December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

More Crypto Statements
by John Young 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

>From November 9 Congressional Record: Rep. Sherman on encryption exports and domestic controls: http://jya.com/sher-crypto.txt (15K) Rep. Dreier on need for strong encryption to protect national security: http://jya.com/dreier-crypto.txt (4K) ---------- Declan, anyone, is this flood of statements due to an industry campaign, or one by Majortiy Leader Lott, or Speaker Gingrich, or a combination, or what? What's your insider intel, Declan, will these initiatives continue into the next session or are they just cheap dues paying for the moment, while getting ready to sellout when the rain of if-you-knew-what-we've-been-briefed shit showers down next year? What's Kerrey, McCain, Solomon counter-campaigning with the TLAs?

1 0

Check in with us!
by Turn.on.Inn＠25152.com 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

<HTML><PRE>This email contains adult themes. If you will be offended, click here! http://www.turnoninn.com If you want to get away from it all then check into the Turn On Inn. We have all that you want and more to turn you on. This will be the best cyber get-away you've ever experienced! click here to check in! </PRE></HTML>

1 0

Re: Gun Control brings on a New Arms Race
by Blanc 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Tim May wrote: >All I bought were some lasers, some .223 vest-piercers, and a few special >parts for my Colt HBAR. Oh, and I took delivery on a so-called "assault >pistol"--30 rounds of .223 rifle ammunition in a package that fits under an >overcoat. I'll be ready for the November Raids. .............................................. If we ever get into a real domestic war, I wanna go stay with Tim, what with that arsenal stocked in his closet. :>) .. Blanc

1 0

RE: Bell vs. Woodward--justice?
by John Young 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

There's been movement in Jim Bell's penal situation which is being looked into (not by me). Details coming soon.

1 0

Re: Bell vs. Woodward--justice?
by nobody＠REPLAY.COM 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

MongerUnit #2347 writes: >It was apparent to many Canadians that the au pair would be found guilty >of having 'traditional British Reserve.' The American system of justice >is nothing more than a dog-and-pony show, particularly in hi-profile >cases. The dumb British kid was under some mistaken impression that >the trial would be based on facts. No doubt their decision to hire Barry Scheck was based on his quiet, gentle demeanor in front of a jury.

1 0

No Subject
by Mix 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

While reading the report of the Presidential on Commission Critical Infrastructure Protection, the Public Key Infrastructure Study and the draft plans for Internet-2, it is becoming even more aparent what government schemers plan to do with encryption technology. Some of the statements literaly call for key escrow/recovery systems and others imply it extensively when one reads between the lines. They want security on the Internet-2 to be like the Berlin Wall. What amazes me (I guess not, really) is all of the so-called free market corporations that are in collusion with governent to enable this new Internet Security State. I have long thought that if government is going to be successful at forcing key recovery onto the nation in law that it was going to have to have the help of the major corporations who are looking for the money. It was only one year ago that IBM was lobbying congress for the contract on the new key escrow system congress was considering and the FBI, et al were demanding. Never turn your back on the merchantilists. The IRS, right now, is calling for assistance with their _second_ attempt at revitalising their archaic networks, mainframes and software. Again, it's the major corporations rushing in to their aid while looking for those "big dollars". [IRS just spent 4 Billion a few years back on the very same effort and have virtually nothing to show for it] Corporate America Saves the IRS. What a headline. Corporate America wants the IRS to be able to survive to tax us all into oblivion, when what they ought to do is turn their backs on the IRS, walk away and let them fall in on themselves just like the Soviet Union did. If we're lucky, around December 31, 1999, the IRS will crash along with their computer systems. Sparticus

4 3

Re:
by Blanc 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Sparticus wrote: >Corporate America Saves the IRS. What a headline. Corporate America wants the IRS to be >able to survive to tax us all into oblivion, when what they ought to do is turn their >backs on the IRS, walk away and let them fall in on themselves just like the Soviet Union did. >If we're lucky, around December 31, 1999, the IRS will crash along with their computer systems. .............................................. And a lot of those corporations are probably highly Democrat-ic. Something I've not yet understood is how some very successful companies and individuals (like very wealthy entertainters) can be so supportive of the likes of Clinton and the whole Democrat-ic welfare/taxation agenda (this is not to say that Republicans are much better in their ideology, but only outright, declared Socialists are worse). I mean, these people may be able to write off a lot of business expenses and so receive those types of benefits, but they will support regulations which make it difficult for the non-business owning individual to keep much of what the income they make or to become employed in their own small, unlicensed occupations. What could they be thinking? Or maybe that's the deal - they expect that they themselves won't suffer too much economically, because they know how to get the advantages of the regulations which they support, but being control freaks they want to be in the position to "help" everyone else, and regulations provides them with the image of "benefactors". Still, anyone who "gets the advantage" of tax deductions for whatever itemizing they can do on business deals is nevertheless required to answer for their every move, their every economic decision, to the Higher Authority of the IRS. This is dumb, and demoralizing. To me, anyway; it appears that people like them don't care all that much about personal sovereignty as long as they get to lord over others in the meantime. .. Blanc

