Re: geographically removed? eHalal

Variola: By Halal (are you getting this term confused with that for Islamic version of Kosher? I think the name is similar but not this) Do you mean that system of monetary transfers whereby local services are exchanged in place of direct cash transfer? (In other words, if I want to sell something abroad the money is actually wired to a 3rd party who appears to the authorities not to have anything to do with any purchasing...this person then obtains services or perhaps local cash in lieu of the money he transferred. The system seems to operate largely on trusted intermediaries, along with a series of barters...) Well, this system may technically be illegal, but it's done all the time in the wilds of Queens, both by middle easterners as well as South Americans, and I see little that could be done to stop it. Even the feds can't keep up with bugging all the Dominican brothels on Roosevelt Avenue. It is, in effect, an analog Blacknet, though transactions are of course probably limited to the low 5-figure range without some kind of big tipoff, but I'm sure the locals are fully aware of the threshold values. The only way are true police state could crack down would be to nuke Queens, which they might actually allow Al Qaeda to do if they chose to (seems like Al Qaeda could come in handy for a lot of things..."Oh, where did that baddie bin Laden go...guess we'll never find him...") -TD

From: "Major Variola (ret)" To: "cypherpunks@al-qaeda.net" Subject: Re: geographically removed? eHalal Date: Tue, 30 Nov 2004 18:36:39 -0800

At 10:33 PM 11/28/04 -0500, Steve Furlong wrote:

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I see that an irrevocable payment system, used by itself, is ripe for fraud, more so if it's anonymous. But why wouldn't a mature system make

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use of trusted intermediaries? The vendors register with the intermedi-

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ary *, who takes some pains to verify their identity, trustworthiness, and so on, and to keep the vendors' identities a secret, if appropriate.

Halal was deemed a terrorist weapon, and contrary to the treasury's policies, game over.