December 2004 - cypherpunks-legacy

Word
by R.W. (Bob) Erickson 06 Dec '04

06 Dec '04

word You want me to say what I mean. You expect me to not waste your time, but you dont know why I am here yet. So I tell you that I am here to show you something interesting in words. You can be sure that I'm only talking about words and not about things that matter. You know the difference, between words and things that matter, just like I do. Sometimes when people get to using fancy words, they forget the difference. Between you and me - we'll speak plainly - the country needs more clarity, 'cause we cant afford to forget what matters. We may not agree on much, but I'm certain that you really do see how there's stuff that matters. I respect you for this. No doubt we can agree that it's frustrating at times, to talk with smart asses who lack this common sense. Maybe you haven't felt like knocking some sense into this sort of fool, but I bet you know what I mean. Like the saying goes, you can lead a horse to water, but you cant make him talk plain. So I've been thinking that maybe I can take a crack at translating their alien thinking, some of their "expert" science and philosophy mumbo jumbo to real talk. The Lord knows, we cant hope to make sense of all the babble. If you can give me a bit more of your time, I do believe that I can hook you up with a practical explanation for why those brainy idiots keep going on and on. They get themselves all worked up to a dizzy, trying to talk sense. Maybe we can do better. Wish me luck! --bob

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Retinal Scans, DNA Samples to Return to Fallujah
by R.A. Hettinga 06 Dec '04

