December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

US Spies Vacuum Germany
by John Young 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

This week's Spiegel has a three-page follow-up article on the CIA spy: Der Spiegel No. 12 / 1997, pp. 34-36. Espionage / "Dinner for Two" For almost three years, a CIA agent has pumped a Head of Unit in Bonn's Economy Ministry. The US agencies' wild actions no longer are taboo. The official Klaus Dieter von Horn, 60, ex officio is on the guard of spies - the Superior Counsellor in the Economy Ministry is responsible for the Arabian area. As the head of unit VB7 - that concentrates on Iran - knows, spies from the Near East, but also from other areas, take a keen interest in the files on his desk. Nevertheless, at first the official did not pay much attention to Geoffry Plant's efforts. After all, he was in diplomatic duty of the big brother USA. Horn and Plant got to know each other late in 1994, and the American invited the German to a dinner for two every three or four weeks. The US embassy's IInd Secretary liked to chat about his employer and kept asking even more questions about Horn's ministry. He had Horn explain the political background of the Mykonos lawsuit, and was interested in the Hermes credits to Iran. When Bonn in August 1995 asked Iran to send two employees of their office in Bonn on vacation without return tickets because they had been unveiled as spies, Plant wanted to know all details. Another time, he politely asked for a list of those firms that deliver all sorts of goods, especially high tech, to the Mullahs' state. The Ministerial Counsellor remained courteous, but refused: He was not allowed to hand over those papers, Plant surely knew that? The American did understand, but he would not give up. Last year in May, he again invited Horn to dinner. He was leaving the embassy, he said, and on farewell still handed over a Montblanc pen of almost 300 DM worth. Also, he introduced his successor: Peyton K Humphries, a diplomat working on Iran. Plant asked him not to forget that name. That was for granted. Other authorities were already awaiting the US embassy's new second secretary with large interest: The German intelligence agencies wanted to check if the Americans were willing to continue the agents game in diplomatic undercover. Because already in Summer 1995, after the first talks with Plant, wary Horn had contacted the Bundesnachrichtendienst (BND) and the Bundesamt für Verfassungsschutz (BfV). Obviously, he reported, American spies were assigned to him. He correctly informed the BfV about the various meetings and also handed over presents such as pens and champagne. Then, as Humphries queried him about the ongoing construction of the nuclear power plant of Busher after his return from a trip to Teheran, Horn described the US interest in full detail. What was happening there, was a textbook case to the BfV agent hunters: Spies from a foreign power wanted to recruit a German top official. It is the spy school's ABC to first give the source test orders such as obtaining material from an open source - as in Horn's case. Also typical: The German was supposed not to talk to anyone about the encounters, including US embassy staff. Humphries: "There are two competing camps." The CIA and the embassy's economy department don't get on well with each other. After the German counterespionage experts had dropped all plans to crack the US embassy that lies at the Rhine like a fortress at Deichmanns Aue 29, or to tap Humphries' telephone, in this February BfV head Peter Frisch talked to the head of the CIA in Bonn, Floyd L Paseman. Humphries, Frisch demanded, was to leave the country, the Chancellor's Office and the Foreign Office were annoyed. Paseman denied espionage, but assured that the CIA agent would leave until May 30. He insistently asked to handle the incident most discreetly. It failed. Since Der Spiegel reported first details about the snooping last week, the relations between the goverment and Washington are not free from irritations. In the US, comparisons were made with France kicking out four CIA agents in 1995. "Why do the United States spy out their friends?" the Wall Street Journal asked. "Shame", said the Chicago Tribune's editorial. Washington still treated Germany as an agents center like "in the age of Cold War". The timid in Bonn now are afraid of trouble with the big brother. But there also is relief. Kicking the CIA man out gives the chance to no longer treat espionage among friends as a taboo. Six and a half years after re-unification and the end of the allied forces' privileges in Germany, the Germans in the conspirative area still are not the masters of their own house. Still, some Western agencies - the Americans at the head - act like in their own backyard. Hortensie I, the BND's synonym for the CIA, and Hortensie III, as the most sinister American intelligence agency, the National Security Agency (NSA) is referred to, resemble the flower of the same name: a shrublike plant with strong roots. The "friendly agencies" are increasingly active in the capital, Berlin's Secretary of State of the Interior Kuno Böse (CDU) reported in February. In mid-February, the heads of the Offices for the Protection of the Constitution met in Bad Neuenahr to "re-structure counter-intelligence". "Focussing on the East", they noted as item 4, "would not correspond to political reality any more". Looking to the West shows surprising activity: More than 1,000 wiretap technicians and 100 professional US agents bustle about in Germany, security experts estimate. 