December 2003 - cypherpunks-legacy

IP: [BioWeekly_Email] Announcement
by Vladimir Z. Nuri 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

From: Bioweekly Special Announcement <bioweekly(a)biodigest.com> Subject: IP: [BioWeekly_Email] Announcement Date: Fri, 18 Sep 1998 18:17:12 -0500 To: ignition-point(a)majordomo.pobox.com We thought you might be interested in some recent announcements regarding Banking on Biometrics =9298 which is just around the corner. The conference is on October 12-14, 1998 in Dallas, Texas, US. New speakers recently added include: Randall Fowler, CEO, Identix Corp.;=20 Frank Smead, SpeakerKey Marketing Manager, ITT Industries;=20 Other outstanding presenters include:=20 Jim Wayman, US National Biometric Test Center John Woodward, Attorney and Biometric Legal Consultant Jeremy Newman, President, PenOp Corp.=20 Adam Backenroth, Chase Manhattan Bank Dr. Joseph Atick, CEO, Visionics Corp. Colleen Madigan, SafLINK Corp. Gail Koehler, Purdue Empl. Fed. Credit Union James O=92Dell, CUNA Mutual Insurance Group Robert Van Naarden, Sensar, Inc.=20 Michelle Roberts, Texas Bankers Association Ray Findley, Pres., American Card, Inc.=20 Chris Olsen-Potter, Identicator, Inc. Raj Nanavati, International Biometric Group Judith Markowitz, J.Markowitz Consultants Ron Beyner, T-NETIX, Inc.=20 Francis Declercq, Keyware Corp. Mike Grimes, Miros Corp.=20 =3D=3D> GET YOUR FREE REGISTRATION THROUGH OUR GROUP DISCOUNT PROGRAM Connect with Southwest Airlines to get your lowest possible airline rates to Dallas =85.. but better yet, register two of your clients, business associates, customers, prospects, friends or family and attend the conference FREE. You can register three persons for the price of two - and that third person could be YOU. Conference registration is $490. =20 Our group discount is excellent for any company wanting to send a group of employees for an employee training program. Registration fees drop to $350 each for 4-5 persons, $300 each for 6-10 persons and to $260 each for over 10 registrants. =3D=3D> BIOMETRIC VIDEO TAKING SHAPE The first biometric infomercial is taking shape and will be available during and after the conference. If you register NOW, you=92ll get a free copy at the conference. If you want a copy later, we=92ll be glad to sell you one. Suggested cost (still pending) is $125. =3D=3D> NEED MORE INFORMATION ON BIOMETRICS There will be biometric consultants at the conference who will be glad to answer your questions and provide you with more information.=20 =3D=3D> VISIT THE CONFERENCE WEB SITE FOR MORE DETAILS AND RESERVATION INFORMATION -=20 http://www.biodigest.com or call Linda Bikoff - (202) 337-0023, Email - Lbikoff(a)aol.com. ********************************************** To subscribe or unsubscribe, email: majordomo(a)majordomo.pobox.com with the message: (un)subscribe ignition-point email@address ********************************************** www.telepath.com/believer **********************************************

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IP: Hackers-turned-consultants see business boom
by Vladimir Z. Nuri 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