06 Dec '04

<http://www.boston.com/news/world/articles/2004/12/05/returning_fallujans_wi…> The Boston Globe US Marines rode in a convoy through Fallujah on Friday. The US military is continuing missions to secure the city. (AFP Photo / Mehdi Fedouach) Returning Fallujans will face clampdown By Anne Barnard, Globe Staff | December 5, 2004 FALLUJAH, Iraq -- The US military is drawing up plans to keep insurgents from regaining control of this battle-scarred city, but returning residents may find that the measures make Fallujah look more like a police state than the democracy they have been promised. Under the plans, troops would funnel Fallujans to so-called citizen processing centers on the outskirts of the city to compile a database of their identities through DNA testing and retina scans. Residents would receive badges displaying their home addresses that they must wear at all times. Buses would ferry them into the city, where cars, the deadliest tool of suicide bombers, would be banned. Marine commanders working in unheated, war-damaged downtown buildings are hammering out the details of their paradoxical task: Bring back the 300,000 residents in time for January elections without letting in insurgents, even though many Fallujans were among the fighters who ruled the city until the US assault drove them out in November, and many others cooperated with fighters out of conviction or fear. One idea that has stirred debate among Marine officers would require all men to work, for pay, in military-style battalions. Depending on their skills, they would be assigned jobs in construction, waterworks, or rubble-clearing platoons. "You have to say, 'Here are the rules,' and you are firm and fair. That radiates stability," said Lieutenant Colonel Dave Bellon, intelligence officer for the First Regimental Combat Team, the Marine regiment that took the western half of Fallujah during the US assault and expects to be based downtown for some time. Bellon asserted that previous attempts to win trust from Iraqis suspicious of US intentions had telegraphed weakness by asking, " 'What are your needs? What are your emotional needs?' All this Oprah [stuff]," he said. "They want to figure out who the dominant tribe is and say, 'I'm with you.' We need to be the benevolent, dominant tribe. "They're never going to like us," he added, echoing other Marine commanders who cautioned against raising hopes that Fallujans would warmly welcome troops when they return to ruined houses and rubble-strewn streets. The goal, Bellon said, is "mutual respect." Most Fallujans have not heard about the US plans. But for some people in a city that has long opposed the occupation, any presence of the Americans, and the restrictions they bring, feels threatening. "When the insurgents were here, we felt safe," said Ammar Ahmed, 19, a biology student at Anbar University. "At least I could move freely in the city; now I cannot." A model cityUS commanders and Iraqi leaders have declared their intention to make Fallujah a "model city," where they can maintain the security that has eluded them elsewhere. They also want to avoid a repeat -- on a smaller scale -- of what happened after the invasion of Iraq, when a quick US victory gave way to a disorganized reconstruction program thwarted by insurgent violence and intimidation. To accomplish those goals, they think they will have to use coercive measures allowed under martial law imposed last month by Prime Minister Iyad Allawi. "It's the Iraqi interim government that's coming up with all these ideas," Major General Richard Natonski, who commanded the Fallujah assault and oversees its reconstruction, said of the plans for identity badges and work brigades. But US officers in Fallujah say that the Iraqi government's involvement has been less than hoped for, and that determining how to bring the city safely back to life falls largely on their shoulders. "I think our expectations have been too high for a nascent government to be perfectly organized" and ready for such a complex task, Colonel Mike Shupp, the regimental commander, said at his headquarters in downtown Fallujah. While one senior Marine said he fantasized last month that Allawi would ride a bulldozer into Fallujah, the prime minister has come no closer than the US military base outside the city. The Iraqi Interior Ministry has not delivered the 1,200 police officers it had promised, although the Defense Ministry has provided troops on schedule, US officials said. Iraqi ministry officials have visited the city, but delegations have often failed to show up. US officials say that is partly out of fear of ongoing fighting that sends tank and machine-gun fire echoing through the streets. Meanwhile, the large-scale return of residents to a city where only Humvees and dogs travel freely will make military operations as well as reconstruction a lot harder. The military must start letting people in, one neighborhood at a time, within weeks if Fallujans are to register for national elections before the end of January. The government insists the elections will proceed as scheduled despite widespread violence. The Marines say several hundred civilians are hunkered down in houses or at a few mosques being used as humanitarian centers. In the western half of the city, civilians have not been allowed to move about unescorted. In the eastern half, controlled by another regiment, they were allowed out a few hours a day until men waving a white flag shot and killed two Marines. "The clock is ticking. Civilians are coming soon," Lieutenant Colonel Leonard DiFrancisci told his men one recent evening as they warmed themselves by a kerosene heater in the ramshackle building they commandeered as a headquarters. "It's going to get a lot more difficult. We've had a little honeymoon period." A tall order If DiFrancisci's experience dealing with a small delegation of Iraqi aid workers is any indication, sorting out civilians from insurgents in large numbers will be overwhelming. One afternoon last week, DiFrancisci, a reservist from Melbourne, Fla., and a mechanical engineer, was ordered to escort workers from the Iraqi Red Crescent Society out of the city on their way back to Baghdad. The Red Crescent, an equivalent to the Red Cross, had been butting heads for days with Marines who initially denied the aid organization entry to the city, insisting the military was taking care of civilians' needs. The society finally won a Marine escort in and refused to leave, setting up in an abandoned house. Dr. Said Hakki, the group's president, met DiFrancisci and Lieutenant Colonel Gary Montgomery at a mosque, eager to mend fences. "We want to play by your rules," Hakki said. Montgomery agreed that Marines would ferry a group of aid workers to Baghdad, along with several women and children who had been rescued from houses. But when the Humvees pulled up to the Red Crescent house, scores of young men who had taken refuge there were milling around the streets. There was no way to tell whether they were fighters. "All these military-age males are out during curfew," Montgomery told Hakki. "If you all don't follow the rules, you're going to get people killed." Tensions rose when about a dozen women and children started climbing into ambulances for the ride to Baghdad. One man tried to get in, gave the Marines who challenged him several versions of his age, then decided not to go rather than discuss it further. Suhad Molah, a young woman in a veil that showed only her eyes, was indignant that a translator said she might be Syrian because of her accent, implying she was the wife of a foreign fighter. "I am Iraqi," she said, adding that she and her children had been trapped in their house for weeks. The Marines were also suspicious when more than a dozen men, not the handful they expected, said they were Red Crescent staff members headed back to Baghdad. Some had no identification, and there was no way to verify whether they were the same men who had come out from Baghdad. "This is not a 'muj' rescue service," DiFrancisci said, using slang for mujahideen, or holy warriors. Montgomery remarked, "The real negotiations start after you've agreed on something." The Marines let the men go after Hakki vouched for them, but not before the Iraqis grew angry that their motives had been questioned. The convoy headed onto the highway, but only after a dozen Marines had spent two hours organizing and searching the vehicles. Back at their headquarters, the team debated the procedure for allowing civilians to return. Major Wade Weems warned that there should be a set number per day so that a backlog would not form behind the retina-scanning machine, fueling resentment. When they heard of the proposal to require men to work, some Marines were skeptical that an angry public would work effectively if coerced. Others said the plan was based on US tactics that worked in postwar Germany. DiFrancisci said he would wait for more details. "There's something to be said for a firm hand," he said. -- ----------------- R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah(a)ibuc.com> The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'

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Need a job? Get a card - arresting ID pitch to business
by R.A. Hettinga 06 Dec '04

