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Date: Sun, 18 Oct 1998 19:44:37 -0400 From: John Young <jya@pipeline.com> Subject: Re: What's up with algebra.com?
What with the Feds now going after CJ for attempted murder of federal officials (film ad overkill!), Jeff Gordon soliciting cypherpunk subscribers to flesh that fancy, and one CDR operator flattered with a subpoena, it'd be prudent to have a way to check on whether a CDR node has been taken down or turned, and the operator hogtied with the system as evidence (or forced to run a sting to gather it), before a clamp's put on telling what's going on.
If anybody figures out a way to achieve such security I'd like to know. As far as I know the only way to keep a box up is to be sure that there are 'works in progress' from users who are not directly involved in the operation of the system. They are eligible for $1000/day each day they are deprived of access without a warrant. If they are completely uninvolved it *might* make a magistrate hesitate about generating a warrant. As to my subpoena, it looks like I *may* have to do nothing more than sign an affadavit saying that I didn't participate or discuss the above mentioned issues with CJ when he was in Austin. I should know more later in the week. I did find out that the reason they picked me was that when CJ was arrested he happened to be carrying a copy of the post I did several months ago in responce to a question regarding destroying floppy drives and computers using a floppy disk. Apparently they thought I might be some sort of mad-bomb designer or something. I have to assume that since I wasn't arrested at the first interview they figured I was reasonably harmless concerning assaults of the person or helping CJ in a material way. As to there being wiretaps and permanent LEA monitors on the list, you betcha.
May be too late, too late.
Sigh.
Recall it's a major offense for revealing placement of a wiretap, surveillance or a covert investigation -- especially if you're assisting, willingly or unwillingly.
They can take SSZ down or run it themselves (hope they got somebody that knows Linux 1.1.59 cause otherwise they won't be running it for long) but I won't participate in entrapment. And I suspect, though I don't know, that my arrest and lack of interaction with other users would set off flairs pretty quickly in that case. How long it might take to percolate back to Cypherpunks I don't have a clue. One major aspect of all this that I have found particularly unsettling is that I really don't have family or anybody for support. I think about the only thing worse than imagining oneself sitting in a jail with no hope of visitors, letters, etc. is a funeral with nobody there but the preacher. On a related issue, I have found it somewhat amusing that all the Austin Cpunks have scattered like a covey of quail. Only one of them even offered to help (Muchas gracias for the lawyer referals!). I had one person call and make sure that I knew they weren't at the meeting CJ attended. I'm seriously considering dropping sponsorship of the local group (and I sure as hell won't stop to help fix a flat now).
Consider that there are 118,000 federal prisoners. That's a very
That means there are over 900,000 state, country, and municipal prisoners since there are over 1M in jail today. For a democracy that's incredibly damning. Legalize consenual crimes! ____________________________________________________________________ To know what is right and not to do it is the worst cowardice. Confucius The Armadillo Group ,::////;::-. James Choate Austin, Tx /:'///// ``::>/|/ ravage@ssz.com www.ssz.com .', |||| `/( e\ 512-451-7087 -====~~mm-'`-```-mm --'- -------------------------------------------------------------------- ps not crypto related but if you're a science book hound, check out: Elementary Mechanics of Fluids H. Rouse ISBN 0-486-63699-2 (Dover) $11.95 Physics by example: 200 problems and solutions WG Rees ISBN 0-521-44975-8 $? (I bought my copy used)