From: believer(a)telepath.com Subject: IP: Hackers-turned-consultants see business boom Date: Sat, 19 Sep 1998 11:53:29 -0500 To: believer(a)telepath.com Source: Fox News - AP On guard now, hackers-turned-consultants see business boom 11.00 a.m. ET (1501 GMT) September 19, 1998 By Chris Allbritton, Associated Press NEW YORK (AP) The hacker calling himself Mudge pushed his long hair back, scratched his beard and stared at the computer screen. He knew there was something wrong with the data traffic he was watching, but what was it? A week earlier, Mudge and his fellow hackers in their hangout known as the L0pht pronounced "loft'' had acquired some software that was supposed to let computers talk to each other in code. But as Mudge watched the data he realized someone else was doing the same and maybe even decoding it, which shouldn't happen. "So you are saying that you're using DES to communicate between the computers?'' Mudge recalled asking representatives of the software maker. Yes, they said, they were using DES, a standard encryption method that for years was considered virtually uncrackable. But this wasn't DES, thought Mudge. It's almost as if... Whoa. He blinked and felt the adrenaline kick in. This wasn't secure at all. In fact, the encoding was only slightly more complex than the simple cyphers kids did in grade school where "A'' is set to 1, "B'' is set to 2, and so on. The company was selling this software as a secure product, charging customers up to $10,000. And yet, it had a security hole big enough to waltz through. Instead of exploiting this knowledge, Mudge confronted the company. "You realize there isn't any secure or 'strong' encoding being used in your communications between the computers, don't you?'' he asked. "Well...'' "And that you claimed you were using DES to encrypt the data,'' he pressed. "That will go in the next revision.'' Mudge is a "real'' hacker one who used to snoop around the nation's electronic infrastructure for the sheer love of knowing how it worked. His kind today are sighted about as often as the timberwolf, and society has attached to them the same level of legend. Like the wolf, they were once considered a scourge. Law enforcement and telecommunication companies investigated and arrested many of them during the late 1980s and early '90s. Today, many elite hackers of the past are making a go at legitimate work, getting paid big bucks by Fortune 500 companies to explore computer networks and find the weak spots. And none too soon. The void left by the old hackers has been filled by a new, more destructive generation. So today, Mudge who uses a pseudonym like others in the hacker community, a world where anonymity keeps you out of trouble wears a white hat. As part of L0pht, the hacker think tank, he and six comrades hole up in a South End loft space in Boston and spend their evenings peeling open software and computer networks to see how they work. When they find vulnerabilities in supposedly secure systems, they publish their findings on the World Wide Web in hopes of embarrassing the companies into fixing the problems. A recent example: They posted notice via the Internet of a problem that makes Lotus Notes vulnerable to malicious hackers. A Lotus spokesman said the company was aware of the flaw but it was extremely technical and unlikely to affect anyone. The hackers at L0pht have made enemies among industry people, but they command respect. They were even called to testify before the U.S. Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs in May. Why do they publish what they find? "If that information doesn't get out,'' Mudge replies, "then only the bad guys will have it.'' The "bad guys'' are the hacker cliche: secretive teen-age boys lurking online, stealing credit card numbers, breaking into Pentagon systems, and generally causing trouble. One of L0pht's members, Kingpin, was just such a cad when he was younger, extending his online shenanigans to real-world breaking and entering. Today, L0pht keeps him out of mischief, he said. "We're like midnight basketball for hackers,'' said Weld Pond, another member. Malicious hacking seems to be on the rise. Nearly two out of three companies reported unauthorized use of their computer systems in the past year, according to a study by the Computer Security Institute and the FBI. Another study, from Software AG Americas, said 7 percent of companies reported a "very serious'' security breach, and an additional 16 percent reported "worrisome'' breaches. However, 72 percent said the intrusions were relatively minor with no damage. American companies spent almost $6.3 billion on computer security last year, according to research firm DataQuest. The market is expected to grow to $13 billion by 2000. Government computers are vulnerable, too. The Defense Department suffered almost 250,000 hacks in 1995, the General Accounting Office reported. Most were detected only long after the attack. This is why business booms for good-guy hackers. Jeff Moss, a security expert with Secure Computing Inc., runs a $995-a-ticket professional conference for network administrators, where hackers-cum-consultants mingle with military brass and CEOs. "I don't feel like a sellout,'' said Moss, who wouldn't elaborate on his hacking background. "People used to do this because they were really into it. Now you can be into it and be paid.'' News reports show why such services are needed: Earlier this month, hackers struck the Web site of The New York Times, forcing the company to shutter it for hours. Spokeswoman Nancy Nielsen said the break-in was being treated as a crime, not a prank. The FBI's computer crime unit was investigating. This spring, two California teen-agers were arrested for trying to hack the Pentagon's computers. Israeli teen Ehud Tenebaum, a k a "The Analyzer,'' said he mentored the two on how to do it. The two Cloverdale, Calif., youths pleaded guilty in late July and were placed on probation. Kevin Mitnick, the only hacker to make the FBI's Ten Most Wanted list, was arrested in 1995, accused of stealing 20,000 credit card numbers. He remains in prison. A film called "TakeDown,'' about the electronic sleuthing that led to Mitnick's capture, is in the works. Comments protesting Mitnick's prosecution were left during the hack of the New York Times Web site. In 1994, Vladimir Levin, a graduate of St. Petersburg Tekhnologichesky University, allegedly masterminded a Russian hacker gang and stole $10 million from Citibank computers. A year later, he was arrested by Interpol at Heathrow airport in London. "Lemme tell ya,'' growled Mark Abene one night over Japanese steak skewers. "Kids these days, they got no respect for their elders.'' Abene, known among fellow hackers as Phiber Optik, should know. He was one of those no-account kids in the 1980s when he discovered telephones and computers. For almost 10 years, he wandered freely through the nation's telephone computer systems and, oh, the things he did and saw. Celebrities' credit reports were his for the taking. Unlimited free phone calls from pilfered long-distance calling card numbers. Private phone lines for his buddies, not listed anywhere. And the arcane knowledge of trunk lines, switches, the entire glory of the network that connected New York City to the rest of the world. But Abene's ticket to ride was canceled in January 1994, when, at age 22, he entered Pennsylvania's Schuylkill Prison to begin serving a year-and-a-day sentence for computer trespassing. The FBI and the Secret Service described him as a menace. The sentencing judge said Abene, as a spokesman for the hacking community, would be made an example. © 1998 Associated Press. All rights reserved. ----------------------- NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ----------------------- ********************************************** To subscribe or unsubscribe, email: majordomo(a)majordomo.pobox.com with the message: (un)subscribe ignition-point email@address ********************************************** www.telepath.com/believer **********************************************

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IP: Pentagon curbs Web content
by Vladimir Z. Nuri 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

From: believer(a)telepath.com Subject: IP: Pentagon curbs Web content Date: Sat, 19 Sep 1998 07:43:45 -0500 To: believer(a)telepath.com Source: ComputerWorld http://www.computerworld.com/home/news.nsf/all/98091838dod (Online News, 09/18/98 01:07 PM) Pentagon curbs Web content By Sharon Machlis Top Pentagon officials are scouring military Web sites to see if too much information is being made public -- data that could potentially help the country's enemies. Some observers fear that listing members of specific military units could help terrorists find revenge targets, for example, particularly after an operation such as the recent missile strikes in Afghanistan and the Sudan. "Basically, the military does stupid things," said Ira Winkler, a former analyst at the National Security Agency and author of the books Corporate Espionage and Through the Eyes of the Enemy. "The military does not exercise good operational security when it comes to their Web sites ... There's no valid reason for a military unit to have a Web site," Winkler said. Deputy Defense Secretary John Hamre and the military's Joint Staff have been checking for Web postings such as building plans, research and development efforts and "personnel information that could perhaps provide too much information," said Defense Department spokesman Kenneth Bacon, in a statement. A more formal, militarywide policy on what should and shouldn't be put on the Web is in the works, added department spokesman Susan Hansen. Winkler said it is ill-advised to post things such as personnel lists or commanders' biographies -- which often include family information -- on the Web. He also recommended against companies posting similar information about corporate officers. In fact, some companies already restrict the data they post about personnel and even product pricing -- although the concern is less about terrorists and more about competitors. "We're in the process now, as I believe many private companies are, of trying to sort out what the right balance is between providing useful information and providing more information than is necessary," Bacon said. Copyright © 1998 Computerworld, Inc. ----------------------- NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ----------------------- ********************************************** To subscribe or unsubscribe, email: majordomo(a)majordomo.pobox.com with the message: (un)subscribe ignition-point email@address ********************************************** www.telepath.com/believer **********************************************

