December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

IP: Push for hearings on Echelon - Global spy system needs scrutiny, says rights group
by Vladimir Z. Nuri 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

From: believer(a)telepath.com Subject: IP: Push for hearings on Echelon - Global spy system needs scrutiny, says rights group Date: Thu, 12 Nov 1998 09:29:44 -0600 To: believer(a)telepath.com Source: WorldNetDaily http://www.WorldNetDaily.com/bluesky_exnews/19981112_xex_push_hearing.shtml Push for hearings on Echelon Global spy system needs scrutiny, says rights group By Stephan Archer Copyright 1998 WorldNetDaily.com In an effort to create some accountability between the country's citizens and the National Security Agency's top-secret global surveillance system known as Echelon, the Free Congress Foundation is urging that congressional hearings be held concerning the NSA's use of the system. Originally, Echelon was designed to spy on the Communist Bloc during the Cold War. However, since the end of the Cold War, the NSA has used it for other questionable purposes that include spying on the citizens of U.S. allies as well as the citizens of other countries, commercial spying, and even domestic spying. In essence, Echelon works through a series of high-tech spy facilities located primarily in five countries: the United States, Canada, England, New Zealand, and Australia. These countries, which are sworn to secrecy about the project in a secret agreement known as UKUSA, all actively take part in this encroachment of privacy into the lives of the people of the world by collecting virtually all fax transmissions, e-mails, and phone calls. Not even cellular phone calls escape the grasp of the Echelon system. "Obviously, we need to have these capabilities," said Wayne Madsen, who worked in the National COMSEC Assessment Center at the NSA's Fort Meade, Maryland, facility back in the 1980s and is currently a senior fellow at the Electronic Privacy Information Center. As an example of our country's need for the system, Madsen said, "No one can argue about using the system to counter terrorism. Where people will have a problem is where Echelon is used for political and business interests." The Echelon system gets most of its data by collecting all transmissions handled by the Intelsat and Inmarsat satellites, which are responsible for much of the electronic communication that takes place between countries. Earth-bound communication is sucked up and absorbed by other spy satellites that the NSA has launched into space. "It's a huge vacuum cleaner," said Madsen. Once these spy facilities collect the phone calls, e-mails, and faxes, of virtually everyone on earth, the Echelon system sorts them through a kind of filter system known as the Echelon dictionary. This dictionary looks for "flag" words in all of the transmitted communication. While it lets a majority of all collected material pass through its filter, it tags those that may pose a threat and tracks all subsequent communication coming from the source of the original "flagged" message. Concerning Echelon's inherent intrusion on people's privacy, Patrick Poole, the deputy director for the Center of Technology Policy at the Free Congress Foundation, said, "While we understand the need for the intelligence power embodied by Echelon, the indiscriminate use of Echelon presents major threats to liberty not only to U.S. citizens but to citizens around the world." And this threat is real. The foundation's report states that U.S. leaders have, in fact, already abused this awesome technology. For example, the report states the following: "In September 1993, President Clinton asked the CIA to spy on Japanese auto manufacturers that were designing zero-emission cars and to forward that information to the Big Three U.S. car manufacturers: Ford, General Motors and Chrysler." "You can assume that all major U.S. corporations are fed items of interest (via Echelon) from time to time to give them a leg up on international competitors," said Madsen. Although this may be seen as a strategic corporate weapon for American businesses, in reality, it's an example of technology that can get out of hand. For example, former Canadian spy Mike Frost stated in his book, "Spyworld," that in 1981, there was an "accidental" cell phone intercept of the American ambassador to Canada that resulted in the U.S. getting outbid by the Canadians in a grain deal with China. The deal brought in $2.5 billion for the Canadian Wheat Board. With this kind of abuse of Echelon's power, the question as to whether or not the U.S. government has been using this power for political purposes can be easily raised. This question is seemingly answered in the foundation's report. "The discovery of domestic surveillance targeted at American civilians for reasons of 'unpopular' political affiliation -- or for no probable cause at all -- in violation of the First, Fourth and Fifth Amendments of the Constitution is regularly impeded by very elaborate and complex legal arguments and privilege claims by the intelligence agencies and the U.S. government," the report says. When asked if the system has been used by the U.S. government to spy on its citizens, Madsen told WorldNetDaily that he was sure it has been. "I don't believe that the NSA or the current Administration would hesitate to use this system on American citizens for their own agendas," he said. Outraged by this flagrant abuse of power illustrated by our country's elected officials, Poole said, "While the U.S. is the prime mover behind the Echelon system, it's shameful that the European Parliament is the body holding the constitutional debate in regards to Echelon today." A September 1998 report for the European Parliament by the Omega Foundation said, "Within Europe, all e-mail, telephone, and fax communications are routinely intercepted by the United States National Security Agency. According to the Omega Foundation report, it is this ability of the NSA that brings major concern to the European Parliament. In an effort to bring the issues surrounding Echelon to the forefront of American politics, the Free Congress Foundation plans to send out a report about Echelon to all of the 500 policy organizations in the U.S. as well as to select members of Congress. These select individuals include members from both the House and Senate intelligence committees as well as House and Senate Constitution subcommittees. Copies of the report will also be sent to the congressional leadership of both parties. Although the foundation is hoping to get some action out of these members of Congress, Poole said that support at the grassroots level of our nation's political structure will be a must if this issue isn't to end up buried by the intelligence committees. "For there to be any account and oversight to the Echelon system, the American people are going to have to contact their elected representatives in order to investigate the abuses that we know have occurred in regards to the Echelon system," Poole said. See Free Congress Foundation's report on Echelon. © 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 or (un)subscribe ignition-point-digest email@address **************************************************** www.telepath.com/believer ****************************************************

