1984 Means a Constant State of War
Information Security
Welcome to the Cryptography Manifesto.
It's about much more than cryptography.
5/97:
: The NYC police burst into the apartment, looking for drugs.
: In one room was a lone four-year-old black child.
:
: Four years old.
:
: The NYC Police officer took his gun and held it to the tiny child's head.
:
: NBC NewsChannel 4, showing the cutest little kid, talking hesitantly,
: "The Police man put the gun to my head, I was very a-scared!"
It's about massive domestic spying by the NSA.
It's about fingerprinting everyone in the United States.
It's about a nearly complete Orwellian surveillance mechanism.
Please read the manifesto, and complain to your U.S. representatives.
Enclosed is the header...the next two large posts total about 560K.
If you need, email g...@panix.com, Subject: Requesting Cryptography Manifesto.
This will be fully explained:
# "Moynihan Says U.S. Killed His Anti-Spy Measure"
# By Irvin Molotsky, The New York Times, September 11, 1985
#
# Senator Daniel Patrick Moynihan charged that the CIA and State Department
# had killed a measure he had introduced aimed at protecting American
# citizens from having their telephone conversations intercepted by foreign
# agents in this country.
#
# The Senator's bill would have made telephone call interception by foreign
# agents illegal and would have provided for their expulsion.
#
# The Chairman of the Select Committee on Intelligence opposed the measure
# as unnecessary and could lead to disclosing "sensitive intelligence
# sources."
---guy
******************************************************************************
An Indictment of the U.S. Government and U.S. Politics
Cryptography Manifesto
----------------------
By g...@panix.com
7/4/97-E version
"The law does not allow me to testify on any aspect of the
National Security Agency, even to the Senate Intelligence
Committee" ---General Allen, Director of the NSA, 1975
"You bastards!" ---guy
******************************************************************************
Part 1: Massive Domestic Spying via NSA ECHELON
---- - ------- -------- ------ --- --- -------
o The NSA Admits
o Secret Court
o Wild Conspiracy Theory
o Over the Top
o BAM-BAM-BAM
o Australian ECHELON Spotted
o New Zealand: Unhappy Campers
Part 2: On Monitoring and Being Monitored
---- - -- ---------- --- ----- ---------
o On Monitoring
- Driver's Seat
- Five Months Statistics
- The FBI Investigations
- I Can See What You Are Thinking
- Why I Monitor
o On Being Monitored
Part 3: 1984 Means a Constant State of War
---- - ---- ----- - -------- ----- -- ---
War #1 - Drugs
War #2 - Guns
War #3 - Child Pornography
War #4 - Terrorism
War #5 - Hackers
Part 4: Why unlimited cryptography must be legislated NOW
---- - --- --------- ------------ ---- -- ---------- ---
o Key Recovery Means No Cryptography
o Key Recovery Isn't Even Feasible
o Government Steamroller
o Feds' Wacky Pro-GAK Logic
- Business Will Demand It
- To Safeguard Your Privacy
Part 5: ECHELON Plutonium: Certain Contamination
---- - ------- --------- ------- -------------
Part 6: Louis Freeh & The Creeping Police State
---- - ----- ----- --- -------- ------ -----
o Louis Freeh
o National ID Card
o Worldwide Banking and Phone Monitoring
o Cybernetic Control of Society
o Conclusions
******************************************************************************
ECHELON is NSA's world-wide surveillance network and associated software.
DICTIONARY - Keyword searching with exclusion logic software.
ORATORY - Speech recognition. Think of it as speech-to-text software.
Subject to DICTIONARY searches.
CALEA - A 1994 law ("Communications Assistance to Law Enforcement Act")
to force a massive reworking of the U.S. telephone infra-
structure so that the government can intrinsically wiretap it.
Also called the FBI Digital Telephony Act. It is a domestic
extension of ECHELON.
GAK - Government Access [to cryptographic] Keys. Any cryptography
product with GAK has been compromised so the government can
read it.
SIGINT - Signals Intelligence = NSA = electronic snooping
Key Recovery - See GAK.
C-SPAN - Two cable channels dedicated to broadcasting both houses of
Congress and other U.S. governmental functions.
DEA - U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration
DIA - U.S. Pentagon Defense Intelligence Agency
DIA - U.S. Drug Interdiction Agency (older)
FBI - U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation
BATF - U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms
UKUSA - pronounced 'you-koo-za' - a secret wartime treaty that says
member nations can spy on each others population without
warrants or limits, and that this can be shared with the
spied-on country's SIGINT agency.
PGP - Free and unbreakable encryption, available world-wide.
CISPES - Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador
"Ultra-secret" agencies:
NSA - U.S. National Security Agency
GCHQ - British Government Communications Headquarters
CSE - Canada's Communications Security Establishment
DSD - Australian Defense Signals Directorate
GCSB - New Zealand's Government Communications Security Bureau
******************************************************************************
Main()
----
Using mainly publicly available material, here is my documentation of:
o Part 1: Massive Domestic Spying via NSA ECHELON
This is highly detailed documentation of NSA spying.
This spying is illegal, massive, and domestic.
The documentation is comprehensive, especially since
it is now brought together in this one section.
o Part 2: On Monitoring and Being Monitored
In this section, I describe the capabilities of ECHELON
keyword monitoring. A detailed example --- how to use
keywords to pick out conversations of interest --- is given.
I also put forth a case of what it means to be monitored
heavily by the government.
o Part 3: 1984 Means a Constant State of War
The politics of war, and the Orwellian tactics employed by
by the U.S. Government to control its citizens.
o Part 4: Why unlimited cryptography must be legislated NOW
In additional to the reasons given in the previous sections,
the 'debate' reasons constantly given by the government
are reviewed and debunked. And our nation's experts say it
will hurt security. The GAO says the same thing.
o Part 5: ECHELON Plutonium: Certain Contamination
NASA, an arm of the Military, has started the process
of launching space shot after shot of plutonium-laden
payloads. Statistically speaking, you can kiss large
areas of Florida, including DisneyWorld, goodbye.
o Part 6: Louis Freeh & The Creeping Police State
Basically, Louis Freeh is the anti-Christ leading us to Hell.
National ID cards are effectively being implemented without
needing to issue cards. The U.S. Government is trying to
monitor all phone calls and banking transactions, and have
all equipment worldwide designed for their monitoring. They
are bent on controlling the world to the point of there being
no crime left on the planet. Of course, democracy destroyed
is the direct result.
----
This publication advocates five major items:
o Passage of ProCode/SAFE legislation, allowing U.S. companies to
export unlimited strength cryptography, free from "Key Recovery".
Key Recovery means messages are no longer a secret, because the
Government has screwed around with it.
o Killing the CALEA legislation, which orders all communications
equipment be DESIGNED so the Government can spy on it.
o Dismantling domestic ECHELON, the Government listening in on our
domestic phone calls.
o Cancelling all future plutonium-laden space shots...these are a
hazard to everyone on the planet.
o A Cabinet-level U.S. Privacy Commission, with teeth.
----
The "average" American has no idea why cryptography is important to them.
It is the only way to begin preventing massive illegal domestic spying.
Currently, there are no restrictions on domestic use of unlimited strength
cryptography. That is not because the Government hasn't complained about
child pornographers or terrorists or other criminals who might use it.
No, that's the reason they are giving for why U.S. companies can't EXPORT
products, such as web browsers, outside U.S. territory, without compromising
it with Government "Key Recovery"; i.e. made stupider and breakable.
Why such an indirect control on what they claim is a domestic problem?
Because that is how 'The Creeping Police State' works.
Slowly, bit-by-bit.
Slowly, State-by-State everyone in the U.S. is being fingerprinted.
The FBI is now advocating biometric capture of all newborns too.
This is an interesting manifesto, please take the time to read it.
Cryptography can be used to keep private: Internet traffic, such as email,
and telephone conversations (PGP phone). A version of PGP phone that looks
and works like a normal telephone --- but can't be spied upon --- would
eventually become wide-spread.
It begins to change the mind-set that the Police State is inevitable.
----
In the last several years intelligence operatives, specifically including
SIGINT (signal intelligence) people, have started telling the story about
the massive domestic use of computer monitoring software in the U.S.
Including our domestic phone calls, Internet, fax, everything.
I'm going to quote a number of articles and books; they involved talking
to over 100 of these intelligence operatives.
Buy this book: "Secret Power" by Nicky Hager, ISBN 0-908802-35-8.
It describes in detail the ECHELON platform. It's one of the most important.
New Zealand people are quite unhappy at their place within ECHELON.
Buy this book: "Spyworld: Inside the Canadian and American Intelligence
Establishments" By Mike Frost [NSA trained sigint person] and Michel
Gratton, Toronto Doubleday 1994.
Mr. Frost describes missions in the U.S. where he was trained by the NSA
to handle domestic jobs that would be illegal for the NSA.
These books are quite damning, in a heavily documented way.
This is an AMAZINGLY COMPREHENSIVE BOOK: buy it!
"Above the Law", by David Burnham, ISBN 0-684-80699-1, 1996
Buy this book: "The Secret War Against the Jews", Authors: John Loftus and
Mark Aarons, ISBN 0-312-11057-X, 1994. Don't let the title throw you: the
authors spoke with a great many intelligence people, and cleverly probed
NSA/CIA/FBI by submitting items for publication approval, and when they
censored something... Bingo.
Because of the Catch-22 situation, the NSA gave up trying to censor many
books, since it can be used to confirm questions they would otherwise have
refused to answer.
The other books referenced within are also suggested reading.
I have sometimes edited for brevity the excerpts, especially
my newspaper clippings of stories flying by.
If I have any news story specifics wrong or if you have more details,
please email me.
Later versions of this document can be searched for at dejanews.com.
Or, you can email me, Subject: Requesting Cryptography Manifesto.
----
---- Here comes a large 'reasoned polemic':
----
This is a U.S.-centric message, but keep reading even if you are not in the
U.S.; British, Canadian, Australian and New Zealand citizens are also directly
affected.
This message is about ECHELON, which is an unbelievably huge world-wide
spying apparatus, including the domestic phone calls of many countries.
United States citizens' phone calls are being monitored in a dragnet
fashion not even George Orwell could have imagined.
This was all paid for by U.S. taxpayers.
Built in secret. Not debated.
The CALEA legislation is a shameful takes-us-into-the-abyss domestic spy bill.
It is for the FBI to simultaneously monitor HUGE amounts of our phone calls.
And when the judiciary found out about NSA monitoring U.S. citizens'
overseas telephone calls without a warrant: they approved the loss
of our Fourth Amendment rights.
Giving Presidential Directives the same force of law as the Constitution.
Congress has lost it too.
* The New York Times, undated
*
* The House is not expected to vote on the search-and-seizure bill until
* at least Wednesday. But tonight the Republicans defeated a Democratic
* amendment that SIMPLY REITERATED THE WORDS OF THE FOURTH AMENDMENT OF
* THE UNITED STATES CONSTITUTION.
*
* The vote was 303 to 121.
*
* The Democrats were trying to portray the Republicans as wanting to
* eliminate the constitutional protection against unlawful searches.
*
* Indeed, they cornered the Republicans into saying that the measure
* containing the Fourth Amendment would gut the seizure bill.
Just what is it going to take to restore the U.S. Constitution?
Unlimited unregulated cryptography legislation is a beginning baby-step.
Otherwise it might take another civil war. The NSA will not let go quietly.
Sound over-the-top? Wait until you understand the massive surveillance system
that our government has put in place, just how powerful it is, and how they've
used it repeatedly to control lawful peaceful political protest.
******************************************************************************
******************************************************************************
******************************************************************************
Information Security
******************************************************************************
******************************************************************************
******************************************************************************
Part 1: Massive Domestic Spying via NSA ECHELON
---- - ------- -------- ------ --- --- -------
o The NSA Admits
o Secret Court
o Wild Conspiracy Theory
o Over the Top
o BAM-BAM-BAM
o Australian ECHELON Spotted
o New Zealand: Unhappy Campers
People are correct in being paranoid of the
U.S. government being totally out of control.
The NSA/FBI even have a locked secret court located within the main
Justice Department building that only government employees can visit.
It has never turned down a request, and doesn't even need suspicion
of a crime to authorize a "black-bag job" burglary.
Question: Then why bother?
Answer: To give the illegal activity the imprimatur of constitutionality.
And presidents issue secret directives that obliterate constitutional rights.
Like the creation of the NSA.
NSA testimony to Congress: "There is no law that prevents our domestic spying".
Such is the unconstitutional power of the Presidential Magic Order.
It is even threatened to be used to wipe out Congressional legislation:
: However, President Clinton has threatened to veto ProCode.
: If Congress over-rides a VETO President Clinton signed an
: executive order (11/15/96) which states he can revoke any law
: passed on national security grounds:
:
: "Upon enactment of any legislation reauthorizing the
: administration of export controls, the Secretary of Defense,
: the Secretary of State, and the Attorney General shall
: reexamine whether adequate controls on encryption products can
: be maintained under the provisions of the new statute and
: advise the Secretary of Commerce of their conclusions as well
: as any recommendations for action. If adequate controls on
: encryption products cannot be maintained under a new statute,
: then such products shall, where consistent with law, be
: designated or redesignated as defense articles under 22 U.S.C.
: 2778(a)(1), to be placed on the United States Munitions List
: and controlled pursuant to the terms of the Arms Export
: Control Act and the International Traffic in Arms Regulations.
: Any disputes regarding the decision to designate or
: redesignate shall be resolved by the President."
:
: WILLIAM J. CLINTON 11/15/96
:
: 1 if by land, 2 if by sea. Paul Revere - encryption 1775
:
: Charles R. Smith
: SOFTWAR
: http://www.us.net/softwar
The U.S. Constitution is in tatters, disappearing piece-by-piece,
emasculated by politicians constantly beating drums of War for
"Law & Order".
******************************************************************************
The NSA Admits
--- --- ------
Ready?
Let's start out with what the NSA will admit. (extra capitalization is mine)
* Court Says U.S. Spy Agency Can Tap Overseas Messages
* By David Burnham, The New York Times, 1982
*
* Washington, Nov 6 --- A Federal appeals court has ruled that the National
* Security Agency may lawfully intercept messages between United States
* citizens and people overseas, even if there is no cause to believe they
* Americans are foreign agents, and then provide summaries of these messages
* to the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
*
* Because the National Security Agency is among the largest and most
* secretive intelligence agencies and because MILLIONS of electronic messages
* enter and leave the United States each day, lawyers familiar with the
* intelligence agency consider the decision to mark a significant increase in
* the legal authority of the government to keep track of its citizens.