1 0

Fwd: psychoceramics: Fighting back against the Government
by Alan Olsen 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

This is an interesting spin doctoring of Jim Bell's situation. I picked this up off the psychoceramics list. Why it was there is unclear... >>From http://www.usnews.com:80/usnews/issue/971117/17weap.htm >Terrorism's next waveNerve gas and germs are the new weapons of choice > BY DAVID E. KAPLAN > >Jeff Gordon thought he had seen it all. A veteran IRS investigator, >Gordon's job since 1988 had been to probe threats and assaults against >his fellow agents. There was no shortage in recent years--stabbings, >fires, mortar attacks, and big unexploded bombs outside IRS offices in >Los Angeles and Reno, Nevada. But in the first months of this year, >Gordon found himself working on the strangest case of his career. From >an informant, he had learned of a Portland, Ore., man named James Dalton >Bell. Bell owed some $30,000 in back taxes and served as a juror in a >local "common law court." Dozens of these self-appointed tribunals have >issued "fines" and even death sentences against public officials. >Bell was also active in antigovernment forums on the Internet, where he >had posted a dark scheme threatening murder of troublesome federal >agents. Participants could send encrypted messages to each other, Bell >proposed, offering donations to whoever "predicted" how long a targeted >official would live. The winner, presumably the assassin, would be >rewarded with electronic fund transfers from anonymous donors, >hesuggested. >Gordon checked further. Bell, it turned out, was an electronics engineer >at a nearby circuit board manufacturer. He was also an MIT-educated >chemist who had been arrested eight years earlier for making >methamphetamine, but pleaded guilty to a lesser charge. According to >court records, Bell had once told a friend: "The first thing to remember >is: Never make a chemist angry at you." >In February, the IRS docked Bell's wages and seized his 10-year-old car. >Inside the vehicle, Gordon found instructions for making bombs and >molotov cocktails. There was also far-right literature, a printout >listing large amounts of cyanide, and detailed information on >fertilizer, a key ingredient in the Oklahoma City bomb. But with no >evidence that Bell had hurt anyone, Gordon could not move. >A burning stench. Four weeks later, on a Monday morning in March, IRS >officials encountered a terrible nose-burning stench as they arrived at >their building in Vancouver, the Portland suburb where Bell lived. >Investigators traced the smell to a welcome mat dosed with propanethiol. >The chemical is used by utilities in minuscule concentrations to give >natural gas its noticeable smell. "It's Bell," Gordon told his boss. >"I'm sure of it." Bell had attempted twice to buy propanethiol from a >chemical-supply company in Milwaukee, Gordon then learned. Worried that >the stink bomb was a trial run for something much worse, on April 1, >authorities raided Bell's home. They seized five computers and three >semiautomatic assault rifles, then opened his garage door. Before them >stood dozens of containers filled with chemicals. There were volatile >solvents, explosives ingredients, sodium cyanide, nitric acid, and >diisopropyl fluorophosphate--one of several ingredients that, if >properly mixed, form nerve gas--all in a residential neighborhood. "The >level and type of chemicals were extremely unusual," said Leroy >Loiselle, who managed the cleanup for the Environmental Protection >Agency. "You don't need nitric acid to keep aphids off your flowers." >On Bell's computers, Gordon found two other items: the names and home >addresses of over 100 public officials--IRS employees, FBI agents, local >police officers--and a 169-page document, The Terrorist's Handbook, with >detailed instructions for making chemical weapons and high explosives. >Bell's friends told investigators that he had tried using green beans to >make botulin toxin, which causes botulism, and that he claimed to have >successfully made sarin, the nerve gas used by Japanese cultists in >their 1995 attack on the Tokyo subway. >Bell was arrested. In July he pleaded guilty to charges of obstruction >of IRS agents and use of a false Social Security number, and also >admitted to the stink bomb attack and the cyberassassination scheme. He >faces up to eight years in prison and $500,000 in fines. Bell declined >to comment, but he contended earlier that he is merely "a chemical >hobbyist" and the assassination scheme only an abstract proposal. "I'm a >talker, not a doer," he said. The IRS's Jeff Gordon remains wary. >According to court records, after his arrest Bell boasted to a friend >that police never found his most dangerous chemical weapons. Gordon >believes they could include a secret stockpile of sarin. >New generation. Characters like James Dalton Bell are giving federal >officials fits these days. Bell, they believe, is one of a new >generation of tinkerers and technicians, of college-educated extremists >threatening to use biological, chemical, or radiological weapons to >achieve their goals. Since the Aum cult's Tokyo nerve gas attack, FBI >officials say the number of credible threats to use these weapons has >jumped from a handful in 1995, to 20 last year, to twice that number >this year. Among the incidents was the 1995 mailing of a videotape to >Disneyland, showing two hands mixing chemicals and a note threatening an >attack