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Free websites for Automotive industry
by wwcd＠earthlink.net 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

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Rivest Patent
by John Young 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Ron Rivest received on November 10 "US Patent 5835600: Block encryption algorithm with data-dependent rotations:" http://jya.com/rivest111098.htm (22K)

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NotSoBlackNet: terrorist pays by money order
by Anonymous 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

http://www.wired.com/news/news/politics/story/15812.html Do Terrorists Troll the Net? by Niall McKay [...] "We fight for our independence," he said during one June conversation. Harkat-ul-Ansar is on the State Department's list of the 30 most dangerous terrorist organizations in the world. Establishing Ibrahim's true identity is difficult. The most compelling evidence that he was acting on behalf of Harkat-ul-Ansar is a US$1,000 money order that he sent to Chameleon in an attempt to buy stolen military software. [...] Although he used several anonymous Hotmail accounts to send his email, Ibrahim always accessed the Net from an Internet service provider in New Delhi [...] Savec0re said he also emailed the individual an encrypted file of information from the Indian atomic research center, including diagrams of reactors and trajectory calculations, and an analysis of five Indian nuclear tests. "The next day I got a call from the so-called FBI agent but he had an amazingly strong Pakistani accent," [...]

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oranges spliced with THC gene
by lcs Mixmaster Remailer 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

http://www.sfbg.com/wire/20.html oranges with spliced-in gene for THC 20-30 seeds already distributed until Janet got her hands in it

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Nov. 15 column - felons with guns
by Robert Hettinga 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