*
* The mission of the NSA is to eavesdrop on electronic messages of foreign
* governments and protect the electronic communications of the United States.
* To accomplish these goals, the agency has SEVERAL THOUSAND listening posts
* around the world and a HUGE bank of computers in its heavily guarded head-
* quarters at Fort George Meade, MD, near Washington.
*
* A Special Senate Intelligence Committee report in 1975 found that the
* computer system functioned like a "GIANT VACUUM CLEANER" capable of
* sweeping in ALL ELECTRONIC MESSAGES to and from the United States.
* [snip]
*
* Mr. Jabara is a lawyer who for many years has represented Arab-American
* citizens and alien residents in court. Some of his clients had been
* investigated by the FBI.
* [snip]
*
* The FBI's investigation of Mr. Jabara, who has not been formally accused
* or indicted for any crimes, began in August 1967. In November 1971, the
* Government acknowledged, the FBI asked the NSA "to supply any available
* information" about the lawyer that "might come into its possession during
* the course of its foreign intelligence activities".
*
* As a result, the NSA provided the FBI summaries
* of six overseas conversations of Mr. Jabara.
*
* In earlier court proceedings, the FBI acknowledged that it then
* disseminated the information to 17 other law-enforcement or intelligence
* agencies and three foreign governments.
* [snip]
*
* John Shattuck, Washington director of the ACLU, who represented Mr. Jabara
* said "It is difficult to imagine a more sweeping judicial approval of
* government action in violation of constitutional rights than the decision
* of the panel is this case. Taken to its logical conclusion, the decision
* authorizes the Federal Government to restructure its surveillance
* activities so that any Federal law-enforcement or intelligence
* investigation requiring the interception of private communications could
* be conducted WITHOUT A JUDICIAL WARRANT simply by turning to the NSA."
*
* Under current laws, if the FBI wants to eavesdrop legally on the conversation
* of a criminal it must obtain a warrant from a Federal judge. In those cases
* where the FBI wants to eavesdrop on a specific individual who it believes
* is an agent of a foreign government, it can apply for a warrant from a
* special SECRET PANEL of Federal judges established just for that purpose.
*
* The special missions and advanced technology of the NSA however, make its
* operations more difficult to control within the restrictions of the Federal
* wiretapping and surveillance laws.
*
* According to the 1975 report of the Special Senate Intelligence Committee,
* the agency has equipment that "sweeps up enormous numbers of communications,
* not all of which can be reviewed by intelligence analysts."
*
* Using "watch lists" --- lists of words and phrases designed to identify
* communications of intelligence interest --- NSA computers scan the mass of
* acquired communications to select those which may be of specific foreign
* intelligence interest", the report said.
*
* The court ruled Fourth Amendment rights were not violated.
*
* The Senate investigation in 1975 uncovered evidence the overseas
* communications of a number of individuals engaged in organizing
* political protests against the war in Vietnam were subjected to
* surveillance by the NSA equipment.
Mini-recap:
o The NSA can listen in on all American citizens' border-crossing
communications of any sort without a warrant or any other court
procedure, and effectively distribute that information to any and
all local law-enforcement agencies. And foreign governments.
Loss of Fourth Amendment rights.
Not even discussed with the American public.
Not even debated by our elected representatives.
o Domestic law enforcement agencies can request, receive, and widely
disseminate this information without any laws interfering. A major
blurring of the lines between Military and civilian control.
o Requests for political reasons are acceptable. (last paragraph)
o The NSA uses a huge number of computers to listen for "key words"
on "watch lists" for ALL border crossing traffic, including voice
conversations. That means in 1975 they could convert voice to text,
then do keyword searches against it. It's 1997 now.
Just how did United States citizens lose these Fourth Amendment rights,
granted by the Constitution? And why is the Military monitoring the
communications of Americans on U.S. soil and working with domestic law
enforcement?
Well, one day President Truman issued a secret order creating the NSA.
As testified by Library of Congress members on C-SPAN, the names of these
presidential findings change with administrations. They are called variously
Presidential Decision Directives, National Security Council Decision
Directives, Executive Orders, etc.
One might think these special override-the-constitution presidential
directives (which came out of nowhere) would be used for short-term
emergencies.
Wrong: the NSA is now a HUGE intelligence organization, eating billions
and billions and billions and billions of dollars in budgets each year,
and monitoring billions of messages a day.
* "Spying Budget Is Made Public By Mistake", By Tim Weiner
* The New York Times, November 5 1994
*
* By mistake, a Congressional subcommittee has published an unusually
* detailed breakdown of the highly classified "black budget" for United
* States intelligence agencies.
*
* In previously defeating a bill that would have made this information
* public, the White House, CIA and Pentagon argued that revealing the
* secret budget would cause GRAVE DAMAGE to the NATIONAL SECURITY of
* the United States.
*
* $3.1 billion for the CIA
* $10.4 billion for the Army, Navy, Air Force
* and Marines special-operations units
* $13.2 billion for the NSA/NRO/DIA
*
* The only damage done so far is to the
* credibility of those who opposed the measure.
There is no constitutional basis for this
massive loss of Fourth Amendment rights.
It sounds like some wild conspiracy theory, doesn't it?
Yet it exists.
******************************************************************************
Secret Court
------ -----
: The Washington Post Magazine, June 23 1996
: Government surveillance, terrorism and the U.S. Constitution:
: The story of a Washington courtroom no tourist can visit.
: By Jim McGee and Brian Duffy [snipped article excerpts shown here]
: Adapted from the book "Main Justice", 1996, ISBN 0-684-81135-9.
:
* Last year, a secret court in the Justice Department authorized a record
* 697 'national security' wiretaps on American soil, outside normal
* constitutional procedures.
*
* The Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, is a 1978 law that permits
* secret buggings and wiretaps of individuals suspected of being agents
* of a hostile foreign government or international terrorist organization
* EVEN WHEN THE TARGET IS NOT SUSPECTED OF COMMITTING ANY CRIME.
*
* The FISA court operates outside the normal constitutional standards for
* searches and seizures. Non-government personnel are not allowed.
* The courts files cannot be publicly reviewed.
*
* The average U.S. citizen might reasonably assume use of this court
* is at the least: unusual.
*
* It is not. In fact, in the United States today it is increasingly
* common. In 1994, federal courts authorized more wiretaps for
* intelligence-gathering and national security purposes than they
* did to investigate ordinary federal crimes.
*
* The review process to prevent legal and factual errors is virtually
* non-existent.
*
* And the FISA system's courtroom advocacy is monumentally one-sided.
*
* The court has never formally rejected an application. Not once.
*
* For the first time in modern U.S. history, the Congress had
* institutionalized a process for physical searches outside of
* Fourth Amendment standards.
*
* Not even Congress' intelligence oversight committees review these
* special cases on a regular basis.
Mini-recap:
o Congress voted into existence a court that bypasses our normal
Fourth Amendment constitutional rights. Poof they're gone.
o Congressional oversite is weak.
Such a special court should be subject to the
highest standard of continual scrutiny: it is not.
! The New York Times, December 29, 19??, by David Burnham
!
! Because the National Security Agency is actively involved in the
! design [of Key Recovery cryptography], the agency will have the
! technical ability to decipher the messages.
!
! Walter G. Deeley, NSA deputy director for communications security
! said, "Another important safeguard to the privacy of communications
! was the continuous review of NSA's activities by the Senate and House
! intelligence committees."
Congressional oversite in real-time was non-existent.
Remember Ronald "I am a Contra" Reagan?
* [NJ] The Star-Ledger, Friday, January 29, 1988
*
* The documents, released Wednesday, showed that the original target of the
* FBI probe was CISPES, but that the investigation broadened to include
* more than 100 other groups that opposed Reagan administration policy in
* Nicaragua and El Salvador.
*
* Despite the long investigation, no criminal charges were ever brought
* against any of the groups or their members.
*
* An FBI statement issued Wednesday said the agency only investigated
* suspected crimes, not political beliefs or constitutionally protected
* freedom of speech.
*
* Oliver Revell, the FBI's executive assistant director, said that the
* FBI did not investigate CISPES because of its political activities,
* but for a "wide range of possible crimes."
* The New York Times, Thursday, February 4, 1988
* "Reagan Backs FBI Over Surveillance"
*
* President Reagan is satisfied that the Federal Bureau of Investigation
* conducted a proper surveillance campaign against groups opposed to his
* policies in Central America, the White House said today.
*
* The new FBI Director William S. Sessions assured Reagan that there was
* a solid basis for the investigation: "We knew CISPES was established
* from funding by the Communist Party, U.S.A."
Well, Reagan didn't like a peaceful Texas based group called CISPES, which
was against the United States' support of the El Salvador government.
The El Salvador government was torturing and killing people.
* "Officers held in Salvador Abductions", By James LeMoyne, NYT, 4/25/86
*
* One of those arrested was accused of killing the head of the Salvadoran
* Land Reform Institute and two AMERICAN agrarian advisors.
So the FBI had one of their agents infiltrate CISPES using a Frank
Varelli, who was born in San Salvador and served in the U.S. Army.
# "How the FBI infiltrated CISPES and Assisted the Salvadoran Right Wing"
# By James Ridgeway, The Village Voice, NYC
#
# Varelli met with the Salvadoran National Guard, best known for its
# death squads. They gave him a "hit list" of people they wanted.
#
# When the INS stopped a Salvadoran immigrant, it would call the FBI and
# check the name against the list.
#
# If the detained person's name was on the list, the INS would institute
# deportation proceedings, opposing bail on "national security" grounds.
#
# Varelli would call the Salvadoran National Guard to let them know the
# individual was on his way home. In this way, the FBI assisted, over a
# three-year period, the work of the Salvadoran death squads.
That's right: the FBI murders people.
* "FBI Killed Unarmed Man, Inquiry Shows", The New York Times, 1/14/97
*
* A 21-year-old murder suspect who the FBI said they shot only after he
* opened fire on them, was unarmed when he was killed.
*
* A spokesman for the FBI, Ann Todd, declined to discuss the discrepancy
* between the FBI's initial report that Mr. Byrd had shot at members of
* the FBI task force and the subsequent discovery by the Union County
* Prosecutor that he was unarmed.
*
* The FBI shot Mr. Byrd to death as he hid under a bed from them.
The FBI had Varelli "plant" a gun.
Thus giving CISPES a terrorist organization designation.
Not only did the FBI hassle them big time, but also the FBI/NSA broke
nationwide into homes and offices that were associated with them and
many other groups, including lawyers offices and churches.
In almost every incident, documents and files were ransacked while office
equipment and other valuable items were left untouched.
# "Foes of Reagan Latin American Policies Fear They're Under Surveillance"
# By David Burnham, The New York Times, April 19, 198?
#
# Among those who have cited incidents Sara Murray, staff organizer with
# the Michigan Interfaith Committee on Central American Rights, said that
# her organization made three separate first-class mailings in the last
# few months but that only one out of about 100 letters was ever delivered.
#
# The Post Office denied any responsibility.
#
# Miss Murray also said someone had broken into her Detroit office and
# stolen a mailing list, several files and two books. [snip]
#
# A free-lance journalist has brought a suit in Federal District Court
# charging that when he returned from Nicaragua the Customs Bureau detained
# him until FBI agents came and seized his diary and address book.
#
# The FBI admitted to interviewing more than 100 people who visited
# Nicaragua, but said they were acting under Presidential Executive Order.
#
# Two women have come forward to complain the IRS audited them IMMEDIATELY
# AFTER RETURNING FROM NICARAGUA.
#
# The IRS denied it had anything to do with political views: "One woman has
# never earned more than 12,000 a year, and we found that suspicious."
FBI director Sessions ended up apologizing BIG TIME on C-SPAN,
saying that sort of thing would NEVER happen again. "We have put
procedures in place so that that will NEVER happen again".
But, after having been granted the special powers of the court by
Congress, noone was arrested and tried for this MASSIVE abuse of
power, which was granted by Congress in the good faith that the
government would not trade off the Bill of Rights in order to
pursue political objectives.
It was a worst-case disaster.
Even after investigating, Congress basically yawned: "The CISPES case was
an aberration, it was lower-level FBI employees who got carried away by
their national security mandate. It was not politically motivated"
--- The Senate Select Intelligence Committee.
* "Above the Law", by David Burnham, ISBN 0-684-80699-1, 1996
*
* ...something much more sinister was at work. In his carefully documented
* analysis of the CISPES matter, 'Break-ins, Death Threats and the FBI: the
* Covert War Against the Central American Movement', Boston writer Ross
* Gelbspan argues that a much more extensive conspiracy may have been at
* work. Far from being a low-level operation, Gelbspan reports, hundreds
* of documents in the CISPES file had been initialed by Oliver "Buck"
* Revell, then the number two official in the FBI. [Further evidence
* implicates the CIA]
Congress is unable to investigate the FBI, let alone the NSA.
FISA is yet another dagger shredding the U.S. Constitution.
: The Washington Post Magazine, June 23 1996
: "Government surveillance, terrorism and the U.S. Constitution"
: from Main Justice, by Jim McGee and Brian Duffy, 1996, ISBN 0-684-81135-9
:
: The internal Justice Department FISA watchdog was Mary Lawton: it took
: her two years before saying the investigations into CISPES & Co should
: be shut down.
:
: On the day after Thanksgiving in 1993, not quite a month after Mary Lawton
: died, Richard Scruggs decided it was time to go through her office on the
: sixth floor of Main Justice.
:
: The deeper Scruggs got into the FISA files, the more uneasy he grew.
:
: Reading the FISA applications in Lawton's files, Scruggs began finding
: errors. The volume of FISA cases was so heavy that the lawyers could spend
: only so much time on each one.
:
: "The review process to prevent factual and legal errors was virtually
: nonexistent," Scruggs recalled.
:
: In high school, Mary Lawton had won a debate about the meaning of the
: U.S. Constitution.
Nor was it an aberration: the 1980s joined the 1960s and 1970s with yet
another massive use of this Orwellian technology for political purposes.
And these are when they were caught.
It's currently used for the "Drug War", a highly political endeavor.
Of course, once CISPES was designated as a terrorist organization...
: The Washington Post Magazine, June 23 1996
:
* The CISPES investigation expanded. The FBI conducted a MASSIVE NATIONWIDE
* investigation that put under surveillance ONE THOUSAND THREE HUNDRED THIRTY
* liberal groups, many of them religious or political organizations.
By definition, ECHELON surveillance of 1,330 groups is NOT an "aberration".
The state of Congressional oversight (and punishment of FISA violations)
is horrifying.
