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E-Mail Authentication Will Not End Spam, Panelists Say
by R.A. Hettinga 22 Nov '04

22 Nov '04

<http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A41460-2004Nov10?language=printer> The Washington Post washingtonpost.com E-Mail Authentication Will Not End Spam, Panelists Say By Jonathan Krim Washington Post Staff Writer Thursday, November 11, 2004; Page E01 For consumers and businesses increasingly shaken by the growing onslaught of unwanted e-mail and the computer viruses and other nefarious hacking spam can bring, any hope for quick relief was soundly dashed yesterday during a government-hosted gathering of technology experts. Several executives and academics speaking at a forum sponsored by the Federal Trade Commission said criminals are already steps ahead of a major initiative by e-mail providers to counter those problems by creating a system to verify senders of e-mail. In theory, such an authentication system would make it harder for spammers to disguise their identities and locations in an attempt to avoid being shut down or prosecuted. But a majority of spam is launched by "zombies," or infected personal computers that are controlled by remote spammers. E-mail from a zombie looks as if it is coming from a legitimate source -- because it is. The owner of that source is simply unaware that his or her computer has been commandeered. "We'll be lucky if we solve 50 percent of the problem" with e-mail authentication, said Pavni Diwanji, chairman of MailFrontier Inc., a Silicon Valley provider of e-mail security systems. By some estimates, the problem is rapidly becoming a crisis. In the first half of this year, an average of 30,000 computers a day were turned into zombies, according to the computer security firm Symantec Corp. In addition to serving up unwanted or fraudulent messages, spam is used to deliver viruses and other malicious software code that can allow hackers to capture private data such as credit card or bank account numbers from personal computers. Hackers and spammers also have been able to exploit a lack of awareness among many computer users, tricking them into providing their passwords or account information in response to e-mails that appear to be coming from legitimate financial institutions or retailers, a tactic known as phishing. The information is then rapidly sold on a black market heavily populated by elements of organized crime in Eastern Europe, Asia and elsewhere. As incidents of the resulting identity fraud mount, "we're losing consumer confidence in this medium," said R. David Lewis, vice president of Digital Impact Inc., which provides bulk e-mail marketing services to large companies. Lewis and others said that if the public reaches a tipping point at which Internet commerce is no longer trusted, the economic consequences will be severe. Despite the authentication effort's shortcomings, none of yesterday's speakers suggested abandoning it, because it is seen as an essential building block for other solutions. But the forum demonstrated in stark terms the depth and complexity of the problem. Any e-mail authentication system, for example, would check that the block of Internet addresses assigned to an e-mail provider includes the specific numeric address of a sender of a piece of e-mail. Thus, a red flag would go up if a message seeming to come from bob(a)xyz-123.net is actually not coming from a computer that uses the xyz-123.net mail service. But Scott Chasin, chief technology officer of e-mail security firm MX Logic Inc., said the underlying Internet system that houses the necessary data is insecure and can be tricked by hackers. Chasin said the problem has been known for 10 years, but industry and Internet standard-setters have been unable or unwilling to fix the problem by encrypting the data. Getting agreement on an authentication system has been similarly difficult and is partly why the FTC held the summit. The major e-mail providers, America Online Inc., Microsoft Corp., Yahoo Inc. and EarthLink Inc., are still testing and pushing various plans. The Internet group assigned to endorse a standard disbanded recently, unable to resolve discord and uncertainty over whether licensing rights asserted by Microsoft would cut out a broad swath of organizations that use so-called open-source software. Chasin and other panelists also said the basic operating systems that power computers -- the most dominant of which is Microsoft Windows -- remain too vulnerable to hackers. He said a worm was recently discovered that lodges itself in Windows files and goes to work when a computer user tries to access the Web site of his or her bank. The malicious code automatically redirects the Web browser to a fake page that looks like the real thing. In this scenario, the user has not been duped by a fake phishing e-mail. Instead, the vulnerability in the operating system has allowed the code to redirect the user's browser to a phony page where a hacker can capture the user's name and password. Still, panelists insisted authentication is a vital first step. After that, they said, could come a system that evaluates the "reputation" of senders, perhaps using a process that marks good e-mail with an electronic seal of approval. -- ----------------- 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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Re: Gov't Orders Air Passenger Data for Test
by John Kelsey 22 Nov '04