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IP: Use of SWAT Teams on the Rise
by Vladimir Z. Nuri 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

From: believer(a)telepath.com Subject: IP: Use of SWAT Teams on the Rise Date: Sat, 19 Sep 1998 12:11:32 -0500 To: believer(a)telepath.com Source: Charlotte (N.Carolina) Observer http://www.charlotte.com/observer/local/pub/031225.htm Published Saturday, September 19, 1998 SWAT team approach less risky, police say Use of squads on rise around region, nation By LEIGH DYER Staff Writer Across the country, police departments are using SWAT teams to deal with high-risk situations like the Sept. 4 drug raid that ended with a Charlotte man dead. Court papers said police were looking for evidence of drug dealing, but they found no drugs in the Mayfair Avenue home. Charlotte-Mecklenburg police say the paramilitary-style squad reduces the risks to officers and the public in dangerous situations. But some critics say using the SWAT team for search warrants is too heavy-handed. Records show the Charlotte-Mecklenburg team is used sparingly. Last year, SWAT officers were involved in 14 of the 441 warrants served by Charlotte-Mecklenburg police. Of 251 warrants executed from January to Aug. 31, SWAT team members served 15. Of the 29 raids before Charles Irwin Potts' death, one resulted in minor injuries. Potts' death is the first shooting during a search warrant since the team organized in 1992. It's less clear how often the team succeeds in finding what it's after. In almost every raid, the team reports either an arrest or a seizure of weapons or drugs. But they don't always seize the goods they were looking for. The Sept. 4 raid netted three guns and gambling equipment -- but no evidence of the cocaine dealing an informant told them they'd find. Maj. Piper Charles, who is in charge of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg team, said that when the team is used is not based on the likelihood of finding drugs. Instead, it's based on the likelihood of facing armed resistance. ``The primary purpose is to save lives,'' said Charles. ``A successful mission is one in which absolutely no one gets hurt.'' More scrutiny SWAT calls range from negotiation with hostage-takers to quelling riots to raids for guns, drugs or evidence of other criminal activity. The 42-member Charlotte-Mecklenburg Special Weapons and Tactics team uses special equipment, including heavy body armor and laser-sighted guns. The duty is part time. Team members are also assigned to other regular patrol duties. Nationally, the increased use of SWAT teams has drawn praise from those who say their tactics are safer than traditional law--enforcement methods. But Peter Kraska, a criminology professor at Eastern Kentucky University who has tracked SWAT teams, said they have a downside. ``Often when you see them in a neighborhood piling out of a vehicle . . . it gives the community an impression they're kind of under siege,'' he said. Regionally, SWAT teams have become more active in counties including Gaston, Union and Cabarrus in recent years. Sgt. Jeff Eisenhour, commander of the Gaston County Police SWAT team, said most operations go more smoothly with such a well-trained team, rather than regular patrol officers. ``The biggest advantage is the training,'' he said. ``Everybody knows what everyone is doing.'' The Potts shooting has put the methods and policies of the SWAT team under a microscope, said Charlotte-Mecklenburg's Charles. Those methods include the use of ``flash-bangs,'' a diversionary device thrown into a room to stun and distract occupants with a bang and bright lights while SWAT team members storm in. ``My position is that you're not going to find a safer way to do it,'' Charles said. As SWAT teams grow in popularity, they have encountered more questions about their use. In Fitchburg, Mass., west of Boston, civil libertarians criticized a SWAT team after its members arrested a group of young men in 1993 for lingering on a sidewalk. And in Louisville, Ky., family members of a man killed in a SWAT raid in March 1997 sued, challenging the police procedures. The suit alleges that a flash-bang may have disoriented the man so much he didn't realize he was pointing his gun at police officers. The suit is pending. In Charlotte-Mecklenburg, though, officers say the devices may have saved lives many times, including during a raid on Jan. 22 when a suspect dropped a gun after a flash-bang went off. ``I have heard that sometimes people are not properly using their SWAT teams,'' said Roy House, an instructor at Central Piedmont Community College who conducts regional SWAT training. ``That's a leadership problem.'' House, who is also a reserve member of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg team, believes the benefits of the teams outweigh any criticism. ``I would think it's better to go in there and be a little heavy-handed than to go in there and be outnumbered . . . or outgunned,'' he said. ----------------------- NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ----------------------- ********************************************** To subscribe or unsubscribe, email: majordomo(a)majordomo.pobox.com with the message: (un)subscribe ignition-point email@address ********************************************** www.telepath.com/believer **********************************************

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IP: Crypto Controls Threaten Human Rights
by Vladimir Z. Nuri 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