Not only did the NSA/FBI use FISA in a criminal manner, they then cross-
referenced through everyone ever connecting to CISPES - no matter how
distant - to achieve massive domestic spying for political purposes.
To crush peaceful lawful political protest.
In America.
For the President.
And they did it WITHOUT getting 1,330 FISA warrants.
Question: How do you spy on 1,330 domestic groups?
Answer: Electronically, using an existing domestic surveillance network.
Just push the button marked 'monitor'.
Your phone calls, bank transactions, credit card usage, health/
credit/utility/law-enforcement/TRW/IRS records, your whole life.
One big evil eye of Mordor.
The Russian State we were told to fear.
******************************************************************************
No wonder there are militias.
It gets worse.
Much worse.
******************************************************************************
Wild Conspiracy Theory
---- ---------- ------
This is an expanded version of a posting I made promoting unregulated
(free from government-has-the-key) cryptography.
Attorney John Loftus is the author of four histories of intelligence
operations. As a former prosecutor with the U.S. Justice Department's
Nazi-hunting unit, he had unprecedented access to top-secret CIA and
NATO archives. Mark Aarons is an investigative reporter and author of
several books on intelligence related issues.
One day I was flipping channels, and came across "The Leon Charney Show".
Attorney Charney was interviewing Attorney Loftus, who has many many
connections in the intelligence world.
Mr. Loftus described a room in NSA's Fort Meade that was actually British
soil (diplomatic territory), with a British guard posted outside...
: From: g...@panix.com [updated here 5/25/97]
: Subject: Re: Threaten U.S. Domestic ECHELON
: Newsgroups: alt.cypherpunks,talk.politics.crypto,comp.org.eff.talk
: Organization: NYC, Third Planet From the Sun
:
: This is a heavily annotated book.
:
: Massive domestic spying by the NSA.
:
: Including our phone calls.
:
: * "The Secret War Against the Jews"
: * Authors: John Loftus and Mark Aarons
: * ISBN 0-312-11057-X, 1994
: *
: * In 1943 this resulted in the Britain-USA (Brusa) agreement to merge
: * the Communications Intelligence (COMINT) agencies of both governments.
: *
: * One of the little-known features of Brusa was that President Roosevelt
: * agreed that the two governments could spy on each others' citizens,
: * without search warrants, by establishing "listening posts" on each
: * others' territory.
[snip]
: *
: * According to several of the "old spies" who worked in Communications
: * Intelligence, the NSA headquarters is also the chief British espionage
: * base in the United States. The presence of British wiretappers at the
: * keyboards of American eavesdropping computers is a closely guarded
: * secret, one that very few people in the intelligence community have
: * been aware of, but it is true.
: *
: * An American historian, David Kahn, first stumbled onto a corner of
: * the British connection in 1966, while writing his book The Codebreakers.
: *
: * One indication of just how sensitive this information is considered on
: * both sides of the Atlantic is the fact that Kahn's publishers in New
: * York and London were put under enormous pressure to censor a great deal
: * of the book. In the main, Kahn simply revealed the existence of the
: * liaison relationship, but when he wrote that the NSA and its British
: * equivalent, the Government Communications Headquarters, "exchange
: * personnel on a temporary basis", he had come too close to revealing
: * the truth.
: *
: * The U.S. government told Kahn to hide the existence of British
: * electronic spies from the American public. Kahn eventually agreed
: * to delete a few of the most sensitive paragraphs describing the
: * exchange of codes, techniques, and personnel with the British
: * government
: *
: * His innocuous few sentences threatened to disclose a larger truth.
: *
: * By the 1960s the "temporary" British personnel at Fort Meade had
: * become a permanent fixture. The British enjoyed continued access
: * to the greatest listening post in the world.
: *
: * The NSA is a giant vacuum cleaner. It sucks in every form of
: * electronic communication. from telephone calls to telegrams,
: * across the United States. The presence of British personnel
: * is essential for the American wiretappers to claim plausible
: * deniability.
: *
: * Here is how the game is played. The British liaison officer at
: * Fort Meade types the target list of "suspects" into the American
: * computer. The NSA sorts through its wiretaps and gives the
: * British officer the recording of any American citizen he wants.
: *
: * Since it is technically a *British* target of surveillance, no
: * *American* search warrant is necessary. The British officer then
: * simply hands the results over to his American liaison officer.
: *
: * Of course, the Americans provide the same service to the British
: * in return. All international and domestic telephone calls in Great
: * Britain are run through the NSA's station in the British Government
: * Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) at Menwith Hill, which allows
: * the American liaison officer to spy on any British citizen without
: * a warrant.
: *
: * According to our sources, this duplicitous, reciprocal arrangement
: * disguises the most massive, and illegal, domestic espionage apparatus
: * in the world. Not even the Soviets could touch the U.K.-U.S. intercept
: * technology.
: *
: * Through this charade, the intelligence services of each country can
: * claim they are not targeting their own citizens. This targeting is
: * done by an authorized foreign agent, the intelligence liaison
: * resident in Britain or the United States.
: *
: * Thus, in 1977, during an investigation by the House Government
: * Operations Committee, Admiral Inman could claim, with a straight face,
: * that "there are no U.S. Citizens now targeted by the NSA in the United
: * States or abroad, none."
: *
: * Since the targeting was done not by NSA but by employees of British
: * GCHQ, he was literally telling the truth.
[snip]
: *
: * According to a former special agent of the FBI, the you-spy-on-mine,
: * I'll-spy-on-yours deal has been extended to other Western partners,
: * particularly Canada and Australia. The British, with the help of
: * sophisticated NSA computers, can bug just about anyone anywhere. The
: * electronic search for subversives continues, particularly in the U.S.
: *
: * The NSA conceded precisely that point when the U.S. Justice Department
: * investigated its wiretapping of American protesters during the Vietnam
: * War.
: *
: * The NSA assured the Justice Department that the information was
: * acquired only *incidentally* as part of a British GCHQ collection
: * program.
: *
: * The "incidental" British exception has become the rule.
: *
: * To this day Congress does not realize that the British liaison officers
: * at the NSA are still free to use American equipment to spy on American
: * citizens. And, in fact, they are doing just that. Congress has been kept
: * in the dark deliberately.
: *
: * This is a fact, not a matter of conjecture
: * or a conclusion based on anonymous sources.
: *
: * In the early 1980s, during the Reagan administration, one of the authors
: * of this book submitted to the intelligence community a draft of a
: * manuscript that briefly described the wiretap shell game and mentioned
: * the secrecy provisions concerning British liaison relationships with
: * the NSA have escaped congressional knowledge.
: *
: * The result was an uproar.
: *
: * The intelligence community insisted that all passages explaining the
: * British wiretap program had to be censored and provided a list of
: * specific deletions.
Mini-recap:
o The countries sharing intelligence: US, UK, Canada, Australia
o Massive domestic spying by the NSA, using an Orwellian "1984"
technology to search all communications using computers, including
domestic phone calls.
o Circumvention of domestic spy laws via friendly "foreign" agents.
******************************************************************************
But could that be true?
Could such a massive disregard for the Constitution have taken place under
the cheesy logic said to be used by the Military? NSA is Military, headed
by a uniformed officer.
Could it possibly be true?
It's some over-the-top conspiracy theory, right?
******************************************************************************
Over the Top
---- --- ---
I haven't received the "Spyworld: Inside the Canadian and American
Intelligence Establishments" book by Mike Frost yet.
So for now I'll quote from his article in CAQ, an issue entitled "The New
Age of Surveillance".
Covert Action Quarterly, Winter 1996-97, Number 59
1500 Massachusetts Ave. NW #732
Washington, DC 20005
202/331-9763, c...@igc.org, http://mediafilter.org/caq
Article: "Second Thoughts from the Second Oldest Profession.
Inside the US-Canada Spyworld."
By Mike Frost
[ Pictured is him on two of his Canadian security IDs ]
I was a spy. For almost two decades, I spied for Canada's Communications
Security Establishment (CSE), the most secret and least known branch of
National Defense. But although my paycheck came from the Canadian government,
more often than not, my orders, assignments, and much of my training ---
like those of many other CSE operators --- came from the National Security
Agency (NSA) in Fort Meade, Maryland.
Over the twelve years I spied for CSE, it became increasingly to resemble
the NSA. Both specialize in providing secure communications and signals
intelligence (SIGINT); both operated for years with little public knowledge
or legislative oversight until they were exposed by the media.
[snip]
Despite the similarities, CSE is treated more like a subsidiary than an
equal partner. US military and economic clout, as well as NSA's vastly
superior technical capabilities and near unlimited funds, allow Washington
to dominate.
And while CSE has only a $200-300 million dollar budget, NSA has an
estimated annual budget of almost $4 billion.
But the relationship is not without mutual benefits. CSE, NSA, and Britain's
Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) use each other's facilities
and personnel to spy on friend and foe alike and, more alarmingly, to
circumvent domestic laws and spy on their own populations.
[snip]
I either participated in or had direct knowledge of operations in which
CSE operated alone or joined with NSA or GCHQ to:
o intercept communications in other countries from the confines of
Canadian embassies around the world with the knowledge of the
ambassador;
o aid politicians, political parties, or factions in an allied country
to gain partisan advantage
o spy on its allies
o spy on its own citizens; and
o perform "favors" that helped its allies evade domestic laws against
spying.
[snip]
Although I visited NSA headquarters at Fort Meade dozens of times, it was
at the Special Collection Services (SCS) at College Park, Maryland, that
I received my covert operation training and assignments.
This facility, set in suburban Washington, DC, dealt exclusively with
covert operations. [The facility was relocated closer to Fort Meade in
the early 1990s]
The first time I was driven there in 1978, I entered through a strip mall
and then through a door in the back of a restaurant; the second time, via
a dry cleaners.
These dinky businesses in a fake shopping center were all owned, operated,
and staffed by US espionage agencies. From the street, the installation's
high-tech capacity, its antennae and satellite receptors, were camouflaged
and it is unlikely that neighbors suspected anything out of the ordinary.
But the inside was anything but ordinary. There were scores of rooms crammed
with administrative functions, equipment, wires, jury-rigged gizmos, a
currency bank, and computers.
Every electronic intercept capability NSA denied having was right there.
In a small black box, not much bigger than a briefcase, was "Oratory."
This portable key-word selection computer could be taken almost anywhere
and set to pick out pre-selected words and automatically monitor and
record fax, voice, or teletype messages that contained them.
Developed by NSA, "Oratory" was "tempest-proof" (i.e. shielded to
prevent emmisions that could lead to detection), small, virtually
indestructible, and easy to repair: all you had to do was open the
lid and replace the self-diagnosed defective component.
[snip]
In pursuit of plausible deniability, CSE, GCHQ, and NSA have used each
others' personnel and resources to evade laws against domestic spying.
[ an example given in which the NSA wanted to spy on someone within
the US, even though they had no authorization for such an operation ]
...So, two Canadians were sent to conduct a counter-espionage operation
on US soil at US taxpayer expense so that NSA could maintain deniability.
In every way that counts, NSA broke US law and spied on its own citizens.
[ A UK operation by CSE described next. Margaret Thatcher (then Prime
Minister) thinks two of the ministers in her cabinet are not 'on side'
...so she wants to find out if they are... So GCHQ asked CSE operators
to come to London to bug the ministers ]
Increasingly though, both because it's possible and because it's desired,
individuals are caught in the broad net of electronic surveillance.
The experts can record and analyze all your communications at will.
SIGINT organizations in Canada, US, UK, Australia, and New Zealand use
supercomputers such as the Cray to select items of interest. The list
is very fluid and is adapted rapidly to monitor people and policy areas.
At any time, it is likely to contain names of all world leaders, terrorists,
drug lords, mafia dons, members of radical groups, labor union activists
and leaders, types of weaponry, explosives, financial dealings, money
transfers, airline destinations, stock information, international
conferences, demonstrations, and politically suspect groups and individuals.
As is the case with operations, countries maintain deniability by getting
information gathered on their domestic situations by allies.
Under development is even more sophisticated "topic recognition" which
can home in on guarded conversations that avoid potential trigger words.
Nothing and no one is exempt.
For example, you are talking on the telephone to a friend discussing
your son's school play. "Boy," you say sadly, "Bobby really bombed last
night," or perhaps you use the word "assassination" or "sabotage" or any
one of the key words the computer has been told to flag.
A hard copy of your conversation is produced, passed to the appropriate
section (in this case terrorism), and probably ends up in the garbage.
But perhaps the conversation is not so clear-cut or the analyst has poor
judgement. Then your name is permanently filed under "possible terrorist".
Weeks or even years later, you have a similar conversation and use the
same words; the computer filters it out again. Since this is your second
time, your name moves from the "possible" to the "probable" file.
Sound absurd? Not at all; it actually happened while I was at CSE.
[snip]
SIGINT specialists are honing their skills at monitoring digital
information. SIGINT agencies everywhere are increasingly throwing
their surveillance web over the Internet and other data networks
of interest.
[snip]
Mini-recap:
o The countries sharing intelligence: US, UK, Canada, Australia,
New Zealand
o Massive domestic spying by the NSA, using an Orwellian "1984"
technology to search all communications using computers, including
domestic phone calls, via keyword searches.
o Circumvention of domestic spy laws via friendly "foreign" agents
******************************************************************************
Wow.
How chilling to think the military has set up
a real-life domestic Orwellian spy apparatus.
Used repeatedly for political purposes.
ECHELON has almost no Military purpose left:
Russia is practically part of NATO now.
We must start dismantling ECHELON before it is too late.
6/3/97: Barnes & Noble informs me his book is no longer
available, and that my order is cancelled.
******************************************************************************
BAM-BAM-BAM
--- --- ---
Let's pause to take a look back at the first and still classic expose of NSA.
: The Puzzle Palace
: Inside the National Security Agency,
: America's most secret intelligence organization
: Author James Bamford, 1983 revision, ISBN 0-14-00.6748-5
Page numbers are from the above 1983 release.
Ready?
P171-172: David Kahn, in a transatlantic phone call, reluctantly agreed to
delete a handful of paragraphs dealing with the most sensitive subject of
all: NSA's relationship with its supersecret British partner, GCHQ. "The
two agencies exchange personnel on a temporary basis... A similar but much
smaller liaison program is maintained with Canada and Australia."
P399: After two years of compromising and negotiating, the BRUSA Agreement
was supplemented in 1947 by the five-power UKUSA Agreement, which,
according to one report, established the United States as a first party
to the treaty, and Britain, Canada, and Australia-New Zealand as second
parties.