22 Nov '04

News story quoted by RAH: >WASHINGTON - The government on Friday ordered airlines to turn over >personal information about passengers who flew within the United States in >June in order to test a new system for identifying potential terrorists. The interesting thing here is that they can't really test how effective the system is until they have another terrorist event on an airline. Otherwise, they can assess the false positive rate of their list (people who were on the no-fly-list, shouldn't have flown according to the rules, but did without trying to hijack the plane), and the false positive and false negative rate of their search for names in the list (e.g., when it becomes obvious that Benjamin Ladon from Peoria, IL would have matched, but wasn't the guy they were hoping to nab, or when it becomes obvious that a suspected terrorist was in the data, did fly, but wasn't caught by the software). > The system, dubbed "Secure Flight," will compare passenger data with names >on two government watch lists, a "no fly" list comprised of people who are >known or suspected to be terrorists, and a list of people who require more >scrutiny before boarding planes. Presumably a lot of the goal here is to stop hassling everyone with a last name that starts with al or bin, stop hassling Teddy Kennedy getting on a plane, etc., while still catching most of the people on their watchlists who fly under their real name. ... > Currently, the federal government shares parts of the list with airlines, >which are responsible for making sure suspected terrorists don't get on >planes. People within the commercial aviation industry say the lists have >the names of more than 100,000 people on them. This is a goofy number. If there were 100,000 likely terrorists walking the streets, we'd have buildings and planes and bus stops and restaurants blowing up every day of the week. I'll bet you're risking your career if you ever take someone off the watchlist who isn't a congressman or a member of the Saudi royal family, but that it costs you nothing to add someone to the list. In fact, I'll bet there are people whose performance evaluations note how many people they added to the watchlist. This is what often seems to make watchlists useless--eventually, your list of threats has expanded to include Elvis Presley and John Lennon, and at that point, you're spending almost all your time keeping an eye on (or harassing) random harmless bozos. >R. A. Hettinga <mailto: rah(a)ibuc.com> --John

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Microchip passport critics say ID theft possible
by R.A. Hettinga 22 Nov '04

22 Nov '04

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 <http://www.usatoday.com/tech/news/2004-11-22-hitech-passport_x.htm> USA Today Microchip passport critics say ID theft possible The Associated Press The United States hasn't issued any microchip-equipped passports yet, but as the Department of State tests different prototypes, the international standards for the passports are under fire from privacy advocates who worry the technology won't protect travelers from identity thieves. The American Civil Liberties union has raised alarms and even an executive at one of the companies developing a prototype for the State Department calls the international standards woefully inadequate. The international standards for "electronic" passports were set by the U.N.-affiliated International Civil Aviation Organization, which has worked on standards for machine-readable passports since 1968. On the latest passports, the agency has "taken a 'keep it simple' approach, which, unfortunately, really disregards a basic privacy approach and leaves out the basic security methods we would have expected to have been incorporated for the security of the documents," said Neville Pattinson, an executive at Axalto North America, which is working on a prototype U.S. electronic passport. As part of heightened security post-Sept. 11, all new U.S. passports issued by the end of 2005 are expected to have a chip containing the holders' name, birth date and issuing office, as well as a "biometric" identifier - a photo of the holders' face. The photo is the international standard for biometrics, but countries are free to add other biometrics, such as fingerprints, for greater accuracy. Privacy advocates have complained about the security standards for the passports, but Pattinson is the most prominent person involved in their creation to express concern that they could become prey for identity thieves if safeguards aren't standardized. A slide in a presentation he gives says, "Don't lose the public's confidence at the get go." Another asks, "Who is up for a black eye?" The international passport standards call for "a very sophisticated smart card device," that uses a chip and an antenna embedded in the passports' covers, Pattinson said. Unlike cheaper and dumber RFID tags, the passport chips would be microprocessors that could send one piece of information at a time in answer to queries from a machine reader. They could also be equipped with multiple layers of encryption for security. The international standards spell out ways the passports could incorporate more protection from identity thieves, but they make those methods optional. Under the standards, information on the chip could be picked up by someone who wires a briefcase with a reader, then swings it within inches of a passports, Pattinson said. Over a greater distance, an interloper could eavesdrop on border control devices reading the passports, he said. "There's no security built into it," said Barry Steinhardt, director of the technology and liberty program, at the American Civil Liberties Union. "This will enable identity theft and put Americans at some risk when they travel internationally." One rudimentary way to protect electronic passports from identity thieves is to wrap them in tinfoil, which blocks radio waves. A single size Doritos bag would do the trick. Protecting border control agents' readers with a metal shield would protect against eavesdropping. The International Civil Aviation Organization and State Department say they're looking at more organized methods. The privacy issues "have come up and they are being looked at," said Denis Schagnon, a spokesman for ICAO. "This is a process that is being implemented over the next few years, it is not something that happens overnight." One way to fight identity theft is already in the standards, he said: The passports will have built-in encrypted authentication to let electronic readers know they are original documents, not forgeries. The international standard "is obviously a baseline," said Angela Aggeler, spokesperson for the bureau of consular affairs at the State Department. "This is something we continue to develop and work on. (Privacy) is the thing that is driving a lot of our considerations. Personal privacy issues are of paramount consideration." Other countries are also making the switch to microchipped, biometric passports, at U.S. request. Under the Patriot Act, visitors from 27 countries whose citizens don't need visas to visit the United States will need electronic passports, too. The United States originally asked that visitors from those countries have the electronic passports by this October. President Bush in August gave the countries an extra year to issue them; they will be required by next October. In testimony before a House committee, Secretary of State Colin Powell said that other countries were finding the switch "daunting," as was the United States. The Government Printing Office is manufacturing test passports using chip packages provided by four companies, it said when the contracts were awarded in October. The National Institute of Standards will then test the prototypes to see if they meet durability, security and electronic requirements. The State Department and the Department of Homeland Security are also testing the passports, Aggeler said. One or more companies will win a contract for the passports by the end of the year, according to the printing office's schedule, and the U.S. government would begin issuing them to officials and diplomats starting early next year. The companies under contract are Axalto, whose parent company is headquartered in France, SuperCom, Infineon Technologies and BearingPoint, which have been awarded contracts worth a total of $373,000. BearingPoint is the only company headquartered in the United States. - -- - ----------------- 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' -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 1308 iQA/AwUBQaJRlsPxH8jf3ohaEQJZcwCgm4/0wYTRd4NvCI4rx/Ii2/+nvMUAn3wB Iz4VwYjQJoZMuzFhm4LUPzGz =Y9yI -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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Re: Fallujah: Marine Eye-Witness Report
by John Kelsey 22 Nov '04

