December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

Re: The Executive State
by geeman 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Anyone doubting that the center of gravity of world power is shifting would do well to ponder: 100 of the world's top CEO's are going to Bill Gates' house to hear him expound on what the future will look like. IF that doesn't make you nervous nothing will. It's at least as nervewracking as anything Clinton admin. might do. At 07:26 PM 5/6/97 -0400, Robert Hettinga wrote: > >--- begin forwarded text > > >Date: Tue, 6 May 1997 10:46:19 -0700 >From: thomasu(a)mail.auburn.edu >To: misesmail(a)colossus.net >Subject: The Executive State >Sender: owner-misesmail(a)colossus.net >Precedence: Bulk > >The Executive State: >The U.S. Presidency vs. American Liberty > > When President Clinton asked golfer Tiger Woods to join him at an official >propaganda event, and even offered to send Air Force One, Tiger answered as >every freedom-loving American should: he had something better to do. He was >going on a vacation with some college chums. > > Tiger has his priorities straight, but his turndown is another indication >that the presidency is shrinking as an institution. It still commands, but >no longer compels, our undying (or dying) obedience, no matter how many >monuments are erected to despots on the Washington Mall. This trend is all >to the good. > > The legacy of presidential autocracy from the earliest days of the >republic to the present survives in the form of the executive state. But >where can you go in the library to find the truth about the havoc U.S. >presidents have wrecked on the American promise of freedom? Virtually >nowhere. The official history of the presidency reads like the Lives of the >Saints. > > The Mises Institute intends to do something about this. In the Fall of >1998, we're holding a major academic conference on the American presidency. >Our purpose is to debunk the conventional view that the more power he's >usurped, the better off the American people are. > > All the presidents qualify for study, but we are especially interested in >the checkered careers and dictates of Polk, Lincoln, McKinley, Roosevelt I, >Wilson, Roosevelt II, Truman, Johnson, Nixon, and Reagan. > > If you're a scholar and would like to participate with a paper on some >aspect of a presidential power grab (or one of those few occasions when a >president did some good) let us know. An abstract is all that's necessary >to be considered now. > >The Ludwig von Mises Institute >Auburn, Alabama 36849-5301 >334-844-2500; fax: 334-844-2583 > >--- end forwarded text > > > >----------------- >Robert Hettinga (rah(a)shipwright.com) Philodox >e$, 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA >Lesley Stahl: "You mean *anyone* can set up a web site and compete > with the New York Times?" >Andrew Kantor: "Yes." Stahl: "Isn't that dangerous?" >The e$ Home Page: http://www.shipwright.com/ > > > > >

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Custom programming, Web site design & development, and more.
by DataET Research Data Engineering Technologies 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

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Duplicate checking: Ignore
by Paul Bradley 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Test sent via cyberpass.net Datacomms Technologies data security Paul Bradley, Paul(a)fatmans.demon.co.uk Paul(a)crypto.uk.eu.org, Paul(a)cryptography.uk.eu.org Http://www.cryptography.home.ml.org/ Email for PGP public key, ID: FC76DA85 "Don`t forget to mount a scratch monkey"

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AWK_war
by John Young 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Wash Post reports today on a NSA intercept of a "secure communication" between two Israeli spooks discussing a top US official spying for Israel. The FBI opened an investigation in January. Israel denies the claim. Crypto is not mentioned, only that the Hebrew conversation was "awkwardly" translated. The intercept was withdrawn after 12 hours from the distribution list due to FBI's dismay at its spread. ------- AWK_war

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Banking Secrecy and Nazi Gold
by Tim May 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