P391: ...quite likely the most secret agreement ever entered into by the
English-speaking world. Signed in 1947 and known as the UKUSA Agreement,
it brought together under a single umbrella the SIGINT organizations of
the United States, Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. The UKUSA
Agreement's existence has never been officially acknowledged by any country
even today.
P271: Sharing seats alongside the NSA operators, at least in some areas,
are SIGINT specialists from Britain's Government Communications Headquarters
(GCHQ). According to a former Menwith Hill official, the two groups work
very closely together.
P229: David Watters, a telecommunications engineer once attached to the
CIA's communications research and development branch, pulls out a microwave
routing map of the greater Washington area and jabs his index finger at a
small circle with several lines entering it and the letters NSA. "There's
your smoking pistol right here." Watters says it is tied into the local
telephone company circuits, which are interconnected with the national
microwave telephone system owned by AT&T. Other specialists testified to
the same thing: purely domestic intercepts.
P223: "Technical know-how" for microwave communications intercept was
aided by William Baker, head of AT&T's Bell Laboratories and at the
same time an important member of the very secret NSA Scientific Advisory
Board. After all, it was Bell Labs under Baker that, to a great extent,
developed and perfected the very system that the NSA hoped to penetrate.
[
"The Rise of the Computer State", David Burnham, 1984, ISBN 0-394-72375-9
"A Chilling Account of the Computer's Threat to Society"
FYI note: this document's opening quote is from this book.
P122: For the last three decades the NSA has been a frequent and secret
participant in regulatory matters before the Federal Communications
Commission, where important decisions are made that directly affect
the structure of the telephone company, the use of radio airwaves and
the operation of communication satellites.
]
P317: 1962. Now, for the first time, NSA had begun turning its massive ear
inward toward its own citizens. With no laws or legislative charter to
block its path, the ear continued to turn.
P319: The Secret Service, the CIA, the FBI and the DIA submitted entries
for the NSA's watch list.
The names on the various watch lists ranged from members of radical political
groups to celebrities to ordinary citizens involved in protest against their
government.
Included were such well-known figures as Jane Fonda, Joan Baez, Dr. Benjamin
Spock, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., the Reverand Ralph Abernathy, Black
Panther leader Eldridge Cleaver, and Chicago Seven defendants Abbie Hoffman
and David T. Dellinger.
A frightening side effect of the watch list program was the tendency of most
lists to grow, expanding far beyond their original intent. This multiplier
effect was caused by the inclusion of names of people who came in contact
with those persons and organizations already on the lists.
Because of the NSA's vacuum cleaner approach to intelligence collection ---
whereby it sucks into its system the maximum amount of telecommunications and
then filters it through an enormous screen of "trigger words" --- analysts end
up reviewing telephone calls, telegrams, and telex messages to and from
thousands of innocent persons having little or nothing to do with the actual
focus of the effort.
And when a person made the
watch list, any conversations
EVEN MENTIONING
that person are scooped up.
P333: By now, the names of U.S. citizens on NSA's many watch lists for
fighting the drug war had grown from the hundreds into the thousands.
Even when Noel Gayler took over as Director of the NSA in August 1969,
NSA personnel waited a year or so before briefing even him on the NSA
watch list program.
P381-382: NSA Director General Allen testified to Congress that there is no
statute that prevents the NSA from interception of domestic communications.
Asked whether he was concerned about the legality of expanding greatly its
targeting of American citizens, the NSA replied: "Legality? That particular
aspect didn't enter into the discussions."
P459: Innocent Americans - people neither targeted nor watch-listed - are
scooped up into the NSA's giant vacuum cleaner. This happens with
considerable frequency because of the way in which names and phrases are
jam-packed into the computers. Even though NSA's specialized supercomputers
have enormous storage capacities, the tremendous number of targets forces
the Agency to squeeze the watch lists together as tightly as possible.
P462-465: Its power to eavesdrop, the NSA had always insisted, came under no
earthly laws but rather emanated from some celestial "inherent presidential
authority" reposed in the chief executive by the Constitution.
Senator Edward M. Kennedy tried year after year to pass legislation to
require the NSA to submit to judicial review.
Finally, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act [FISA] was signed into
law by president Carter on October 25, 1978.
The key to the legislation could only have been dreamed up by Franz Kafka:
the establishment of a supersecret federal court.
The legislation established a complex authorization procedure and added a
strict "minimization" requirement to prohibit the use and distribution of
communications involving Americans inadvertently picked up during the
intercept operations.
These requirements constitute the most important parts of the FISA law, and
were included to prevent the watch-listing of American citizens, which took
place during the 1960s and 1970s.
The Supreme Court Chief Justice picks which federal judges serve in the
Star Chamber.
P466-467: The FISA court judge rules that black-bag jobs of "nonresidential
premises under the direction or control of a foreign power" need no court
approval. The FISA legislation also exempts from judicial review communica-
tions of these sites, including embassies. P464: A final judicial review
exception authorized the Agency to distribute the communication if it relates
to criminal activity.
* * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
*** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ***
* * * * * * * * * *
P468-469: Within the United States, FISA still leaves the NSA free to pull
into its massive vacuum cleaner every telephone call and message entering,
leaving, OR TRANSITING the country.
By carefully inserting the words "by the National Security Agency" into the
FISA legislation, the NSA has skillfully excluded from the coverage of the
FISA statute as well as the surveillance court all interceptions received
from the British GCHQ or any other non-NSA source.
Thus it is possible for GCHQ to monitor the necessary domestic circuits
and pass them on to the NSA through the UKUSA Agreement, giving them
impunity to target and watch-list Americans.
* * * * * * * * * *
*** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** *** ***
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * *
* * * * * * * * * *
P475: Three decades after its creation, the NSA is still without a formal
charter. Instead, there is a super hush-hush surveillance court that is
virtually impotent; the FISA, which has enough loopholes and exceptions to
render it nearly useless; and an executive order that was designed more to
protect the intelligence community from citizens than citizens from the
agencies. In addition, because it is an executive order, it can be changed
at any time at the whim of a President, without so much as a nod toward
Congress.
P471: On January 24, 1978, President Jimmy Carter issued an executive order
imposing detailed restrictions on the nation's intelligence community. The
order was designed to prevent the long list of abuses of the 1960s and 1970s.
But four years later President Ronald Reagan scrapped the Carter order and
broadened considerably the power of the spy agencies to operate domestically.
P473: Under the Reagan executive order, the NSA can now, apparently, be
authorized to lend its full support - analysts as well as computers - to
"any department or agency" in the federal government and, "when lives are
endangered," even to local police departments.
[ Yea billions of dollars a year military SIGINT support technology...
oh so invisible in its great mass.
A total blurring of the lines between Military
and civilian control of the domestic population.
]
P475-477: Like an ever-widening sinkhole, the NSA's surveillance technology
will continue to expand, quietly pulling in more and more communications and
gradually eliminating more and more privacy.
If there are defenses to such technotyranny, it would appear, at least from
past experience, that they will not come from Congress.
Rather, they will most likely come from academe and industry in the form of
secure cryptographic applications to private and commercial telecommunications
equipment.
The same technology that is used against free speech can be used
to protect it, for without protection the future may be grim.
Senator Frank Church, chairman of the Senate Intelligence committee, referring
to the NSA's SIGINT technology:
At the same time, that capability at any time could be turned around
on the American people and no American would have any privacy left,
such is the capability to monitor everything: telephone conversations,
telegrams, it doesn't matter.
There would be no place to hide.
If the government ever became a tyranny, if a dictator ever took charge
in this country, the technological capacity that the intelligence commun-
ity has given the government could enable it to impose total tyranny,
and there would be no way to fight back, because the most careful effort
to combine together in resistance to the government, no matter how
privately it was done, is within the reach of the government to know.
Such is the capability of this technology...
I don't want to see this country ever go across the bridge.
I know the capacity that is there to make tyranny total in America, and
we must see to it that this agency and all agencies that possess this
technology operate within the law and under proper supervision, so that
we never cross over that abyss.
That is the abyss from which there is no return.
*** end of 'Puzzle Palace' excerpts.
Wow.
No recap necessary.
I'm feeling a bit sick at this point, how about you?
******************************************************************************
Those of you who supported any version of the FBI/NSA Digital Telephony Act
sold us down the river, making use of this Orwellian Military technology
fully legal domestically for the first time.
The descent into the abyss, from which there is no return.
: * "Above the Law", by David Burnham, ISBN 0-684-80699-1, 1996
: *
: * [ Al Bayse was assistant director of the FBI's Technical Services
: * Division, in charge of spending more than half a billion dollars
: * for research, development and computer operations. ]
: *
: * "Sure", said Al Bayse of the FBI, "I believe there is an absolute
: * right to privacy. But that doesn't mean you have the right to break
: * the law in a serious way. Any private conversation that doesn't
: * involve criminality should be private"
: *
: * In other words, as the debate was framed by Bayse, the right to
: * privacy is at least partly contingent on a determination by an FBI
: * agent or clerk that the conversations they already intercepted and
: * understood do not involve a crime.
Do you want to live in a real live Big Brother world?
It is not at all about trying to keep up with technology in order to wiretap.
The phone companies are already able and authorized to listen in on any
line at any time, to check the integrity of the network.
I've heard some funny stories by old Bell System employees about a bunch of
people listening into private conversations, and having a hoot.
Question: How can the FBI use computers to monitor thousands and thousands
and thousands and thousands of phone calls simultaneously, as they
said they would do with the bill, when we Americans speak so many
different accents and languages?
Answer: Thirty years of fine tuning by the NSA, y'all.
The Digital Telephony Act will allow them to legally - at full
wiretapping capacity - dragnet-monitor the telephone network.
Each line monitored will not require a warrant.
And how did they get this CALEA legislation?
* "Government Access", by Jim Warren
*
* At the administration's pleading, the [Democrat-controlled] Congress
* rammed it through in less than two months, with no substantive hearings.
*
* Literally in the dark of night, without debate, it passed in the house
* by voice vote and two nights later by unanimous consent in the Senate,
* only minutes before adjourning to rush home for their important work:
* campaigning for re-election.
The NSA domestic watch-list is probably already stuffed
full enough to use the complete CALEA capacity.
You can select many more lines for monitoring than actually end up active
at the same time. The effect is indistinguishable from a MUCH larger
monitoring capacity.
Even greater when the software programmatically decides (at the FBI end) which
conversations to continue listening to.
I'm sure law-enforcement will be able to dynamically configure their
connection to the phone companies' networks.
And probably cheat to use ECHELON to direct this programmatic control,
yielding no effective monitoring limit for domestic law-enforcement, and
domestic political control.
Law enforcement has absolutely no need for the Digital Telephony Act except
to give them their own access terminals and PRETEND there is a firewall
between what the Military is doing versus what the FBI is doing.
Of course, to monitor phone calls at full capacity,
the FBI will need to use Military surveillance software.
We've come a long way from requiring a person to listen to the first minute
of conversation to even decide whether the person could continue to monitor.
It's a brave new world now.
We're there.
Surprise.
******************************************************************************
Australian ECHELON Spotted
---------- ------- -------
* http://www.texemarrs.com, Living Truth Ministries 800/234-9673
Texe Marrs and his organization are big on the "Anti-Christ" aspects of all
the technology the UKUSA governments have deployed to monitor people.
I am just glad he knows the Beast when he sees it, that it is Evil (without
the people involved necessarily being evil in intent: agreed!) and that
unless we do something soon, it will be too late: Earth will become Hell.
His book-jacket bio: Texe Marrs was a career U.S. Air Force officer (retired).
He commanded communications-electronics and engineering units around the globe.
* "Project L.U.C.I.D.", by Texe Marrs, 1996, ISBN 1-884302-02-5
*
* Appendix 2: World Surveillance Headquarters
*
* The report that follows, originally entitled "National Surveillance", was
* written by Australia's Peter Sawer and published in Inside News (P.O. Box
* 311, Maleny, Queensland 4552, Australia). It first came to my attention
* when it was printed in the U.S. by LtCol Archibald E. Robert's Bulletin,
* the newsletter of the highly respected Committee to Restore the Constitu-
* tion (P.O. Box 986, Fort Collins, Colorado 80522).
*
* The article caused a flurry of activity and a round of vigorous denials,
* admissions, coverups, and more denials by Australian political leaders.
*
* The article contends that (1) America's National Security Agency (NSA)
* is the world surveillance headquarters, and (2) Australia has it's own
* secret "computer center", linked with the NSA via satellite, which
* illegally watches over Australia's citizenry.
Article snippets... capitalization by the original authors...
* On a fateful fall day in America, on November 4th, 1952, a new United
* States government agency quietly was brought into existence through
* presidential decree.
*
* The birth of the National Security Agency on that day so long ago
* heralded the beginning of the world's most sophisticated and all
* encompassing surveillance system, and the beginnings of the greatest
* threat to individual liberty and freedom not only in Australia, but
* the entire planet will ever see.
*
* The NSA grew out of the post war "Signals Intelligence" section of the
* U.S. War Department. It is unique amongst government organizations in
* America, and indeed most other countries, in that there are NO specified
* or defined limits to its powers.
*
* The NSA can (and does) do just about whatever it wants, whenever, and
* wherever it wants. Although little known in both the U.S. and elsewhere,
* the NSA is quite literally the most powerful organization in the world.
*
* Not limited by any law, and answerable only to the U.S. National Security
* Council through COMSEC, the NSA now controls an information and
* surveillance network around the globe that even Orwell, in his novel
* "1984", could not have imagined.
*
* Most people believe that the current "computer age" grew out of either
* the space program or the nuclear weapons race; it did not.
*
* ALL significant advances in computer technology over the last thirty
* years, from the very beginnings of IBM, through to the super computers
* of today, have been for the NSA. In fact, the world's very first super
* computer, the awe-inspiring CRAY, was built to specification for the
* NSA, and installed in their headquarters in 1976.
*
* The entire twentieth century of development of computer technology has
* been the result of the NSA's unquenchable thirst for ever bigger, ever
* faster machines on which to collect, collate, and cross-reference data
* on hundreds of millions of honest, law-abiding, and totally unsuspecting
* individuals. And not only in America, but in many other countries as
* well. Including, as we shall see, Australia.
[
"The Rise of the Computer State", David Burnham, 1984
p134: ...the technical advances that were occurring did so not entirely
by chance. The computers' ability to acquire, organize, store and
retrieve huge amounts of data was an essential factor leading to the
broad definition of intelligence that was fostered by the National
Security Agency and its godfather, the National Security Council.
