On Sat, 15 Sep 2001 jamesd@echeque.com wrote:
On 14 Sep 2001, at 23:30, Anonymous wrote:
Pictures of three of these bespectacled, nerdly remailer operators:
http://www.melontraffickers.com/pics/DC8_Lucky_BDU_4.jpg http://www.melontraffickers.com/pics/rabbiGoneNuts.jpeg http://www.melontraffickers.com/pics/DC8_noise_and_Lucky_hauling_hardware.jp...
By and large, ninja style raids on remailer operators might be a poor idea. I suggest that Aimee's friends should try to obtain and present a search warrant first.
Obtaining a search warrant will be easy. If you're creative, you can imagine a ninja style raid as a method of presentation. What happens when the remailer operators, if asked to cooperate, attempt to explain that they're unable to provide any information that could help in an investigation? They'll rot in jail, at best. Now is a perfect time for the Government to round up and arrest those people whose imprisonment might otherwise inspire protests or public outrage, whether or not these arrests are related to terrorism. If Dmitry Sklyarov had been arrested today, would there be protests in the street? Would it get an ounce of press coverage? Would significant numbers appear to care, in light of these other events? If you read the Salon article that was posted here earlier, John Perry Barlow's concerns about the future of privacy rights are referred to as "callous" and in "poor taste.[1]" As for Jon Callas's point on the second page, the fact that the Reichstag fire was started by the Nazis, and the WTC attacks were (ostensibly) perpetrated by foreign terrorists, matters little if this century's Nazi analogue seizes the opportunities that the terrorists have handed to it. Anyone expressing anything but war-hoc statements today or dissenting with the government's anti-terrorism measures risks being labeled as an enemy of the state. -MW- [1] http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2001/09/14/privacy/index.html