I saw this on the NZ.general newsgroup and had to share it with the list. 'fraid it's just the reply - the original must've expired by the time I got there (and I couldn't be bothered to go looking for an archive to track it down in). Enjoy...

ab330@torfree.net (Bob Allisat) wrote:

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Powerful national security insiders have established effective control over the entrance gateways to the Internet. Disturbing signs are now emerging that the "information superhighway" has been targeted for systematic surveillance and political dossier-building on Americans' opinions.

Oh, really?

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SAIC is a $2 billion defense and FBI contractor with a board of directors that reads like a Who's Who of the intelligence community. Board members include Admiral Bobby Ray Inman, the former director of the National Security Agency (NSA) and deputy director of the CIA; Melvin Laird, defense secretary under Richard Nixon; Donald Hicks, former head of research and development for the Pentagon; Donald Kerr, former head of the Los Alamos National Laboratory; and General Maxwell Thurman (ret.), the commander of the U.S. invasion of Panama.

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The corporation also has a legion of computer network specialists and an entire division of computer consultants.

As does IBM, DEC, AT&T, MicroSoft, shal I go on?

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SAIC currently holds contracts for re-engineering the Pentagon's information systems, automating the FBI's computerized fingerprint identification system, and building a national criminal history and information system.

Nope, I believe that's DISA's job now (was DCA)

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The Internet is a marvel of computer softward technology. It was designed to survive a nuclear attach on the United States--like the Post Office, it's literally smart enough to find a way to get the mail through even if most of the network is missing.

Wow, TCP/IP is a marvel? this guy must hate Novell.

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But control of the Internet domain name registration means the ability to remove troublesome--or outspoken--computer systems from the network. Potentially, this control also confers the power to insinuate "phantom" domains into the network--for surveillance purposes, for example,--or for real-time, automatic censorship. So the government can wipe out all nameservers at once? This is geting better....

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Furthermore, anecdotal evidence gathered by this author (Matthews) suggests that actual "truth control" is taking place on the net now. E-mail messages with controversial contents--including details of the SAIC takeover of domain names--have consistently disappeared as they travel across the network. News items concerning the Vincent Foster "suicide" investigation and allegations of NSA bank spying through compromised Inslaw softward are being quickly and automatically cancelled. And the cancellations are not by their authors.

Must be a bad MX server somewhere.

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With domain names under the control of secret government insiders, it is even theoretically possible that large parts of the Internet could be shut down and silenced at critical times. This could be accomplished by suddenly altering domain name registration or interposing compromised "domains" at critical points. These compromised systems could serve as "black holes" at critical times, stopping e-mail and important news from reaching the world -- or the rest of the country.

Well that means well just have to use IP addresses, right?

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Exercises in "turning the Internet off" have already taken place in Taiwan and Hong Kong. In Taiwan the 'net was successfully shut down. All network traffic--including news, opinions, and e-mail sent by computer users was successfully "bottled up" on the island and prevented from reaching the world.

It sure is easy to cut an island off, but a continent or more?

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In Hong Kong the Internet wasn't quite strangled, but the British auth- orities who control that colony managed to throttle free electronic speech with the rest of the world until everything was bottlenecked into a few little-known satellite links.

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These are alarming precedents and sure signs that powerful, shadowy forces are preparing to chop at the very roots of America's new Liberty Tree. The secretive people on the board of directors of SAIC are intelli- gence professionals skilled at manufacturing events--and then manufacturing public opinion and consent by controlling the truth. Will Internet disinformation, censor-ship or "shutdowns" signal the next American crisis?

So, you basically said that the government is willing to cripple itself by shutting down the Internet and MILNET. This guy needs a kick in the teeth or something to wake him up. Next thing you know is that he'l claim to be abducted but CIA agents posing as Elvis impersonators. And he'll start believing elis still lives.

-Dale

John Stumbles j.d.stumbles@reading.ac.uk Computer Services, University of Reading http://www.rdg.ac.uk/~suqstmbl +-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+-+