20 intelligence officers are suspected in the American embassy at the Rhine alone. The friendly power's spies are in consulates, allied supreme command, and barracks. They try to recruit agents in Germany, they tap sources without consultation, and whoever uses a telephone between the Alps and the Baltic Sea must be aware that the NSA be switched in - attention, the friend is listening. Before 1990, the American eavesdroppers were ubiquitious. They maintained a listening post on the mountain Teufelsberg in Berlin, to listen to East Berlin, and probably the West as well. In Frankfort am Main, close to the Zeil, there was another impressive listening post. In the Lech plain near Gablingen, the Americans constructed a powerful circular antenna grid - some 300 meters of diameter and 100 meters of heigth. Upside, they were listening on short wave to the Eastern generals' orders. What they were doing in the underground, has remained their secret. The Teufelsberg has been left, as the Americans moved further to the East. The Frankfort subsidiary has also been closed, and Gablingen will be given up next year. But the Americans' pride, their "giant ear" in Germany, will remain, and it makes the ordinary wiretap look rather ordinary. The site is located in Bad Aibling, Upper Bavaria. In an idyllic landscape, the empire of Hortesie III extends immensely. Gigantic antenna facilities that in their covers rise above the plain like huge gulf balls are eavesdropping Russian military. Russian sattelites are tapped, the telephone traffic directed to the formerly Soviet army is recorded. Right next to it, in the German Mangfall barrack, resides the BND's so-called long distance radio traffic site. It (object "Orion") may use the American antennae, nearly 100 eavesdroppers are analyzing the cyrillic babel of speech. But the peace is deceptive. The intelligence empire NSA (estimated budget: 3.5 billion dollar, about 100,000 employees) maintains a large complex in Bad Aibling that is terra incognita to the German agencies. By far, it is not just about the legitimate American safety interests. In the midst of Germany, there is a control center for the many American espionage sattelites that, according to a security expert in Bonn, "long since do not only spy out the East". The celestial bodies of American origin circulating in close orbit suck in electronic signals above Germany like a huge vacuum cleaner. With encrypted signals, Bad Aibling queries the memory of the satellites and searches the collected phone conversations, faxes and computer traffic for interesting stuff. Until 1995 the site officially used the name of the NSA. To keep up appearances, then a US Air Force lieutenant colonel took over command, the military flag is demonstratively fluttering in the wind. But still more than 1,000 eavesdroppers are working in the huge complex, according to BND estimates. Estimated 150 of them are directly from the NSA that does the controlling and sets the tasks. In spite of many inquiries, Hortensie III has strictly denied to exchange all information from "non-military intelligence". The BND, they argue, can offer nothing of comparable value. But it probably is more about not telling the Germans what they really do. If American and German security experts are right, European companies are systematically spied out from Bad Aibling. Years ago, US president Bill Clinton decreed American agencies to larger commitment in economic espionage. When the European airplane giant Airbus Industries, of which Germany holds 37.9%, was competing for a large Saudi Arabian contract with two US groups, the NSA intervened. It intercepted all faxes and phone conversations between Airbus and the Saudis. So, the Americans knew their opponent and their offers were unbeatable - after all the orders valued at six billion dollars. While the British and French to a certain extend respect Germany's souvereignty, the Americans, who had brought up the BND, behave like a victor power. They insist on supplementary agreements on intelligence cooperation with "the allied forces". Thus, the Germans must respect "necessities of military safety" of Nato contingents here. There is much room for secretive manners in German territory. In its "Westport" office in the East of Munich, the CIA until now maintains a so-called inquiry office. The Americans ask asylum-seeking refugees and emigrants from whom they expect informaition to come to Munich from all Germany. Pro forma, the BND is asked for endorsement, but the talks usually take place without German participation, and the BND does not learn about possible CIA recruitments. The Americans are questioning deserted Russian soldiers, war refugees from former Yugoslavia, and asylum-seekers from the Near East. The VIPs of them are offered asylum in the USA. Even applicants from overseas are brought to the experts in Munich for interrogation. For a long time, German politics have ignored the activities of the rogue agency. In autumn 1994, the Chancellor's Office installed a working group, strictly confidential of course, to get the American and other friendly agencies under control. Three ministries and three intelligence agencies were sitting at the table, headed by Rudolf Dolzer, professor of international law, at that time Head of Unit in the Chancellor's Office. "What they are doing here is not possible", Dolzer got exited. "They must comply with law and oder." The group boldly planned to prohibit the Americans from interrogating asylum-seekers without German participation, in Bad Aibling BND specialists should watch the NSA, recruiting sources should be prohibited. After all - they concluded - espionage activities also from friendly states are not politically protected. In 1995, their will of protection suddenly vanished. Distances between meetings grew longer, finally the Chancellor's Office didn't send out invitations any more. Above all, the BfV that already had created lists with names of suspicious agents was disappointed. "Someone on the very top must have pulled the plug", someone from an intelligence agency says. It is dubious if the case of CIA agent Humphries will cause with the Americans to change their policy. At least, friendship with America means a big deal to Helmut Kohl who does not consider the intelligence business especially important. The Chancellor is not even scared by the sinister NSA. He does have telephones that are guaranteed to be wiretap-proof. Even when he is on vacation at the Wolfgangsee [in Austria], the BND always installs a device which not even the NSA can crack. But the secure devices have one important drawback: First the partner has to stop speaking before you can speak yourself. That is why the Chancellor to the displeasure of the security people prefers the old telephone - a friend trusts a friend. [End] Thanks to anonymous. For earlier reports on US spying in Germany: http://jya.com/despon.txt http://jya.com/ciaami.txt http://jya.com/really.txt

