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"Spooks", Root Beer, and My Keyboard...
by R.A. Hettinga 30 Nov '04

30 Nov '04

...so, courtesy of BitTorrent and http://www.tvtorrents.net, I started to download and watch "Spooks" something that looked like a British knock-off of the really-better-off-dead "The Agency" from a few years back over here. Fine. First episode I see (Year 3 episode 6, episode titles forgotten), seemed okay, mostly, though she was *awfully* scrawny the old honey trap, um trick. Second one (episode 7), though, starts off with an almost plausible hacking-for-jihad storyline with only the odd bit of "Star-Trek science", admittedly I'm a sucker for hand-waving, but then, but then... ...but then they got to the crypto. Hence the subject line of this message. Sigh. I'll never learn. Root beer, keyboards, and "Spooks" don't mix. But we knew that already, right? :-) Cheers, RAH -- ----------------- 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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Growing Number Of Hackers Attack Web Sites for Cash
by R.A. Hettinga 30 Nov '04

30 Nov '04

<http://online.wsj.com/article_print/0,,SB110176932097886077,00.html?mod=hom…> The Wall Street Journal November 30, 2004 PAGE ONE Virus for Hire Growing Number Of Hackers Attack Web Sites for Cash Entrepreneur Asked a Team To Mastermind Strikes Against Rivals, U.S. Says WeaKnees on Its Knees By CASSELL BRYAN-LOW Staff Reporter of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL November 30, 2004; Page A1 On Oct. 6, 2003, an electronic attack overwhelmed the Web site of WeaKnees.com, an online seller of digital video recorders. As the attacks escalated over several weeks, the e-mail system was knocked out, customers couldn't access the Web site, and the Los Angeles retailer says it suffered about $200,000 in lost sales and costs for fixing the system. U.S. law-enforcement officials who later investigated the electronic assault came to a disturbing conclusion: It wasn't masterminded by a typical hacker, motivated by the thrill of the crime. Instead, the attack on WeaKnees appeared to be the work of a new breed of cyber-mercenaries who are paid to unleash viruses. The man who allegedly made that payment is Jay R. Echouafni, a 37-year-old entrepreneur from Sudbury, Mass. Rebuffed by WeaKnees over a proposed business deal, Mr. Echouafni attacked the company's Web site, according to law-enforcement authorities. In August 2004, Mr. Echouafni was indicted by a federal grand jury in Los Angeles on charges of criminal conspiracy and launching destructive computer attacks against WeaKnees and two other firms. Mr. Echouafni has since fled, a prosecutor says. Five other defendants are named in a criminal complaint for their alleged role in the attacks, but haven't yet been indicted. Traditionally, computer hackers have invented viruses primarily for the sake of the bragging rights. But now hackers are mixing with fraudsters and organized-crime rings, law-enforcement officials say. Increasingly viruses are being used illegally for financial gain, and they are becoming part of the modern criminal's toolbox. "The things that used to be just nuisances have been picked up by financial criminals," says Alan Paller, director of research at the SysAdmin, Audit, Network, Security Institute, known as SANS, an organization for computer-security professionals in Bethesda, Md. The Internet's growth has led to a surge in cyber-crime, including identity theft and online fraud. The Federal Bureau of Investigation ranks cyber-criminals as its third-biggest priority after terrorists and spies. The United Kingdom's National Hi-Tech Crime Unit has made more than 100 arrests related to major computer crimes since it was set up three years ago. The U.S. Department of Justice employs about 38 attorneys in its computer-crime section, up from three a decade ago. About half focus on viruses and other computer intrusions. The toll of viruses on business, in terms of lost revenue and repair costs, could hit $17.5 billion this year, up from an estimated $13 billion in 2003, according to Computer Economics Inc., a research firm in Aliso Viejo, Calif. It isn't known how much of that stems from financially motivated attacks, but law-enforcement officials say that their frequency is rising sharply. The growth in such attacks is driven by a new family of