22 Nov '04

>From: "R.A. Hettinga" <rah(a)shipwright.com> >Sent: Nov 21, 2004 9:23 PM >To: John Young <jya(a)pipeline.com>, cypherpunks(a)al-qaeda.net >Subject: Re: Fallujah: Marine Eye-Witness Report ... >By the way, John, did you know that Bush Is Going To Revive The Draft??? I know this is currently known to be false by all informed opinion, but I don't think it's crazy to worry about it. If we want to fight high-tech wars like the invasion of Iraq, lots of conscript troops aren't that useful. If we want to occupy places like Iraq, we need people to do the occupying, and it's clear that there's some strain on our forces now. Conscript troops might very well be useful for that kind of work. Suppose we invade and occupy Iran next. Where will the soldiers needed to hold down occupied territory come from? Suppose we follow up with Syria, which is surely about as repressive and nasty a place as Saddam's Iraq. Three things are very clear about the current situation: a. A lot of people are finding out that their military obligations are going to be longer and much less pleasant than they expected. This is going to have a big impact on recruiting in the future. b. If we just want to hold down what we've got, we have enough troops to do it, but if we want to really go on a democratizing bender in the Middle East, we'll need more troops. c. It's not at all clear we won't be taking some action against Iran in the next year. Hopefully, that won't involve invading them, but it could. >Cheers, >RAH --John

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A Tale of Two Maps
by R.A. Hettinga 22 Nov '04