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[Humor] Dogs and Computers
by Toto 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

The Top 20 Reasons Dogs Don't Use Computers [20] Can't stick their heads out of Windows '95. [19] Fetch command not available on all platforms. [18] Hard to read the monitor with your head cocked to one side. [17] Too difficult to "mark" every website they visit. [16] Can't help attacking the screen when they hear "You've Got Mail." [15] Fire hydrant icon simply frustrating. [14] Involuntary tail wagging is dead giveaway they're browsing www.pethouse.com instead of working. [13] Keep bruising noses trying to catch that MPEG frisbee. [12] Not at all fooled by Chuckwagon Screen Saver. [11] Still trying to come up with an "emoticon" that signifies tail-wagging. [10] Oh, but they WILL... with the introduction of the Microsoft Opposable Thumb. [09] Three words: Carpal Paw Syndrome [08] 'Cause dogs ain't GEEKS! Now, cats, on the other hand... [07] Barking in next cube keeps activating YOUR voice recognition software. [06] SmellU-SmellMe still in beta test. [05] SIT and STAY were hard enough, GREP and AWK are out of the question! [04] Saliva-coated mouse gets mighty difficult to manuever. [03] Annoyed by lack of newsgroup, alt.pictures.master's.leg. [02] Butt-sniffing more direct and less deceiving than online chat rooms. and the Number 1 Reason Dogs Don't Use Computers... [01] TrO{gO DsA[M,bN HyAqR4tDc TgrOo TgYPmE WeIjTyH P;AzWqS,. | ,@ __|-. ,_~o/ \/ | Through the router, off the switch, |/ | down the cable, nothing but net. / > | ' ` | The @Home slam dunk | __________________|