viruses that lets a person control large numbers of computers in order to, say, attack a corporate Web site. About a year ago, a Russian gang started using a network of virus-infected computers to shut down legitimate British gambling sites and blackmail the operators into paying hundreds of thousands of pounds, according to the U.K.'s high-tech crime unit. Computer viruses are notoriously hard to track. Mr. Echouafni's trail, for example, runs from Massachusetts and California to Germany and Britain. In a phone call made recently from an unknown location, Mr. Echouafni denied the federal charges. "I had nothing to do with the attacks," he said. He said that he had been the target of Web attacks himself, and that he had reported them to the FBI. Mr. Echouafni declined to comment further on the allegations. A prosecutor confirmed that the FBI had received Mr. Echouafni's report. Jay Echouafni, who also goes by the first name Saad, is of Moroccan origin, according to a U.S. prosecutor. A heavy-set man with green eyes, he came to the U.S. as a teenager and became an American citizen, the prosecutor says. Until recently, he lived in Sudbury, an affluent suburb of Boston, with his wife and their three children. They occasionally returned to Morocco where Mr. Echouafni maintained business interests, added the prosecutor. Mr. Echouafni's company, Orbit Communications Corp., sold gear such as set-top boxes that receive signals for satellite-TV systems, according to court filings. He also dabbled in software development, the prosecutor says. Former business acquaintances describe him as bright, hard-working and computer-savvy. He could also be tough. "We had lots of problems with him," says Lee Taylor, chief executive of Perfect 10 Satellite Distributing Inc., a company in North Little Rock, Ark., that sold millions of dollars of equipment to Mr. Echouafni over the past few years. Mr. Echouafni often would badger the distributor's employees to lower their prices, according to Mr. Taylor. The case against Mr. Echouafni and his co-defendants is in its early stages and not all the facts are known. Some alleged participants couldn't be reached. But the case provides an early glimpse into the burgeoning world of viruses-for-hire. Business Proposal In early 2003, Mr. Echouafni approached WeaKnees.com with a business proposal: In a move that would have broadened his company's product range, Mr. Echouafni wanted to distribute upgrade kits sold by WeaKnees, which extend the recording time of digital video recorders, says Michael Adberg, co-owner of WeaKnees. Mr. Adberg says he turned down the proposal in part because he worried it would give Mr. Echouafni significant control over WeaKnees's business. Apparently annoyed by the rejection, Mr. Echouafni contacted Paul G. Ashley, owner of a Powell, Ohio, company with whom he did business, according to the indictment. Mr. Ashley's company rented out large computers that run Web sites, the indictment says. Mr. Echouafni said that some competitors were bothering him and asked Mr. Ashley to attack their Web sites, according to the indictment and complaint. Three companies were targeted, including WeaKnees and Rapid Satellite, a Miami company that directly competed with Mr. Echouafni's business of selling home satellite-TV systems, according to the indictment. Mr. Ashley sent their Web addresses to Lee G. Walker, a business associate who lived in the U.K., according to the complaint. Mr. Walker's weapon of choice for the job was a piece of malicious computer code known as a bot virus, the complaint alleges. Richard Cline, a lawyer in Columbus, Ohio, for Mr. Ashley, said neither he nor his client had any comment. Mr. Walker couldn't be reached. With a bot virus, a single person can hijack the power of thousands of far-flung computers. Security experts believe that most spam is sent using bots. The approach makes it easy for cyber-criminals to cover their tracks since they act through other people's computers. The popularity of high-speed Internet connections that are always kept on has also promoted the spread of bots. In Internet chatrooms, access to bot-controlled computers can be purchased for anywhere from a few cents to $1 per machine. Of the 100,000 viruses and worms that exist in cyberspace, bots are among the fastest spreading. Two years ago only 200 bot-virus variations existed; today, there are