22 Nov '04

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 <http://www.techcentralstation.com/111704A.html> Tech Central Station A Tale of Two Maps By Patrick Cox Published 11/17/2004 The now familiar map of the United States, separated into red and blue states, makes the point, graphically, that the coastal population centers tend to vote Democratic while fly-over country leans Republican. Unfortunately, the map's binary either/or electoral college nature overestimates the philosophical division within the country while failing to show the extraordinary degree to which Americans' voting behavior reflects the degree to which their own neighborhoods are more or less crowded. A far better illustration, devised by Princeton University mathematician Robert Vanderbei, uses shades of purple to indicate the spectrum of election preferences within counties. Here is a map, executed by Michael Gastner, Cosma Shalizi, and Mark Newman of the University of Michigan using his procedure: <http://www.techcentralstation.com/images/111704AAA.gif> Here is a map showing U.S. population density in 1990: <http://www.techcentralstation.com/images/111704A.gif> Comparisons of these two maps make startlingly obvious the extent to which population density predicts voter behavior. Though not a perfect match, the relationship is undeniable -- and ultimately enigmatic. What, we are led to ask, could explain this relationship? How does the number of live humans per square mile either influence or reflect political philosophy? The standard, rather unexamined, assumption is that rural America has more traditional cultural values that are associated with the Republican Party. These include religious, family and pro-military values. Urban population centers and surrounding environs, on the other hand, are associated with more progressive values associated with Democratic Party. These values are assumed to be more secular, progressive and anti-military. While this may be an accurate description, no one, to my knowledge, has provided a convincing explanation for the differences between lower and higher density regions. Why would, after all, city life cause one to embrace liberal political views? Why would life in the country yield a conservative perspective? What, specifically, are the causative factors? There has been a surfeit of speculation about psychological factors, but relatively few specifics and even less evidence. Urban areas do have higher crime rates and, while this attribute is widely recognized, there is little real analysis of such as a causative factor in political attitudes. One of the few efforts even to quantify the correlation of population density and crime rates comes from John R. Lott and David Mustard who studied the impact on crime rates of Right-to-Carry Concealed Handgun laws -- which is higher in rural areas. One of the very few studies to actually examine the effects of population density on behavior and attitudes is "Measuring Helping Behavior Across Cultures" by Robert V. Levine of California State University, Fresno. Levine found, through a series of interesting tests, such as feigning a blind person trying to find and retrieve a lost letter, that "Far and away the best predictor of helping was population density. Density was more closely tied to the helpfulness of a city than even characteristics like crime rates, the pace of life, economic conditions or environmental stressors like noise and air pollution. Overall, people in more crowded cities were much less likely to take the time to help. New York City was Exhibit A. Crowding brings out our worst nature. Urban critics have demonstrated that squeezing too many people into too small a space leads to alienation, anonymity, de-individuation and social isolation. Ultimately, people feel less responsible for their behaviors toward others -- especially strangers. Previous studies have shown that city dwellers are more likely to do each other harm. Our U.S. results indicate that they are also less likely to do them good, and that this apathy increases with the degree of city-ness." This, of course, is only one study and may not take into account other less observable forms of "helping" so it may not be safe to read much into the author's conclusions. Another fascinating and easily verifiable correlation may be tied only indirectly to the characteristics of population density. The red states, that voted for Bush in both of the last elections, it seems, are net receivers of federal tax revenues. In 2002, Dean Lacy of Ohio State University and the Hoover Institution. published "A Curious Paradox of the Red States and Blue States: Federal Spending and Electoral Votes in the 2000 Election." He found that, "Thirty of the U.S. states reap more in federal spending than their citizens contribute to the federal government in taxes. The other 20 states provide more in taxes than they receive in spending. In the 2000 U.S. presidential election, George W. Bush won most of the states that are net beneficiaries of federal spending programs, while Al Gore won most of the states that are net contributors to federal spending. A state's ratio of federal spending to tax dollars, particularly non-defense spending, is a statistically and substantively significant predictor of Bush's margin of victory across the states. A state's per capita federal tax burden is also associated with the election result: states with higher tax burdens gave higher vote margins to Gore. Compared to Clinton's state-by-state vote shares in 1996, Gore did worse in states that gained in federal spending per tax dollar from 1998 to 2000." Even more specifically, Lacy wrote that, "Put another way, Bush's margin goes up by 2 percentage points for every additional dime of federal spending in a state per dollar of taxes paid by that state." The same results held, in principle, in the Bush/Kerry election, and much has been made of this odd fact by those who want to characterize red states as welfare recipients. It is an odd charge, however, that the states that tend to oppose transfer payments politically benefit most from them financially. One possible explanation of this seeming contradiction is that it is caused by progressive taxation and higher urban area incomes. Though the cost of living is higher in the cities than it is in rural areas, taxpayers with nominally higher incomes naturally pay more taxes. Most federal programs, however, are paid out based more on the basis of population statistics, regardless of income levels, leading to an outflow of revenues from high-income states to low income states. The case can also made that the cost of delivering services to states with low population densities is greater than it is in urban population concentrations. It is, for example, easier to deliver mail to rows of consecutive mailboxes on city streets than it is to drive to a series of far-flung farmhouses. It is also true that labor and other costs are also lower in rural areas, so it is probably not safe to assume federal programs are actually higher in rural areas. Additionally, many significant programs, such as agricultural subsidies, are unaffected by the demographic scattering. I think it is more likely that the net-recipient status of the red states reflects the fact that, in order to secure the support of states whose populations tend to resist transfer payments, supporters of redistributive programs are often forced to buy off red state approval for government spending programs. Still, these characteristics fail to explain the differences in the underlying differences in political attitudes between concentrated and dispersed populations. All modern differences between rural and urban American life may, in fact, be irrelevant. They could, rather, be holdovers from more traumatic times. As I've lived and worked in both heartland farm country, in Idaho and Florida, as well as and some of America's largest cities, including New York and Boston, I am skeptical that current differences would yield the radical differences in political philosophies that we now observe. The caricatures put forth by both sides, of insular hicks in trailer houses and cowering victims in crime-ridden row houses, do not reflect the experiences of most people. Less than a hundred years ago, though, the contrasting challenges of city and farm life were far more tangible. One data point is that, before the development of penicillin at the beginning of the first World War, a compound fracture, which was a not uncommon consequence of being thrown from a wagon, resulted in death about half the time. On the other side of the demographic divide, big city politics were often remarkably brutish and intrusive. Victor Davis Hanson, if I understand him correctly, posits that the legacy of America's farmer/warrior past has had an enduring impact on America's traditional political views, now emanating primarily from the heartland. One might expect, if this is true, that those who live in closest proximity to agricultural activities and communities would maintain more of these traditional attitudes. George Bush's use of the symbols of agriculture, cowboy boots, big belt buckles and pickups, obviously appealed to these people. If Hanson is correct, however, demography may very well be destiny, as technology has decreased radically the portion of our population that is involved, even peripherally, in agriculture. Moreover, the cultural connection between the modern descendants of agricultural families may soon fade because, as Thomas Sowell suggests, culture lasts only two or three generations, and there are fewer and fewer Americans with agricultural roots as time passes. Ninety-nine out of a hundred Americans were engaged in agriculture at the time of the American Revolution. In 1953, about 15 percent of the U.S. population, or twenty-three million people, actually lived or worked on farms, and 54 million lived in areas deemed rural. Now, due to the impact of technology on agriculture, only 3 million people, or 1 percent of the U.S. population, live on farms. According to an admittedly revised definition, the rural population has risen to 59 million but has lagged far behind urban growth and is now only 21 percent of the U.S. total. This pattern continues today as growth in rural areas is running at less than a quarter of the urban rate. On the other hand, agriculture is clearly not the sole political variable. In recent elections, residents of suburbs voted more for Republicans than did residents of more crowded cities -- and they did so in inverse proportion to their population density. The statistician's perennial caveat is that "correlation is not causation." but there is little doubt that there is connection, largely unexplained, between ideology and demography. Depressingly deterministic as it is, this correlation, if it continues, may mean that future elections will be decided by immigration patterns, reproductive rates and technologies that allow more businesses and workers to locate in suburban and rural locations. I would be happy to be proven wrong. - -- - ----------------- 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' -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 1308 iQA/AwUBQaAGc8PxH8jf3ohaEQIb6gCg95Yqg4TVod8pKoa812Cd6e3ppUUAoKai Qb55aSALy/TSylMGgEcQkZyb =HZoT -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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[osint] Man returned to France after U.S. refuses entry
by R.A. Hettinga 22 Nov '04