06 Dec '04

<http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/12/03/business_immigrant_checks/print.html> The Register Biting the hand that feeds IT The Register ; Internet and Law ; Digital Rights/Digital Wrongs ; Original URL: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/12/03/business_immigrant_checks/ Need a job? Get a card - arresting ID pitch to business By John Lettice (john.lettice at theregister.co.uk) Published Friday 3rd December 2004 16:11 GMT Analysis It might not be your Big Brother's Database, but the UK ID scheme has certainly mastered doublespeak. Take, for example, the way it will force businesses to joyfully embrace ID card checks - or else. The Bill's Regulatory Impact Statement tells us that the bill has no provisions "which allow the Government to require business, charities or voluntary bodies to make identity checks using the identity cards scheme." And indeed it doesn't. But David Blunkett gave us a taste of what this really means in his speech to the IPPR last month. Referring to the provisions of the 1996 Asylum and Immigration Act which require employers to check that potential employees are eligible for employment (i.e. not illegal immigrants), he noted that "clause 8 has been very difficult to implement because employers quite rightly say that they are not an immigration service and they can't easily ascertain whether someone is legally in the country without great difficulty."? Under the Act it is a criminal offence for an employer to fail to make an adequate check, but this particular provision is a difficult one to bring in and to enforce, because employers and their organisations could reasonably protest about cost and about not being an immigration service, and because if the Home Office did prosecute then they'd most likely fail to get a conviction because the employer could claim to have seen a document that looked genuine, and how the blazes were they to know? Well, hello employers, now you are an immigration service. Blunkett continued: "The verification process under ID cards would remove that excuse completely and people would know who was entitled to be here and open to pay taxes and NI." So once the scheme exists there's no reason for the Home Office not to enforce clause 8, and employers are going to find using the ID scheme pretty compelling - or else. The Impact Statement suggests the card will be beneficial to employers because it will reduce the cost of compliance with the 1996 Act, and therefore it can be expected that employers will want to use the scheme "even in advance of any explicit requirement to use the scheme." Which does rather sound like 'we're not making you use it in the Act, but just not yet.' Note that the extra costs (large) that employers will be saving by using the ID scheme are costs that have been imposed by the Government in turning them into an immigration service under the 1996 Act. As an aside you should also note that recent regulation of employment agencies has imposed a broader requirement for them to check the identities of job applicants - so they're a census bureau as well as an immigration service. Employers don't have to check via the ID scheme, and under the Act it will actually be illegal to insist on such a check prior to cards becoming compulsory, but the scheme would "help to enforce the law against unscrupulous employers who would no longer have a defence in claiming they examined an unfamiliar document which appeared genuine to them. And: "...the Government expects that legitimate employers would want to encourage their employees to provide verifiable proof of identity when taking up a job... The scheme allows for records of on-line verification checks to be held, so establishing whether an employer has complied with the law will be more straightforward." Now, that one's very cute indeed. The Home Office is determined that the ID scheme operates via checks to the National Identity Register, rather than simply as a photo ID upgrade that can be checked locally, the main reason for this being that widespread online checking will generate a nationwide network of ID checks that track back to the Home Office. Here it is pointing out that using an online check will protect the employer because the NIR will have an audit trail proving that the check was made, whereas if the employer just looked at the card, we'd only have their word for that, wouldn't we? So we'll just rub it in: " Only an on-line check would give an employer the assurance that a record of the check would be held on the National Identity Register and would therefore provide a defence against prosecution." Clearly it's going to be a lot safer to embrace the ID scheme sooner rather than later, but there's one snag here. It will, as the Act specifies, be illegal for an employer to insist on an ID card as proof of identity, so if the applicant insists on using something else then the employer would have to accept it, right? But as not using the ID card would be more expensive and riskier for the employer, one would expect employers to be less likely to give the applicant a job. Particularly if they had a funny foreign-sounding name. And as anybody checking ID will rightly be wary of asking "only certain groups for proof of identity for fear of being accused of discrimination", from the employer's point of view the sooner they can get all applicants to submit an ID card for checking, the better. The Government hasn't yet decided on whether or not to charge employers for employee checks against the register. It observes that charging individual citizens for compulsory notifications such as address changes "might be counter-productive" (indeed - but what do they mean "might"?), and one could speculate that charging employers might be similarly so. Once however it's widely used by employers in order to avoid prosecution, then they can be argued to be saving the costs they'd otherwise incur for checking ID (via the 1996 Act requirement), and as they'll be using the ID scheme quite a lot already, they'll also then be able to save money by using it more generally, "simplifying the recording of employee data". They can therefore give the money they've thus 'saved' to the Government when the fees are introduced. Most employers may wonder why they're being put through these hoops, and forced to spend all this money, and then save a bit of it, on voluntarily supporting the ID card scheme. With justification. The Impact Statement identifies the problem of illegal working as occurring "in sectors where principally casual, low-skilled jobs prevail e.g. construction, textiles/clothing, hotel & catering, household services/cleaning, agriculture and the sex industry." These industries aren't major concentrations of Register readership (we don't think so, anyway), and they're not likely to be busting guts to institute ID checks and start paying national insurance contributions either. Not voluntarily, so this is how it works. At the moment people operating in these areas are subject to sporadic raids by the Immigration and Nationalities Directorate, which unlike the police already has powers to check ID. These raids frequently net illegal immigrants, overstayers etc, but because of the current difficulties with the 1996 Act it's difficult to prosecute the employers. But an employer caught repeatedly when there is "no excuse" will surely have to start checking, meaning that the Government feels it will be able to make a major impact on casual labour and illegal immigrants in these industries (at the expense of all the other industries). Other sectors are likely to face similarly persuasive efforts to get them to 'volunteer' themselves into the scheme. Much of the public sector will have little choice but to volunteer, and although the banks and credit card companies are unlikely to want to supplant their own security with the ID card (aside from using it to fulfill current legal identity requirements for, say, opening a bank account), it's probably only a matter of time before more sticks arrive. The Home Office says it's investigating incorporation of ID card readers in next generation credit card verification machines, and if it gets these there are a couple of regulatory routes it could take. It could for example insist on ID checks for card transactions over a certain value (as is the law in Spain), and it could make loud outraged noises about false credit card applications and require proof of ID when opening an account. The credit card companies will embrace neither of these voluntarily (it discourages customers), but if the card slots were there and everybody was ordered to do it, well, maybe that'd be different. And then the supermarket checkout could be an immigration service too. -- ----------------- R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah(a)ibuc.com> The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'