From: believer(a)telepath.com Subject: IP: Crypto Controls Threaten Human Rights Date: Fri, 18 Sep 1998 17:06:43 -0500 To: believer(a)telepath.com Source: OneWorld Magazine http://www.oneworld.org/news/today/index.html Crypto Controls Threaten Human Rights Vienna conference warned against restricting free expression (New York, September 18, 1998) -- Human Rights Watch today urged an international conference on technology, now meeting in Vienna, not to expand controls on encryption technologies. The organization said that cryptographic products are critical to the ability of human rights defenders around the world to transmit sensitive information without detection by repressive governments. The conference is reviewing the 1996 Wassenaar Arrangement, an international agreement signed by 30 countries to govern the proliferation of military technology. Dissidents and human rights organizations under repressive regimes frequently use encryption technologies to share information. Encryption has the power to authenticate the identity of these authors to their partners abroad, while protecting their identity from despots at home. The United States has adopted relatively restrictive encryption policies, which prohibit the global dsitribution of software used to encrypt text. In particular, Washington has outlawed the export of the most popular software among human rights activists, Pretty Good Privacy (PGP), although the Wassenaar Arrangement explicitly exempts crypto-software, like PGP, that is widely available in the public domain. Human Rights Watch warned the other participants in the Vienna conference not to incorporate such restrictive policies into the Wassenaar Arrangement, or to further limit the global distribution, development, or use of strong encryption hardware or software. "Encryption is more than a shield for human rights activists," said Jagdish Parikh, associate online researcher at Human Rights Watch. "Coded language is still language, and it must be protected as a basic human right to free expression." Parikh noted that the right to free expression is set forth in Article 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, to which most members of Wassenaar Arrangement are party. Human Rights Watch said that encryption is also an important bulwark against violations of privacy in an age where computerization and data banks enable the collection of huge amounts of personal information about individuals. Moreover, international law requires states not only to refrain from arbitrary interference with privacy, but to affirmatively protect its citizens from such attacks. "The sorts of countries most eager to ban the use of encryption, such as China and Iran, are not known for respecting freedom of speech," said Parikh. "Using encryption should not subject an individual to criminal sanction, any more than using Pig Latin or Swahili does." Many human rights activists around the world would be spared retaliation and abuse if crypto-software were more widely available, Parikh said. ----------------------- NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ----------------------- ********************************************** To subscribe or unsubscribe, email: majordomo(a)majordomo.pobox.com with the message: (un)subscribe ignition-point email@address ********************************************** www.telepath.com/believer **********************************************

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IP: "Bioarmageddon"
by Vladimir Z. Nuri 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