Computer research was supported by NSA in a major way by secret research
dollars. Thomas C. Reed, Director of the Pentagon's Telecommunications,
Command and Control System, referring to domestic intercity telephone
microwave radio trunks, said in 1975, "Modern computer techniques make
it possible to sort through that traffic and find target conversations
easily."
p126-127: Since the wiretap law barred the Bureau of Narcotics and
Dangerous Drugs from installing a tap on New York City's Grand Central
Station pay phones, bureau head John Ingersoll asked the NSA for help.
Within a few months the spy agency was sorting through all the
conversations it was already acquiring for general intelligence
purposes.
Of course, the technicians were required to acquire, monitor, and
discard a large number of calls made by people with no connection
with the cocaine business in South American cities.
But so pleased was Mr. Ingersoll with the tips he was getting from the
dragnet monitoring that he ultimately persuaded the NSA to monitor
simultaneously nineteen other U.S. communication hubs.
]
* "Project L.U.C.I.D.", continued...
*
* Fort Meade is the hub of an information gathering octopus whose tentacles
* reach out to the four corners of the earth.
*
* The principal means of communicating this information is by the National
* Aeronautical and Space Administration (NASA) satellite communications
* system, which most people erroneously think exists primarily for the
* space program.
*
* It does not.
*
* The satellites, indeed NASA and the entire American Space Program, exist
* largely to supply the NSA with its telecommunications system. That is why
* the bulk of its operations are officially declared 'secret'. This
* ultimate 'Big Brother' machine even has an official name 'Project
* Platform'.
[
"The Puzzle Palace": all these computer systems are linked together
under Project Platform. The first Cray went to the NSA. p138
]
* Although the NSA was officially formed in 1952, it grew out of an
* International Agreement signed in 1947. Officially termed the "UKUSA
* PACT," this was an agreement between Britain, the U.S.A., Canada, New
* Zealand, Australia and the NATO countries.
*
* The UKUSA PACT was, quite simply and bluntly, an agreement between these
* countries to collect and collate information on their respective citizens
* and to share this information with each other and pass on to Fort Meade.
*
* On March 9th 1977, the Leader of the Opposition, Mr. Bill Hayden, asked
* "questions on notice" on the subject. On April 19, Prime Minister Malcom
* Fraser, declined to answer the questions, "in the interests of national
* security."
*
* The first clue of the Australian Headquarters of PROJECT PLATFORM appeared
* in 1975. Then, as today, government undertakings involving expenditure
* over a certain amount must be presented to a Senate body, the Joint
* Parliamentary Accounts Committee (JPAC). In 1975 JPAC was asked to
* examine and approve finance for the construction of a new building in
* Deakin, a leafy suburb of Canberra.
*
* This quite massive building was to be constructed behind an existing, much
* smaller one, which, until then, had been known to the public only as the
* "Deakin Telephone Exchange."
*
* That it was not, and never had been, simply a "telephone exchange" finally
* came to light in the 1975 JPAC Approval Report, when it admitted that the
* existing building had a comprehensive basement which housed NASA's micro-
* wave communications headquarters in Australia. Part of the justification
* of the "need" for the new, much larger building, was that by 1980, it was
* expected that NASA would run out of room in their existing home.
*
* Apart from NASA, it is now admitted that Deakin houses the National
* Computer Headquarters for, amongst others, the Australian Defense
* Department, the Australian Taxation Office, the Department of Social
* Security, the Commonwealth Department of Education, and the Department
* of Transport and Communications.
*
* Both Tax and Social Security are, in turn, directly linked to Medicare.
* In fact, the Department of Health used Social Security's computer
* facilities there until their own were completed.
*
* A small, but highly significant, part of the building is, in fact,
* occupied by Telecom. This is the part that contains the networking
* junctions for the optical-fiber lines leased by the banks for their
* "Electronic Funds Transfer System" (EFTS). ALL financial transactions
* for the banks pass through there via subsidiary company, "Funds
* Transfers Services Pty Ltd." (FTS)
* The New York Times INTERNATIONAL Wednesday, May 21, 1997
* by Clyde H. Farnsworth, Woomera, Australia.
*
* As Darth Vader's Death Star is blown to bits in the newly remastered "Star
* Wars" at the local theater, the audience of Australian and American Air
* Force personnel, and squadrons of their children, lets out a whoop. As the
* lights go on, everyone is beaming.
* [snip]
*
* Pine Gap employs nearly 1,000 people, mainly from the CIA and the U.S.
* National Reconnaissance Office.
*
* It is the ground station for a U.S. satellite network that intercepts
* telephone, radio, data links and other communications around the world.
Worldwide telephone interception.
******************************************************************************
New Zealand: Unhappy Campers
--- ------- ------- -------
You'd be unhappy too if French terrorists - er - French intelligence agency
operatives sank a ship (GreenPeace!) on the shores of your country, and the
USA controlled ECHELON system failed to warn you.
Here comes the usual - GROAN: "the usual" -
PLUS a description of the basic mechanisms.
Spy tools, come 'n' get yer spy tools...a comprehensive look at ECHELON
DICTIONARY. A look at the Beast in your phone. This is the big one.
In the section after this, 'On Monitoring', I give detailed examples of
the capability of ECHELON DICTIONARY to seek out information from noise.
To pick out conversations from a massive dragnet. I even give the keyword
monitoring logic for spotting conversations of people actively searching
to leave their current job for another employer. First read this section.
*** "Secret Power" by Nicky Hager, 1996, ISBN 0-908802-35-8
GCSB is New Zealand's Government Communications Security Bureau.
P8-9
It was with some apprehension that I learned Nicky Hager was researching the
activity of our intelligence community. He has long been a pain in the
establishment's neck.
There are many things in the book with which I am familiar. I couldn't tell
him which was which. Nor can I tell you.
But it is an outrage that I and other ministers were told so little [yea NSA]
and this raises the question of to whom those concerned saw themselves
ultimately responsible.
David Lange
Prime Minister of New Zealand 1984-89
P9
Another aspect of the Second World War that carried over into the Cold War
era was the close co-operation between five countries - the United States,
the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand - formalized with the
UKUSA Security Agreement of 1948.
Although the treaty has never been made public, it has become clear that it
provided not only for a division of collecting tasks and sharing of the
product, but for common guidelines for the classification and protection
of the intelligence collected as well as for personnel security.
P20
New Zealand Prime Minister Robert Muldoon, on June 12 1984, admitted the GCSB
liaised closely with Australia, Canada, the United Kingdom and the United
States - the closest the government has ever come to talking about the secret
five-nation signals intelligence alliance of which the GCSB is part.
P108
The New Zealand analysts have a high level of contact with the overseas
agencies, including overseas staff training, postings and exchanges. In
the early 1990s the GCSB began conducting its own training courses, teaching
them the special procedures and regulations governing the production of
signals intelligence reports for the UKUSA network.
It is at these courses where the analysts are told about the UKUSA agreement,
which is described by senior staff as the 'foundation stone' of all the
arrangements with the 'partner' agencies.
P110 The GCSB introduces the new trainees to the world of codebreaking by
advising them to read two of the greatest exposes of signals intelligence:
James Bamford's 'The Puzzle Palace' and David Kahn's 'The Code Breakers'.
P22
In 1984, Glen Singleton of the NSA was formally appointed GCSB's Deputy
Director of Policy and Plans. Having an American inside the GCSB serving as
a foreign liaison officer would be one thing: allowing an officer from another
country to direct policy and planning seems extraordinary.
[ Unless you think of the NSA as the New World Order. ]
P28-29
Intelsat 7s can carry 90,000 individual phone or fax circuits at once. All
'written' messages are currently exploited by the GCSB. The other UKUSA
agencies monitor phone calls as well.
The key to interception of satellite communications is powerful computers that
search through these masses of messages for ones of interest.
The intercept stations take in millions of messages intended for the
legitimate earth stations served by the satellite and then use computers
to search for pre-programmed addresses and keywords.
In this way they select out manageable numbers (hundreds or thousands) of
messages to be searched through and read by the intelligence analysis staff.
Many people are vaguely aware that a lot of spying occurs, maybe even on them,
but how do we judge if it is ubiquitous or not a worry at all? Is someone
listening every time we pick up the telephone? Are all Internet or fax
messages being pored over continuously by shadowy figures somewhere in a
windowless building? There is almost never any solid information with which
to judge what is realistic concern and what is silly paranoia.
What follows explains as precisely as possible - and for the first time in
public - how the worldwide system works, just how immense and powerful it is
and what it can and cannot do. The electronic spies are not ubiquitous, but
the paranoia is not unfounded.
The global system has a highly secret codename - ECHELON.
The intelligence agencies will be shocked to see it named and described for
the first time in print.
Each station in the ECHELON network has computers that automatically search
through millions of intercepted messages for ones containing pre-programmed
keywords or fax, telex and email addresses. Every word of every message is
automatically searched: they do not need your specific telephone number or
Internet address on the list.
All the different computers in the network are known, within the UKUSA
agencies, as the ECHELON Dictionaries.
Computers that can search for keywords have existed since at least the 1970s,
but the ECHELON system has been designed to interconnect all these computers
and allow the stations to function as components of an integrated whole.
Under the ECHELON system, a particular station's Dictionary computers contain
not only its parent agency's chosen keywords, but also a list for each of the
other four agencies. For example, each New Zealand site has separate search
lists for the NSA, GCHQ [British], DSD [Australia], and CSE [Canada] in
addition to its own.
So each station collects all the telephone calls, faxes, telexes, Internet
messages and other electronic communications that its computers have been
pre-programmed to select for all the allies and automatically send this
intelligence to them.
This means that New Zealand stations are being used by the overseas agencies
for their automatic collecting - while New Zealand does not even know what
is being intercepted from the New Zealand sites for the allies. In return,
New Zealand gets tightly controlled access to a few parts of the system.
The GCSB computers, the stations, the headquarter operations and, indeed,
GCSB itself function almost entirely as components of this integrated system.
Each station in the network - not just the satellite stations - has Dictionary
computers that report to the ECHELON system
P37
United States spy satellites, designed to intercept communications from orbit
above the earth, are also likely to be connected into the ECHELON system.
These satellites either move in orbits that criss-cross the earth or, like
the Intelsats, sit above the Equator in geostationary orbit.
They have antennae that can scoop up very large quantities of radio
communications from the areas below.
A final element of the ECHELON system are facilities that tap directly into
land-based telecommunications systems, completing a near total coverage of
the world's communications.
The microwave networks are made up of chains of microwave towers relaying
messages from hilltop to hilltop (always within line of sight) across the
countryside. These networks shunt large quantities of communications across
a country. Intercepting them gives access to international underseas
communications (once they surface) and to international communication trunk
lines across continents.
They are also an obvious target for large-scale interception of domestic
communications. Of course, when the microwave route is across one of the
UKUSA countries' territory it is much easier to arrange interception.
P41
The ECHELON system has created an awesome spying capacity for the United
States, allowing it to monitor continuously most of the world's communications.
It is an important component of its power and influence in the post-Cold War
world order, and advances in computer processing technology continue to
increase this capacity.
The NSA pushed for the creation of this system and has the supreme position
within it. It has subsidized the allies by providing the sophisticated
computer programs used in the system, it undertakes the bulk of the
interception operations and, in return, it can be assumed to have full
access to the allies' capabilities.
On December 2 1987, when Prime Minister David Lange announced plans to build
a new spy station, he issued a press statement explaining that the station
would provide greater independence in intelligence matters: "For years there
has been concern about our dependence on others and all that implies. This
government is committed to standing on its own two feet."
Lange believed the statement. Even as Prime Minister, no one had told him
about the ECHELON Dictionary system and the way the new station would fit in.
P43
His first experience of the UKUSA alliance was its security 'indoctrination'
(they really use this word). The indoctrination was done by GCSB security
officer Don Allan, and consisted of a strict lecture about never, for the
rest of his life, talking about his job with anyone except other indoctrinated
people. GCSB workers are forbidden to say anything about their work, even to
their partners.
The indoctrination concluded with Holmes signing the two page indoctrination
form, which refers to New Zealand laws for punishing infringements (in the
Crimes Act) but which originates primarily in UKUSA regulations. Equivalent
forms must be signed by staff throughout the UKUSA alliance.
P44-
In the middle of 1994 Holmes got his first overseas posting - and a
prestigious one at that. He is on a three-year posting to the center of
the UKUSA alliance, the enormous NSA headquarters at Fort George G. Meade.
This posting was the first ever by a GCSB analyst to the NSA. Before he
left New Zealand his daily work, like that of all analysts, revolved entirely
around that most striking manifestation of GCSB's links with the NSA: the
ECHELON Dictionary system.
Each morning the signals intelligence analysts in New Zealand log on at their
computer terminals and enter the Dictionary system, just as their equivalents
do in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia.
What follows is a precise description of how the system works, the first time
it has been publicly described. [Buy the book for full details]
After entering their security passwords, the analysts reach a directory that
lists the different categories of intercept available, each with a four digit
code; 4066, for instance, might be Russian fishing trawlers, 5535 Japanese
diplomatic traffic in the South Pacific, 4959 communications from South
Pacific countries and so on.
They type in the code for the category they want to use first that day.
As soon as they make a selection, a 'search result' appears, stating the
number of documents which have been found fitting that category.
The day's work begins, reading through screen after screen of intercepted
messages.
If a message appears worth reporting on, the analyst can select it from the
rest and work on it out of the Dictionary system.
He or she then translates the message - either in its entirety or as a
summary called a 'gist' - and writes it into the standard format of all
intelligence reports produced anywhere within the UKUSA network.
This is the 'front end' of the Dictionary system, using a commercially
available program (called BRS Search). It extracts the different categories
of intercepted messages (known just as 'intercept') from the large GCSB
computer database of intercept from the New Zealand stations and overseas
agencies.
[ I interrupt this book excerpt to bring you retrieval results for
"BRS Search" from the www.altavista.digital.com search engine:
BRS/Search is designed to manage large collections
of unstructured information, allowing multiple
users to quickly and efficiently search, retrieve
and analyze stored documents simply by entering a
word, concept, phrase, or combination of phrases,
in any length. The product offers the most
powerful indexing structure available today, with
users able to pinpoint critical information in
seconds, even across millions of documents in
numerous databases.
Hmmm. Sounds like the search engine I just used.
You give the search engine keywords to search for, and can specify
exclusion logic keywords. e.g. "digital AND NOT watch"
]
Before anything goes into the database, the actual searching and selection of
intercepted messages has already occurred - in the Dictionary computers at
the New Zealand and overseas stations.
This is an enormous mass of material - literally all the business, government
and personal messages that the station catches.
The computers automatically search through everything as it arrives at the
station.
This is the work of the Dictionary program.
It reads every word and number in every single incoming message and picks out
all the ones containing target keywords and numbers.
