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Re: Gentlemen reading mail part II (opsec review)
by Nomen Nescio 01 Mar '04

01 Mar '04

Justin says: > If they know you're trying to shake them, that alerts them and > eliminates any opportunity you might have otherwise had to feed them > misinformation in the future. That's when you strap on the C-4 vest. Zombie Monger

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Re: Gentlemen reading mail part II (opsec review)
by Tyler Durden 01 Mar '04

01 Mar '04

Actually, I believe there was also a town in Poland with lots of odd letter combinations so that the Allies could help break German codes! (ie, by listening to Encrypted German communications about the bombing and it's location...) That's some interesting crap about playing Beavis and Butthead...at the very least, leaving the CD player in 'perpetual' mode can force some heavy human investment in time and energy. -TD >From: "R. A. Hettinga" <rah(a)shipwright.com> >To: "Major Variola (ret)" <mv(a)cdc.gov>, "cypherpunks(a)al-qaeda.net" ><cypherpunks(a)al-qaeda.net> >Subject: Re: Gentlemen reading mail part II (opsec review) >Date: Mon, 1 Mar 2004 13:09:09 -0500 > >At 10:01 AM -0800 3/1/04, Major Variola (ret) wrote: > >(What was that Brit town sacrificed so the Germans wouldn't know > >the codes were broken? Starts with "C"...) > >Coventry... > >Ancient cathedral, etc... > >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' > _________________________________________________________________ Take off on a romantic weekend or a family adventure to these great U.S. locations. http://special.msn.com/local/hotdestinations.armx

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Gentlemen reading mail part II
by Major Variola (ret.) 01 Mar '04

01 Mar '04

Blix says US spied on him over Iraq Reuters London Feb 28: Former chief United Nations weapons inspector Mr Hans Blix said today he suspected the United States bugged his office and home in the run-up to the Iraq war, but had no hard evidence. Describing such behaviour as disgusting, Mr Blix told Britains Guardian newspaper in an interview: It feels like an intrusion into your integrity in a situation when you are actually on the same side. His allegation came on top of a diplomatic row sparked this week when former British minister Ms Clare Short said Britain bugged UN Secretary General Mr Kofi Annans office as London and Washington tried but failed to win UN backing to invade Iraq. Mr Blix said his suspicions were raised when he had trouble with a telephone connection at home. It might have been something trivial or it might have been something installed somewhere, I dont know, he said. The Swede said he asked UN counter-surveillance teams to check his office and home for listening devices. If you had something sensitive to talk about you would go out into the restaurant or out into the streets, said Mr Blix. He said US state department envoy Mr John Wolf visited him two weeks before the Iraq war with pictures of an Iraqi drone and a cluster bomb that the former inspector believed could have been secured only from within the UN weapons office. He should not have had them. I asked him how he got them and he would not tell me, Mr Blix said. It could have been some staff belonging to us that handed them to the Americans... It could also be that they managed to break into the secure fax and got it that way, he said. Ms Short, in government before and during the Iraq war, said on Thursday she had seen transcripts of what she said were bugged accounts of Mr Annans conversations. She resigned after the war. The British Prime Minister, Mr Tony Blair accused her of being irresponsible and of undermining intelligence services at a time when Britain faced a threat of attack from Islamic militants. Blair said British security services acted within domestic and international law. But UN spokesman Mr Fred Eckhard said Mr Annan would seek a fuller explanation from Britain on the allegations, saying any attempt to eavesdrop on the Secretary General was illegal and should stop as it would violate three international treaties. Mr Blair warned critics like Ms Short that unless they buried differences they risked ousting his Labour Party from power as it prepares to fight a general election expected in 2005. Former UN secretary-general Mr Boutros Boutros-Ghali and another former chief UN weapons inspector, Mr Richard Butler, said yesterday they believed they had been spied on. From the first day I entered my office they told me: beware, your office is bugged, your residence is bugged, Mr Boutros-Ghali told the BBC. It is a tradition that member states that have the technical capacity to bug will do it without hesitation, he said. http://www.navhindtimes.com/stories.php?part=news&Story_ID=022910

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Online Anonymity May Fade
by R. A. Hettinga 29 Feb '04