I try to deconstruct events, to determine what the real issues are. Take the case of the ongoing flap over Switzerland and claims that Swiss banks hid gold, jewels, and other forms of money for high-ranking Nazis. Adding to the flap--actually, making it a newsworthy event--is the allegation, probably true, that some of the gold was taken from Jews and others sent to extermination camps. (A further claim, not related to the Nazi claim directly, is that the bank accounts of those who perished in the war were not made available to heirs, that in some cases the banks even liquidated the accounts and used the money for (unspecified) purposes. I know little about this particular claim, and won't discuss it further.) OK, so it's clear to all right-thinking persons what should be done: Switzerland should return the money to the heirs of those killed by the Nazis. Ah, but it's not so clear to me. I guess I'm not a right-thinking person. First, it is not a matter of "Switzerland" having done something, it is a matter of several major banks and dozens (I presume) of lesser banks. It is Credit Suisse, Union Bank, etc. who presumably took in deposits, with numbered accounts (perfectly legal by Swiss law at the time), not the "state of Switzerland." Second, how could the _provenance_ of the deposits be determined by, say Credit Suisse? How could Hans the Banker taking a deposit from Fritz the Depositer somehow know that the money Fritz was depositing was from money seized from Jews? For all Hans knew, especially in 1939-43, before any real knowleedge of the extermination of Jews became available (and such knowledge was still rare, as any examination of the newspapers of the day will show), the money was from German families seeking to protect their own assets, or was even money siphoned from the German war effort, and so on. Third, the notion that "Switzerland must do something!" is pernicious and inimical to banking secrecy and basic privacy issues. A drumbeat is building which will serve to undermine banking secrecy around the world. (Now what happened to the Jews in Europe was horrible, depicable, etc. It was an example of the power of the total state to order the liquidation of some religious or ethnic faction. But the horror of the liquidation of millions of Jews, or millions of Chinese, or millions of Tutsis/Hutus, etc., must not be an excuse for expanding the power of states still further. That circular logic will ultimately kill even more in factions out of favor.) This issue relates to Chaumian anonymous cash, of course. One can imagine various scenarios by which crypto anarchy is used to transfer funds, etc. Left as an exercise for the imaginative. As the "Nazi Gold" story continues to build, expect "Swiss bankers" to be added to the list of the "Horsemen." (Swiss bankers always have been viewed with some suspicion--and admiration. Usually related to their "sheltering" of funds from dictators and mobsters. And their has long been the hint of complicity with the Reich in some areas. But now the move is on to associate Swiss banks with the Holocaust more explicitly.) I suspect the U.S. pressure on Swiss banks has a political dimension related to forcing a New World Order on international banking. The U.S. wants banking secrecy subject to U.S. control (so that banks like Castle Bank, Nugan Hand Bank, Banco Ambrosiano, BCCI, and the Bank of America can continue to be used for U.S. interests, and only U.S. interests). The Jews killed by the German state in the war are dead and gone. Most of their money is irretrievably gone. The clamor to break banking secrecy and "force" the banks to disclose all records is part of a larger political game. --Tim May There's something wrong when I'm a felon under an increasing number of laws. ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay(a)got.net 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Higher Power: 2^1398269 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."

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Test, Ignore
by Paul Bradley 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Test message send via algebra.com Datacomms Technologies data security Paul Bradley, Paul(a)fatmans.demon.co.uk Paul(a)crypto.uk.eu.org, Paul(a)cryptography.uk.eu.org Http://www.cryptography.home.ml.org/ Email for PGP public key, ID: FC76DA85 "Don`t forget to mount a scratch monkey"

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Re: FC: Responses to Tim May's criticism of SAFE, and a rebuttal (fwd)
by Declan McCullagh 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Thu, 1 May 1997 18:44:47 -0400 (EDT) From: Charles Platt <cp(a)panix.com> To: fight-censorship(a)vorlon.mit.edu Cc: Charles Platt <cp(a)panix.com> Subject: Re: FC: Responses to Tim May's criticism of SAFE, and a rebuttal > From: Jonah Seiger <jseiger(a)cdt.org> > However, despite our concerns about the criminal provisions, we believe > strongly that the SAFE bill, and the bills in the Senate sponsored by Burns > and Leahy, are vitally important and should be passed. This kind of "pragmatism" is precisely why I have no faith whatsoever in CDT. There's a slippery slope, here, that really IS a slippery slope. As soon as you agree with the principle that the legislators can and SHOULD pass laws in a certain area, you risk losing large chunks of freedom. Conversely, so long as the area remains sacrosanct, free of legislation (e.g. the content of private mail), the situation remains clear and clean. Once you have one law, naturally some special-interest group will complain, some lobbyists will have their own ideas, some other legislators will see an opportunity to extend/clarify/amend/expand the legislation, and before you know it, you've got the war on drugs or something similar, costing billions, depriving relatively innocent people of their liberty, and achieving nothing. I absolutely agree with Tim May. There is no excuse for introducing legislation to control something fundamentally harmless that is not currently controlled. More legislation is absolutely the LAST thing this country needs. > Congress needs to stand up to the Administration and say, with a strong > voice, "your policy is a failure - we need a different solution". That's > what SAFE, Pro-CODE, and ECPA II do. For some reason I have difficulty trusting Congress to protect my rights in this matter, or in any other matter. Those who seek help from government should recall Barry Goldwater's famous quote, which went something like this: "When you have a government big enough to give you everything you want, it's big enough to take it all away."