Thousands of simultaneous messages are read in 'real time' as they pour into
the station, hour after hour, day after day, as the computer finds
intelligence needles in the telecommunications haystack.
Telephone calls containing keywords are automatically extracted from the
masses of other calls and digitally recorded to be listened to by analysts
back in the agency headquarters.
The implications of this capability are immense.
The UKUSA agencies can use machines to search through all the telephone calls
in the world, just as they do for written messages.
It has nothing to do with whether someone is deliberately tapping your phone,
simply whether you say a keyword or combination of keywords that is of
interest to one of the UKUSA agencies.
P47
The keywords include such things as names of people, ships, organizations,
countries and subjects. They also include the known telex and phone numbers
and Internet addresses of the individuals, businesses, organizations and
government offices they may want to target.
The agencies also specify combinations of these keywords to help sift out
communications of interest.
For example, they might search for diplomatic cables containing both the
words 'Suva' and 'aid', or cables containing the word 'Suva' but NOT the
word 'consul' (to avoid the masses of routine consular communications).
It is these sets of words and numbers (and combinations of them), under a
particular category, that are placed in the Dictionary computers.
The whole system was developed by the NSA.
P51-
The only known public reference to the ECHELON system was made in relation to
the Menwith Hill station. In July 1988, a United States newspaper, the
Cleveland Plain Dealer, published a story about electronic monitoring of
phone calls of a Republican senator, Strom Thurmond. The alleged monitoring
occurred at Menwith Hill.
Margaret Newsham worked at Menwith Hill as a contract employee of Lockheed
Space and Missiles Corporation. She is said to have told congress staff that,
while at Menwith, she was able to listen through earphones to telephone calls
being monitored.
When investigators subpoenaed witnesses and sought access to plans and manuals
for the ECHELON system, they found there were no formal controls over who
could be targeted; junior staff were able to feed in target names to be
searched for by the computers without any check of their authorization to
do so.
None of this is surprising and it is likely to be insignificant compared with
official abuse of the system.
The capabilities of the ECHELON system are so great, and the secrecy
surrounding it makes it so impervious to democratic oversite, that the
temptation to use it for questionable projects seems irresistible.
In June 1992 a group of current 'highly placed intelligence operatives' from
the British GCHQ spoke to the paper Observer: 'We feel we can no longer remain
silent regarding that which we regard to be gross malpractice and negligence
within the establishment in which we operate.'
They gave as examples GCHQ interception of three charitable organizations,
including Amnesty International and Christian Aid. As the Observer reported:
"At any time GCHQ is able to home in on their communications for a
routine target request," the GCHQ source said. In this case of phone
taps the procedure is known as Mantis. With the telexes this is
called Mayfly. By keying in a code relating to Third World aid, the
source was able to demonstrate telex 'fixes' on the three organizations.
We can then sift through those communications further by selecting
keywords to search for.
Without actually naming it, this was a fairly precise description of how
the ECHELON Dictionary system works.
Note that it was being used for telephone calls.
Again, what was not revealed in the publicity was that this is a UKUSA-wide
system. The design of the ECHELON system means that the interception of
these organizations could have occurred anywhere in the network, at any
station where the GCHQ had requested that the four digit code covering the
necessary keywords and exclusion logic for Third World aid be placed.
P54
In a further misuse of ECHELON, a former intelligence employee revealed that
Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher had personally ordered interception of the
Lonrho company, owners of the Observer newspaper, after that newspaper
published a series of articles in 1989 exposing events surrounding a multi-
billion dollar British arms deal with Saudi Arabia.
The newspaper said the deal had been pushed strongly by Mrs. Thatcher, and
it was alleged that massive bribes were made to middlemen, including her
son, Mark, who was said to have received a 10 million Pound commission.
The former employee of the British Joint Intelligence Committee, Robin
Robison, broke his indoctrination oaths and told the Observer that, as
part of his job, which involved sorting intelligence reports from the
British intelligence agencies, he personally forwarded GCHQ transcripts
of intercepted communications about Lonrho to Mrs. Thatcher's office.
P9
Intelligence is not just neutral information; it can be powerful and
dangerous. Intelligence gathering and military force are two sides of
the same coin. Both are used by countries and groups within countries to
advance their interests, often at the expense of others. To influence or
defeat an opponent, knowledge can be more useful than military force.
The type of intelligence described in this book, signals intelligence
(SIGINT), is the largest, most secret and most expensive source of secret
intelligence in the world today.
P-5655
Like the British examples, and Mike Frost's Canadian examples, these stories
will only be the tip of the iceberg.
There is no evidence of a UKUSA code of ethics or a tradition of respect
for Parliament or civil liberties in their home countries.
The opposite seems to be true: that anything goes as long as you do not
get caught. Secrecy not only permits but encourages questionable operations.
Three observations need to be made about the immense spying capability
provided by the ECHELON system.
The first is that the magnitude of the global network is a product of
decades of intense Cold War activity. Yet with the end of the Cold War
it has not been demobilized and budgets have not been significantly cut.
Indeed the network has grown in power and reach. Yet the public
justifications, for example that 'economic intelligence is now more
important', do not even begin to explain why this huge spy system
should be maintained. In the early 1980s the Cold War rhetoric was
extreme and global war was seriously discussed and planned for.
In the 1990s, the threat of global war has all but disappeared and
none of the allies faces the remotest serious military threat.
The second point about the ECHELON capabilities is that large parts of the
system, while hiding behind the Cold War for their justification, were
never primarily about the Cold War at all.
The UKUSA alliance did mount massive operations against the Soviet Union
and other 'communists', but other elements of the worldwide system, such
as the interception of Intelsat communications, microwave networks and
many regional satellites, were not aimed primarily at the Russians, the
Iraqis or the North Koreans.
Then, and now, they are targeting groups which do not pose any physical
threat to the UKUSA allies at all.
But they are ideal to use against political opponents, economic competitors,
countries where the allies may want to gain some advantage (especially
access to cheap resources) and administrations (like Nicaragua's Sandinista
government) which do not fit an American-dominated world order.
The third observation is that telecommunications organizations - including
the telephone companies - are not blameless in all of this.
These companies, to which people pay their monthly bills believing that
the phone calls they make and the faxes they send are secure, should well
be aware of the wholesale interception of 'private' communications that
has been occurring for decades.
Yet they neither invest in encryption technology nor insist that organizations
such as the Washington-based Intelsat Corporation provide encryption.
They do not let their customers know that their international communications
are open to continuous interception. Wittingly or unwittingly, this lack of
action assists large-scale spying against the individuals, businesses and
government and private organizations that innocently entrust their
communications to these companies.
ECHELON is a staggeringly comprehensive and highly secret global spying
system. Around the world there are networks of spy stations and spy
satellites which can intercept communications anywhere on the planet.
P18
Over the last 10 years a lot has been heard in New Zealand about the dangers
of 'bureaucratic capture', about senior officials controlling their ministers
rather than the other way around. The area of government activity described
in this book is the ultimate example of bureaucratic capture.
Politicians, whom the public has presumed will be monitoring the intelligence
organizations on their behalf, have been systematically denied the information
required to do that job.
If a democratic society wants to control its secret agencies, it is essential
that the public and politicians have the information and the will to do so.
P113
Good encryption systems, such as PGP, developed privately by American Phil
Zimmerman, are publicly available, although they are still used only by
relatively few people in the know.
The UKUSA agencies have been attempting to curb the spread of this technology,
which is a major threat to their influence, so far without enough success to
stop it.
It remains to be seen how much the public can find a technological answer to
maintaining privacy in a world with systems like ECHELON.
*** end of 'Secret Power' excerpt
******************************************************************************
Throughout the Cold War, the United States government pounded into us again
and again how Russia and China were evil because they monitored and controlled
the political expression of their people, had sham laws and sham courts, all
dedicated to maintaining the power of the all-important State.
How the philosophy of communism was the rights of the individual were
subservient to the needs of the State, as determined by the State.
i.e. the antithesis of constitutional democracy
Ironically, it was the United States that built
the ultimate Orwellian surveillance mechanism.
There was no public discussion about it.
And used sham laws: Executive Orders and Congressional legislation.
To create a secret agency and a secret sham court.
Used repeatedly to control lawful domestic political protest.
The Soviet Union and China we were told to fear.
******************************************************************************
******************************************************************************
******************************************************************************
Part 2: On Monitoring and Being Monitored
---- - -- ---------- --- ----- ---------
o On Monitoring
- Driver's Seat
- Five Months Statistics
- The FBI Investigations
- I Can See What You Are Thinking
- Why I Monitor
o On Being Monitored
If you are an ordinary citizen, you may not notice the
INVISIBLE massive spy apparatus until it is too late.
As has already happened repeatedly: the government will use
this National Spying Apparatus to crush political protests,
and monitor the politically incorrect.
In the 1960s, 1970s, 1980s... and the 1990s.
Question:
Why argue against something that would catch crime?
Answer:
ECHELON is so invasive we lose all privacy.
It is infinitely abusable.
It has been abused repeatedly.
CALEA takes us into the abyss.
Would monitoring really turn up that many violations?
Meaning: is it really that effective a mechanism?
******************************************************************************
On Monitoring
-- ----------
I am a traffic analysis person.
Internet email. Company spook.
Boo.
The bad news: getting people fired.
The good news: really great Internet humor is picked up too.
From the land of "Put the shrimp on the barby, Marlene:"
I was travelling on a tram the other day and in one seat
there was an old digger (Australian soldier or ex soldier)
reading his newspaper.
Across from him was a juvenile with a spikey mohawk haircut
coloured pink, green, orange and yellow.
The old digger kept looking over his newspaper at him.
Finally the young bloke spat the dummy, and yelled at the
elderly gent, "What the f......k are you looking at you silly
old bastard, haven't you ever done anything outrageous yourself ?
As cool as a cucumber the old digger put down his paper and said,
"I screwed a parrot once, and I was wondering if you were my son"
Actually, I consider the people to have fired themselves.
It's weird when you're on the controlling side: I almost started putting
skull stickers on my terminal for each 'kill'. Thought it would be funny.
(Real Country Song Title:)
I'm Just A Bug On The Windshield Of Life
----------------------------------------
Tom and Linda were driving their car behind Lorena Bobbit on
the day she cut her husband's penis off. When she threw it out
the window, it hit Tom's windshield.
Tom turned the windshield wipers on, cleared the mess, turned
to Linda and said, "Did you see the dick on that bug?"
For the past two years on Wall Street, I have monitored
employee Internet email, using homegrown snarf code.
Monitored by keyword spotting software with keyword spotting exclusion logic.
I call this software: the Internet Risk Management Analytics.
The NSA calls theirs DICTIONARY.
The results of monitoring were stunning.
Absolutely stunning.
If you would like a full copy of the tail, email me with Subject line "Request
Monitoring Tale". It is in the form of a complaint against Salomon Brothers.
I went public with it after the five attempts to handle the problem internal
to Salomon failed, and then the SEC failed to even contact me about the
complaint.
Anyway, I take advantage of the screwed up situation to explain to you what
it means to be monitored by powerful keyword monitoring software.
All company names are real.
All people's names in security incident reports are changed, as are any
proprietary data/numbers.
Any personal-personal traffic (the person's own words with outside friends)
is changed so it is not the actual traffic that went across, but it will have
the same visceral-word impact as the original.
Picture yourself inside a company. You are an office worker. Like everyone
else you have a desktop computer. It is on the company network. The company
has an Internet connection. You can send/receive email over the Internet.
Ready?
Ready to keyword monitor roughly seven thousand people?
Driver's Seat
-------- ----
Both sites started with a bang.
The smaller site had two security incidents within the first three hours.
Two different format (Microsoft Access DB, Excel spreadsheet) copies of
employee social security numbers and other personal personnel information
flew out of the smaller site's Internet connection.
Internet firewalls have no protection against file transfer via email.
Yet companies often disallow FTP, another command for transferring files.
ALL email is transferred as a file.
My two managers shook their heads at people being so stupid as to mail
company confidential information over the Internet in the clear.
Their security rule was "Don't send it out over the Internet unless it's
okay to read about in the next day's paper."
The transmissions included the managers' social security numbers too.
For non-U.S. people: a defacto key for accessing all of ones personal records.
And why did I create and turn on email monitoring at that site?
Well, those business magazines for the computer industry like to sell big
screaming "Internet Security: the Sky is Falling!!!" covers now and then.
So, one triggered the Chairman to start making strange noises about shutting
down the Internet connection for security reasons. Also said something about
having email printed out at the Internet system and hand-delivered.
Now THAT scared the hell out of the rest of us, from geeks to managers, so,
being the hired gun for doing Internet security, I created some capture code.
All email in and out of the firm was now being copied to a 'save' directory.
Each night I went over it - all email traffic - with the aid of my analytics:
keyword spotting and keyword excluding software.
I had never heard of ECHELON or DICTIONARY or anything like it.
It was just obvious what to do from trying to check all (each and every one)
email personally at first. There was way too much of it for me to do that.
All the analytics I set up, including what I call the daily 'radar' file,
depended entirely on keyword monitoring. Items selected for review met a
series of include/exclude keyword matches.
Everything.
********** begin excerpt from 'Corruption at Salomon Brothers' **********
Ope's movie "Apollo 13" starring Tom Hanks had just come out:
> Date: Thu, 21 Mar 96 13:03:43 EST
> From: guy
> To: <someone>
> Subject: HOUSTON, WE HAVE A PROBLEM
> Cc: <someone> <someone>
>
>
> Out bound from Salomon: From "Howie Windows" <how@sbi89>
> In bound to Silicon Graphics: To: hoj...@sgi.com
> Subject: sar source code
>
> internet:root 543> wc -l *.[ch]
> 129 sa.h
> 626 sadc.c
> 532 saga.c
> 496 sagb.c
> 45 saghdr.h
> 1463 sar.c
> 220 timex.c
> 3511 total
>
> 3500 lines of source, across seven sources, each clearly labelled:
>
> /* Copyright (c) 1984 AT&T */
> /* All Rights Reserved */
>
> /* THIS IS UNPUBLISHED PROPRIETARY SOURCE CODE OF AT&T */
> /* The copyright notice above does not evidence any */
> /* actual or intended publication of such source code. */
>
> ...followed by another email with a subset of the same source,
> slightly modified, and the proprietary header stripped out.
>
> I hope it didn't flow past AT&T's ISP connections...
[snip]
********** end excerpt from 'Corruption at Salomon Brothers' **********
This transfer of proprietary source code that USED to be owned by AT&T
did not even qualify for action. Salomon legal stated Salomon has a lower
obligation for third-party copyrights than they did for software they
contracted for themselves, like Sybase. Salomon didn't have a UNIX source
license, so obviously the employee had gotten it elsewhere.