on the theme park. Despite a major investigation, the sender was >never caught. Just last April someone sent a petri dish labeled anthrax, >an animal disease deadly to humans, to the B'nai B'rith headquarters in >Washington, D.C. That proved to be a hoax. >But other threats appear to be quite real. Four militia members in >Minnesota were convicted recently of planning to assassinate federal >agents with a biological toxin. In Ohio in 1995, a white supremacist >pleaded guilty to wire fraud in illegally obtaining three vials of >bubonic plague bacteria. Investigators have found biochemical agents in >the hands of political extremists, extortionists, murderers, and the >mentally ill. U.S. News has learned that the FBI has 50 current >investigations of individuals suspected of using or planning to use >radiological, biological, or chemical agents. Bureau officials say a >major attack in the United States no longer seems unlikely. "The >consensus of people in the law enforcement and intelligence communities >is that it's not a matter of if it's going to happen, it's when," warns >Robert Blitzer, head of the FBI's terrorism section. "We are >veryconcerned." >To prepare, federal agencies have scrambled to set up new >counterterrorism strike forces (story, Page 32). Behind all this is the >very real fear that the world has entered a new stage in terrorism. >Widespread technical education and high-tech communications have vastly >increased the number of people with knowledge of how to synthesize >chemicals and culture bacteria. Books and videos on creating these >substances--and turning them into weapons--are now available on the >Internet, at gun shows and survivalist fairs, and through the mail. >While its effects would be the most destructive, a nuclear incident is >actually the least likely scenario, according to security experts. More >likely, they say, would be a biological weapon attack; a chemical attack >is the next likely possibility. The impact could range from the >poisoning of an individual to sophisticated attempts at mass murder. So >far, the majority have been limited efforts by loners or small groups. >Most worrisome to officials is the possible involvement of more >established, state-sponsored terrorist organizations--such as >Hezbollah--with international reach. >While the number of terrorist attacks, both in the United States and >abroad, has gone down since the end of the cold war, there is a flip >side. Individual acts themselves have grown more deadly, as illustrated >by the Oklahoma City and World Trade Center bombings. In its annual >terrorism report issued last April, the State Department sees a trend >"toward more ruthless attacks on mass civilian targets" and the use of >more powerful weapons. >Threshold crossed. Until this decade, biological and chemical weapons >were the province of superpowers or renegade states like Iraq and North >Korea. But all that changed with Aum Supreme Truth, an obscure sect of >New Age fanatics based at the foot of Mount Fuji, 70 miles outside >Tokyo. Recent court testimony from sect members shows how the cult's >young scientists produced not only anthrax and botulin toxin but also >various nerve agents, including the sarin used on Tokyo's subway. Later >attacks were planned for New York and Washington, D.C. >Still, it is one thing to produce deadly agents and another to use them >effectively. Aum's attack killed only 12 people of the thousands in the >subway system, and on seven other occasions, attempted Aum attacks were >dogged by equipment failures and human error. "Trying to produce 100,000 >casualties is much more difficult than is often stated," observes >Jonathan Tucker of the Monterey Institute of International Studies. >Tucker notes that problems abound with delivery systems, meteorological >conditions, and the agents themselves. Still, he warns that even crude >weapons can easily cause mass disruption. Aum's nerve gas, for example, >was full of impurities, yet it sent thousands to the hospital. >What worries police is growing evidence that others share similar >ambitions. In 1993, two years before the Aum attack, Canadian border >agents stopped an American electrician named Thomas Lavy and searched >his car. They found four guns, 20,000 rounds of ammunition, 13 pounds of >gunpowder, neo-Nazi literature, and $80,000 in cash. Lavy also had >recipes for biological and chemical weapons and a plastic bag filled >with white powder. Had the agents opened the bag, they likely would have >died of respiratory failure and paralysis. Tests showed the substance to >be ricin, a lethal toxin extracted from the castor bean plant. (Ricin, >dabbed on a tiny pellet fired from an umbrella-gun, was used by Soviet >agents to murder a Bulgarian in London in 1978.) The poison is 6,000 >times more toxic than cyanide, and there is no antidote. Lavy had a >quarter pound of the stuff. >In 1995, a man named Larry Wayne Harris was arrested after he obtained >vials of the bacteria that cause bubonic plague (Page 28). Harris is an >Ohio microbiologist and recent member of the white supremacist Aryan >Nations. He says his friends will strike at government officials with >biochemical weapons, if provoked. "If they arrest a bunch of our guys, >they get a test tube in the mail," he told U.S. News. And, he says, far >worse could come. "How many cities are you willing to lose before you >back off?" he asks. "At what point do you say: `If these guys want to go >off to the