29 Feb '04

<http://www.reuters.com/printerFriendlyPopup.jhtml?type=reutersEdge&storyID=…> Reuters Online Anonymity May Fade Wed Feb 25, 2004 04:18 PM ET NEW YORK (Reuters) - Online profiling in which consumers' names and addresses are connected to their Internet habits could be in the works as consumers begin to trust the Web more, Kevin Ryan, the chief executive of Internet advertiser DoubleClick, said on Wednesday. "There will be more targeting using this with customers having the ability to opt out," Ryan told the Reuters Technology Media and Telecommunications Summit in New York. While DoubleClick has no immediate plans to link data on specific Internet users to their online behavior at this time, it may come down the road, he said. Ryan suggested that privacy concerns have eased over the years, similar to how many people have relaxed about using their credit cards online. While people don't think twice now about using their credit cards for online purchases, polls showed that Internet users in the late 1990s were more afraid of fraud, he said. "I said the same thing many, many years ago, that I thought privacy concerns would follow the credit card fraud concerns," he said. "What happened was the actual risk wasn't that great. In fact, people started to realize that nothing is 100 percent safe ever." In the early years of Internet advertising, DoubleClick was the subject of several probes into its potential use of information gleaned about Internet users from "cookies" -- small pieces of software that keep track of what Web sites they visit. DoubleClick's 1999 acquisition of direct marketer Abacus Direct was of particular concern for consumer groups worried about corporate abuse of customer profiling. It provided DoubleClick with the ability to combine data such as a person's name and address with information on the Web sites they visit and items they purchase. The company agreed to keep those lines of information separate to address privacy concerns. Abacus maintains a cooperative database that catalog companies and publishers contribute information to about their customers, such as names, addresses and purchase information. The data is collected by household, not individuals, the DoubleClick Web site says. At the time of the merger, the market was not ready for sophisticated targeting tools, Ryan said. "Businesswise, we felt like it didn't make sense to link" those different types of consumer data, he added. Now, the market is "starting to kick in" to make such applications worthwhile for advertisers, according to Ryan. -- ----------------- 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: Gentlemen reading mail part II
by Major Variola (ret) 29 Feb '04

29 Feb '04

At 09:16 PM 2/29/04 -0500, Steve Furlong wrote: >On Sun, 2004-02-29 at 17:19, Major Variola (ret.) forwarded: >> Blix says US spied on him over Iraq >> ... >> It feels like an intrusion into >> your integrity in a situation when you are actually on the same side. > >Begging the question of whether Blix was actually on the same side as >the Brits or the US. Hans is either being coy or naif. Of course he wasn't on our side; he was after the facts, not revenge, or colonialism. One wonders about the mindset of the UN folks. Don't they realize they are 0wn3d? Or at least herded? Perhaps I underestimate the human capacity for idealism, or gullibility. In any case, it should be clear why the US 'tolerates' the UN and planted its HQ in NYC. A fine source of PR sometimes, and a good source of intel other times. Rather tough for the UN counterintel force I imagine. PS: what's the price of gas masks in Athens these days? ----- BWM says interplanetary roadside assistance is "dodgy", but lets see them do a firmware update to a dead car a few hundred million miles away.

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Authentic Journalism -- help end predatory drug policies...
by Tim Meehan 28 Feb '04