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Certicom Extends Security Platform, Enabling Developers to Address Government Market
by R.A. Hettinga 06 Dec '04

06 Dec '04

<http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=109&STORY=/www/story/12-0…> Certicom Extends Security Platform, Enabling Developers to Address Government Market Certicom Security Architecture for Government provides integrated suite of security toolkits that ensure critical FIPS 140-2 and ECC compliance MISSISSAUGA, ON, Dec. 6 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ - Certicom Corp. (TSX: CIC), the authority for strong, efficient cryptography, has extended its Certicom Security Architecture(TM), enabling developers to embed a FIPS 140-2-validated cryptographic module into their products and be eligible for sale into the federal government market. The Certicom Security Architecture also provides developers with an efficient way to enhance new and existing applications with elliptic curve cryptography (ECC) and meet the field-of-use guidelines set out by the National Security Agency (NSA) to protect mission-critical national security information. The adoption of ECC within the U.S. federal government is proceeding rapidly, and Certicom is taking a leadership role in enabling agencies and government contractors to integrate the strongest security technology into their products. The comprehensive Certicom Security Architecture provides a bridge between legacy crypto systems and ECC, and gives developers the flexibility to standardize code among different security environments and platforms - maximizing code re-use and portability. This flexibility also means developers will not need to redesign their solutions to meet future government crypto requirements. "Hardware and software developers are increasingly realizing that compliance with regulatory requirements for security is a pressing concern," said Dr. Jerry Krasner, vice president and chief analyst at Embedded Market Forecasters (http://www.embeddedforecast.com ), the premier market intelligence and advisory firm in the embedded technology industry. "A cost-effective approach is to use a tool that ensures compliance with FIPS 140-2 requirements and eliminates the potentially costly step of third-party FIPS validation of a device or application." Strong security is a key requirement across all networked applications and devices. The Certicom Security Architecture allows developers who may have little security expertise to add FIPS 140-2 validated security to their solutions while avoiding the time and expense of the FIPS 140-2 validation process. A common application programming interface (API) unifies Certicom's proven developer toolkits to create a plug-and-play security architecture that includes higher level protocol functionality that can operate in FIPS mode, such as SSL and PKI. "Certicom Security Architecture for Government makes it easy for OEMs, ISVs and integrators to sell products into the government sector that meet strict government security requirements, including FIPS 140-2 and ECC," said Roy Pereira, vice-president, marketing and product management at Certicom. "The National Security Agency is committed to making elliptic curve cryptography the most widely used public-key cryptosystem for securing U.S. government information. Certicom is committed to providing the technology and tools to make that possible." The Security Builder developer toolkits integrated into the Certicom Security Architecture for Government include: - Security Builder(R) GSE(TM), a FIPS 140-2-validated cryptographic toolkit; - Security Builder(R) NSE(TM), a cryptographic toolkit for national security information; - Security Builder(R) Crypto(TM), a cross-platform cryptographic toolkit; - Security Builder(R) PKI(TM), a digital certificate management toolkit; - Security Builder(R) SSL(TM), a complete Secure Sockets Layer toolkit; and - Security Builder(R) IPSec(TM), a client-side virtual private network toolkit. Certicom Security Architecture for Government is available immediately, except for Security Builder NSE which is available in Q1 2005. For more information, visit http://www.certicom.com/gov . About Certicom Certicom Corp. (TSX:CIC) is the authority for strong, efficient cryptography required by software vendors and device manufacturers to embed security into their products. Adopted by the U.S. government's National Security Agency (NSA), Certicom technologies for Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) provide the most security per bit of any known public-key scheme, making it ideal for resource-constrained environments. Certicom products and services are currently licensed to more than 300 customers including Motorola, Oracle, Research In Motion, Terayon, Texas Instruments and Unisys. Founded in 1985, Certicom is headquartered in Mississauga, ON, Canada, with offices in Ottawa, ON; Reston, VA; San Mateo, CA; and London, England. Visit http://www.certicom.com . Certicom, Certicom Security Architecture, Certicom CodeSign, Security Builder, Security Builder Middleware, Security Builder API, Security Builder Crypto, Security Builder SSL, Security Builder PKI, and Security Builder GSE are trademarks or registered trademarks of Certicom Corp. Intel is registered trademarks of Intel Corporation or its subsidiaries in the United States and other countries. All other companies and products listed herein are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders. Except for historical information contained herein, this news release contains forward-looking statements that involve risks and uncertainties. Actual results may differ materially. Factors that might cause a difference include, but are not limited to, those relating to the acceptance of mobile and wireless devices and the continued growth of e-commerce and m-commerce, the increase of the demand for mutual authentication in m-commerce transactions, the acceptance of Elliptic Curve Cryptography (ECC) technology as an industry standard, the market acceptance of our principal products and sales of our customer's products, the impact of competitive products and technologies, the possibility of our products infringing patents and other intellectual property of fourth parties, and costs of product development. Certicom will not update these forward-looking statements to reflect events or circumstances after the date hereof. More detailed information about potential factors that could affect Certicom's financial results is included in the documents Certicom files from time to time with the Canadian securities regulatory authorities. SOURCE Certicom Corp. -- ----------------- R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah(a)ibuc.com> The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'