about 4,000, according to F-Secure Corp., a Finnish antivirus software maker. Mr. Walker later confessed to law-enforcement officials that he used computers infected with a bot virus named "Agobot," according to the complaint. Its creator was Axel Gembe, an unemployed 22-year-old who named the virus after his own nickname "Ago." Mr. Gembe is a self-taught computer whiz from a modest background who lives near Germany's border with Switzerland. Mr. Gembe gained notoriety in the hacker world last fall for breaking into the systems of a U.S. videogame developer, Valve Corp., and stealing code for the sequel of a popular computer game called "Half-Life." Key parts of the game were leaked via the Internet, causing millions of dollars in damage, Valve says. German police arrested Mr. Gembe in May for his alleged role in the theft of the videogame code and for his involvement in the attacks that Mr. Echouafni allegedly instigated. Mr. Gembe hasn't been charged with any crime. Police say they are still investigating. In an e-mail response to questions, Mr. Gembe admits to taking the videogame code but denies leaking it. He also acknowledges writing Agobot, but says that he doesn't know how Mr. Walker obtained the virus. Mr. Walker used 5,000 to 10,000 hijacked computers to attack the WeaKnees and Rapid Satellite sites, according to the U.S. complaint. After initial assaults shut down the Web sites, Mr. Echouafni contacted Mr. Ashley by phone and praised him and others for doing "a good job," according to the indictment and a prosecutor. He also paid Mr. Ashley $1,000, the complaint says. Mr. Echouafni acquired Mr. Ashley's company and retained him as a systems administrator, for an annual salary of $120,000, according to the indictment and criminal complaint. Mr. Ashley transferred $900 to Mr. Walker in England, the prosecutor says. Around the same time, Mr. Ashley allegedly recruited another hacker, Joshua J. Schichtel from Chandler, Ariz., and asked him to launch his own attacks against the Web sites, according to the criminal complaint, which also names Mr. Schichtel as a defendant. Pressing the Attack "Destroy it...heheh," Mr. Ashley wrote Mr. Schichtel in an electronic message, according to the complaint. When Mr. Schichtel told him that one of the companies had changed network addresses six times, Mr. Ashley told him to keep attacking the site, the complaint says. Mr. Schichtel couldn't be reached for comment. The attacks against WeaKnees ran from early October until mid-November 2003, according to the complaint. During that time, the Web site was periodically shut down, making it difficult for customers to reach the company, says WeaKnees. In early October 2003, Rapid Satellite's site also was attacked. While Nick Molina, chief executive of Rapid Satellite's parent, WebClick Concepts Inc. of Miami, was struggling to get his systems running again, he says he received an unusual call. Mr. Echouafni offered to host Rapid Satellite's site for $5,000 a month. In an interview, Mr. Molina contends that Mr. Echouafni wanted "to see the pain I was going through" and "extort money from me." The three target companies, in total, suffered more than $2 million in lost revenue and costs, according to the complaint. The FBI, meanwhile, traced digital fingerprints left by the hackers to the company that Mr. Walker worked for, and then to Mr. Walker himself, according to the complaint. When U.S. and British law-enforcement agents interviewed Mr. Walker on Feb. 11, he admitted launching the attacks, according to the complaint. Three days later, FBI agents searched Mr. Ashley's home in Ohio, and he, too, confessed, according to the complaint. Mr. Ashley, Mr. Walker and Mr. Schichtel are among five defendants named in the criminal complaint. None of them has been indicted. The FBI eventually gathered enough evidence to go after Mr. Echouafni. When he learned about the Ohio search, Mr. Echouafni and his family flew to Morocco, the FBI says. He and his wife returned to Boston on an Air France flight on March 11, where he was arrested by waiting FBI officials, the agency says. Sometime after that, Mr. Echouafni jumped bail; prosecutors believe he has fled the country. -- ----------------- 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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[ISN] Desktop Google Finds Holes
by R.A. Hettinga 30 Nov '04