28 Feb '04

https://www.paypal.com/xclick/business=andrewgrice%40authenticjournalism.or… Letter from Tim Meehan of Pot TV Dear Friends of Authentic Journalism: We're at a very unique and special time in the history of our planet: Voices of marginalized peoples are now on the same level of those called on by the establishment media, thanks to the Internet. With that in mind, I hope you will carefully consider a donation to the Fund for Authentic Journalism. Many of you already know of the good work of Al Giordano and the journalists at Narconews.com. Chronicling the drug war, from somewhere in a country called Amirica, Al and his colleagues bring the voice of the people directly affected by predatory drug and national policies to an unprecedented world audience. Last year, Narco News took the initiative to establish the School for Authentic Journalism to educate people about reporting on the effects of the Narco-Industrial Complex -- in several languages -- at a local level and especially in Latin America, where the battle is fiercest. Widely considered the fresh battleground between predatory governmental policies and sane drug policy, the nations of Venezuela, Brazil, Ecuador, Argentina and Peru, among others, have been struggling to find their path. The peoples of those nations will pursue a rational policy when it comes to the drug trade, but only if they are given unbiased, truthful, and complete information. When it comes to reporting on drug wars from around the world, the importance of this work cannot be understated. For example, we here in Canada have noticed the difference that Authentic Journalism has made in the shaping our national debate around cannabis legalization. As Authentic Journalist Richard Cowan of marijuananews.com and pot-tv.net has pointed out, "We are too White to invade, and too close to ignore," and our voices are having a considerable impact on the story of our struggle in the United States. Often times our voices are not welcomed by U.S. interests, but fortunately, we have the backing of interested philanthropists who fund and facilitate (on a limited level) the telling of our stories. Many poorer nations, unfortunately, do not have this support, often times simply because they happen to be of a different race, language, or nationality. This is why it is so important to ask for your donation to help support the voices of people across Amirica. If you're not convinced yet, it helps if you look at the international narco-industrial complex as a machine. Predatory governments depend on this narco-industrial machine for their income and prosperity. Their agenda is raw power and money. Establishment media (some of them in a perverse symbiotic relationship with these same predatory governments) often feign concern for certain aspects of the machine's operation. Perhaps the control panel is designed improperly, or maybe the operators are improperly trained in efficient operation. However, they ultimately ignore stories damaging to the government's agenda, and by extension, theirs. People that speak out, saying that this machine has no place in society, are ignored because it threatens their access and power. Authentic Journalists, on the other hand, look at the wiring of the machine, look at where the power source is coming in, look at who benefits from the existence of the machine in the first place, and expose these truths -- as well as a way to cut the power off. Authentic Journalists have an agenda too -- make no mistake about it. Their agenda is truth. The Internet has changed the rules of engagement in the battle for ideas. While this may be obvious to those like myself, who have followed its progression from text-based to graphical interfaces, and to today with it's entrenchment into American and Canadian society, it helps have a historical perspective on things. Part of the problem with asking funding for these projects may simply be because of the lack of realization by donors that were are ahead of the curve. So I'll ask you now to make a contribution to The Fund for Authentic Journalism, specifically to train beginning journalists and journalism students at next summer's School of Authentic Journalism session, via this PayPal Link: https://www.paypal.com/xclick/business=andrewgrice%40authenticjournalism.or… Or you can send a check to: The Fund for Authentic Journalism P.O. Box 71051 Madison Heights, MI 48071 USA And if you'd like to acknowledge this letter - an example of mutual aid among independent media - as inspiring your donation, please write "Tim Meehan Letter" on the envelope. All funds received in direct response to this letter by midnight March 18, 2004, will help determine how many scholarships in Authentic Journalism that Narco News can offer this year. Sir Authur C. Clarke came up with the idea of geosynchronous orbit for communication satellites almost twenty years before they became a reality. Marshall McLuhan prophesied the world wide web's global village in the 1960s, and it came to fruition almost fourteen years after his death in 1980. Ultimately, any donation to a cause like ours is a gamble on future. We truly believe Authentic Journalism will change the world, and we sincerely believe we will meet your expectations -- and then some. I hope we can count on your support. Sincerely, Tim Meehan POT-TV News Ontario Consumers for Safe Access to Recreational Cannabis Toronto, Ontario, Canada tim.meehan(a)utoronto.ca / tim(a)ocsarc.org Email Link to Give Funds Online for the Tim Meehan Letter on behalf of the School of Authentic Journalism: https://www.paypal.com/xclick/business=andrewgrice%40authenticjournalism.or…

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If you doubted that history repeats...
by Major Variola (ret.) 28 Feb '04

28 Feb '04

Agencies Finishing Warnings On Lead http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10503-2004Feb26.html Now can anyone think of another colonial empire whose capital was thought to suffer from lead poisoning too? When DC is cratered, after a few half-lives elapse, when its inhabitable again, perhaps they'll use copper next time.

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RE: Gentlemen don't read each others' mail
by Major Variola (ret) 28 Feb '04

28 Feb '04

At 10:05 PM 2/27/04 -0800, Sarad AV wrote: >They must be doing it all time.It now just turned out >as a diplomatic issue. Yep. When a govt is caught, its a diplomatic issue. When a tech is caught, its death, prison, or prison followed by a trade for similar. Unless the tech is recognized "embassy staff" in which case he merely has to pack his bags pronto. Does Annan/UN have its own counterintel group? Are they 0wn3d by the US? Not that some of the better bugs can be found by a sweep. Anyone remember the bursting bug in the wall-trim-that-prevents-chair-damage, in some US State Dept room? Of *course* the phones are tapped at the CO, and yes a SecPhone would work, *except* for the room bugs, no lasers (too finicky) needed. As is Annan's (et al) limo and apartment. Hell, all the luxury cars have microphones to adjust the radio volume anyway; sometimes for noise cancellation. And the On-Star mic has been used to bug folks too, from the On-Star office. Isn't remote control great? A trojan on wheels. Well, the original trojan probably had wheels too. PS: the solution for a laser-bugger to a speaker in your double-glazed window is to find the recording of the music used as cover, and subtract. Takes a little longer but there's a machine in Ft. Meade that does this real fast. Getting the phase right is the hardest part. The secretary will disavow any knowledge, of course.

