December 2005 - cypherpunks-legacy

[dave@farber.net: [IP] Military's news-planting service (New York Times)]
by Eugen Leitl 19 Dec '05

19 Dec '05

----- Forwarded message from David Farber <dave(a)farber.net> -----

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nice
by Lane Atkinson 19 Dec '05

19 Dec '05

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Re: A small editorial about recent events.
by R. A. Hettinga 19 Dec '05

19 Dec '05

At 1:58 PM -0500 12/18/05, Perry E. Metzger wrote: >Ours is a government of laws, not of men. "When the hares made speeches in the assembly and demanded that all should have equality, the lions replied, "Where are your claws and teeth?" -- attributed to Antisthenes in Aristotle, 'Politics', 3.7.2 -- ----------------- R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah(a)ibuc.com> The Internet Bearer Underwriting Corporation <http://www.ibuc.com/> 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA "Force shits on reason's back." -- Benjamin Franklin, Poor Richard's Almanack

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Re: BOUNCE cryptography@metzdowd.com: Approval required:
by R. A. Hettinga 19 Dec '05

19 Dec '05

;-) Cheers, RAH --- begin forwarded text To: rah(a)shipwright.com Subject: Re: BOUNCE cryptography(a)metzdowd.com: Approval required: From: "Perry E. Metzger" <perry(a)piermont.com> Date: Sun, 18 Dec 2005 22:57:19 -0500 User-Agent: Gnus/5.1006 (Gnus v5.10.6) Emacs/21.4 (berkeley-unix) That article is bullshit, Rob. Yes, Clinton's NSA spied on US citizens, but they got FISA approval when they did it. I would agree that FISC would approve spying on a dead goat on the basis of a white house lawyer claiming the goat was a foreign agent, but that's beside the point -- to my knowledge, they obeyed the law, as odious as the law was. Therefore, I'm not forwarding. Perry owner-cryptography(a)metzdowd.com writes: >>From owner-cryptography(a)metzdowd.com Sun Dec 18 22:46:59 2005 > Return-Path: <owner-cryptography(a)metzdowd.com> > X-Original-To: cryptography(a)metzdowd.com > Delivered-To: cryptography(a)metzdowd.com > Received: from bullae.ibuc.com (sovereign.shipwright.com [68.167.57.91]) > by blue.metzdowd.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id C8171C2CD68 > for <cryptography(a)metzdowd.com>; Sun, 18 Dec 2005 22:46:58 -0500 (EST) > Received: from [68.167.57.91] (localhost [127.0.0.1]) > by bullae.ibuc.com (Postfix) with ESMTP > id 1CC8814A2E82; Sun, 18 Dec 2005 22:46:51 -0500 (EST) > Mime-Version: 1.0 > Message-Id: <p062309d5bfcbdd86feee(a)[68.167.57.91]> > Date: Sun, 18 Dec 2005 22:46:45 -0500 > To: cryptography(a)metzdowd.com, cypherpunks(a)al-qaeda.net > From: "R. A. Hettinga" <rah(a)shipwright.com> > Subject: [Clips] Clinton NSA Eavesdropped on U.S. Calls > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" > > > --- begin forwarded text > > > Delivered-To: clips(a)philodox.com > Date: Sun, 18 Dec 2005 22:44:30 -0500 > To: Philodox Clips List <clips(a)philodox.com> > From: "R. A. Hettinga" <rah(a)shipwright.com> > Subject: [Clips] Clinton NSA Eavesdropped on U.S. Calls > Reply-To: rah(a)philodox.com > Sender: clips-bounces(a)philodox.com > > <http://www.newsmax.com/scripts/printer_friendly.pl?page=http://www.newsmax.…> > > Reprinted from NewsMax.com > Sunday, Dec. 18, 2005 10:10 p.m. EST > > Clinton NSA Eavesdropped on U.S. Calls > > During the 1990's under President Clinton, the National Security Agency > monitored millions of private phone calls placed by U.S. citizens and > citizens of other countries under a super secret program code-named Echelon. > > On Friday, the New York Times suggested that the Bush administration has > instituted "a major shift in American intelligence-gathering practices" > when it "secretly authorized the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on > Americans and others inside the United States to search for evidence of > terrorist activity without [obtaining] court-approved warrants." > > But in fact, the NSA had been monitoring private domestic telephone > conversations on a much larger scale throughout the 1990s - all of it done > without a court order, let alone a catalyst like the 9/11 attacks. > > In February 2000, for instance, CBS "60 Minutes" correspondent Steve Kroft > introduced a report on the Clinton-era spy program by noting: > > "If you made a phone call today or sent an e-mail to a friend, there's a > good chance what you said or wrote was captured and screened by the > country's largest intelligence agency. The top-secret Global Surveillance > Network is called Echelon, and it's run by the National Security Agency." > > NSA computers, said Kroft, "capture virtually every electronic > conversation around the world." > > Echelon expert Mike Frost, who spent 20 years as a spy for the Canadian > equivalent of the National Security Agency, told "60 Minutes" that the > agency was monitoring "everything from data transfers to cell phones to > portable phones to baby monitors to ATMs." > > Mr. Frost detailed activities at one unidentified NSA installation, telling > "60 Minutes" that agency operators "can listen in to just about anything" - > while Echelon computers screen phone calls for key words that might > indicate a terrorist threat. > > The "60 Minutes" report also spotlighted Echelon critic, then-Rep. Bob > Barr, who complained that the project as it was being implemented under > Clinton "engages in the interception of literally millions of > communications involving United States citizens." > > One Echelon operator working in Britain told "60 Minutes" that the NSA had > even monitored and tape recorded the conversations of the late Sen. Strom > Thurmond. > > Still, the Times repeatedly insisted on Friday that NSA surveillance under > Bush had been unprecedented, at one point citing anonymously an alleged > former national security official who claimed: "This is really a sea > change. It's almost a mainstay of this country that the NSA only does > foreign searches." > > -- > ----------------- > 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' > _______________________________________________ > Clips mailing list > Clips(a)philodox.com > http://www.philodox.com/mailman/listinfo/clips > > --- end forwarded text > > > -- > ----------------- > 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' > -- Perry E. Metzger perry(a)piermont.com --- end forwarded text -- ----------------- 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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[Clips] Clinton NSA Eavesdropped on U.S. Calls
by R. A. Hettinga 19 Dec '05