From: believer(a)telepath.com Subject: IP: "Bioarmageddon" Date: Sat, 19 Sep 1998 06:56:14 -0500 To: believer(a)telepath.com Source: New Scientist http://www.newscientist.com/nsplus/insight/bioterrorism/bioarmageddon.html Bioterrorism Special Report: Bioarmageddon By Debora MacKenzie Sooner or later there is going to be a biological attack on a major city. Are we prepared to deal with it? Not a chance, says Debora MacKenzie It begins with a threat. A terrorist group declares that unless its demands are met within 48 hours, it will release anthrax over San Francisco. Two days later, a private plane flies across the Bay, spreading an aerosol cloud that shimmers briefly in the sunlight before disappearing. Scenario one: thousands are killed in the panic as 2 million people flee the city. Another 1·6 million inhale anthrax spores. Antibiotics are rushed in, but the hospitals are overwhelmed and not everyone receives treatment. Most of the country's limited stock of anthrax vaccine has already been given to soldiers. Emergency crews provide little help as there are only four germ-proof suits in the whole city. More than a million of the Bay Area's 6.5 million residents die. Scenario two: in the two days before the attack, citizens seal their doors and windows with germ-proof tape. They listen to the radio for instructions, their gas masks, drugs and disinfectants ready. Few panic. When sensors around the city confirm that the cloud contains anthrax spores, hospitals receive the appropriate antibiotics and vaccines. Trained emergency teams with germ-proof suits and tents set up in the places where automated weather analyses show the deadly cloud will drift. With advance preparation and rapid response only 100,000 people die. A terrorist who plans to drop anthrax over San Francisco tomorrow can count on causing the murder and mayhem described in the first scenario--at least according to the simulation that generated these scenarios last year. The question facing policy makers now is: how do we move toward the second scenario? That terrorists may someday turn to biological weapons is no longer a matter of debate (see "All fall down", New Scientist, 11 May 1996, p 32). "Terrorism has changed," says Brad Roberts of the US government-backed Institute for Defense Analyses in Virginia. "Traditional terrorists wanted political concessions," he says. "But now, some groups say their main aim is mass casualties. That makes biological weapons appealing." Terrorists would have little trouble getting their hands on the technology. Hearings in South Africa in June revealed that the apartheid government produced terrorist weapons containing anthrax, Salmonella and cholera. Soviet scientists who have prepared weapons-grade anthrax and smallpox are known to have emigrated, possibly to well-funded terrorist groups like the one run by Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan. Even small groups such as the Aum Shinrikyo sect in Japan have been able to cook up vats of Salmonella or botulin, the toxin that causes botulism. With bioweapons so readily available, how can governments protect us from a terrorist armed with anthrax, smallpox or plague? In May, scientists, policy makers and security experts gathered in Stockholm to discuss how to limit the devastation of a biological attack on civilians. Until now, most biological defence strategies have been geared to protecting soldiers on the battlefield rather than ordinary people in cities. The situations are quite different, and novel technologies are needed for civilian defence. Suppose a commuter stumbled across a time bomb filled with anthrax on an underground railway platform. Until this year, no police force in the world had any way to disarm such a device safely. One novel solution that attracted attention at Stockholm was a tent full of antiseptic foam. Researchers at Irvin Aerospace in Fort Erie, Ontario, have developed a dome-shaped tent made of ultratough Mylar that can be filled with a stiff foam--the exact composition of which is a closely guarded secret--that kills germs and also neutralises chemical weapons. Once covered by the foam-filled tent, the bomb can be safely detonated. But what if germs are already in the air? The protective suits and masks used by most emergency services don't have seals tight enough to exclude microorganisms, making them useless against biological attacks, says Jack Sawicki, a former fireman who now works for Geomet Technologies near Washington DC. And the lack of standards for gas masks sold to civilians in most countries makes it as likely that a mask will suffocate you as save you, he says. The suits developed for the military do work--their tight joints and zippers keep bugs out--but they are too pricey for the average fire department. Both Geomet and Irvin Aerospace are about to market civilian bio-suits. In the meantime, other companies are designing protective gear that actually kills pathogens. Molecular Geodesics in Cambridge, Massachusetts, for example, is developing a suit made of a tough, sponge-like polymer that traps bacteria and viruses, which are then destroyed by disinfectants incorporated into the fabric. Stealthy attack None of this gear will do any good, however, if the emergency services do not know there has been an attack. And an assault may not be obvious. A terrorist might not use a weapon that goes off with a dramatic bang, or even produces an obvious cloud of germs. The first hint of a biological attack may be a sudden cluster of sick people. Even that will be missed unless someone is watching. And few are. In the US, financial cutbacks have crippled programmes to track disease outbreaks, natural or deliberate. Some could be either, such as food poisoning caused by Escherichia coli O157 or Salmonella. Medical agencies fear that the extra money requested by President Bill Clinton this spring as part of an anti-terrorist initiative will not be enough to create an adequate surveillance network. In Europe, disease surveillance is only beginning to be organised on the continent-wide scale needed to track a biological emergency. But in addition to monitoring infected people, Nicholas Staritsyn of the State Research Centre for Applied Microbiology near Moscow says that more effort should be made to find out which bugs live where. For example, a particular variety of anthrax may occur naturally in South Africa, but not in Canada. Having access to such information could help authorities to distinguish between natural outbreaks and deliberate attacks. Even when infected people start turning up at local hospitals, early diagnosis of their illness might not be easy, says Steve Morse, who heads the US programme on new diagnostic technologies run by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). The first symptoms of anthrax, plague and many other potential agents of bioterrorism resemble those of flu: headaches, fevers, aching muscles, coughing. What's more, some of these symptoms might be brought on by panic attacks, which are likely to be widespread among people who have just been told that they are the victims of a biological attack. One answer discussed in Stockholm would be for hospitals to have the type of high-tech detectors being developed to identify airborne pathogens on the battlefield. With a detector at each bedside, doctors could pick out the volatile molecules released by damaged lung membranes at a very early stage of infection and instantly tell whether a patient was a victim of a biological attack, says Mildred Donlon, head of environmental detection research at DARPA. Eventually, DARPA would like to develop a detector that weighs no more than 2 kilograms, can identify as few as two particles of 20 different biological agents in a sample of air, costs less than $5000 and does not give false negatives. Such detectors could be deployed around cities to give early warning of airborne disease. In the meantime, researchers led by Wayne Bryden at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore are working on revamping the traditional laboratory workhorse, the mass spectrometer, for use in the field or in hospitals. They've reduced this unwieldy piece of equipment to a suitcase-sized machine that can distinguish between, say, Shigella, which causes dysentery, and Salmonella. A shoebox-sized version, says Bryden, could be ready in five years. Other researchers are experimenting with devices that would not seem out of place in an episode of Star Trek: Voyager. Tiny electronic chips that contain living nerve cells may someday warn of the presence of bacterial toxins, many of which are nerve poisons. Like a canary in a coal mine, the neurons on the chip will chatter until something kills them. "Anything that stops it singing is immediate cause for alarm," says Donlon. While the "canary on a chip" could detect a broad range of toxins, other devices are designed to identify specific pathogens. One prototype consists of a fibre-optic tube lined with antibodies coupled to light-emitting molecules. In the presence of plague or anthrax bacteria, or the toxins botulin or ricin, the molecules light up. Outwitting our defences Devices based on antibodies are far from foolproof. First, you need to have the correct antibodies--not easy when you consider the vast number of pathogens you'd need to include, and their ever-changing repertoire of surface proteins. "And even the right antibodies can identify only what is on the outside of a particle," Donlon points out. Bugs can be encapsulated in gels or biological polymers to foil antibodies, or normally harmless bacteria engineered to carry nasty genes. "I want to know what is on the inside," she says. To do this, DARPA-funded researchers are developing identification techniques based on RNA analysis. Unlike DNA, which is now used to identify unknown organisms, RNA is plentiful inside cells and need not be amplified before identification begins. And messenger RNA molecules reveal not only what a microorganism is, but what toxins it is making. Once the biological agent has been identified, how do you combat it? Vaccinating people before they are exposed is one answer. This is the strategy the military is betting on. Last year, the US military launched a programme to develop vaccines against potential biological weapons. It will create jabs for diseases for which none exist, such as Ebola, and improve existing vaccines--including the 30-year-old anthrax vaccine being given to 2·4 million American soldiers. But vaccines are no cure-all. An attacker need only generate a germ that sports different antigens to those used in a vaccine to render that vaccine ineffective. Plus, as bioterrorists get more sophisticated, they will develop novel, possibly artificial, pathogens against which conventional vaccines will be useless, predicts Morse. To get around these problems, DARPA is looking at ways of developing vaccines quickly enough for them to be created, mass-produced and distributed after an attack. The first step, which many researchers including those in the fast-paced field of genomics are now working on, involves speeding up DNA sequencing so that an unknown pathogen's genes could be detailed in a day. The resulting sequences could then be the basis for developing an instant DNA vaccine. Making the vaccine is only half the problem, however. Soldiers can be ordered to take shots, but immunising the rest of the population is another matter. Civilians are unlikely to volunteer for the dozens of vaccinations that would be necessary to protect them against every conceivable biological threat. An attack would make many change their minds, but in such circumstances there might not be enough to go around. Although Clinton has called for the stockpiling of vaccines, the US has only 5 million doses of smallpox vaccine--not enough to contain a hypothetical attack, says Ken Berry, president of the American Academy of Emergency Physicians. Ken Alibek, the former second-in-command of the Soviet germ warfare programme who revealed earlier this year that the Soviets had weaponised tonnes of smallpox, argues that it is short-sighted to put too much effort into developing vaccines. Instead, says Alibek, who is now at the Batelle Institute in Virginia, researchers should concentrate on ways to treat victims of biological weapons. Today's antibiotics may be useless because germs could be equipped with genes for resistance to all of them. Russian scientists have already created such a strain of anthrax (This Week, 28 February, p 4). For any treatment to be effective amid the potential chaos of a bioterrorist attack, speed will be of the essence. At the Stockholm meeting, researchers reported their efforts to develop drugs that work against a wide variety of infections and so can be used even before definitive diagnosis. Some are trying to take advantage of recently identified similarities in the way many pathogens produce disease to develop broad-spectrum drugs. For example, Ebola, anthrax and plague all kill their victims by inducing a widespread inflammatory reaction similar to toxic shock syndrome. A team in Cincinnati is testing an anti-inflammatory drug that could stop all of them. Another gang of bacteria--including plague, Salmonella, Shigella and Pseudomonas aeruginosa (one of the bacteria that can cause pneumonia and meningitis)--relies on very similar proteins to latch onto human cells and inject toxins. Drugs that block this system might save people from all these germs, Åke Forsberg of the Swedish Defence Research Establishment in Umeå told the meeting. The trouble with all these new anti-bioweapon gizmos, gadgets and medicines is that it's far from certain that they would be available in time to shield the first major city targeted for a bioterrorist attack. At the moment, the US is one of the few countries taking the bioterrorist threat seriously. Sweden, France and Israel have trained emergency teams and stockpiled gas masks. Other countries do not seem concerned. "The threat of bioterrorism has not seized our European friends," says Mike Moodie of the Chemical and Biological Arms Control Institute, a think-tank near Washington DC. "They feel it's too improbable." Perhaps they should reconsider. Berry, who helped run the doomsday simulations that ravaged San Francisco, says: "Security experts are not asking if a biological attack on a civilian population is going to happen, but when." >From New Scientist, 19 September 1998 © Copyright New Scientist, RBI Limited 1998 ----------------------- NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ----------------------- ********************************************** To subscribe or unsubscribe, email: majordomo(a)majordomo.pobox.com with the message: (un)subscribe ignition-point email@address ********************************************** www.telepath.com/believer **********************************************