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Re: AP --> AR
by Casey Iverson 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 11:02 PM 5/6/97 EDT, you wrote: >nobody(a)huge.cajones.com (Huge Cajones Remailer) writes: > >> >> Tim May verily saith [paraphrase]: >> >> > I would cry few tears if D.C. got nuked >> >> This will be an historical event of importance comparable to the >> American Revolution and the fall of the Berlin Wall. > >I'm all for it! > Me too. Especially if the collateral damage reached Forest Hills and the degenerate Russian scumbag Vulis.

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Spam Update/Cyber Promo attacked
by Robert Hettinga 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

--- begin forwarded text Mime-Version: 1.0 Date: Wed, 7 May 1997 13:24:57 +0200 Reply-To: Law & Policy of Computer Communications <CYBERIA-L(a)LISTSERV.AOL.COM> Sender: Law & Policy of Computer Communications <CYBERIA-L(a)LISTSERV.AOL.COM> From: Wendy Leibowitz <wendyl(a)LJEXTRA.COM> Subject: Spam Update/Cyber Promo attacked To: CYBERIA-L(a)LISTSERV.AOL.COM While aware of the irony of sending an unsolicited message from Cyber Promotions to a large group of people, this bulletin just arrived from our friends at Cyber: PHILADELPHIA, 5-7-97 Bulk e-mail giant Cyber Promotions is under attack by "anti-spam" hackers. This concentrated attack was planned for several weeks, and has been publicly discussed on Internet newsgroups. The hackers are using a brand new method to deny service to all Cyber Promotions' computers hooked to a main router on an AGIS line. The hackers have devised a system which sends millions of random "arp" requests to a router, which can disable the whole network for hours. This type of attack has never occurred before. Currently thousands of businesses with web pages and mail box accounts are being denied service. The attack began yesterday around 4 PM Eastern, and is still occurring at press time. But the [source of the] attack is traceable with the help of a backbone provider and computer security specialists. The longer it occurs, the easier it is to trace it back to the hacker. Cyber Promotions will work in conjunction with federal authorities to prosecute the criminals. ....... This latest attack is occurring, by no coincidence, on the same day that Cyber Promotions, AGIS and several bulk e-mailers scheduled a press conference in Las Vegas to discuss the formation of a new association which will enforce a universal "don not send" list along with many other ethical bulk e-mail standards. ........... It goes on, but I need to ponder the meaning of "ethical bulk e-mail standards." Wendy R. Leibowitz, Technology Editor National Law Journal 345 Park Ave. South New York, NY 10010 E-mail: wendyl(a)ljextra.com "Remember, even pencils break." --- end forwarded text ----------------- Robert Hettinga (rah(a)shipwright.com) Philodox e$, 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire' The e$ Home Page: http://www.shipwright.com/

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The Microsoft Provocateur
by John Young 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

The New Yorker of May 12 has a long profile by Ken Auletta on Myhrvold, "The Microsoft Provocateur": "For a decade, Nathan Myhrvold, Bill Gate's corporate gadfly, has been writing copious, bombastic, brilliant, and confidential memos for his boss. To read them is to understand a lot about Microsoft -- and the future." ----- http://jya.com/myhrvold.htm (56K)

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