19 Dec '05

--- begin forwarded text Delivered-To: clips(a)philodox.com Date: Sun, 18 Dec 2005 22:44:30 -0500 To: Philodox Clips List <clips(a)philodox.com> From: "R. A. Hettinga" <rah(a)shipwright.com> Subject: [Clips] Clinton NSA Eavesdropped on U.S. Calls Reply-To: rah(a)philodox.com Sender: clips-bounces(a)philodox.com <http://www.newsmax.com/scripts/printer_friendly.pl?page=http://www.newsmax.…> Reprinted from NewsMax.com Sunday, Dec. 18, 2005 10:10 p.m. EST Clinton NSA Eavesdropped on U.S. Calls During the 1990's under President Clinton, the National Security Agency monitored millions of private phone calls placed by U.S. citizens and citizens of other countries under a super secret program code-named Echelon. On Friday, the New York Times suggested that the Bush administration has instituted "a major shift in American intelligence-gathering practices" when it "secretly authorized the National Security Agency to eavesdrop on Americans and others inside the United States to search for evidence of terrorist activity without [obtaining] court-approved warrants." But in fact, the NSA had been monitoring private domestic telephone conversations on a much larger scale throughout the 1990s - all of it done without a court order, let alone a catalyst like the 9/11 attacks. In February 2000, for instance, CBS "60 Minutes" correspondent Steve Kroft introduced a report on the Clinton-era spy program by noting: "If you made a phone call today or sent an e-mail to a friend, there's a good chance what you said or wrote was captured and screened by the country's largest intelligence agency. The top-secret Global Surveillance Network is called Echelon, and it's run by the National Security Agency." NSA computers, said Kroft, "capture virtually every electronic conversation around the world." Echelon expert Mike Frost, who spent 20 years as a spy for the Canadian equivalent of the National Security Agency, told "60 Minutes" that the agency was monitoring "everything from data transfers to cell phones to portable phones to baby monitors to ATMs." Mr. Frost detailed activities at one unidentified NSA installation, telling "60 Minutes" that agency operators "can listen in to just about anything" - while Echelon computers screen phone calls for key words that might indicate a terrorist threat. The "60 Minutes" report also spotlighted Echelon critic, then-Rep. Bob Barr, who complained that the project as it was being implemented under Clinton "engages in the interception of literally millions of communications involving United States citizens." One Echelon operator working in Britain told "60 Minutes" that the NSA had even monitored and tape recorded the conversations of the late Sen. Strom Thurmond. Still, the Times repeatedly insisted on Friday that NSA surveillance under Bush had been unprecedented, at one point citing anonymously an alleged former national security official who claimed: "This is really a sea change. It's almost a mainstay of this country that the NSA only does foreign searches." -- ----------------- 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' _______________________________________________ Clips mailing list Clips(a)philodox.com http://www.philodox.com/mailman/listinfo/clips --- end forwarded text -- ----------------- 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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NSA Special Collection Program
by John Young 19 Dec '05