--- begin forwarded text Resent-Date: Fri, 13 Nov 1998 03:31:54 -0700 Date: Fri, 13 Nov 1998 00:15:54 -0800 (PST) X-Sender: vin(a)dali.lvrj.com Mime-Version: 1.0 To: vinsends(a)ezlink.com From: Vin_Suprynowicz(a)lvrj.com (Vin Suprynowicz) Subject: Nov. 15 column - felons with guns Resent-From: vinsends(a)ezlink.com X-Mailing-List: <vinsends(a)ezlink.com> archive/latest/590 X-Loop: vinsends(a)ezlink.com Precedence: list Resent-Sender: vinsends-request(a)ezlink.com FROM MOUNTAIN MEDIA FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE DATED NOV. 15, 1998 THE LIBERTARIAN, By Vin Suprynowicz On the selective doling out of 'constitutional rights' T.T. writes in, in response to the Nov. 5 column in which I admitted being a one-issue voter, rejecting any politician who won't trust me with a gun: "Thank you, Vin, for raising the issue which has been bothering me for quite a while: when I read through the Bill of Rights, I cannot understand why a convicted felon WHO HAS SERVED HIS OR HER TIME is, under the present selective 2nd Amendment rights-lifting, not automatically and permanently stripped of ALL of his or her rights, and not just the Second, plus voting: "Felon = no free speech, freedom to assemble, or, as you say, freedom to go to the church of choice; no 3rd Amendment protections ... hey, quarter those soldiers at will in the forever-felon's house! ... no 4th Amendment protections, or 5th, or 6th (as you point out) nor 7th or 8th. And of course, the 9th and 10th are moot, since they're long-gone anyway for everyone, felon and misdemeanor and non-convicted alike. "But if the power-geeks were to do this, why, then it would be too blatantly obvious what was really happening, wouldn't it? "Best wishes, and thanks for keeping the faith so eloquently." I responded: # # # Yes. Does a felon, once he has "done his time" and "paid his debt to society," again become a member of "the people" to whom all the rights in the Bill of Rights apply, or not? If NOT, then indeed any government agency should be able to arrest anyone who has EVER been convicted of a felony -- even a 90-year-old guy who tended bar in a speakeasy in 1930 -- hold him without bond and without letting him confront his accusers, in some foreign jurisdiction, torture a confession out of him, convict him without a jury trial, and then subject him to a cruel and unusual execution, all in secret. No problem with the Bill of Rights -- it DOESN'T APPLY. Needless to say, under this evil premise, the government should also be able to deny such a person the right to attend church, the right to publish a newspaper or magazine, the right to own property which cannot be seized on a bureaucrat's whim without compensation, etc. On the other hand, if that is NOT the situation which does or should prevail, then it seems to me any former felon who is no longer on "parole" has a right to vote and bear arms, along with all his other pre-existing rights ... which after all are only ACKNOWLEDGED by the Bill of Rights as having been ordained by the Creator, not actually "granted" therein. This business of creating different classes of citizens, with different degrees of legal "disability," is the basis for virtually ALL the invasions of our privacy -- up to and including the police numbering system on our cars -- so frequently justified as "allowing us to check and make sure you're not an escaping felon." (Note what a police state South Africa became, based on the simple notion that one should have to show one's "racial identity card" to any policeman who asked, to determine whether one had a right to be on a given street at a given hour of the day -- and the sad absurdities it created, as visiting Japanese businessmen were given passports declaring they were "white" so they wouldn't have to suffer the indignities visited on South Africa's native east Indian merchants, who carried second-class INTERNAL passports identifying them as inferior "Asians.") There should be no NEED for me to ever "submit to a background check" to prove I'm "not a felon." Felons should be in prison, or in the graveyard. "Parole" is the French word for "promise." If you can't trust a convict to keep his "promise" not to acquire and carry a gun until his sentence expires, then don't let him out on "parole." It's not (start ital)I(end ital) who should have to suffer inconvenience or indignity because the government wardens can no longer tell the difference between me and all these convicted thugs they're allowing to wander the streets in plain clothes. Start repealing one law a day until you have enough jail cells to keep those guilty of violating our REMAINING laws (you might want to to keep murder, forcible rape, and armed robbery on the books, while tossing out drug use, "money laundering," and failure to pay gun "transfer taxes") in stir for their FULL SENTENCES. And set the rest of us free. 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. The web sites for the Suprynowicz column are at http://www.infomagic.com/liberty/vinyard.htm, and http://www.nguworld.com/vindex. The column is syndicated in the United States and Canada via Mountain Media Syndications, P.O. Box 4422, Las Vegas Nev. 89127. *** Vin Suprynowicz, vin(a)lvrj.com The evils of tyranny are rarely seen but by him who resists it. -- John Hay, 1872 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 * * * --- 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: dbts: Privacy Fetishes, Perfect Competition, and the (fwd)
by Jim Choate 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Forwarded message: > Date: Fri, 13 Nov 1998 12:02:52 +0000 > From: "Frank O'Dwyer" <fod(a)brd.ie> > Subject: Re: dbts: Privacy Fetishes, Perfect Competition, and the (fwd) > Under an "anarcho-whatever" people are left to their own devices. And *that* is the primary failure of the entire theory. It's strongest point is sufficient to kill it. No, actualy, it's strongest point demands that it be killed. Very weak argument epistomologicaly, with little more to offer than didactic charms. The implication is that individuals are making societal policies with no checks and balances (failure 1). In effect, the only way an individual will be restrained is by some sort of natural community action (never mind that people don't voluntarily act that way, failure 2). There is no clear mechanism to arbitrate disagreements other than the above mechanism pretty much eschewing any sort of standard of behaviour which further fosters non-compliant behaviour (failure 3). There is no clear mechanism that protects property or civil rights since the very arbitration mechanism changes (and by implication the standards of ethics/morality it's held to) on a case by case basis mediated by the whim of chance on the compatibility of any two individuals personal views (failure 4). The arbitrary use of violence is at no point addressed (failure 5). One of the primary arguments for anarcho- based systems is to address corruption and unfair competition. Yet at no point does it sufficiently address the guidelines as to what those are let alone limits on their solutions (failure 6). So what we are left with is a system whereby people mediate their actions based on the compatibility of their personal philosophies. As I've said before, anarcho- based systems make the same phsychological mistake that every system other than a democracy makes; if it works for one person the answer should be acceptable to another. The very fact that the contrary to this is one of the reasons behind anarcho- support doesn't seem to impinge upon the concioussness. Anarchy is contradictory at the axiomatic level. Another way to see it is: Let people do what they want and they'll naturaly conform to what I want. There is this same axiomatic problem with Hayek's economics and social theories. ____________________________________________________________________ Lawyers ask the wrong questions when they don't want the right answers. Scully (X-Files) The Armadillo Group ,::////;::-. James Choate Austin, Tx /:'///// ``::>/|/ ravage(a)ssz.com www.ssz.com .', |||| `/( e\ 512-451-7087 -====~~mm-'`-```-mm --'- --------------------------------------------------------------------

