an errant missile strike. Another observation can be made concerning the government's attempt to conceal the truth from the American people and the world at large. Whenever subterfuge is engaged and the government--or anyone for that matter--contrives to deceive and cover up essential truth, a reaction takes place where the truth appears to take on a life of its own. It will not be buried or obscured and the more one attempts to do so, the louder and more obnoxious the truth becomes until, like Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart," the truth just keeps beating louder until it must be acknowledged and its opponents appear insane. For nothing is secret, that shall not be made manifest; neither any thing hid, that shall not be known and come abroad.--Luke 8:17 REFERENCES: 1.Salon Magazine,March 26, 1997. 2.Pensacola News Journal, January 9, 1998. 3.[Ibid.] 4.FBI Press Release: "CONSPIRACY THEORIST AND WIFE, A SENIOR FLIGHT ATTENDANT FOR TWA, CHARGED IN CONNECTION WITH THEFT OF TWA 800 WRECKAGE". 5.Commander Donaldson's letter to FBI Director Louis Freeh Page 1, Page 2, Page 3, Page 4, Page 5, Page 6, Page 7 RELATED ARTICLES: Flight 800 - Why Won't it Go Away? Witnesses Allege NTSB Covering Evidence of Missile Attack Commander Donaldson's Flight 800 Report Refutes NTSB Letter to WINDS about Flight 800 Copyright © 1998, The WINDS. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. http://www.TheWinds.org Contact The WINDS webmaster. ----------------------- NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ----------------------- ********************************************** To subscribe or unsubscribe, email: majordomo(a)majordomo.pobox.com with the message: (un)subscribe ignition-point email@address ********************************************** www.telepath.com/believer **********************************************

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