30 Nov '04

--- begin forwarded text

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5 years, $6,200, plus whipping: Amnesty encourgaes departure of Malaysia's illegal immigrants
by R.A. Hettinga 30 Nov '04

30 Nov '04

>If not, they face jail sentences of up to five years or fines of more than >$US2,600, or both, plus whipping. Kewl... Cheers, RAH ------- <http://www.abc.net.au/ra/news/stories/s1231083.htm> Radio Australia - News - Amnesty encourgaes departure of Malaysia's illegal immigrants US warns of possible terror attacks in Indonesia during Ramadan > [17:10:10] Two quakes hit Indonesian city > [03:20:19] Bashir declares innocence as trial opens in Indonesian capital > [03:20:18] Last Updated 29/10/2004, 21:50:16 Malaysia has launched an amnesty for illegal immigrants. The Malaysian government hopes some 160,000 Indonesians, working illegally in the country, will head home during the 17 day amnesty program to mark the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. If not, they face jail sentences of up to five years or fines of more than $US2,600, or both, plus whipping. Thousands of illegal immigrants have reportedly been whipped in Malaysian prisons since harsh new laws were introduced two years ago. Immigration officials say there's been little response so far, but they say they expect more people to leave in the coming days. Illegal immigrants can only depart if they have valid travel documents and a ferry ticket, and all those leaving are fingerprinted. Under the amnesty, 6,000 illegal immigrants held at detention centres in Malaysia will also be allowed to return to their countries, if they are not involved in court cases. There are about 1.2 million illegal immigrants in Malaysia, mainly from Indonesia and the Philippines. -- ----------------- 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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[i2p] weekly status notes [nov 30] (fwd from jrandom@i2p.net)
by Eugen Leitl 30 Nov '04

30 Nov '04

----- Forwarded message from jrandom <jrandom(a)i2p.net> -----

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Clean System to Zombie Bot in Four Minutes
by Eugen Leitl 30 Nov '04

30 Nov '04

Link: http://slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/11/30/1932245 Posted by: michael, on 2004-11-30 20:05:00 from the takes-five-minutes-to-download-patches dept. [1]Amadaeus writes "According to the latest study by USA Today and [2]Avantgarde, it takes less than [3]4 minutes for an unpatched Windows XP SP1 system to become part of a botnet. Avantgarde has the statistics in [4]their abstract. Stats of note: Although Macs and PC's got hit with equal opportunity, the XP SP1 machine was hit with 5 LSASS and 4 DCOM exploits while the Mac remained clean. The Linux desktop also was impenetrable, but only was only targeted by 0.26% of all attacks." See also our story on the [5]survival time for unpatched systems. [6]Click Here References 1. mailto:raymondlai@gmail.com 2. http://www.avantgarde.com/ 3. http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/technology/2004-11-29-honeypot_x.h… 4. http://avantgarde.com/ttlnabstract113004.pdf 5. http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=04/08/17/1347214&tid=172 6. http://ads.osdn.com/?ad_id=5671&alloc_id=12342&site_id=1&request_id=4452725… p=click&page=%2farticle%2epl ----- End forwarded message ----- -- Eugen* Leitl <a href="http://leitl.org">leitl</a> ______________________________________________________________ ICBM: 48.07078, 11.61144 http://www.leitl.org 8B29F6BE: 099D 78BA 2FD3 B014 B08A 7779 75B0 2443 8B29 F6BE http://moleculardevices.org http://nanomachines.net [demime 1.01d removed an attachment of type application/pgp-signature]

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[ISN] Desktop Google Finds Holes
by InfoSec News 30 Nov '04

30 Nov '04

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1730748,00.asp By Bruce Schneier November 29, 2004 Google's desktop search software is so good that it exposes vulnerabilities on your computer that you didn't know about. Last month, Google released a beta version of its desktop search software: Google Desktop Search. Install it on your Windows machine, and it creates a searchable index of your data files, including word processing files, spreadsheets, presentations, e-mail messages, cached Web pages and chat sessions. It's a great idea. Windows' searching capability has always been mediocre, and Google fixes the problem nicely. There are some security issues, though. The problem is that GDS indexes and finds documents that you may prefer not be found. For example, GDS searches your browser's cache. This allows it to find old Web pages you've visited, including online banking summaries, personal messages sent from Web e-mail programs and password-protected personal Web pages. GDS can also retrieve encrypted files. No, it doesn't break the encryption or save a copy of the key. However, it searches the Windows cache, which can bypass some encryption programs entirely. And if you install the program on a computer with multiple users, you can search documents and Web pages for all users. GDS isn't doing anything wrong; it's indexing and searching documents just as it's supposed to. The vulnerabilities are due to the design of Internet Explorer, Opera, Firefox, PGP and other programs. First, Web browsers should not store SSL-encrypted pages or pages with personal e-mail. If they do store them, they should at least ask the user first. Second, an encryption program that leaves copies of decrypted files in the cache is poorly designed. Those files are there whether or not GDS searches for them. Third, GDS' ability to search files and Web pages of multiple users on a computer received a lot of press when it was first discovered. This is a complete nonissue. You have to be an administrator on the machine to do this, which gives you access to everyone's files anyway. Some people blame Google for these problems and suggest, wrongly, that Google fix them. What if Google were to bow to public pressure and modify GDS to avoid showing confidential information? The underlying problems would remain: The private Web pages would still be in the browser's cache; the encryption program would still be leaving copies of the plain-text files in the operating system's cache; and the administrator could still eavesdrop on anyone's computer to which he or she has access. The only thing that would have changed is that these vulnerabilities once again would be hidden from the average computer user. In the end, this can only harm security. GDS is very good at searching. It's so good that it exposes vulnerabilities on your computer that you didn't know about. And now that you know about them, pressure your software vendors to fix them. Don't shoot the messenger. Bruce Schneier is CTO of Counterpane Internet Security Inc. _________________________________________ Open Source Vulnerability Database (OSVDB) Everything is Vulnerable - http://www.osvdb.org/ --- 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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[ISN] Desktop Google Finds Holes
by InfoSec News 30 Nov '04

