While it's understandable that people want to avoid being swept up in hysterical backlashes against people involved in this morning's terrorist activity, it's worth remembering - especially for people interested in aiding law enforcement - that a lot of investigations begin and move forward with anonymous tips which are later corroborated by witnesses willing to testify. Given the clear indifference for human life shown by the terrorists, the ordinary witness-protection steps taken by law enforcement may not be comforting enough to allow aiders and abettors of this morning's actions to report their knowledge with confidence - so it may be more important than ever that the remailers continue to operate. Given that, does anyone have any tips for compiling the current Mixmaster release under FreeBSD or OpenBSD? The make fails for me on both platforms - it looks like a failure related to the recent integration of OpenSSL into the standard BSD distributions, which I've been unable to remedy thus far. At 01:17 PM 9/11/2001 -0400, R. A. Hettinga wrote:

Status: U Date: Tue, 11 Sep 2001 12:42:22 -0400 To: politech@politechbot.com From: Declan McCullagh Subject: FC: Anonymous remailer operators start to take remailers offline Sender: owner-politech@politechbot.com Reply-To: declan@well.com

[From a remailer operators mailing list. The discussion arose in response to the attacks. --Declan]

********

From: Len Sassaman Subject: status of randseed Date: Tue, 11 Sep 2001 08:40:37 -0700 (PDT)

Randseed's been taken offline, as a precautionary measure. All mail currently destined for randseed will be bounced.

We'll be back online at sometime in the future

********

From: "J.Francois" Subject: Opinions on Operations due to bombings. Date: Tue, 11 Sep 2001 08:46:37 -0700 Organization: MagusNet, Inc. Design * Develop * Integrate

I no longer run an anon remailer but I still operate a public proxy.

By now everyone is aware of the bombings here in the USA.

So, do we suspend anon communications channels during the crises or do we stay operational.

Opinions? -- Jean Francois - JLF Sends... Once at a social gathering, Gladstone said to Disraeli, "I predict, Sir, that you will die either by hanging or of some vile disease". Disraeli replied, "That all depends, Sir, upon whether I embrace your principles or your mistress."

********

From: Len Sassaman Subject: Re: Opinions on Operations due to bombings. To: Date: Tue, 11 Sep 2001 09:23:44 -0700 (PDT)

I'm not concerned that the remailer network is, was, or will be used by the actual terrorists. What concerns me is the assholes who will inevitably send bogus threats, tips, and other noise to various news groups, federal offices, and officials.

I don't want to get caught in the middle of this. I'm sorry. I'm currently unemployed and don't have the resources to defend myself. At this point in time, a free-speech argument will not gain much sympathy with the feds, judges, and general public.

And investigators don't need more noise to sort through. They'll have enough as it is.

I'd like to see remailers continue operating. But this needs to settle. I may put mine into middle, mix only mode if I feel up to it..

********

-- Greg Broiles gbroiles@well.com "We have found and closed the thing you watch us with." -- New Delhi street kids