In the following statistic, it was the only non-Salomon source code.
We went from zero monitoring of Internet email traffic to...
> On 3/21/96 we had our first security incident report.
>
> By 3/26/96 we had an astonishing 38,000 lines of proprietary source code
> outbound.
>
> We were mentally unprepared. Figuratively we were pulling our hair out
> wondering when the madness would stop.
>
> It never did.
As I said, the results of keyword monitoring were stunning.
If you look up computer security literature and read up on security incidents,
you'll notice none are more articulate about inside-employee incidents other
than to describe the people as "disgruntled employees".
Wrong.
I'll go over some of the major categories of incidents I encountered.
Keyword monitoring is abstract to most people; these results show
how powerful the technique is.
Here are two from the category:
o People innocently trying to get work done.
This usually happens between the programmer and a third-party vendor.
SISS stands for 'Salomon Information Security Services'.
The configurations and passwords to Salomon's network control devices - the
heart of the network - flew out of our Internet connection to vendor Cisco
in a seemingly unstoppable whirlwind. This was the fourth report in a row.
********** begin excerpt from 'Corruption at Salomon Brothers' **********
*******************************************************************************
*******************************************************************************
*******************************************************************************
SECURITY INCIDENT REPORT, 6/27/96
ROUTER PASSWORDS
BRIDGE AND ROUTER CONFIGURATIONS
NOC SYSTEMS SECURITY
---------------------------------
This is a security incident report regarding the Internet (a public wire)
traffic of Salomon Brothers, which is monitored for security/compliance.
NOTE: THESE INCIDENTS HAVE NOT STOPPED DESPITE REPEATED SISS REPORTS!
This report should be taken as a complaint that insufficient procedures
have been put in place to ensure current and new Salomon personnel are
made aware of the security issues of Internet transmissions for network
device configuration files. Suggest wide-spread distribution of a memo
concerning the problem. Perhaps place "no-Internet-transmission" comments
in all network config files. Standard warning issued to all new networkers.
Three transmissions of live passwords to three different Salomon routers
have been sent in cleartext over the Internet by Rock Transves nnn-nnnn
of Internet Client Services:
SENDER DATE ROUTER LINE PASSWORD
Rock Transves 6/27/96 09:37 bc7f7w40 [global] bs345way
[and again on] 6/26/96 16:10 con 0 bs345way
aux 0 bs345way
vty 0 qwerty0
Rock Transves 6/18/96 11:27 ard7w35 [global] z23c4v5b
trangobw1 [global] bs345way
con 0 bs345way
ALL OF THESE ROUTERS *AND* ALL ROUTERS USING THE SAME PASSWORDS
MUST HAVE THEIR PASSWORDS CHANGED.
[snip]
*******************************************************************************
*******************************************************************************
*******************************************************************************
SECURITY INCIDENT REPORT, 7/3/96
OASYS SOURCE CODE:
38,696 PROPRIETARY LINES
--------------------------------
This is a security incident report regarding the Internet (a public wire)
traffic of Salomon Brothers, which is monitored for security/compliance.
On Jul 3 1996, sara xxxxxxxxx of XXX-NJ emailed over the unprotected
Internet 38,696 lines of OASYS C++ code to vendor RogueWave for tech support
This code was clearly marked:
" This SOFTWARE is proprietary and confidential to \n"
" SALOMON BROTHERS INC. and may not be duplicated, \n"
" disclosed to third parties or used for any purpose \n"
" not expressly authorized by Salomon Brothers Inc.. \n"
" Any unauthorized use duplication or disclosure is \n"
" prohibited by law and will result in prosecution. \n";
SISS sincerely hopes noone was positioned to monitor this Internet
traffic, because they would have picked up the full transfer.
*******************************************************************************
*******************************************************************************
*******************************************************************************
There are plenty of alternatives to
a) sending our proprietary code over the unprotected Internet
b) disclosing our code to a third party
The answer to a) is: don't do it. Get MD/SOO permission to use a courier.
The answer to b) is:
o Isolated the bug(s) to the smallest amount necessary to reproduce
the error. According to the previous email traffic between these
two people, there were two compile-time bugs. The programmer can
be faulted for not using two orders of magnitude fewer lines for
demonstrating the error. A small fragment of code can be emailed.
o If the problem is compile-time, email the relevant C/C++
preprocessor output snippet. The comments by the programmer in the
email transfer state THE CODE DOESN'T COMPILE ANYWAY.
o Have the vendor deliver a "debug" version of their product. That
would be a good use for email. Sun Microsystems does that with a
C++ product for us, their customer. Email the results back.
o Have the vendor visit to troubleshoot.
o Requested a login via SecureID and Salomon's netblazer, supporting
28.8 PPP (TCP/IP for windowing connectivity) for the vendor. Let
them transfer in any tools they need to troubleshoot.
Short-term access.
o If it is truly necessary to transfer a large amount of code, such as
Informix working to convert a large Sybase app, then take the time
to write a shell script that (using say 'sed') scrambles the names
of environment variables, and be sure to hand-ruin any proprietary
algorithms.
Why is transfer of Salomon proprietary source to a vendor's site the last
step to try? Because Salomon loses control over the code. In the Informix
/Sybase case, the vendor Informix requested (and received) another copy
of the code "because I lost the previous copy".
Two emails between the pair are enclosed.
[snip]
*********************************
:Size: 846077, Dated: Jul 3 17:52
:Sender: sara@sbixxx [sara xxxxxxxxxx XXX-NJ]
:Recipient: xxx...@roguewave.com [Dennis xxxxxxx]
:Subject: Re: (Fwd) Re: (Fwd) rw...
**** UUencoding, Filename='rw4.tar.Z'
Hi Dennis,
The last patch didn't help, here's some other code that will also
trigger the bug.
This code doesn't compile for other reasons but we need to get the
Rougeview issue resolved.
Could you ask xxxx to look this over?
Thanks,
sara
:begin 600 rw4.tar.Z
*********************************
# of
lines filename
----- --------
54 4x.env
139 LocalRules
344 LoginDlg.cc
65 LoginDlg.h
221 MacroRules
87 Makefile
619 OASYSMain.cc
175 OASYSMain.h
79 SubApp.cc
51 SubApp.h
54 gui_main.cc
33 gui_main.h
42 lib_inc
647 sbOfLogin.cc
113 sbOfLogin.h
0 sun4_4
22 version.txt
0 lib_inc/*.h
128 lib_inc/AccountBalance.h
22 lib_inc/AccountBalanceTest.h
59 lib_inc/AccrlInptTb.h
86 lib_inc/ArrClasT.h
[snip of 247 lines]
38696 total
********** end excerpt from 'Corruption at Salomon Brothers' **********
Another major category of security incidents are what I've named:
o Dumb-and-Dumber
********** begin excerpt from 'Corruption at Salomon Brothers' **********
> Date: Thu, 23 May 96 11:52:04 EDT
> From: guy
> To: vivian [Salomon lawyer to whom I reported]
> Subject: Snarf: Two Redhots May 21/22 1996
> Cc: mon_c
>
> Vivian,
>
> Redhot #1)
>
> : *********************************
> : Filename: May_21_96/dfAA12846 Size: 59853, Dated: May 21 07:08
> : From: someone@sbixxx (Lara M.)
> : Recipient: nnnnn...@CompuServe.COM
> : Subject: Re: Can You?
> : *********************************
>
> Lara M. sent 1900 lines of C++ source to ex-SBI consultant Roger Rogers,
> at his request. (One of numerous instances of SBI people doing such).
>
> The full transmission is enclosed.
>
> * Name : ReconGen.cc
> * Name : ReconGen::ReconGen()
> * Name : LogError
> * Name : processQuery
> * Name : writeGenFile
> * Name : openGeneratedFile
> * Name : StartUp
> * Name : ReconTool.cc
> * Name : ReconTool::ReconTool()
> * Name : loadConfig
> * Name : getData
> * Name : getMultiData
> * Name : LogError
> * Name : readTableNames
> * Name : constructSqlStatement
> * Name : processQuery
> * Name : storeColumnData - gets various column attributes
> * Name : lookupInTableB
> * Name : printReportRow
> * Name : printEndOfReport
> * Name : clearDownRows
> * Name : openReportFile
> * Name : StartUp
>
>
> Redhot #2)
>
> : *********************************
> : Filename: May_22_96/dfAA16598 Size: 11786, Dated: May 22 16:07
> : Sender: someone@sbixxx (someone someone)
> : Recipient: som...@bfm.com
> : Subject: prepay.c
> : *********************************
>
>
> static char *rcsid="$Id: prepay.c,v 1.29 1996/03/26 13:42:30 kautilya";
> /* Copyright M-) 1995 by Salomon Brothers Inc. All rights reserved.
> ** Unpublished.
> ** This software is proprietary and confidential to Salomon Brothers Inc
> ** and may not be duplicated, disclosed to third parties, or used for
> ** any purpose not expressly authorized by Salomon Brothers Inc.
> ** Any unauthorized use, duplication, or disclosure is prohibited by law
> ** and will result in prosecution. */
>
> About 500 lines of C source outbound. Full source is enclosed.
>
>
>
> Last line in this email is marked as such, there are no attachments.
> Thanks,
> ---guy
>
> [snip]
>
> Roger,
>
> Let me know if this is what you want, otherwise I'll try again !
>
> Lara
>
> [snip]
> Lara,
>
> I've been hoping for those progs but they hadn't arrived. Can you
> check my email address?
>
> This will be mega brownie points for me to get it working so fast.
>
> Thanks,
> Roger
The first one is where an ex-worker ("Dumb") asks a current employee for
something proprietary, in this case written by the ex-co-worker, and the
current employee ("Dumber") gives it to them.
It happened again and again and again at all sites I've monitored.
They fired her.
One of the more unusual Dumb-and-Dumber incidents was when a new hiree who
was quite happy with her new job - told all her friends in email - then sent
an email "Subject: For your eyes only" into dttus.com, with an Excel
spreadsheet attached.
It contained detailed compensation numbers for an entire trading desk.
Technically it wasn't a Dumb-and-Dumber, more like a Dumber-to-Luckless,
because the recipient didn't request it.
Anyway, they fired her.
And Deloitte & Touche fired the recipient!!!
I guess they hold their people to very high standards: if you receive
something proprietary of another company's, you'd better report it to
management yourself.
No, Deloitte & Touche didn't spot the transfer.
We had to ask for our email "back".
********** end excerpt from 'Corruption at Salomon Brothers' **********
It just never stopped.
Here are three examples from category:
o Working on another job while within the firm
********** begin excerpt from 'Corruption at Salomon Brothers' **********
*******************************************************************************
*******************************************************************************
*******************************************************************************
This report concerns Internet public wire traffic of XXX XXXXXX XXXXXX.
Internet traffic is monitored for security and compliance purposes.
----------------------------------
Security Incident Report 10/25/96
Raymond Brock: working on another
job while within XXX XXXXXX XXXXXX
----------------------------------
On Fri Oct 25 Raymond Brock sent out an email regarding "a demo" that
triggered a secondary search of his traffic. The results show he is
working on a project outside XXXXXX, with the aid of XXXXXX systems.
This report consists of:
#1 - detailed summary of findings
#2 - Brock's resume
#3 - email between Brock and his partners
#4 - sorted-unique list of sites/URLs visited
#5 - one full days WWW log
Prepared by Guy on 10/28/96.
*******************************************************************************
*******************************************************************************
*******************************************************************************
[snip]
> Back in April, Raymond Brock mailed out his resume, stating
> these accomplishments for XXX XXXXXX XXXXXX:
>
> o front-end trading system
> o portfolio system daily processing
> o developed interfaces to monitor and feed trade system
>
[snip]
> Now, according to his email, he is doing a project that includes
> features along those lines. The demo is coming up soon:
>
[snip, next: HTML transferred out did this:]
>
> PERSONAL BROKER SYSTEM (1=cash, 2=margin, 3=short)
> ORDER ENTRY CONTROL (BUY, COVER SHORT, SELL, SELL SHORT)
> TRADE HISTORY
> : Statistics for your account are
> : Liquidity Value
> : Equity Percentage
> : Balance after Trade
> : Market Value
> : Equity
> : Cash Available
> : Margin
> : Total
> : Short
[final snip]
*******************************************************************************
*******************************************************************************
*******************************************************************************
This report concerns Internet public wire traffic of XXX XXXXXX XXXXXX.
Internet traffic is monitored for security and compliance purposes.
----------------------------------
Security Incident Report 10/29/96
Joseph Busy: working on another
job while within XXX XXXXXX XXXXXX
----------------------------------
Aggregate email from Joseph Busy shows he is very involved in running
a business on the side. At the least, he is directing the efforts of
others who work in his other company via his XXXXXX email.
Among the shots he is calling for:
o Find out where our money is: report XXX to the BBB and Chamber of
Commerce and Dunn and Bradstreet as past due 120 days on $200.
o Collect money from the real estate company
o Firm up a meeting for the investment bankers
o Make sure all bids are out
o Make sure distributor list is up to date and credit lines and terms
are verified.
o Where's the money from the Navy?
o Find out costs for health insurance for the company (Ongoing).
o Test program and relay any changes to <name> [a company]
o Finish systems matrix pricing
o Get pricing on ISDN lines for Fishkill and Bayside
It seems like this could possibly be distracting him from being "all he
could be" at XXX XXXXXX XXXXXX. Mr. Busy requests the others to "check
your email every few hours", and "do not leave before you talk to me".
The email recipient is a Fred XXXXXXX, who works at PEI,
"Tel: (718) nnn-nnnn, Fax: (718) nnn-nnnn".
Another referenced person, "Gary", has the skills/job for making brochures.
Gary has an email name of "xxxxxxx.xxxxxxxxxxx" at ISP ATT.
He receives a copy of Mr. Busy's email via Fred, might work at PEI too.
They also have a database programmer, possibly Fred.
Enclosed trailing are the actual emails.
Prepared by Guy on 10/30/96.
*******************************************************************************
*******************************************************************************
*******************************************************************************
[final snip]
:Date: Mon, 6 May 96 18:02:24 EDT
:From: guy
:To: tmig@sbi
:Subject: Bob Brain report
:Cc: <others>
This is a report on the Internet traffic of Bob Brain.
The Internet is a public wire, which Salomon is obligated
to monitor for security/compliance reasons.
Mr. Brain showed up on radar when he transferred out
over 12,000 lines of source code which was extensively
maintained by more than one Salomon person, to Merrill Lynch.