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IP: IRS official predicts Y2K snafus
by Vladimir Z. Nuri 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

From: believer(a)telepath.com Subject: IP: IRS official predicts Y2K snafus Date: Fri, 18 Sep 1998 12:20:40 -0500 To: believer(a)telepath.com Source: Government Executive Magazine http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0998/091798n1.htm September 17, 1998 DAILY BRIEFING IRS official predicts Y2K snafus By Nancy Ferris nferris(a)govexec.com The new chief information officer at the IRS is predicting there will be tax processing problems in the upcoming filing season because of the agency's speeded-up program to fix year 2000 bugs in its computer systems. CIO Paul J. Cosgrave, speaking today at a luncheon meeting of the Association for Federal Information Resources Management, said 98 percent of the IRS's software will be fixed by early next year, when the 1998 filing season begins. But, he added, "there will be some problems" because not all of the fixes will be perfect. Asked afterward how serious the problems would be, Cosgrave said it was too early to tell. The agency is working hard to minimize their effect, he added. The good news, he said, is that when the century change actually occurs on Dec. 31, 1999, the IRS will have put its Y2K problems behind it. "We're a year early," he said. The agency is spending close to $1 billion on Y2K fixes. Cosgrave, a well-known consultant, was brought in to help the IRS straighten out its troubled systems modernization program and build new systems to support the reorganized agency. He said the IRS will exercise more central control over information technology and try to standardize the systems environment. "Today we have 17 e-mail systems in the IRS," he said by way of example. The reorganization announced by IRS Commissioner Charles Rossotti will replace the service's current regional structure with four new units serving specific groups of customers. That change, combined with the systems modernization program, will lead to new job responsibilities for many IRS employees, Cosgrave said. The agency will move some headquarters functions to field offices and move some back office employees to customer service jobs. But because it can't relocate many of the affected workers, it plans to "use more remote assignment work," where employees in one location work for managers in another, Cosgrave said. The IRS also will dramatically increase its investment in employee training, from $3.5 million this year to $11 million two years from now. ----------------------- NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ----------------------- ********************************************** To subscribe or unsubscribe, email: majordomo(a)majordomo.pobox.com with the message: (un)subscribe ignition-point email@address ********************************************** www.telepath.com/believer **********************************************