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Groups Probe FBI Spying in 'War on Terror'
by R.A. Hettinga 06 Dec '04

06 Dec '04

<http://www.ipsnews.net/print.asp?idnews=26542> Inter Press Service News Agency POLITICS-U.S.: Groups Probe FBI Spying in 'War on Terror' William Fisher* U.S. civil rights groups have filed multiple freedom of information requests around the country to uncover evidence that the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and local police are spying on political, environmental and faith-based groups in the name of fighting terrorism. The Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests were filed in 10 states and the District of Columbia (DC) seeking details on the FBI's use of Joint Terrorism Task Forces (JTTFs) and local police to engage in political surveillance. JTTFs are legal partnerships between the FBI and local police, in which police officers are "deputised" as federal agents and work with the agency to identify and monitor individuals and groups. Filed by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), the FOIAs seek FBI files of groups and individuals targeted for speaking out or practising their faith, as well as information on how the practices and funding structure of the JTTFs are encouraging rampant and unwarranted spying. "Our goal in this is to learn to the greatest extent possible how much the FBI is using JTTFs and their guidelines to infiltrate these groups," ACLU attorney Ben Wizner told IPS. One of the FOIA requests names organisations such as anti-war group United for Peace and Justice, Greenpeace, Code Pink, a women-initiated peace and justice group, and the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, which might have been monitored by the task forces. According to Wizner, after the terrorist attacks of Sep. 11, 2001 sparked the Bush administration's "war on terrorism," Attorney General John Ashcroft scrapped an FBI guideline -- enacted after the agency infiltrated numerous groups during the 1960s and 1970s civil rights movement -- that blocked its agents from spying on groups and individuals unless they were investigating a crime. By scrapping that policy Ashcroft was, "essentially encouraging FBI agents to do fishing expeditions to spy in mosques, in anti-war meetings ... without any reasonable suspicion that a crime was being committed," added Wizner. ADC President Mary Rose Oakar said her group "supports all efforts to keep our country safe and we want law enforcement to protect us from real terrorists and criminals. However, targeting Arabs and Muslims on the basis of national origin and religion, sending undercover agents to anti-war meetings, and infiltrating student groups is not making us any safer." "The FBI should not be wasting its time and our tax dollars spying on groups that are critical of certain government actions," added the leader of the Washington, DC-based non-profit group, in a statement. Earlier this year reports emerged that JTTFs had visited activists around the country to ask about their plans for August's meeting of the Republican National Committee (RNC) in New York. The committee officially nominated President George W Bush to run in the Nov. 2 election. ''We hadn't even been following (news of the RNC); I didn't even know when it was going to happen," activist Sarah Bardwell told IPS after being visited by four FBI agents and two police officers at her Denver home. "I think (the FBI is) basically just justifying violating people's first amendment rights (of freedom of religion, speech and assembly),'' she added. In a statement in August, FBI Assistant Director Cassandra M Chandler responded that the agency ''is not monitoring groups or interviewing individuals unless we receive intelligence that such individuals or groups may be planning violent and disruptive criminal activity or have knowledge of such activity.'' ''The F.B.I. conducted interviews, within the bounds of the U.S. Constitution, in order to determine the validity of the threat information,'' she added. Since the 9/11 attacks, the FBI -- part of the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) -- has vastly stepped up its monitoring and surveillance of individuals and groups it considers suspicious. It and other law enforcement agencies have also been given greatly increased authority under the USA Patriot Act, which was hurriedly enacted and signed into law soon after the attacks. The law permits agencies to conduct "sneak and peak" wiretaps and other forms of surveillance without immediate notification to the target. The JTTFs, however, existed prior to 9/11. Groups representing Arab and Muslim-Americans are confused by what appear to be conflicting signals from the Bush administration. The government claims to be making serious efforts to "build bridges" to the constituencies, but simultaneously continues to practise discrimination and harassment. The U.S. Civil Rights Commission, a bi-partisan government agency, recently reported widespread evidence of racial profiling against Arab and Muslim-Americans by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and other law enforcement agencies. These bodies respond that they are not conducting round-ups in any community (and are) "not profiling based on race or religious affiliation (or) instituting a blanket detention policy." But since 9/11, some 5,000 members of the groups have been arrested and detained -- some for long periods without legal counsel -- but none have been convicted for terror-related crimes. The ADC and 15 other human and civil rights groups have filed suits against the DOJ demanding release of information about people arrested and detained since Sep. 11, 2001. Thursday's ACLU/ADC requests "point to many documented examples of JTTF involvement in the investigation of environmental activists, anti-war protesters and others who are clearly neither terrorists nor involved in terrorist activities." Their actions include: "aggressively questioning Muslims and Arabs on the basis of religion or national origin rather than suspicion of wrongdoing; tracking down parents of student peace activists; downloading anti-war action alerts from Catholic Peace Ministries; infiltrating student groups, and sending undercover agents to National Lawyers Guild meetings," the documents allege. Requests were also filed on behalf of numerous individuals, including an organiser for the Service Employees International Union, a former Catholic priest and student activists. "They will say that a group whose means may include engaging in a sit-in to block traffic or who in the past might have had a member who threw a brick through a window is legitimately investigated by a joint terrorism task force," said Wizner. "The question is: do we want that kind of civil disobedience labelled and investigated as terrorism?" -- ----------------- R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah(a)ibuc.com> The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity, [predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'