30 Nov '04

http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1730748,00.asp By Bruce Schneier November 29, 2004 Google's desktop search software is so good that it exposes vulnerabilities on your computer that you didn't know about. Last month, Google released a beta version of its desktop search software: Google Desktop Search. Install it on your Windows machine, and it creates a searchable index of your data files, including word processing files, spreadsheets, presentations, e-mail messages, cached Web pages and chat sessions. It's a great idea. Windows' searching capability has always been mediocre, and Google fixes the problem nicely. There are some security issues, though. The problem is that GDS indexes and finds documents that you may prefer not be found. For example, GDS searches your browser's cache. This allows it to find old Web pages you've visited, including online banking summaries, personal messages sent from Web e-mail programs and password-protected personal Web pages. GDS can also retrieve encrypted files. No, it doesn't break the encryption or save a copy of the key. However, it searches the Windows cache, which can bypass some encryption programs entirely. And if you install the program on a computer with multiple users, you can search documents and Web pages for all users. GDS isn't doing anything wrong; it's indexing and searching documents just as it's supposed to. The vulnerabilities are due to the design of Internet Explorer, Opera, Firefox, PGP and other programs. First, Web browsers should not store SSL-encrypted pages or pages with personal e-mail. If they do store them, they should at least ask the user first. Second, an encryption program that leaves copies of decrypted files in the cache is poorly designed. Those files are there whether or not GDS searches for them. Third, GDS' ability to search files and Web pages of multiple users on a computer received a lot of press when it was first discovered. This is a complete nonissue. You have to be an administrator on the machine to do this, which gives you access to everyone's files anyway. Some people blame Google for these problems and suggest, wrongly, that Google fix them. What if Google were to bow to public pressure and modify GDS to avoid showing confidential information? The underlying problems would remain: The private Web pages would still be in the browser's cache; the encryption program would still be leaving copies of the plain-text files in the operating system's cache; and the administrator could still eavesdrop on anyone's computer to which he or she has access. The only thing that would have changed is that these vulnerabilities once again would be hidden from the average computer user. In the end, this can only harm security. GDS is very good at searching. It's so good that it exposes vulnerabilities on your computer that you didn't know about. And now that you know about them, pressure your software vendors to fix them. Don't shoot the messenger. Bruce Schneier is CTO of Counterpane Internet Security Inc. _________________________________________ Open Source Vulnerability Database (OSVDB) Everything is Vulnerable - http://www.osvdb.org/ --- 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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"F*ck the South"
by Tyler Durden 30 Nov '04