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Re: ADV Weekly Transcripts
by Toto 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Mark Hedges wrote: > America's births were at 2.1 per female. > Some nonindustrialized countries were as high as 7.4 per female, > average. > > Most of my friends and lovers are of races other than white (my race), > and I am proud of this fact. Their diverse experience brings to me > stories and tales of foreign lifestyles from which I can learn. John Gilmore's envy of Dr. Vulis came from the fact that Dr. Vulis was bringing 7.4 new riff-raff to the list, for every 2.1 crypto subscribers brought to the list by Gilmore. Thus Gilmore removed him from the list, in an attempt to limit the diverse experience the riff-raff have to share via their stories and tales of riff-raff lifestyles from which we all can learn. Shame on Gilmore for his CypherPunk Supremacist philosophy which strove to inhibit the immigration of those from more unfortunate lists where logic and reason were in short supply. -- Toto "The Xenix Chainsaw Massacre" http://bureau42.base.org/public/xenix/xenbody.html

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Re: Market Failures, Monocultures, and Dead Kids (Oh My!)
by dlv＠bwalk.dm.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

"Timothy C. May" <tcmay(a)got.net> writes: > > Igor asked a one-line question, and I gave a one-line answer. I don't > intend to debate libertarian or ethical theory here. You don't like Russians, do you? --- Dr.Dimitri Vulis KOTM Brighton Beach Boardwalk BBS, Forest Hills, N.Y.: +1-718-261-2013, 14.4Kbps

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No Subject
by Verification message sender 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

To: From: verify(a)nytimes.com (New York Times subscription robot) Reply-to: verify(a)nytimes.com Subject: Welcome to The New York Times on the Web Thank you for joining The New York Times on the Web community. Your subscriber ID is nifft Your e-mail address is cypherpunks(a)toad.com Please save this message for future reference. You can return to The New York Times on the Web by going to: http://www.nytimes.com/ As a new subscriber, you may want to visit the Help Center at: http://www.nytimes.com/subscribe/help/ Please do not reply to this message. If you need assistance or did not authorize this registration and wish to have it canceled please use the links in the Help Center to contact Customer Service and refer to the information above.

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Cypherpunks pointers
by Bill Stewart 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

At 12:06 PM 3/15/97 -0800, cookies_monsters(a)hotmail.com wrote: >I came accross the "Cypherpunks" link and I wanted to know more? Can you tell >me where to get more information. I have little clue as to what this outfit >does. Thanks. Sorry for the delay; it's been a busy week. I'll forward you a couple of articles that have come out recently. The original Cypherpunks archive is on www.csua.berkeley.edu/cypherpunks, which has good stuff though it hasn't been updated recently. Tim May's Cyphernomicon is a great summary, available in one or more pieces. Cypherpunks started as a discussion group, which became a mailing list, for people interested in cryptographic and computer techniques for protecting privacy; if you can convince the government to pass laws protecting privacy, or refrain from passing laws attacking it, you're only protected until the next Congresscritter or bureaucrat feels like writing a new law - but if you develop and publish software that lets you protect your conversations with strong crypto, they're secure until the laws of mathematics change (happens occasionally :-). "Cypherpunks write code." Cypherpunks also debug code - sometimes your crypto software is only secure until the next implementation bug gets found. Some of the interesting work that cypherpunks have done has been popularizing and enhancing PGP, developing remailers, cracking 40-bit crypto and other weak government-imposed limits, finding bugs in the Clipper chip, and finding bugs in Netscape and MSIE. A perennial topic is digital cash, which is an important part of a free economy in cyberspace, and many cypherpunks have either worked on, or with, or around (:-) David Chaum's Digicash company; www.digicash.com. Getting on the list - the list used to be on toad.com, but has since migrated to several places, which will eventually be gatewayed together into some joint mailing list. cypherpunks-request(a)cyberpass.net will point you to the information for cyberpass.net, which is probably the mailbot majordomo(a)sirius.infonex.com. cypherpunks-request(a)algebra.com will another section, and alt.cypherpunks is a Usenet group. Some related lists can be found at coderpunks-request(a)toad.com and cryptography-request(a)c2.net. Archives - AltaVista knows where the archives live.... Good places to look for software include ftp.ox.ac.uk and ftp.funet.fi. ftp.pgp.net will pick a random non-US location that carries PGP. www.pgp.com is PGP, Inc.'s US-based web site. www.rsa.com has been known to carry interesting material as well. John Young posts all sorts of interesting news to the list; see www.jya.com. Many strange things end up in the incoming directory on replay.com. news://nntp.hks.net and infinity.nus.sg have also carried archives in the past. # Thanks; Bill # Bill Stewart, +1-415-442-2215 stewarts(a)ix.netcom.com # You can get PGP outside the US at ftp.ox.ac.uk/pub/crypto/pgp # (If this is a mailing list, please Cc: me on replies. Thanks.)