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RE: Rivest Patent
by Jim Gillogly 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Eric Cordian [mailto:emc@wire.insync.net] writes: >> So we can't use the rotate instruction with a data-dependent shift >> count in a block encryption algorithm without a license from Ron? "Harvey Rook (Exchange)" <hrook(a)exchange.microsoft.com> writes: > It's a little bit more complicated than that. RC-6, which also uses data > dependant rotations is patent free. It's a little bit more complicated than that. RC6 will be available without licensing charges to anybody if it's tapped as the official winner of the AES bakeoff. If it's not selected, then it's my understanding that RSADSI (Security Dynamics?) may choose to require payment for licensing -- I assume based on the RC5 patent. The current understanding is that AES candidates sign over their rights only if they are selected. Several candidates have been explicitly put into the public domain in advance of the selection process; RC6 is not one of these. Please correct me if it's more complicated than <this>. -- Jim Gillogly Trewesday, 23 Blotmath S.R. 1998, 23:38 12.19.5.12.6, 11 Cimi 19 Zac, Third Lord of Night

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Info Age Crime Terror and War
by John Young 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Senator Kyl has issued a long report, "Crime, Terror & War: National Security and Public Safety in the Information Age," which recounts his Subcommittee's hearings and recommendations on encryption, Y2K, terrorism, info war, domestic preparedness, wiretap, and more: http://jya.com/ctw.htm (97K) It describes a plan to combat threats to critical infrastructure and the US homeland which, if implemented, would criminalize much held dear to a few of this list's subscribers; other lurkers will be overjoyed to read Kyl coming to the rescue of careers and budgets of MIB and their suppliers of technological of political control. He wants DoD to get cracking on domestic protection, move over piddling LEA. Civil liberties, nonsense. Crypto genie out of the bottle, more nonsense. Getting government access to encrypted communications, you bet. Through commercial products, yep. Thanks to FT for forwarding.