30 Nov '04

A hilarious rant. You can hear this guy's anger ain't just for show, too--> www.fuckthesouth.com -TD Fuck the South. Fuck 'em. We should have let them go when they wanted to leave. But no, we had to kill half a million people so they'd stay part of our special Union. Fighting for the right to keep slaves - yeah, those are states we want to keep. And now what do we get? We're the fucking Arrogant Northeast Liberal Elite? How about this for arrogant: the South is the Real America? The Authentic America. Really? Cause we fucking founded this country, assholes. Those Founding Fathers you keep going on and on about? All that bullshit about what you think they meant by the Second Amendment giving you the right to keep your assault weapons in the glove compartment because you didn't bother to read the first half of the fucking sentence? Who do you think those wig-wearing lacy-shirt sporting revolutionaries were? They were fucking blue-staters, dickhead. Boston? Philadelphia? New York? Hello? Think there might be a reason all the fucking monuments are up here in our backyard? No, No. Get the fuck out. We're not letting you visit the Liberty Bell and fucking Plymouth Rock anymore until you get over your real American selves and start respecting those other nine amendments. Who do you think those fucking stripes on the flag are for? Nine are for fucking blue states. And it would be 10 if those Vermonters had gotten their fucking Subarus together and broken off from New York a little earlier. Get it? We started this shit, so don't get all uppity about how real you are you Johnny-come-lately "Oooooh I've been a state for almost a hundred years" dickheads. Fuck off. Arrogant? You wanna talk about us Northeasterners being fucking arrogant? What's more American than arrogance? Hmmm? Maybe horsies? I don't think so. Arrogance is the fucking cornerstone of what it means to be American. And I wouldn't be so fucking arrogant if I wasn't paying for your fucking bridges, bitch. All those Federal taxes you love to hate? It all comes from us and goes to you, so shut up and enjoy your fucking Tennessee Valley Authority electricity and your fancy highways that we paid for. And the next time Florida gets hit by a hurricane you can come crying to us if you want to, but you're the ones who built on a fucking swamp. "Let the Spanish keep it, its a shithole," we said, but you had to have your fucking orange juice. The next dickwad who says, "Its your money, not the government's money" is gonna get their ass kicked. Nine of the ten states that get the most federal fucking dollars and pay the least... can you guess? Go on, guess. Thats right, motherfucker, they're red states. And eight of the ten states that receive the least and pay the most? Its too easy, asshole, theyre blue states. Its not your money, assholes, its fucking our money. What was that Real American Value you were spouting a minute ago? Self reliance? Try this for self reliance: buy your own fucking stop signs, assholes. Lets talk about those values for a fucking minute. You and your Southern values can bite my ass because the blue states got the values over you fucking Real Americans every day of the goddamn week. Which state do you think has the lowest divorce rate you marriage-hyping dickwads? Well? Can you guess? Its fucking Massachusetts, the fucking center of the gay marriage universe. Yes, thats right, the state you love to tie around the neck of anyone to the left of Strom Thurmond has the lowest divorce rate in the fucking nation. Think thats just some aberration? How about this: 9 of the 10 lowest divorce rates are fucking blue states, asshole, and most are in the Northeast, where our values suck so bad. And where are the highest divorce rates? Care to fucking guess? 10 of the top 10 are fucking red-ass we're-so-fucking-moral states. And while Nevada is the worst, the Bible Belt is doing its fucking part. But two guys making out is going to fucking ruin marriage for you? Yeah? Seems like you're ruining it pretty well on your own, you little bastards. Oh, but that's ok because you go to church, right? I mean you do, right? Cause we fucking get to hear about it every goddamn year at election time. Yes, we're fascinated by how you get up every Sunday morning and sing, and then you're fucking towers of moral superiority. Yeah, that's a workable formula. Maybe us fucking Northerners don't talk about religion as much as you because we're not so busy sinning, hmmm? Ever think of that, you self-righteous assholes? No, you're too busy erecting giant stone tablets of the Ten Commandments in buildings paid for by the fucking Northeast Liberal Elite. And who has the highest murder rates in the nation? It ain't us up here in the North, assholes. Well this gravy train is fucking over. Take your liberal-bashing, federal-tax-leaching, confederate-flag-waving, holier-than-thou, hypocritical bullshit and shove it up your ass. And no, you can't have your fucking convention in New York next time. Fuck off.