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IP: [Spooks] CIA Losing Its Best Operatives
by Vladimir Z. Nuri 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

From: Bridget973(a)aol.com Subject: IP: [Spooks] CIA Losing Its Best Operatives Date: Sat, 19 Sep 1998 21:43:13 EDT To: ignition-point(a)majordomo.pobox.com Subject: [Spooks] CIA Losing Its Best Operatives Date: Wed, 16 Sep 1998 22:51:13 -0500 From: Bob Margolis <rttyman(a)wwa.com> To: Spooks <spooks(a)qth.net> WASHINGTON (AP) -- The CIA is pumping money and people into recruiting efforts to battle a trend that the agency's departing inspector general says has sapped the clandestine service of its most experienced hands. Agency officials outlined Tuesday initiatives that CIA Director George Tenet announced internally last month to increase pay, provide hiring bonuses and shorten the waiting time for job offers. ``There are plenty of headhunters out there ready to pounce on strong candidates,'' Tenet told agency employees in his announcement. ``To delay is to lose.'' The program is intended to combat a problem outlined in an op-ed article by outgoing CIA Inspector General Fred Hitz who said the CIA's Directorate of Operations, the clandestine spy service, is losing its best people amid organizational drift and declining morale. ``The picture is not encouraging,'' said Hitz, the CIA's chief watchdog from 1990 until this year. Writing in an op-ed article in The Washington Post, Hitz said the Directorate of Operations ``has been shrinking in size and capability since the end of the Cold War.'' A recent study showed departures from the agency due to attrition ``involved high-quality officers the agency could not afford to lose,'' Hitz wrote. The number of CIA employees is classified, but the Federation of American Scientists, a Washington-based group that follows intelligence matters, estimates it has shrunk from more than 20,000 to about 16,000 since the Cold War. The clandestine service is estimated at several thousand. Agency and congressional officials said the critique may be outdated as the CIA pumps new money and energy into recruiting. But one knowledgeable congressional staffer said the problem got so bad that an entire incoming class of operatives -- perhaps a few dozen recruits -- had to be canceled for lack of money. Hitz pointed to the difficulty of recruiting in a booming economy and to low morale as a result of ``the lack of a clear mission'' at CIA. ``Nobody worth his or her salt is going to join an organization that has lost faith in itself, is confused about its mission and is trapped in the sclerosis of a middle-aged bureaucracy,'' he said. Rep. Porter Goss, R-Fla., chairman of the House Intelligence Committee and a former CIA clandestine operative, said an instinct to blame the CIA every time a risky intelligence venture fails is taking its toll. ``With so many unyielding critics, the CIA has become gun-shy,'' Goss said. Sen. Bob Kerrey, D-Neb., vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said Hitz has been a leading critic of the clandestine service and may himself be partly to blame for low morale. Still, Kerrey agreed recruitment is a serious agency problem. Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., the committee chairman, said the CIA must focus more clearly on defining its mission and outlining how it will use field operatives to combat terrorism, weapons proliferation and drug trafficking. In recent months, the House and Senate Intelligence Committees have pushed for more money for the CIA's so-called human intelligence efforts, including its field operatives. -=-=- AP NEWS The Associated Press News Service Copyright 1998 by The Associated Press All Rights Reserved --- Submissions should be sent to spooks(a)qth.net To unsubscribe, send "unsubscribe spooks" to majordomo(a)qth.net -- bridget973(a)aol.com Black Helicopters on the Horizon: http://members.xoom.com/bridget973 ********************************************** To subscribe or unsubscribe, email: majordomo(a)majordomo.pobox.com with the message: (un)subscribe ignition-point email@address ********************************************** www.telepath.com/believer **********************************************

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IP: Killed by Police? Keep it Secret
by Vladimir Z. Nuri 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