22 Nov '04

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 - --- begin forwarded text To: "Bruce Tefft" <btefft(a)community-research.com> Thread-Index: AcTQKrhgI3WPsIUuRROdx12oO2BMqgADm0dw From: "Bruce Tefft" <btefft(a)community-research.com> Mailing-List: list osint(a)yahoogroups.com; contact osint-owner(a)yahoogroups.com Delivered-To: mailing list osint(a)yahoogroups.com Date: Sun, 21 Nov 2004 21:16:14 -0500 Subject: [osint] Man returned to France after U.S. refuses entry Reply-To: osint(a)yahoogroups.com Man returned to France after U.S. refuses entry Officials: Traveler appeared on no-fly list (CNN) -- A traveler departed on a flight to France Sunday after authorities refused him entry to the United States, a spokesman for the U.S. Customs and Border Protection said. Authorities identified the traveler as being on a so-called no-fly list on Saturday, and diverted his Paris-to-Washington flight to Bangor, Maine, where it was met by federal officials, the Transportation Security Administration said. The man was taken off the plane, and another man traveling with him chose to depart the aircraft. The Air France flight then proceeded to Washington Dulles International Airport without the two men, who spent the night in Bangor's Penobscot County Jail. Sgt. Steven Slowik, shift supervisor at the jail, identified the men as Ahmed Lhacti, 47, and Mohammad Oukassou, 76, both Moroccan. Slowik said federal authorities had not told jail officials which man was on the no-fly list, or why. U.S. authorities use no-fly lists to screen suspected terrorists from flying on airlines. Due to mistaken identity, some travelers have been wrongly denied permission to fly or to enter the United States. While the men were being processed in Bangor, agents determined that the man on the no-fly list was traveling with an expired passport, and he was denied entry, said Barry Morrissey with U.S. Customs and Border Protection. The man's apparent traveling companion chose to return to Paris with him Sunday. A TSA spokeswoman said Saturday that Air France should not have allowed the passenger to board the flight to the United States while in Paris. Find this article at: http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/11/21/flight.diverted/index.html - ------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Sponsor --------------------~--> Make a clean sweep of pop-up ads. Yahoo! Companion Toolbar. Now with Pop-Up Blocker. Get it for free! http://us.click.yahoo.com/L5YrjA/eSIIAA/yQLSAA/TySplB/TM - --------------------------------------------------------------------~-> - -------------------------- Want to discuss this topic? Head on over to our discussion list, discuss-osint(a)yahoogroups.com. - -------------------------- Brooks Isoldi, editor bisoldi(a)intellnet.org http://www.intellnet.org Post message: osint(a)yahoogroups.com Subscribe: osint-subscribe(a)yahoogroups.com Unsubscribe: osint-unsubscribe(a)yahoogroups.com *** FAIR USE NOTICE. This message contains copyrighted material whose use has not been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. OSINT, as a part of The Intelligence Network, is making it available without profit to OSINT YahooGroups members who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information in their efforts to advance the understanding of intelligence and law enforcement organizations, their activities, methods, techniques, human rights, civil liberties, social justice and other intelligence related issues, for non-profit research and educational purposes only. We believe that this constitutes a 'fair use' of the copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Law. If you wish to use this copyrighted material for purposes of your own that go beyond 'fair use,' you must obtain permission from the copyright owner. For more information go to: http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/osint/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: osint-unsubscribe(a)yahoogroups.com <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/ - --- 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' -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 1308 iQA/AwUBQaHqJ8PxH8jf3ohaEQKwqwCg9Ko1FdjrtK6qAd96JKXkKEXhOpAAoOrL 4qxNoh1en9/bkbDNDuYb3Caz =Sydn -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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Re: Your source code, for sale
by hal＠finney.org 22 Nov '04

