At that time, snail mail was pretty safe even from the spooks (with certain precautions). So what's your point? If the military-industrial complex wants to ruin your life, it's the guns and fences and dogs that ultimately tell the story, cause your unbreakable cipher to be compromised yourself under truth drugs, etc. The bureaucractic mess surrounding key recovery would probably make most spooks look for much more low-tech methods of compromising your security. -----Original Message----- From: Dr.Dimitri Vulis KOTM <dlv@bwalk.dm.com> To: cypherpunks@toad.com <cypherpunks@toad.com> Date: Saturday, December 20, 1997 3:15 PM Subject: Frank Olson
I just saw a very interesting story on the Discovery Channel.
In 1953 the US was actively pursuing bio warfare (a subject of current interest to me). Frank Olson was a good bacteriologist working for the gubmint (NIH?), in close contact with the CIA. One night he attended a work-related party, where everyone acted strangely; the next day, he a) decided to resign his job, b) discussed his classified bio warfare work with people on his car pool. But the gubmint didn't accept his resignation and instead sent him to NYC for a psychiatric evaluation. He was sharing a hotel room with a CIA employee, who claims that he was woken up the sound of breaking glass: Frank Olson supposedly jumped out the window.
In 1975 it was revealed that at the party the attendees were given LSD without their concent as part of a CIA experiment, which is why everyone was acting strangely. Pres Ford issued an official apology to Olson's family and gave them $750,000 in compensation.
Now there's a new twist. In 1953, the gubmint insisted that Olson be buried in a closed casket, claiming he had cuts and bruises on his face. The family never saw him. In 1994 his son has the body exhumed and re-examined. There were no cuts and bruises, but forensic evidence suggests very strongly that he was hit with something over the head and then thrown out the window. The NYC DA has now started a murder investigation.
This has little crypto relevance, except for the bio warfare angle, and the question: do you want these guys to have access to your cryptographic keys?
---
Dr.Dimitri Vulis KOTM Brighton Beach Boardwalk BBS, Forest Hills, N.Y.: +1-718-261-2013, 14.4Kbps
At 03:24 PM 12/20/1997 -0800, Bruce Balden wrote:
At that time, snail mail was pretty safe even from the spooks (with certain precautions). So what's your point? If the military-industrial complex wants to ruin your life, it's the guns and fences and dogs that ultimately tell the story, cause your unbreakable cipher to be compromised yourself under truth drugs, etc. The bureaucractic mess surrounding key recovery would probably make most spooks look for much more low-tech methods of compromising your security.
I won't comment on the truth or bogosity of the story, but as far as snail mail goes, US mail at least into the early 60s was cheaper if you left the envelopes unsealed (like 4c vs. 5c.) I got the impression it was a leftover from wartime censorship. And email to some foreign destinations was inherently suspicious - like Swiss banks. I once knew a guy who used a remailer for his mail to his bank - he'd mail it to Raoul at the Tijuana post office, who'd take the cash and mail the inner envelope to the bank. Mail covers have been legal for a long time as well - as with pen registers on phones, they don't need a warrant to track your traffic. Thanks! Bill Bill Stewart, bill.stewart@pobox.com PGP Fingerprint D454 E202 CBC8 40BF 3C85 B884 0ABE 4639
Bill Stewart wrote: | And email to some foreign destinations was inherently suspicious - | like Swiss banks. I once knew a guy who used a remailer for his | mail to his bank - he'd mail it to Raoul at the Tijuana post office, | who'd take the cash and mail the inner envelope to the bank. | | Mail covers have been legal for a long time as well - | as with pen registers on phones, they don't need a warrant to | track your traffic. Theres an easy fix for this--write the return address on the back of the envelope. Perfectly legit, and makes them struggle to show the return address matches the destination on the same bit of mail. Chain of evidence and all that. Like most easy fixes, its not complete. Adam -- "It is seldom that liberty of any kind is lost all at once." -Hume
participants (3)
-
Adam Shostack -
Bill Stewart -
Bruce Balden