From: believer(a)telepath.com Subject: IP: Killed by Police? Keep it Secret Date: Sat, 19 Sep 1998 10:12:07 -0500 To: believer(a)telepath.com Source: Rocky Mountain News http://www.insidedenver.com/news/0919secr1.shtml Secrecy pushed in killings by police But critics say names of officers should always be made public By Kevin Vaughan Rocky Mountain News Staff Writer A move is afoot in Colorado to keep the names of police officers who shoot people secret. A Greeley judge this week ruled that the public has no right to know which officers shot and killed four people over the past two years. "That seems like sort of the ultimate double standard to me, because I can shoot and kill someone in my house in self-defense, and my name will be open as a matter of public record," said Chris Cobler, managing editor of the Greeley Tribune. The paper had sued the Greeley Police Department, the Weld County Sheriff's Department and the district attorney's office to obtain the officers' names. At least one legislator praised Weld District Judge Jonathan Hays' Wednesday ruling. "I am strongly opposed to releasing the names of those officers that have not been found accountable, or found guilty, in a shooting," said state Sen. Ken Arnold, R-Westminster. Arnold spent 28 years with the Colorado State Patrol before becoming a lawmaker. The State Patrol and most other Colorado police agencies release the names of officers involved in shootings -- some agencies immediately, others in weeks or months. But newspaper editors and the American Civil Liberties Union worry that the disclosure practice may soon end because of the ruling. In Aurora, Police Chief Vern Saint Vincent has refused to identify two officers who killed a gunman in a domestic dispute a week ago, citing the same legal provisions the Greeley judge used. Saint Vincent said his decision is temporary, and he plans to identify the officers after investigating threats against them. But he may change his mind. He said he expects his officers to lobby for secrecy and that he'll consider it. "There simply can't be a right to privacy for someone with the full authority of a law enforcement officer who has used deadly force against a citizen," said Tom Kelley, an attorney for the Colorado Press Association. "You could make the argument that anyone accused of a crime has a right to privacy, which I don't think anyone would take very seriously." At issue is the interpretation of two state laws governing the release of public records and criminal-justice documents. The laws spell out what the public has a right to see. Hays ruled that police shootings are not "official actions" as defined by the Criminal Justice Records Act. As such, they fall under an area of the law that allows police and sheriff's departments to withhold information that is "contrary to the public interest." Identifying the officers, Hays wrote, "plays no significant, positive role in the functioning of the criminal-justice process." But one of the state's top cops doesn't see it that way. "I just have this problem with the idea that that should be a blanket policy," said Pat Ahlstrom, executive director of the state Department of Public Safety. "We don't see it that way. They're public officers, and the act of using force and deadly force is subject to public scrutiny." The department oversees the State Patrol and the Colorado Bureau of Investigation. A check of other law enforcement agencies in the Denver area found that all routinely release the names of officers in shootings. "There's really no reason for us not to release the names," said Adams County sheriff's Sgt. Mike Kercheval. Different agencies have different rules about when the names are released. For some, it comes within 24 hours of a shooting. Others wait longer. Lakewood, for example, withholds the name of an officer involved in a shooting until the investigation is finished. "It is the same procedure that is afforded any citizen in Lakewood that is investigated in a shooting," police spokeswoman Lynn Kimbrough said. "For us, it is not a matter of 'if.' It is simply a matter of 'when."' Cobler said the Tribune has no plan to appeal this week's ruling. But others said they expect an effort to change it, either through an appeal or by attempting to change the laws to make them clearer. "Let's change the statute," said Mark Silverstein, legal director of the ACLU of Colorado. Arnold, however, said he trusts police and prosecutors to investigate shootings thoroughly. September 19, 1998 ----------------------- NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ----------------------- ********************************************** To subscribe or unsubscribe, email: majordomo(a)majordomo.pobox.com with the message: (un)subscribe ignition-point email@address ********************************************** www.telepath.com/believer **********************************************

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IP: UK: Microchips & Animal Passports for Pets
by Vladimir Z. Nuri 17 Dec '03

17 Dec '03

From: believer(a)telepath.com Subject: IP: UK: Microchips & Animal Passports for Pets Date: Sat, 19 Sep 1998 06:40:49 -0500 To: believer(a)telepath.com Source: London Telegraph http://www.telegraph.co.uk:80/et?ac=000150689433551&rtmo=gYkgwZZu&atmo=99999 999&P4_FOLLOW_ON=/98/9/19/npets19.html&pg=/et/98/9/19/npets19.html UK News Electronic Telegraph Saturday 19 September 1998 Issue 1212 Passports for pets in new rabies law By David Brown, Agriculture Editor BRITAIN'S stringent anti-rabies quarantine laws are to be swept aside in favour of electronic scanners and animal passports under plans to be published by the Government next week. A scheme relying on microchip implants that can be electronically monitored, together with documentary proof that animals have been immunised against rabies and other diseases, are among a raft of proposals that could mean the demise of mandatory six-months quarantine for all imported animals. Under the proposals, animals travelling between designated "low disease risk" countries in Europe and elsewhere would be allowed entry on condition that they were carefully screened on arrival and possibly subjected to blood tests. The Government is likely to back the proposals for a radical overhaul of the increasingly controversial quarantine system, which has been Britain's main front-line defence against rabies for nearly a century. Currently, imported pets must be held in nominated kennels for six months until vets decide they pose no health risk to people or animals in this country. Diplomats and members of the Armed Forces will be among those who should find life easier - if their overseas posts meet new criteria for assessing potential risks and their animals are properly vaccinated and provided with proposed new movement documents. But quarantine will not disappear completely under the plans drawn up over the past 10 months by a team of independent government advisers headed by Prof Ian Kennedy of University College, London. It will remain as a safety net to screen animals imported from countries that still have a problem with rabies - including many in Eastern Europe, North and South America, Africa and the Far East. "It will not be the free-for-all that some people might expect," Whitehall sources said last night. Nick Brown, the Minister of Agriculture, is expected to call a press conference next Wednesday to publish the report. But before the Government acts, the plans will be circulated for consultation among vets, animal welfare organisations, including the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, dog and cat breed societies, farmers and other groups with an interest in animal health. Britain's last major rabies scare was in 1969. In 1983, an Irish Wolfhound imported from the United States was caught with rabies in a quarantine kennel and in June 1996, at the height of the BSE crisis, a rabid bat that is believed to have crossed the Channel, bit a pregnant woman in Newhaven, Sussex. The Government decided in October last year to review the current quarantine arrangements after coming under mounting pressure from animal welfare groups and pet owners, including Chris Patten, Britain's last Governor of Hong Kong, who complained about difficulties in returning his family's pet dogs to Britain. Those complaints, coupled with the decline of rabies in EU countries, have given added impetus for the reform of the system over the past two years. But many vets remain to be convinced that easing quarantine is a good idea, arguing that veterinary certificates issued abroad may not be valid. The British Veterinary Association said last night: "We have not seen a copy of this report but our position is clear. We will not agree to any changes which do not, in our view, provide the United Kingdom with at least the level of safeguards against disease that the present quarantine system provides." © Copyright Telegraph Group Limited 1998. ----------------------- NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml ----------------------- ********************************************** To subscribe or unsubscribe, email: majordomo(a)majordomo.pobox.com with the message: (un)subscribe ignition-point email@address ********************************************** www.telepath.com/believer **********************************************

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