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Kerik, Homeland Security Czar - Scathing article from The Register
by Bill Stewart 06 Dec '04

06 Dec '04

The Register has a really friendly article about Kerik, Giuliani's buddy who's proposed for Homeland Security Czar. (El Reg is primarily an online technology newswire, but they do comment on other issues, especially if they have technical aspects - they especially rag on the UK's Home Secretary Blunkett's National ID Card proposals.) http://www.theregister.com/2004/12/06/kerik_homeland_security_secretary/ High-school drop-out to become Homeland Security Czar By Thomas C Greene Published Monday 6th December 2004 11:07 GMT President George W. Bush has nominated former New York City Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik to replace Tom Ridge as Homeland Security Secretary, marking a significant departure from his tendency to choose educated, Patrician types for his Cabinet. Kerik, a high-school drop-out abandoned at age four by his prostitute mother in the gritty town of Patterson, New Jersey, served as an Army MP in South Korea, and later worked in private international security rackets, most interestingly in Saudi Arabia. He joined the New York City Police Department in 1985. He followed that with a stint as Warden of the Passaic County Jail in New Jersey, and became the Training Officer and Commander of the Special Weapons and Operations Units. In 1998 he was named New York Corrections Commissioner, and established an ironclad, head-cracking discipline in the City's notorious detention facilities. A favorite of former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, Kerik had the honor of seeing the Manhattan Detention Complex, known to locals as "the Tombs," re-named the Bernard B. Kerik Complex by then-mayor Giuliani. Kerik left a minor cloud of corruption behind, with allegations that one of his lieutenants used correctional staff to work illegally in Republican campaigns. In 2000, Giuliani named Kerik Police Commissioner, to assist him in a vast anti-crime crackdown, where the chief tactic was for police to pounce aggressively on even the most chickenshit offences, such as spitting on the sidewalk. Upon his retirement from City politics, Giuliani decided to cash in on post-9/11 security hysteria by founding his own security outfit, Giuliani Partners LLC. Kerik has served as senior vice president at Giuliani Partners, and CEO of Giuliani-Kerik LLC, a vendor of law-enforcement "performance systems". Meanwhile, Giuliani has founded several spin-offs, such as Giuliani Capital Advisors LLC, and the Rudolph W. Giuliani Advanced Security Centers (ASC), a cyber-security outfit formed in connection with Ernst & Young. Recently, Kerik shipped out to Iraq to train the local policemen who are routinely blown to pieces by insurgents and terrorists. There, he enjoyed the snappy titles of Interim Minister of the Interior, and Senior Policy Advisor to the US Presidential Envoy to Iraq's Coalition Provisional Authority. Kerik lasted only four months, and the Iraqi police are still as incompetent, weak, and corrupt as when he arrived in country. Kerik began making his transition from local to national politics by campaigning for President Bush's re-election, alongside his political patron and business partner, Rudy Giuliani. Kerik has been a devoted booster of the so-called Patriot Act, having given several speeches in its support while campaigning for Bush. In anticipation of his rise to national office, Kerik recently sold his $5.8m in shares of Taser International, makers of absolutely safe police stun guns that are now routinely used against old women and children. He is expected to be confirmed by the Senate without difficulty. .