19 Dec '05

The NYT report on NSA surveillance described it as a "special collection program." This is the also the name of the NSA-CIA program which performs black bag jobs against targets which are tough to surveil with stand-off means, including targets which use encryption. Codebooks are stolen, copied and returned, bugs are planted, cavity resonating devices are rigged, cipher machines are lifted for tampering then replaced, and a host of other means are used to overcome electronic and physical defenses. One wonders what means NSA (and others) used to spy inside the US in addition to plain old electronic interception. The story so far is pretty simpleminded about NSA's capabilities. Could be the part of the story the Times claims it is still withholding covers that. And, there has been no mention in the news of the UK/USA arrangement for the UK to do what NSA once was forbidden to do inside the US. Perhaps there has been an expansion of that as well. Jason Vest and Wayne Madsen described the Special Collection Service in 1999: http://www.fas.org/irp/news/1999/02/vest_madsen.htm [Excerpt] According to a former high-ranking intelligence official, SCS was formed in the late 1970s after competition between the NSA's embassy-based eavesdroppers and the CIA's globe-trotting bugging specialists from its Division D had become counterproductive. While sources differ on how SCS works some claim its agents never leave their secret embassy warrens where they perform close-quarters electronic eavesdropping, while others say agents operate embassy-based equipment in addition to performing riskier "black-bag" jobs, or break-ins, for purposes of bugging "there's a lot of pride taken in what SCS has accomplished," the former official says. Intriguingly, the only on-the-record account of the Special Collection Service has been provided not by an American but by a Canadian. Mike Frost, formerly of the Communications Security Establishment Canada's NSA equivalent served as deputy director of CSE's SCS counterpart and was trained by the SCS. In a 1994 memoir, Frost describes the complexities of mounting "special collection" operations finding ways to transport sophisticated eavesdropping equipment in diplomatic pouches without arousing suspicion, surreptitiously assembling a device without arousing suspicion in his embassy, technically troubleshooting under less than ideal conditions and also devotes considerable space to describing visits to SCS's old College Park headquarters. "It is not the usual sanitorium-clean atmosphere you would expect to find in a top-secret installation," writes Frost. "Wires everywhere, jerry-rigged gizmos everywhere, computers all over the place, some people buzzing around in three-piece suits, and others in jeans and t-shirts. [It was] the ultimate testing and engineering centre for any espionage equipment." Perhaps one of its most extraordinary areas was its "live room," a 30-foot-square area where NSA and CIA devices were put through dry runs, and where engineers simulated the electronic environment of cities where eavesdroppers are deployed. Several years ago, according to sources, SCS relocated to a new, 300-acre, three-building complex disguised as a corporate campus and shielded by a dense forest outside Beltsville, Maryland. Curious visitors to the site will find themselves stopped at a gate by a Department of Defense police officer who, if one lingers, will threaten arrest. ----- Satellite photos of the Special Collection Service: http://cryptome.org/scs-eyeball.htm