22 Nov '04

Ben Laurie writes: > How do you make the payment already "gone" without using a third party? Of course there has to be a third party in the form of the currency issuer. If it is someone like e-gold, they could do as I suggested and add a feature where the buyer could transfer funds irrevocably into an escrow account which would be jointly controlled by the buyer and the seller. This way the payment is already "gone" from the POV of the buyer and if the seller completes the transaction, the buyer has less incentive to cheat him. In the case of an ecash mint, a simple method would be for the seller to give the buyer a proto-coin, that is, the value to be signed at the mint, but in blinded form. The buyer could take this to the mint and pay to get it signed. The resulting value is no good to the buyer because he doesn't know the blinding factors, so from his POV the money (he paid to get it signed) is already "gone". He can prove to the seller that he did it by using the Guillou-Quisquater protocol to prove in ZK that he knows the mint's signature on the value the seller gave him. The seller thereby knows that the buyer's costs are sunk, and so the seller is motivated to complete the transaction. The buyer has nothing to lose and might as well pay the seller by giving him the signed value from the mint, which the seller can unblind and (provably, verifiably) be able to deposit. Hal

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Fallujah: Marine Eye-Witness Report
by R.A. Hettinga 22 Nov '04

22 Nov '04

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 <http://www.thegreenside.com/story.asp?ContentID=11151> The Green Side Sunday, November 21, 2004 Email from Dave - Nov 19, 04 Dear Dad - Just came out of the city and I honestly do not know where to start. I am afraid that whatever I send you will not do sufficient honor to the men who fought and took Fallujah. Shortly before the attack, Task Force Fallujah was built. It consisted of Regimental Combat Team 1 built around 1st Marine Regiment and Regimental Combat Team 7 built around 7th Marine Regiment. Each Regiment consisted of two Marine Rifle Battalions reinforced and one Army mechanized infantry battalion. Regimental Combat Team 1 (RCT-1) consisted of 3rd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion (3rd LAR), 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines (3/5); 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines (3/1)and 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry (2/7). RCT-7 was slightly less weighted but still a formidable force. Cutting a swath around the city was an Army Brigade known as Blackjack. The Marine RCT's were to assault the city while Blackjack kept the enemy off of the backs of the assault force. The night prior to the actual invasion, we all moved out into the desert just north of the city. It was something to see. You could just feel the intensity in the Marines and Soldiers. It was all business. As the day cleared, the Task Force began striking targets and moving into final attack positions. As the invasion force commenced its movement into attack positions, 3rd LAR led off RCT-1's offensive with an attack up a peninsula formed by the Euphrates River on the west side of the city. Their mission was to secure the Fallujah Hospital and the two bridges leading out of the city. They executed their tasks like clockwork and smashed the enemy resistance holding the bridges. Simultaneous to all of this, Blackjack sealed the escape routes to the south of the city. As invasion day dawned, the net was around the city and the Marines and Soldiers knew that the enemy that failed to escape was now sealed. 3/5 began the actual attack on the city by taking an apartment complex on the northwest corner of the city. It was key terrain as the elevated positions allowed the command to look down into the attack lanes. The Marines took the apartments quickly and moved to the rooftops and began engaging enemy that were trying to move into their fighting positions. The scene on the rooftop was surreal. Machine gun teams were running boxes of ammo up 8 flights of stairs in full body armor and carrying up machine guns while snipers engaged enemy shooters. The whole time the enemy was firing mortars and rockets at the apartments. Honest to God, I don't think I saw a single Marine even distracted by the enemy fire. Their squad leaders, and platoon commanders had them prepared and they were executing their assigned tasks. As mentioned, 2nd Battalion, 7th Cavalry joined the Regiment just prior to the fight. In fact, they started showing up for planning a couple of weeks in advance. There is always a professional rivalry between the Army and the Marine Corps but it was obvious from the outset that these guys were the real deal. They had fought in Najaf and were eager to fight with the Regiment in Fallujah. They are exceptionally well led and supremely confident. 2/7 became our wedge. In short, they worked with 3rd Battalion, 1st Marines. We were limited in the amount of prep fires that we were allowed to fire on the city prior to the invasion. This was a point of some consternation to the forces actually taking the city. Our compensation was to turn to 2/7 and ask them to slash into the city and create as much turbulence as possible for 3/1 to follow. Because of the political reality, the Marine Corps was also under pressure to "get it done quickly." For this reason, 2/7 and 3/1 became the penetration force into the city. Immediately following 3/5's attack on the apartment buildings, 3/1 took the train station on the north end of the city. While the engineers blew a breach through the train trestle, the Cavalry soldiers poured through with their tanks and Bradley's and chewed an opening in the enemy defense. 3/1 followed them through until they reached a phase[line deep into the northern half of the city. The Marine infantry along with a few tanks then turned to the right and attacked the heart of the enemy defense. The fighting was tough as the enemy had the area dialed in with mortars. 