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Michael Riconosciuto, PROMIS
by Nomen Nescio 06 Dec '04

06 Dec '04

I read a few old email messages I had and stumbled over some interesting material relating to NSA, CIA and one Michael Riconosciuto among other things. I followed up on the info and did some surfing on the subject and got quite interested. I also did some searches in my cypherpunk mail folder and got no hits. Surely this must have been up in the list? Can someone give me some links please? There were also some talk about some PROMIS software somewhere and modifications being made to illegally obtained copies of proprietary software. This software was then sold by the US gov to be able to spy on Canadian authoritites. Is this also true? I found the below text saved here locally, if I'm correctly informed Mr. Michael Riconosciuto went to jail for this affidavit. Can someone verify if this really is true. (It sounds bizarre but maybe this can happen in Amerika?) I am told that Michael Riconosciuto has been diagnosed with prostate cancer and many delays in diagnosis and treatment have occurred and people say it's becaus the US gov wants him dead because he knows too much. It's also rumoured that he never received a fair trial and that two of his lawyers were murdered. Because the US government does not admit anything about PROMIS he has been relegated as a nut and serious efforts to isolate him have been going on for more than a decade. A friend of mine sent me this info on the case: > Michael Riconosciuto was asked by Bill Hamilton, the proprietor of > Promis, to sign an affidavit about his alterations to the > software. A week before he signed, Michael was threatened. There > had already been deaths around him and Michael informed his family > that he was about to be murdered or jailed and that whatever the > family was going to be told about him, it wasn't true, he was being > framed for telling the truth. A week after signing the affidavit, > Michael ended up in jail on fraudulent charges of running a drug > lab. Can someone give me some more info on this? Thank you AFFIDAVIT OF MICHAEL J. RICONOSCIUTO The INSLAW CASE: AFFIDAVIT OF MICHAEL J. RICONOSCIUTO UNITED STATES BANKRUPTCY COURT FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA In Re: INSLAW, INC., Debtor. CASE NO. 85-00070 (Chapter 11) ________________________________ INSLAW, INC., Plaintiff v. UNITED STATES OF AMERICA and the UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE, Defendants. CASE NO. 85-00070 Adversary Proceeding NO. 86-0069 AFFIDAVIT OF MICHAEL J. RICONOSCIUTO STATE OF WASHINGTON) I, MICHAEL J. RICONOSCIUTO, being duly sworn, do hereby state as follows: 1. During the early 1980's, I served as the Director of Research for a joint venture between the Wackenhut Corporation of Coral Gables, Florida, and the Cabazon Band of Indians in Indio, California. The joint venture was located on the Cabazon reservation. 2. The Wackenhut-Cabazon joint venture sought to develop and/or manufacture certain materials that are used in military and national security operations, including night vision goggles, machine guns, fuel-air explosives, and biological and chemical warfare weapons. EXHIBIT 1 3. The Cabazon Band of Indians are a sovereign nation. The sovereign immunity that is accorded the Cabazons as a consequence of this fact made it feasible to pursue on the reservation the development and/or manufacture of materials whose development or manufacture would be subject to stringent controls off the reservation. As a minority group, the Cabazon Indians also provided the Wackenhut Corporation with an enhanced ability to obtain federal contracts through the 8A Set Aside Program, and in connection with Government-owned contractor-operated (GOCO) facilities. 4. The Wackenhut-Cabazon joint venture was intended to support the needs of a number of foreign governments and forces, including forces and governments in Central America and the Middle East. The Contras in Nicaragua represented one of the most important priorities for the joint venture. 5. The Wackenhut-Cabazon joint venture maintained close liaison with certain elements of the United States Government, including representatives of intelligence, military and law enforcement agencies. 6. Among the frequent visitors to the Wackenhut-Cabazon joint venture were Peter Videnieks of the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., and a close associate of Videnieks by the name of Earl W. Brian. Brian is a private businessman who lives in Maryland and who has maintained close business ties with the U.S. intelligence community for many years. 7. In connection with my work for Wackenhut, I engaged in some software development and modification work in 1983 and 1984 on the proprietary PROMIS computer software product. The copy of PROMIS on which I worked came from the Department of Justice. Earl W. Brian made it available to me through Wackenhut after acquiring it from Peter Videnieks, who was then a Department of Justice contracting official with responsibility for the PROMIS software. I performed the modifications to PROMIS in Indio, California; Silver Spring, Maryland; and Miami, Florida. 8. The purpose of the PROMIS software modifications that I made in 1983 and 1984 was to support a plan for the implementation of PROMIS in law enforcement and intelligence agencies worldwide. Earl W. Brian was spearheading the plan for this worldwide use of the PROMIS computer software. 9. Some of the modifications that I made were specifically designed to facilitate the implementation of PROMIS within two agencies of the Government of Canada: the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) and the Canadian Security and Intelligence Service (CSIS). Earl W. Brian would check with me from time to time to make certain that the work would be completed in time to satisfy the schedule for the RCMP and CSIS implementations of PROMIS. 10. The proprietary versions of PROMIS, as modified by me, was, in fact, implemented in both the RCMP and the CSIS in Canada. It was my understanding that Earl W. Brian had sold this version of PROMIS to the Government of Canada. 11. In February 1991, I had a telephone conversation with Peter Videnieks, then still employed by the U.S. Department of Justice. Videnieks attempted during this telephone conversation to persuade me not to cooperate with an independent investigation of the government's piracy of INSLAW's proprietary PROMIS software being conducted by the Committee on the Judiciary of the U.S. House of Representatives. 12. Videnieks stated that I would be rewarded for a decision not to cooperate with the House Judiciary Committee investigation. Videnieks forecasted an immediate and favorable resolution of a protracted child custody dispute being prosecuted against my wife by her former husband, if I were to decide not to cooperate with the House Judiciary Committee investigation. 13. Videnieks also outlined specific punishments that I could expect to receive from the U.S. Department of Justice if I cooperate with the House Judiciary Committee's investigation. 14. One punishment that Videnieks outlined was the future inclusion of me and my father in a criminal prosecution of certain business associates of mine in Orange County, California, in connection with the operation of a savings and loan institution in Orange County. By way of underscoring his power to influence such decisions at the U.S. Department of Justice, Videnieks informed me of the indictment of these business associates prior to the time when that indictment was unsealed and made public. 15. Another punishment that Videnieks threatened against me if I cooperate with the House Judiciary Commitee [sic] is prosecution by the U.S. Department of Justice for perjury. Videnieks warned me that credible witnesses would come forward to contradict any damaging claims that I made in testimony before the House Judiciary Committee, and that I would subsequently be prosecuted for perjury by the U.S. Department of Justice for my testimony before the House Judiciary Committee. FURTHER AFFIANT SAYETH NOT. [Signed]: Michael J. Riconosciuto Signed and sworn to before me this 21st day of March, 1991. John M. Rosellini Notary Public My Commission Expires: Sept 19, 1993

