AP - Was Crypto-anonymity greases HUMINT intelligence flows

[Bill Stewart]

> > > Too bad that the infrastructure to successfully implement AP isn't in
> > > place. That $5mil reward for Bin Laden's head could be used by an FBI AP
> > > scheme, payable anonymously over the net to enterprising Afghanis.
> >
> > AP is a silly, unworkable idea.  However, $5,000,000 PLUS the Witness
> > Relocation program could be a winner.

AP was designed to implement several objectives:
- Let the customer or customers for the service remain anonymous
- Let the service provider get paid without getting caught,
which includes remaining anonymous to the customers,
where the primary threat is governments tracking the payment.
- Let the potential target know the depth of public opinion about
his/her actions, encouraging a change of behavior to prevent the
bids from becoming sufficiently high.

In this case, the Feds didn't feel the need to remain anonymous
when they put out their "Bring Me The Head Of Osama bin Laden" contract,
nor did the dot-com millionaire who recently bid $10M.
And if bin Laden hadn't figured out that the Feds disliked him
by the time they fired 75 cruise missiles with his name on them
after they accused him of the embassy bombings, sticking his name
up on a computer bulletin board system won't change that much.

While anonymous digital cash, if it existed, would make payment quieter,
that's not the real problem for the stoolie who fingers bin Laden.
The traditional "here's the number for a secret Swiss Bank Account"
should do fine, or handing over the Magic American Express Card.
The problem is that anybody close enough to bin Laden who suddenly
started spending lots of cash after the Feds moved in would
suddenly be a very obvious candidate for community disapproval;
that's one mujahid who's better off leaving a revenge/suicide note
followed by CNN reporting that a small explosives-laden Cessna
was shot down over the Potomac.

>Would you trust the Witness Protection Program with your life?
>Whoever opts to collect that $5,000,000 will forever live in fear.

Yeah - unlike Salmon Rushdie, there may be fewer people who want him killed,
but they'd be much more serious about it.

>Assuming only the use of mixmaster remailers for communication, and
>assuming an honest FBI, how could one collect a cash reward for tips
>satisfy the FBI's reward requirements?

Include a public key with the anonymous tip,
and have the Feds encrypt the Swiss Bank Account Number with it.
Or at least have the money-delivery instructions signed with that key.