Northwest and have five states declared to be their own free >and independent country, let them do it'?" Authorities take Harris's >comments seriously. >The recipes for such poison cocktails are available from underground >publishers and on the Internet. One popularizer is an Arkansan named >Kurt Saxon. Through books and videotapes, Saxon has been putting out >ricin recipes for at least nine years. Convinced that the U.S. will be >invaded and that the federal government can't be trusted to defend the >country, he has fashioned various homemade explosives and poisons, >including cyanide grenades and ricin applicators. In one segment of a >$19.95 video, Saxon performs like a sinister Julia Child, blending salt >water and solvents with castor beans. ("Pour in about 4 ounces of >acetone," he says, "and shake it up nice.") "Uncle Fester," another >near-legendary figure in the chem-bio underground, has authored such >family classics as Silent Death, Improvised Explosives, and a guide to >methamphetamine and LSD manufacture. Fester claims degrees in chemistry >and biology, and his Silent Death describes how to produce poison gas, >botulin and shellfish toxins, and ricin. >Similarly, entire manuals for making homemade explosives--TNT, plastic, >napalm--can be downloaded from the Net, as well as plans for building >triggers, fuses, and timers. At least 11 online vendors offer books with >recipes on biological or chemical weapons, including Silent Death and >Kurt Saxon's The Poor Man's James Bond. All are based in the United >States. Adding to the problem, many of the chemicals used to make nerve >gas and other agents have perfectly legitimate uses and are readily >available. "The genie has always been out of the bottle," says one >intelligence analyst. "People are just discovering it." >The genie is also loose in the Middle East. According to intelligence >sources, notebooks and computer files recently seized from Hezbollah, >the Iranian-backed Islamic militia, contain information on how to >produce chemical agents. Hezbollah has also taken delivery of protective >gear, including gas masks and bodysuits, and obtained Katyusha rockets >able to deliver chemical warheads to Israel from their base in Lebanon. >Hezbollah's interests are shared by at least one other Islamic >terrorist, Ramzi Yusef, a trained engineer and reputed mastermind of the >1993 World Trade Center bombing. Yusef's organization researched making >sarin and reportedly planned to assassinate President Clinton in the >Philippines with phosgene gas. The trade center bombers also packed >cyanide into the charge that rocked the building; the chemical >apparently evaporated in the explosion. >Some analysts believe there have been other, unnoticed, attacks in the >United States. "It's almost certain there have been uses of biological >agents that have gone undetected," says Seth Carus, a proliferation >expert at the National Defense University. "Most cases are known because >they came to the attention of law enforcement through informants, not >because of medical authorities." Health officials, for example, were >mystified by a mass outbreak of salmonella poisoning in Oregon in 1984. >The cause--an attack by a nearby religious sect--went undetected until >the cult's demise a year later. >Exotic poisons are attracting not only terrorists but also murderers and >extortionists. Several recent trials have featured ricin as a murder >weapon. Product tamperers, too, are increasingly turning to biological >agents. Says Lori Ericson of Kroll Information Services: "We're seeing >E. coli, cholera, salmonella, HIV." In one British case, microbiologist >Michael Just threatened to contaminate the products of five food >companies with dysentery-causing bacteria. To make his point, he sent >the firms test tubes filled with the pathogen. >Society can likely tolerate the occasional murderer or extortionist >wielding biological or chemical weapons. The greater challenge >undoubtedly will come from those with broader grievances, from >terrorists steeped in extremism and political hatred. Perhaps scariest >of all are the criminally insane, who may bring technical ability, but >little judgment, to their homemade laboratories. Last April, authorities >raided the house of one Thomas Leahy in Janesville, Wis. Leahy, who >takes medication for schizophrenia, was obsessed with creating "killer >viruses" to stop his enemies, both real and imagined, according to >police. He pleaded guilty to possessing ricin, but a search of his home >also found animal viruses and vaccines, staph bacteria culture, >fungicides, insecticides, hypodermic needles, and gas masks. As Leahy >reportedly told his wife, you can "never have too many poisons." > With Douglas Pasternak and Gordon Witkin >*********************************************************************** >BIOWAR-L Biowar/Bioterrorism/Toxins Mailing List >To unsubscribe or subscribe: send a message to majordomo(a)lists.sonic.net >with the following text: unsubscribe biowar-l or subscribe biowar-l >(letter > >______________________________________________________ >Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com --- | "That'll make it hot for them!" - Guy Grand | |"The moral PGP Diffie taught Zimmermann unites all| Disclaimer: | | mankind free in one-key-steganography-privacy!" | Ignore the man | |`finger -l alano(a)teleport.com` for PGP 2.6.2 key | behind the keyboard.| | http://www.ctrl-alt-del.com/~alan/ |alan(a)ctrl-alt-del.com|