3/5 then attacked into the northwest corner of the city. This fight continued as both Marine rifle battalions clawed their way into the city on different axis. There is an image burned into my brain that I hope I never forget. We came up behind 3/5 one day as the lead squads were working down the Byzantine streets of the Jolan area. An assault team of two Marines ran out from behind cover and put a rocket into a wall of an enemy strongpoint. Before the smoke cleared the squad behind them was up and moving through the hole and clearing the house. Just down the block another squad was doing the same thing. The house was cleared quickly and the Marines were running down the street to the next contact. Even in the midst of that mayhem, it was an awesome sight. The fighting has been incredibly close inside the city. The enemy is willing to die and is literally waiting until they see the whites of the eyes of the Marines before they open up. Just two days ago, as a firefight raged in close quarters, one of the interpreters yelled for the enemy in the house to surrender. The enemy yelled back that it was better to die and go to heaven than to surrender to infidels. This exchange is a graphic window into the world that the Marines and Soldiers have been fighting in these last 10 days. I could go on and on about how the city was taken but one of the most amazing aspects to the fighting was that we saw virtually no civilians during the battle. Only after the fighting had passed did a few come out of their homes. They were provided food and water and most were evacuated out of the city. At least 90-95% of the people were gone from the city when we attacked. I will end with a couple of stories of individual heroism that you may not have heard yet. I was told about both of these incidents shortly after they occurred. No doubt some of the facts will change slightly but I am confident that the meat is correct. The first is a Marine from 3/5. His name is Corporal Yeager (Chuck Yeager's grandson). As the Marines cleared and apartment building, they got to the top floor and the point man kicked in the door. As he did so, an enemy grenade and a burst of gunfire came out. The explosion and enemy fire took off the point man's leg. He was then immediately shot in the arm as he lay in the doorway. Corporal Yeager tossed a grenade in the room and ran into the doorway and into the enemy fire in order to pull his buddy back to cover. As he was dragging the wounded Marine to cover, his own grenade came back through the doorway. Without pausing, he reached down and threw the grenade back through the door while he heaved his buddy to safety. The grenade went off inside the room and Cpl Yeager threw another in. He immediately entered the room following the second explosion. He gunned down three enemy all within three feet of where he stood and then let fly a third grenade as he backed out of the room to complete the evacuation of the wounded Marine. You have to understand that a grenade goes off within 5 seconds of having the pin pulled. Marines usually let them "cook off" for a second or two before tossing them in. Therefore, this entire episode took place in less than 30 seconds. The second example comes from 3/1. Cpl Mitchell is a squad leader. He was wounded as his squad was clearing a house when some enemy threw pineapple grenades down on top of them. As he was getting triaged, the doctor told him that he had been shot through the arm. Cpl Mitchell told the doctor that he had actually been shot "a couple of days ago" and had given himself self aide on the wound. When the doctor got on him about not coming off the line, he firmly told the doctor that he was a squad leader and did not have time to get treated as his men were still fighting. There are a number of Marines who have been wounded multiple times but refuse to leave their fellow Marines. It is incredibly humbling to walk among such men. They fought as hard as any Marines in history and deserve to be remembered as such. The enemy they fought burrowed into houses and fired through mouse holes cut in walls, lured them into houses rigged with explosives and detonated the houses on pursuing Marines, and actually hid behind surrender flags only to engage the Marines with small arms fire once they perceived that the Marines had let their guard down. I know of several instances where near dead enemy rolled grenades out on Marines who were preparing to render them aid. It was a fight to the finish in every sense and the Marines delivered. I have called the enemy cowards many times in the past because they have never really held their ground and fought but these guys in the city did. We can call them many things but they were not cowards. My whole life I have read about the greatest generation and sat in wonder at their accomplishments. For the first time, as I watch these Marines and Soldiers, I am eager for the future as this is just the beginning for them. Perhaps the most amazing characteristic of all is that the morale of the men is sky high. They hurt for the wounded and the dead but they are eager to continue to attack. Further, not one of them would be comfortable with being called a hero even though they clearly are. By now the Marines and Soldiers have killed well over a thousand enemy. These were not peasants or rabble. They were reasonably well trained and entirely fanatical. Most of the enemy we have seen have chest rigs full of ammunition and are well armed are willing to fight to the death. The Marines and Soldiers are eager to close with them and the fighting at the end is inevitably close. I will write you more the next time I come in about what we have found inside the city. All I can say is that even with everything that I knew and expected from the last nine months, the brutality and fanaticism of the enemy surprised me. The beheadings were even more common place than we thought but so were torture and summary executions. Even though it is an exaggeration, it seems as though every block in the northern part of the city has a torture chamber or execution site. There are hundreds of tons of munitions and tens of thousands of weapons that our Regiment alone has recovered. The Marines and Soldiers of the Regiment have also found over 400 IEDs already wired and ready to detonate. No doubt these numbers will grow in the days ahead. In closing, I want to share with you a vignette about when the Marines secured the Old Bridge (the one where the Americans were mutilated and hung on March 31) this week. After the Marines had done all the work and secured the bridge, we walked across to meet up with 3rd LAR on the other side. On the Fallujah side of the bridge where the Americans were hung there is some Arabic writing on the bridge. An interpreter translated it for me as we walked through. It read: "Long Live the Mujahadeen. Fallujah is the Graveyard for Americans and the end of the Marine Corps." As I came back across the bridge there was a squad sitting in their Amtrac smoking and watching the show. The Marines had written their own message below the enemy's. It is not something that Mom would appreciate but it fit the moment to a T. Not far from the vehicle were two dead enemy laying where they died. The Marines were sick of watching the "Dog and Pony show" and wanted to get back to work. Dave - -- - ----------------- 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' -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 1308 iQA/AwUBQaE4mMPxH8jf3ohaEQIE2wCdHyumNvYtGQgOiqdfUcdlV8COIhkAoO9b AU8Oim/gUU2PaHk52Ht2lEgS =hwDa -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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Latest Tasteful Video Game
by Bill Stewart 22 Nov '04