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Notes Spotted by Soldier Lead G.I.'s to Rebel Cache
by R.A. Hettinga 29 Nov '04

29 Nov '04

<http://www.nytimes.com/2004/11/29/international/middleeast/29mosul.html?ore…> The New York Times November 29, 2004 MOSUL Notes Spotted by Soldier Lead G.I.'s to Rebel Cache By RICHARD A. OPPEL Jr. OSUL, Iraq, Nov. 28 - At first the suspect was merely one of 115 Iraqis whom American troops corralled for questioning on Saturday night in a particularly nasty part of Mosul. But his belligerence stood out. And then he made his move. Sitting where the troops had ordered him to sit - in front of an open-air cigarette store - the suspect flicked out of his pocket several folded sheets of handwritten notes. It was clear he hoped the pages would land unnoticed amid the clutter of the store just a step away. They did not. A soldier scooped them up and handed them to an Iraqi interpreter working for the Americans. "Who has this? He is an insurgent!" shouted the interpreter, known only to the soldiers as Jeff the Fighting Kurd. Jeff and another interpreter quickly translated the pages for the American officers who gathered around. One passage mentioned a proposal for a large-scale attack against American troops, according to the interpreters. Another urged attacks on the families of Iraqis thought to be working for the Americans. Another described "how to get money and use the money for jihad," an interpreter said. And still another underscored the importance of "bringing information about who is working for the U.S. forces." An American commander told embedded journalists not to report other passages - more specific, descriptive and pointed - for fear of jeopardizing efforts to gather intelligence and prevent attacks on American forces. Suddenly, the night's operation was not over. Soldiers found keys on the suspect and took him the short distance to his two-story home in Old Mosul, a densely populated warren of rundown homes in central Mosul thought to be a haven for hard-core insurgents in this northern city of two million. They walked inside, through a 15-foot-square courtyard, past two women, an elderly man, a child and a young boy, to another room packed with papers. They moved upstairs, past a flower bed, and found two rooms that contained all sorts of electronic equipment, the troops said. "There was a large stash of bomb-making material, switches, wires, just a trove of stuff," said the American commander, Lt. Col. Erik Kurilla, whose battalion controls much of western Mosul. "Papers on how to launder money and others that talked about the ineffectiveness of some of their weapons systems against us and how they need to change." A 55-gallon drum of bomb-making material and 2.5 million Iraqi dinars - about $1,700 - was also found, he said. The papers retrieved from the man in front of the cigarette stand, he said, were "minutes from some type of meeting of terrorist cells where they discussed money laundering, recruitment, weapons effectiveness and future operations." This is how it goes in the war against the insurgents in Mosul. Apparently having learned that direct attacks on American troops and their heavily armored vehicles are a difficult if not suicidal approach, insurgents often keep to the confines of sympathetic neighborhoods. They come out to try to pick off American troops patrolling the city or to launch mortars at American bases. But most of their efforts lately have been to kidnap, brutalize and kill young Iraqis who have joined the nation's new security forces or who are thought to be helping the Americans. So for American troops here, success often means catching a break or two from a steady routine of raids and searches into places like Old Mosul, a one-square-mile district in the center of the city that is home to as many as 500,000 people. Sometimes troops go into insurgent areas for the principal purpose of drawing their fire - so the Americans can shoot back and capture or kill them. Such missions are very frustrating when the insurgents do not take the bait, as was the case during a rainy three-hour operation into Old Mosul last week. But on Saturday, the troops had help. Riding in a 19-ton armored Stryker vehicle was "the source," an informant who, despite never leaving the vehicle, was bedecked in a full-face scarf, a Kevlar helmet, and large black sunglasses. Using informants can be tricky business, Colonel Kurilla is quick to concede. They can be motivated by revenge, and some do not have a good track record. With the informant in tow, troops raided an Old Mosul mosque and surrounding homes in the morning, detaining eight people whom the informant - peering through an on-board video monitor linked to a large camera atop the Stryker - identified as insurgents. But there was not much evidence. The most excited one of the Iraqi commanders became was when he brought a pair of rubber boots out of a home and laid them at the feet of several American soldiers, exclaiming, "Ali Baba!" The troops, mystified, went inside the house and found a dozen pairs of boots, and nothing else. But for the troops, Saturday night offered a welcome payoff. The troops arrived at an intersection in Old Mosul at about 5:30 p.m. and began rounding up people near a mosque and a social club where men were playing cards on the second floor. Only toward the end of the mission did the handwritten notes appear - confirming, in the view of the soldiers, that they had found some bad guys. "This is a very good night," said Capt. Matthew McGrew. "They're somebody." He added that if they were not insurgent fighters, "they're one of the terrorist cells working against us." "We know they're bad," 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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