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Re: Market Failures, Monocultures, and Dead Kids (Oh My!)
by William H. Geiger III 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- In <199703182356.XAA02032(a)mailhub.amaranth.com>, on 03/18/97 at 08:39 PM, Alec <camcc(a)abraxis.com> said: >Not in every case do the parents have the right to determine what >treatment shall be performed or whether it shall occur at all. More often >than not the courts have allowed medical treatment for the child who is >not able to consent to such treatment for himself. >In many instances courts have stepped in to authorize blood transfusions >for children of Jehovah's Witnesses, who follow Biblical injunctions not >to "eat" blood (Gen. 9:4). Recently the Church of Christ Scientist [?] has >been under societal and governmental attack for insisting on substituting >healers for medical teams even in cases of children afflicted by cancer >accompanied by apparently unbearable pain. >Parents most certainly are not the only ones to determine the welfare of >their children; society has assumed a significant role and typically moves >to protect the child from the parents or from the _beliefs_ of the >parents. Just because the government subverts the RIGHTS of the parents does not mean that the parents do not have those rights. A parent is the sole person who has a *RIGHT* to determine the welfair of their childern. You do not have that right, I do not have that right, the government does not have that right. To beleive that the government should "protect" a child from the beliefs of its parents is truly FASISTS/COMMUNIST/STATIST (pick you flavor they are all the same <G>). I as a parent have the sole right to determine what religon to teach my children, how to rase my children, how to teach my children, how to reward my children and how to punish my children PERIOD. Perhaps you should take your STATIST tendicies over to alt.hitler.fanclub as they are quite out of place here. "When the wants of society override the rights of the individule that society must die" -- whgiii - -- - ----------------------------------------------------------- William H. Geiger III http://www.amaranth.com/~whgiii Geiger Consulting Cooking With Warp 4.0 Author of E-Secure - PGP Front End for MR/2 Ice PGP & MR/2 the only way for secure e-mail. Finger whgiii(a)amaranth.com for PGP Key and other info - ----------------------------------------------------------- Tag-O-Matic: I'm an OS/2 developer...I don't NEED a life! -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.3i Charset: noconv Comment: Registered User E-Secure v1.1 ES000000 iQCVAwUBMy+K649Co1n+aLhhAQG7nAP/Y4hrT/SVyNr9xYOe/5pyERD00dMzOtNw W16+9Sx9ZAge7NCbpHP9nOvYOHJ5sZqjUzgJrrqoEWgE9Mm16dBKBbYZzs86/u3u rLxb2MK9pAzWgikFe45Gb9Rfv/mDyFQz/rx9iBSE46lJ/B/7w9AaFNdgGnXzDruf d/obdF244mc= =iPaz -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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Re: Market Failures, Monocultures, and Dead Kids (Oh My!)
by William H. Geiger III 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- In, on 03/18/97 at 10:07 PM, Dale Thorn <dthorn(a)gte.net> said: >William H. Geiger III wrote: >> dlv(a)bwalk.dm.com (Dr.Dimitri Vulis KOTM) said: >> >Suppose X chooses to innoculate their kids and Y chooses not to innoculate >> >their kids against, say, polio; and Y's kids get it. They're not going to >> >give it to someone whose parents chose to innoculate them. (This is a kind >> >of borderline example, not unlike circumcision. The individual affected >> >by the choice is too young to understand what it's all about, but doesn't >> >want to be stuck with a needle. Why are the parents more qualified to make >> >decisions for