22 Nov '04

Slsahdot reports that MSNBC reports http://msnbc.msn.com/id/6549265/ that there's a new video game "JFK Reloaded" http://www.jfkreloaded.com/start/ that lets you explore the Kennedy assassination from Lee Harvey Oswald's perspective. Neither the article nor the website indicates whether you can also take shots from the Grassy Knoll or other locations, or whether you get +3 Magic Bullets as opposed to regular bullets. The authors claim that they're trying to let people see that the Lone Gunman theory is plausible by letting them try it out. Ted Kennedy's staff put out a highly negative statement, but didn't call for censorship. ---- Bill Stewart bill.stewart(a)pobox.com

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Senators try to pull a fast one, almost get away with it.
by Neil Johnson 21 Nov '04

21 Nov '04

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 From: http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2004_11_14.php#004074 : This weekend Congress was working on a massive $388 billion omnibus spending bill that will cover all manner of federal spending. But at the request of Rep. Ernest Istook of Oklahoma, chairman of the House Appropriations Transportation Subcommittee, a special provision was inserted into the bill which allows the Chairmen of the House and Senate Appropriations Committees or their "agents" to review any American's tax return with no restrictions whatsoever. Specifically, none of the privacy law restrictions -- or the criminal and civil penalties tied to them -- would apply when the Chair or anybody he or she designates as his or her "agent" looked at your tax return. The exact language of the provision is as follows ... "Hereinafter, notwithstanding any other provision of law governing the disclosure of income tax returns or return information, upon written request of the Chairman of the House or Senate Committee on Appropriations, the Commissioner of the Internal Revenue Service shall allow agents designated by such Chairman access to Internal Revenue Service facilities and any tax returns or return information contained therein." The provision was slipped into the bill at the last moment. And, at least on the Democratic side, no one was told about it until some Dems caught it at the last moment. Senate Republicans quickly backtracked, calling the provision a mistake or snafu and insisting they knew nothing about it. You can see some of the back-and-forth that took place on the Senate floor in this AP piece at CNN. Sen. Stevens of Alaska, Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Committee, originally blamed the provision on a 'staffer'. But later, according to the AP, Sen. Frist and "congressional aides" said it was inserted at the behest of Rep. Istook. - -- Neil Johnson http://www.njohnsn.com GPG key ID: F16D6484A GPG key Finger Print: DD84 677A D3C4 9A84 37B8 7AD7 8A8A A5AB F16D 648A -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: GnuPG v1.2.3 (GNU/Linux) iD8DBQFBoVviioqlq/FtZIoRAtVKAKCHNSqLq6iyD1bXqL/SwLOvyCVFmACfXasq wD5BZ+ue5MNgULWBoKLCnBQ= =Cs2Y -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

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