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RE: Gentlemen don't read each others' mail
by Tyler Durden 28 Feb '04

28 Feb '04

Looks like the UN's going to need some encrypted VoIP... -TD >From: "Major Variola (ret.)" <mv(a)cdc.gov> >Reply-To: cypherpunks(a)lne.com >To: "cypherpunks(a)al-qaeda.net" <cypherpunks(a)al-qaeda.net> >Subject: Gentlemen don't read each others' mail >Date: Thu, 26 Feb 2004 13:39:22 -0800 > >Britain Accused of Spying on U.N.'s Annan > >LONDON (AP) - Britain spied on U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan in the >build up to the Iraq war, a former Cabinet minister said Thursday, >triggering yet another postwar crisis for Prime Minister Tony Blair > >http://apnews.myway.com/article/20040226/D80V5N901.html > > >Gentlemen don't read each others' mail >Unless they're at war.. >And we have always been at war with Oceania bin Laden > > > > _________________________________________________________________ Take off on a romantic weekend or a family adventure to these great U.S. locations. http://special.msn.com/local/hotdestinations.armx

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Anger Management
by R. A. Hettinga 27 Feb '04

27 Feb '04

This just came by on another list. It's been passed around, and it's a chestnut, probably here even, I don't remember, hell, it's probably in Snopes or something, but, hey, it's got a cypherpunk punchline, and we need a laugh around here... Cheers, RAH ------- Anger Management When you occasionally have a really bad day, and you just need to take it out on someone, don't take it out on someone you know, take it out on someone you don't know. I was sitting at my desk when I remembered a phone call I'd forgotten to make. I found the number and dialed it. A man answered, saying "Hello." I politely said, "This is Chris. Could I please speak with Robin Carter?" Suddenly the phone was slammed down on me. I couldn't believe that anyone could be so rude. I tracked down Robin's correct number and called her. I had transposed the last two digits of her phone number. After hanging up with her, I decided to call the 'wrong' number again. When the same guy answered the phone, I yelled "You're an asshole!" and hung up. I wrote his number down with the word! '! asshole' next to it, and put it in my desk drawer. Every couple of weeks, when I was paying bills or had a really bad day, I'd call him up and yell, "You're an asshole!" It always cheered me up. When Caller ID came to our area, I thought my therapeutic 'asshole' calling would have to stop. So, I called his number and said, "Hi, this is John Smith from the telephone company. I'm calling to see if you're familiar with our Caller ID Program?" He yelled "NO!" and slammed down the phone. I quickly called him back and said, "That's because you're an asshole!" One day I was at the store, getting ready to pull into a parking spot. Some guy in a black BMW cut me off and pulled into the spot I had patiently waited for. I hit the horn and yelled that I'd been waiting for that spot. The idiot ignored me. I noticed a "For Sale" sign in his car window, so I wrote d! ow! n his number. A couple of days later, right after calling the first asshole ( I had his number on speed dial,) I thought that I'd better call the BMW asshole, too. I said, "Is this the man with the black BMW for sale?" "Yes, it is." "Can you tell me where I can see it?" "Yes, I live at 1802 West 34th Street. It's a yellow house, and the car's parked right out in front." "What's your name?" I asked. "My name is Don Hansen," he said. "When's a good time to catch you, Don?" "I'm home every evening after five." "Listen,Don, can I tell you something?" "Yes?" "Don, you're an asshole." Then I hung up, and added his number to my speed dial, too. Now, when I had a problem, I had two assholes to call. But after several months of calling them, it wasn't as enjoyable as it used to be. So, I came up with an idea. I called Asshole #1. "Hello." "You're an asshole!" (But I didn't hang up.) "Are you still there?" he asked. "Yeah," I said. "Stop calling me," he screamed. "Make me," I said. "Who are you?" he asked. "My name is Don Hansen." "Yeah? Where do you live?" "Asshole, I live at 1802 West 34th Street, a yellow house, with my black Beamer parked in front." He said, "I'm coming over right now, Don. And you had better start saying your prayers." I said, "Yeah, like I'm really scared, asshole." Then I called Asshole #2. "Hello?" he said. "Hello, asshole," I said. He yelled, "If I ever find out who you are..." "You'll what?" I said. "I'll kick your ass," he exclaimed. I answered, "Well, asshole, here's your chance. I'm coming over right now." Then I hung up and immediately called the police, saying that I lived at 1802 West 34th Street, and that I was on my way over there to kill my gay lover. Then I called Channel 13 News about the gang war going down on West 34th Street. I quickly got into my car and headed over to 34th street. There I saw two assholes beating the crap out of each other in front of six squad cars, a police helicopter and a news crew. NOW I feel much better. Anger management really works !!! :) -- ----------------- 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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