him than the state?) >> The issue of who is more qualified is irrelevent. >> The parents are the ONLY ones who have a right to determin the welfare of >> their childern. If the parents determin that the risks of reaction to the >> innoculation outways the benifits that choice is their's and their's alone. >I inherited three kids (9, 11, and 13) in November, and am starting to get >used to the schools' intrusions just now. So far, I've prepared one form >for the kids to hand to the teacher when there is an off-campus trip >scheduled. Like who's driving, are they certified by the school board, >chaperones (who are they), etc. >Recently they did a surprise dental inspection of the youngest kid. I'm >preparing a form to tell the schools that any certification they require >on the kids as to health, etc. will be provided by our doctors, not >theirs, so the kids can skip their inspections. So far I haven't met with >any serious opposition, but who knows? >(I'm informing them that I'm a Puritan, and follow very strict religious >practices) >Today's Long Beach paper had an extensive article on "pregnancy counciling >support groups" for sixth grade girls (in Santa Ana?), and the "support >groups" were mandatory. Religious fundamentalists are certain to hit the >ceiling on this one - not just the increase in sexual awareness aspect, >but the hoodoo-voodoo aspect of a "support" group that smacks of New Age >practices (their article, not mine). According to the article, the groups >have an amazing record, i.e., pregnancies down by 80% or more among the >teenage girls. Well the best way to aviod all this is to "Home School". In the end they will get a much better education and they woun't turn out to be lock-step robots for the STATE. This requires a two parent home though (politically incorrect these days) and a wife with a few brain cells. :) The next best thing is a private school but even they are being corrupted by all this touchy feely crap. Still better than sending them to the STATE'S reeducation centers. - -- - ----------------------------------------------------------- William H. Geiger III http://www.amaranth.com/~whgiii Geiger Consulting Cooking With Warp 4.0 Author of E-Secure - PGP Front End for MR/2 Ice PGP & MR/2 the only way for secure e-mail. Finger whgiii(a)amaranth.com for PGP Key and other info - ----------------------------------------------------------- Tag-O-Matic: I don't do Windows, but OS/2 does. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.3i Charset: noconv Comment: Registered User E-Secure v1.1 ES000000 iQCVAwUBMy+NIY9Co1n+aLhhAQEtcwP9ErQCp0JxgBjubj3nKqDWToTgnshaokwY FDazEqRECwxCxMcxpZqolQsfqrge73ZD20464eunY+fvMQQRtttWXco4s30FYyX5 of3HIlkJs9TmJNZeWq+234uPGlXNyOoLJNJNlZ+6yBo1GwDU+mABqCLn2JL/jEuM pei59wOFWoE= =utH9 -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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Re: Market Failures, Monocultures, and Dead Kids (Oh My!)
by Toto 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

snow wrote: > So, parents should be allowed to: > 1) Beat their children on a daily basis, because it is good for them. > 2) Refuse to educate their children _at all_ because Knowlege is the > devils work. > 3) Not clothe their children at all beause God Will Provide. > 4) Teach their children how to perform Oral, Anal, and "straight" sex > because they need to learn it someday? Mom? Is that you, mom? Where did you go with that sailor? -- Toto "The Xenix Chainsaw Massacre" http://bureau42.base.org/public/xenix/xenbody.html

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WebWorld 1-2
by Bubba Rom Dos 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

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