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dbts: Hettinga's Road Trip to London...
by Robert Hettinga 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- After much hemming and hawing about plane and hotel arrangements, the final confirmation from some conference organizers arrived this past Monday morning. And, yesterday, the State Department promised me a passport on my doorstep this coming Tuesday. So, it now looks like I'm going to London on next Saturday's redeye to speak at the Internet Trading for Global Securities Markets conference, Tuesday and Wednesday, November 24th and 25th at the Hilton Olympia. Because of some interesting economics of cheap hotel room-nights and dear airfare, I'll be staying at the Hilton Olympia itself, on Kensington High Street in London, from the morning of Sunday the 22nd to the morning of Thursday the 26th. This conference has been in the works for months, but we weren't really sure everything was going to happen until, as usual, the last possible minute. I bet a whole bunch of people registered right on the deadline, or something, and they decided they had enough interest to pull the trigger. Oh, well, after dodging those kinds of bullets myself getting the FC conferences and this summer's Philodox Symposium off the ground, I should have expected it from someone else in the same shoes. We all have Duncan Goldie-Scott to thank for this trip, of course. For the past few months, I've been writing a series of articles on digital bearer transaction settlement for the Financial Times Virtual Finance Report, which Duncan edits. I started with cash, and then bonds, and then equity. This month I did derivatives. I've got three more left to do, I figure; one on micromoney, the other two on the possible macro-, and micro-, economic inplications of digital bearer settlement, and maybe one more, on possible deployment strategy, if we get that far. Since I started these articles, I have gotten quite a few pieces of fan mail from Duncan's subscribers, and it has been quite fun. It also seems that some of those folks are going to be at this conference. In addition, after all the dust settled, Duncan himself was made chairman of the conference, so I expect he's going to have his hands full when I get there. As if that wasn't enough, Duncan has also arranged for me to talk privately to some traders he knows at an investment/merchant bank whose name you would recognize, and that should be quite interesting. Duncan says that they've been reading my articles, and they've got lots of questions to ask. So, Duncan, thanks so much for all your good efforts evangelizing digital bearer transaction settlement to your friends in the City. I'm positively psyched to unleash the word hoarde in the Old World, fire up the patented Hettinga rant machine on that side of the pond, and all that. God help you all. :-). So, if anybody wants to get ahold of me in London for a beer and a schmooze while I'm there, (especially if you know someone crazy enough to pay my extortionate personal appearance fee for some of my scarce free time ;-)), the Hilton Olympia's address is 380 Kensington High Street, London W14 8NL, and phone number's 0171 603 3333. You can, of course, email me as well, but, since this is my first trip to Europe, I expect that internet connections, power, etc., for my trusty PowerBook 540c will be interesting, if not, um, creative. So, it might be a good idea to contact Duncan <mailto: dgs(a)live.co.uk>, or at lest cc: him on your communications with me regarding this trip, or while I'm actually there, as he's going to be the Official Philodox "Bob-Handler" on this trip. :-). Here's hoping that I meet some of you in London week after next! Cheers, Bob Hettinga -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: PGP for Personal Privacy 5.5.5 iQEVAwUBNkxutcUCGwxmWcHhAQEqFQf+Nk+po/iJVHlQpVT3es/uokYkYb7T3nbv NbEyDIEJkT4z5Jsp0omGU36/QFgF7iHAu614ehRAY/lhu7l1/ghrJdFKzQR+3lHU UijWKYe3tyk15oBPhUI2e0G1K52MNSmDl9EL4GQ3hpbBCSOM4UO+4W1q3RYnucGA b3p54QXpYeoRefAhSNiEjRc7Vup+EY1i6vkCONekr4+c9UugQ1sbGuRvCzcivXRk g7o0lktxY1+sXaALEcSgB3sOnG0TJj/HPTpVcsjhw1SFKbxLPKJmytPJ8iR7MEi3 9JMk82Lr6AHTfokAQuLOsEMut8yfsjJ8glg2cxrys+Rbo1qGjHyL+g== =RRO6 -----END PGP SIGNATURE----- ----------------- 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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