1 0

Re: Bell vs. Woodward--justice?
by jbaber＠mi.leeds.ac.uk 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

Tim May Writes: > At 6:09 PM -0700 11/10/97, Fabrice Planchon wrote: > >On lun 10 nov 1997 =E0 01:06:08PM -0700, Tim May wrote: > >> > >> Apparently shaking a baby to death is a lesser crime than opposing > >> government fascism and having a continuing interest in chemistry. Well the courts/administration seem to think so. Or at least think that killing a baby is less deserving of punishment that standing against the administration and spreading dangerous (to them) ideas (AP), which is what Jim is realy being punished for. > 279 days. It has been stated over here (by some American Law Professor) that this sentence is only slghtly below the average usually served for this kind of Involentary Manslaughter. Is this just made up because it is what people over here want to hear of is it vaguely accurate? > >think you are shooting the wrong target here ? I mean, I certainly agree > > No, else I wouldn't have written what I wrote. I think that perhaps the emphasis of what you said is being changed by other writers who are hot under the collar about the Woodward case. > I said in two different posts that my main point was about Bell spending > more time in jail than a convicted baby killer. Leaving aside the problem with a system where a judge can overturn the decision of a Jury (I have not seen all of the evidence so have no idea if she is guilty or innocent but if you enter a country you implicitly agree to abide by their laws and legal system, however what is the point of having a Jury if the Judge can do this sort of thing?) then the actual problem is the length of time that Jim is spending in prison and nothing to do with the Woodward case at all. It just goes to illustrate, once again, how laws are selectively enforced and procedures slowed in order to punish people who can not otherwise be punished as much as the administration would like to. Forget Woodward, Free Jim Bell! Jon

2 1

Serious bug in Cyrix.IBM,SGS 6x86 CPU
by Heinz-J�rgen Keller 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- There is an article in the latest c't computer magazin about a bug called 'Hidden CLI' in all the 6x86 CPUs including M2. As I do not have access to such a CPU I can't verify it. The code: MOV BX,70h STI again: XCHG AX,[BX] MOV DX,AX JMP again The CPU hangs ignoring all interrupts. Anybody heard about it? - ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Heinz-Juergen Keller hjk(a)[mail.]ddorf.rhein-ruhr.de hjkeller(a)gmx.[net,de] 2047bit PGP Public Key : http://www.ddorf.rhein-ruhr.de/~hjk/ MD5 Fingerprint: 4d33126fbf8c1bcd8e96ba90d99f0bdc - ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.3i Charset: latin1 Comment: Requires PGP version 2.6 or later. iQEVAwUBNGhOxSZWWJBRAP1VAQE3bQf+KjqPXC5TkvHd21xPOHAtBqhB+28tR2gy hUJ8XHLbtqTIx7RPi82NITuhM0x/diNzXbNsrED5bLGDZ2N/3dvdfAnlC/FetGMQ 8SBYnmbCf5PZyUWBBgC37saWhsXImRoy7S2u2PPxbUpyC/SslWqEzD2kl5EK9wEK 1TOGVdBlPid9yfLtC2/P1L5pMvKfZz2v3lnlifKJyoCFCmq3ZZzgvw9tLe/pDEeS QHgFokrrlMf4/bNzQnemUWR6L8a6/NMFc6TYJqv7iE13GvKG4gLjLZDBsvyaXLSH qgOta0rgPWSqPer8AetgIqvENP8iz6YP6jlQyTTm5qGyDSr5miTMHQ== =MFmw -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

1 0