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RE: "Word" Of the Subgenius...
by Trei, Peter 06 Dec '04

06 Dec '04

> -----Original Message----- > From: owner-cypherpunks(a)minder.net > [mailto:owner-cypherpunks@minder.net]On Behalf Of Neil Johnson > Sent: Sunday, December 05, 2004 9:06 AM > To: R.W. (Bob) Erickson > Cc: Steve Furlong; cypherpunks(a)al-qaeda.net > Subject: Re: "Word" Of the Subgenius... > > > On Sun, 2004-12-05 at 08:46 -0500, R.W. (Bob) Erickson wrote: > > > To be bobbed is never the goal, > > but bobless fear steers the undifferentiated bob > > along conventional paths, > > to the abattoir > > > Where is Tim May when when you need him? :-) > Try scruz.general. Peter

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Re: "Word" Of the Subgenius...
by John Kelsey 06 Dec '04

06 Dec '04

>From: Tyler Durden <camera_lumina(a)hotmail.com> >Sent: Dec 4, 2004 8:33 PM >To: cypherpunks(a)al-qaeda.net >Subject: "Word" Of the Subgenius... >I thought JR "Bob" Dobbs got beamed up to that comet with those LA Koolaid >kooks... No, but I do believe the comet kooks engaged in bobbitization (or perhaps, merely "bobbing"). >-TD --John

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Re: Michael Riconosciuto, PROMIS
by Nomen Nescio 06 Dec '04

06 Dec '04

Bill Stewart shrieb: > There are several different issues related to PROMIS Thanks for your comments. But what about the person Michael Riconosciuto? I did some searches online and I got the feeling that a lot people see him as an extremely intelligent person, a one-in-a-million type of person, being involved and on the front line with such diverse areas as human intelligence, weapons, electronics, computers, cryptography, bio-warfare etc. It's stated online that he has warned US about several terrorist attacks before they ocurred, including but not limited to the al-qaeda attacks. Is this somewhat related to him being jailed? Can he verify that US didn't act on alerts in ways so sensitive that the government simply cannot afford to let him speak up? Does he know things relating to US wanting some wars that the public simply cannot be told? I think I read somewhere that people from NSA or CIA thought of him as simply put a genius. Is it likely that he as such a genius is simply too dangerous for his own good when he decided to speak the truth and that the government is actively trying to shut him down and indirectly speed up his death by denying him medical care for his illness? Why did he come "clean" and sign the affidavit? He himself stated that he though he risked being killed or harmed in various ways if he went through with it. And indeed, just a week or two afterwards he got arrested! Smells like a government retaliation, set-up and cover-up if I ever saw one! This is almost to good for even Hollywood! There are many interesting questions here. Keep in mind that not all of us were around and active with intelligence/computers/cryptography 10-20 years ago. John Young: Does Cryptome hold any interesting documents involving this case?

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