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[Clips] A small editorial about recent events.
by R. A. Hettinga 19 Dec '05

19 Dec '05

--- begin forwarded text Delivered-To: clips(a)philodox.com Date: Sun, 18 Dec 2005 15:17:30 -0500 To: "Philodox Clips List" <clips(a)philodox.com> From: "R. A. Hettinga" <rah(a)shipwright.com> Subject: [Clips] A small editorial about recent events. Reply-To: rah(a)philodox.com Sender: clips-bounces(a)philodox.com --- begin forwarded text Delivered-To: cryptography(a)metzdowd.com To: cryptography(a)metzdowd.com Subject: A small editorial about recent events. From: "Perry E. Metzger" <perry(a)piermont.com> Date: Sun, 18 Dec 2005 13:58:06 -0500 Sender: owner-cryptography(a)metzdowd.com A small editorial from your moderator. I rarely use this list to express a strong political opinion -- you will forgive me in this instance. This mailing list is putatively about cryptography and cryptography politics, though we do tend to stray quite a bit into security issues of all sorts, and sometimes into the activities of the agency with the biggest crypto and sigint budget in the world, the NSA. As you may all be aware, the New York Times has reported, and the administration has admitted, that President of the United States apparently ordered the NSA to conduct surveillance operations against US citizens without prior permission of the secret court known as the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court (the "FISC"). This is in clear contravention of 50 USC 1801 - 50 USC 1811, a portion of the US code that provides for clear criminal penalties for violations. See: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/html/uscode50/usc_sup_01_50_10_36_20_I.ht… The President claims he has the prerogative to order such surveillance. The law unambiguously disagrees with him. There are minor exceptions in the law, but they clearly do not apply in this case. They cover only the 15 days after a declaration of war by congress, a period of 72 hours prior to seeking court authorization (which was never sought), and similar exceptions that clearly are not germane. There is no room for doubt or question about whether the President has the prerogative to order surveillance without asking the FISC -- even if the FISC is a toothless organization that never turns down requests, it is a federal crime, punishable by up to five years imprisonment, to conduct electronic surveillance against US citizens without court authorization. The FISC may be worthless at defending civil liberties, but in its arrogant disregard for even the fig leaf of the FISC, the administration has actually crossed the line into a crystal clear felony. The government could have legally conducted such wiretaps at any time, but the President chose not to do it legally. Ours is a government of laws, not of men. That means if the President disagrees with a law or feels that it is insufficient, he still must obey it. Ignoring the law is illegal, even for the President. The President may ask Congress to change the law, but meanwhile he must follow it. Our President has chosen to declare himself above the law, a dangerous precedent that could do great harm to our country. However, without substantial effort on the part of you, and I mean you, every person reading this, nothing much is going to happen. The rule of law will continue to decay in our country. Future Presidents will claim even greater extralegal authority, and our nation will fall into despotism. I mean that sincerely. For the sake of yourself, your children and your children's children, you cannot allow this to stand. Call your Senators and your Congressman. Demand a full investigation, both by Congress and by a special prosecutor, of the actions of the Administration and the NSA. Say that the rule of law is all that stands between us and barbarism. Say that we live in a democracy, not a kingdom, and that our elected officials are not above the law. The President is not a King. Even the President cannot participate in a felony and get away with it. Demand that even the President must obey the law. Tell your friends to do the same. Tell them to tell their friends to do the same. Then, call back next week and the week after and the week after that until something happens. Mark it in your calendar so you don't forget about it. Politicians have short memories, and Congress is about to recess for Christmas, so you must not allow this to be forgotten. Keep at them until something happens. Perry --------------------------------------------------------------------- The Cryptography Mailing List Unsubscribe by sending "unsubscribe cryptography" to majordomo(a)metzdowd.com --- end forwarded text -- ----------------- 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' _______________________________________________ Clips mailing list Clips(a)philodox.com http://www.philodox.com/mailman/listinfo/clips --- end forwarded text -- ----------------- 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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