His individual traffic (public Internet) was then pulled
from backups.
This is the summary report of what has been found.
Prepared by Guy, 5/6/96.
##### ####### # # ####### ####### # # ####### #####
# # # # ## # # # ## # # # #
# # # # # # # # # # # # #
# # # # # # # ##### # # # # #####
# # # # # # # # # # # # #
# # # # # ## # # # ## # # #
##### ####### # # # ####### # # # #####
#1 - Executive summary
#2 - Brain admits he screws [SBI] around all the time
#3 - His internal and external business activities
#4 - The SYBASE-MODE source code transfers
#5 - Why the source isn't PD even though he's labelled it PD.
#6 - InterNic Registry Information for XXX.com and XXXX.com
#7 - One days WWW traffic snapshot from his personal WS poison.
#8 - A Day in the Life: a full days traffic,
excluding tons of XXX-support email
#9 - Misc traffic
# # #
# # ##
####### # #
# # # Executive summary
####### #
# # #
# # #####
These are the activities of Bob Brain that are forbidden:
o Transmitted out a source extensively maintained at SBI expense.
It is "productivity enhancing" software "SYBASE-MODE" lisp/emacs
for production use by Sybase SAs.
o Gave away these enhancements by labelling them Public Domain [PD],
and mailing into competitors such as Merrill Lynch.
o Has spent a LARGE amount of SBI time (inside SBI) working
on his own WWW business. Still actively does this.
o Transmitted a copyrighted script.
# This script is a commercial product. Giving or selling it to anyone
# is not permitted under any circumstances.
o Spends time as "helpdesk" for his distribution of SYBASE-MODE.
Furthermore, he has stated:
o he would like to leave Salomon
o would leave for half of his currently salary
to work fulltime on his WWW business.
His activities are clearly costly and detrimental to Salomon Brothers.
# # #####
# # # #
####### #
# # ##### Brain himself says Salomon allows him to
####### # spend a lot of time on his business venture.
# # #
# # #######
date: Wed, 17 Apr 1996 10:52:13 -0400
From: bob@tridenthead2 (Bob Brain nnn-nnnn)
To: Tri...@ppllc.com (Tom Trigger)
subject: Re: Kruger?
Trigger> If BTO didn't let you spend a lot of time working on your
Trigger> own business, I'd have said leave ASAP. What a lousy place.
Could I keep getting 30%+ raises at other places? I should really turn
consultant.
Yeah, I have it real easy now, plenty of time to work on my own business
during the day. Great benefits here!
[snip]
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
Real-time shenanigans between Republic National Bank, Salomon Brothers,
and Bob Brain's WWW business site over the Internet!
: date: Tue, 30 Apr 1996 11:30:29 -0400
: From: bob@tridenthead2 (Bob Brain nnn-nnnn)
: Subject: XXX Graphic Files
: To: Br...@rnb.com
:
: Bruno> I can't believe it: I made illicit entry into Barbara Garden's
: Bruno> office (short skirts-high-heels-stockings) and grabbed a floppy
: Bruno> with some graphic images we can use.
: Bruno> Please install these into our WWW site.
:
: Made so.
:
: -Bob
********** end excerpt from 'Corruption at Salomon Brothers' **********
Here's one example of internal operations documentation being sucked out
the Internet. And endless amount of this material left the firm.
I caught Internal Audit alone transferring proprietary/confidential
material three times.
********** begin excerpt from 'Corruption at Salomon Brothers' **********
*****************************************************************************
*****************************************************************************
*****************************************************************************
SECURITY INCIDENT REPORT, 8/25/96
--INTERNAL AUDIT: Fred Hamburger--
HOSTNAMES / USERNAMES / PASSWORDS
SALOMON INTERNAL DOCUMENTATION
---------------------------------
This is a security incident report regarding the Internet (a public wire)
traffic of Salomon Brothers, which is monitored for security/compliance.
Internal Audit member Fred Hamburger has repeatedly transferred passwords
to Salomon systems over the unprotected Internet, one system is a Yield
Book system, and also transferred a highly detailed internal document on
'EMERGING MARKETS DEBT WHOLE LOANS SUPPORT PROCEDURES' to an individual's
external ISP (Internet) account.
: *********************************
: Filename: Aug_22_96/dfAA09397 Size: 51729, Dated: Aug 22 15:25
: Sender: fhamburger@rocky
: Recipient: smys...@ix.netcom.com
: Subject: PSOPROC.DOC
: **** UUencoding, Filename='PSOPROC.DOC'
:
: Some of the procedures you wanted information on are documented here.
:
: Fred.
: *********************************
:
: Microsoft Word 6.0 Document
: Salomon Internal Audit#H:\AUDITOR\AB12345\WORD\PSOPROC.DOC
:
: EMERGING MARKETS DEBT WHOLE LOANS
: SUPPORT PROCEDURES
:
: Fred Hamburger
:
: EMERGING MARKETS DEBT LDC LOANS
: SUPPORT PROCEDURES
:
: I. CONFIRMATION
: Introduction
:
: Trades in LDC loans are recorded by Traders on trade logs contemporaneously
: with the telephone conversations actually executing the transactions. During
: the day, these trade logs are passed to data input personnel, who then enter
: the trades into AAAA. (AAAA is designed to support direct on-line entry by
: Traders, but is not used in this manner on the Emerging Markets Desk.)
: AAAA feeds BBBB at the end of day which in turn feeds relevant downstream
: Salomon systems. AAAA also feeds the CCCC system, which is maintained as
: a stand-alone second level sub-ledger that provides functionality and
: records data not otherwise available. The first level sub-ledger on this
: Desk is DDDD.
:
: PROCESSING
: ----------
:
: All transactions in AAAA should be confirmed orally with counterparties by
: the end of trade date by checking to AAAA. All trades where AAAA and EEEE
: require
[final snip]
It was a LONG "Salomon Internal Audit Division" document, highly detailed,
including historical background info.
This document could be damaging in the wrong hands.
This looked like a Dumb-and-Dumber category transfer.
********** end excerpt from 'Corruption at Salomon Brothers' **********
******************************************************************************
Five Months Statistics
---- ------ ----------
Okay, I think I've shown you enough security incidents
for you to determine that this is a real thing.
That I am not "full of hooey".
Here is a summary of what I accomplished at Salomon while keyword monitoring.
********** begin excerpt from 'Corruption at Salomon Brothers' **********
Thread: Five Months Statistics
---- ------ ----------
I created and did the traffic analysis for five months before handing it
off. The time includes a 2.5 month parallel run with the new person.
The new person found only half the security incidents I did, but we handed
off anyway.
Summarizing my five months:
o caught over 400,000 lines of Salomon proprietary source code outbound
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
// //
// Copyright (C) 1994 Salomon Incorporated //
// All Rights Reserved. Unpublished. //
// //
// This software is proprietary and confidential to Salomon Inc. //
// and may not be duplicated, disclosed to third parties, or used //
// for any purpose not expressly authorized by Salomon Inc. //
// //
// Any unauthorized use, duplication, or disclosure is prohibited //
// by law and will result in prosecution. //
// //
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
o Risk Management reports ("positions") caught outbound, including DRMS
(Derivatives) going to someone who started working for Merrill Lynch
o Risk Management reports inbound: Phibro positions [Salomon subsidiary]
o Internal product documentation and trading desk procedures outbound
o Many hostname/username/password transmissions for Salomon's internal systems
o Many Sybase database passwords, including SA passwords
o People working on their own businesses while within Salomon
o Someone soliciting people for porno videos from Salomon
o Phibro Chart of Accounts and internal accounting procedures
o Year-end summary of lawsuits filed against subsidiary Basis Petroleum
o Pirating of third-party copyright programs
o Other firms' IUO (Internal Use Only) inbound
o Our detailed systems inventory
o Determined what PGP (encrypted) traffic was occurring. Among others, we had
constant small traffic back-and-forth with Military contractor Rockwell.
o Salomon's Official Restricted List being repeatedly transmitted outbound
(list of securities Salomon can't purchase without a conflict of interest)
o Unreleased Financing Summaries and unreleased IPO's: SEC violations
o Internal Use Only documents
o Trade confirmations
o JobTalk hits concerning internal budget details by an SOO.
o JobTalk hit of a resume of a risk management person who wanted to
"explain how it works" here
o Hundreds of router (security) configurations
o 42,000 lines of OASYS data
o router and bridge passwords
o Hostname/username/password for unmonitored outbound ISDN access from Salomon
o RadioMail: spotted that all the big cheeses who use it have all their highly
sensitive email going out over the unprotected Internet, because we were too
cheap to buy a transmitter, and so are forwarding all the email over the
Internet to RadioMail's transmitter!!!
o The key to one's financial life: Social Security numbers of Salomon
retirees transmitted in/out the Internet. Names, birth dates, sex,
life insurance amount, date of spouse's birth...
o caught our proprietary infrastructure code running at JP Morgan
********** end excerpt from 'Corruption at Salomon Brothers' **********
So...how have I done, to indicate how powerful keyword monitoring is?
NSA employees would go to jail for ten years for describing the effectiveness
of DICTIONARY's keyword monitoring.
I am not an NSA employee.
I wrote it myself.
> P48, "Secret Power", by Nicky Hager
> The best set of keywords for each subject category is worked out over time,
> in part by experimentation.
>
> The staff sometimes trial a particular set of keywords for a period of time
> and, if they find they are getting too much 'junk', they can change some
> words to get a different selection of traffic.
>
> The Dictionary Manager administers the sets of keywords in the Dictionary
> computers, adding, amending and deleting as required.
>
> This is the person who adds the new keyword for the watch list, deletes a
> keyword from another because it is not triggering interesting messages,
> or adds a 'but not *****' to a category because it has been receiving too
> many irrelevant messages and a lot of them contain that word.
Wow, people whose only job is to edit the keywords.
What a cushy job!
What I can imagine accomplishing with billions of dollars of support, instead
of just little ol' me doing everything, is a truly nightmarish vision.
There's more.
******************************************************************************
The FBI Investigations
--- --- --------------
At the same time I was analyzing two Internet email feeds, I started a third.
During the five months of monitoring at Salomon, I also ran the previous
four months of Internet email (from the backups) through my analytics.
I found plenty of stuff there too.
Another major category of incidents: people in their last week at work.
In most cases from the backups, the person had already left the firm.
Even when they were still here:
********** begin excerpt from 'Corruption at Salomon Brothers' **********
! 18,525 lines of proprietary YieldBook C source.
! The user is still here (voicemail answers).
! Sent to themselves, or a relative, into a college campus.
! This source is very Salomon-specific, and could not be useful
! to transmit offsite for "testing".
! It executes other programs in the YieldBook package tree, and
! needs a full setup of YieldBook to operate.
!
! Shall I do the secondary searches and an incident report?
! ---guy
!
! *********************************
! Filename: Dec_21_95/dfAA19116 Size: 522186, Dated: Dec 21 1995
! Sender: blort@bpann
! Recipient: bl...@cornell.edu
! *********************************
********** end excerpt from 'Corruption at Salomon Brothers' **********
Nothing was done: I had completely overwhelmed Salomon Legal with security
incidents, and many were ignored.
In general, when you catch something in the backups, there are two choices:
o Grin and bear it
o File criminal or civil charges in court
Two of the security incidents found in the backups qualified for criminal
prosecution.
One was a source for the Finance Desk Trading System [FDTS].
********** begin excerpt from 'Corruption at Salomon Brothers' **********
>Date: Tue, 7 May 96 23:38:00 EDT
>From: guy
>To: vivian
>Subject: Jan 26 1996 REDHOT
>Cc: <others>
Vivian,
On Jan 26 1996:
18,184 lines of C++ source of something called "basis" for FDTS.
Here was the radar hit:
*********************************
Filename: Jan_26_96/dfAA05811 Size: 207496, Dated: Jan 26 08:30
Sender: apoo@snowball (Art Poo)
Recipient: NA...@newscorp.com
**** UUencoding, Filename='b.Z'
Your Excellency,
Make this floopy-bound. Bring it to esi this evening.
Thank you.
begin 600 b.Z
*********************************
Mr. Poo no longer seems to be with us.
His id is gone from his system, and someone else has his phone number.
It's an api that accesses some sort of indexed info, creates some sort
of report, is an X-windows deal.
I found the name of the recipient:
**********************************************************************
NAME XXXXXXXXXXXXXX Oracle / NewsCorp Online Ventures
TITLE XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
abcd...@newscorp.com XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
(212)-nnn-nnnn (nnn)-nnn-nnnn
**********************************************************************
...and the recipient confirmed delivery.
That was kind of him.
#of
lines sourcefile
49 basis/include/AlphaIOField.h
49 basis/include/AlphaNumIOField.h
82 basis/include/AmountFormat.h
47 basis/include/AmtQtyEntryPad.h
38 basis/include/AppSessionMessage.h
292 basis/include/AppUI.h
71 basis/include/Customization.h
[large snip here]
131 basis/include/Date.h
77 basis/include/DateEntryPad.h
54 basis/include/DateIOField.h
33 basis/include/DefaultButton.h
63 basis/include/DocLayout.h
1144 basis/lib/base/basis_ios.cc
398 basis/lib/base/AmountFormat.cc
157 basis/lib/base/TemplateField.cc
136 basis/lib/base/AssocArry.cc
18184 total
His last day was XXXXXX 1996.
His new job and responsibilities:
> Project management of a new XXXXX project is what I'll be
> doing at XXXXX XXXXX (a bank from <country> ranked in the top 20).
> I'll start by consulting ($$/hour plus 1.5*OT) for TTTTTTTT.
> After that we talk about them invoking their right-to-hire clause.
> I might make VP. The project is great inasmuch as I'm starting it
> from scratch; it's not only not burdened by legacy code, but I
> can even pick the hardware. I'm "up" but also worried about the
> responsibility.
>
> The application is X risk analysis and XX for investors. It connects
> to a front end for a trading system.
>
> I put a lot of working into talking my new boss into me giving the
> normal 2 weeks notice at Salomon (they wanted me yesterday), because
> my current project is nearing a critical point. But my Salomon boss
> said just do a handoff now and leave.
>
> I am upset. I was trying to be professional.
Boy, email is one cheap detective!
Anyway, that seems the full scoop.
---guy
********** end excerpt from 'Corruption at Salomon Brothers' **********
Notice my 'Boy, email is one cheap detective!' observation; Legal had talked
about hiring a private investigator prior to that.
The "perp" not only named his new job, he gave his full job description,
pay rates, and his personal thoughts on matters.
The case was accepted by NYC Assistant US Prosecutor Jeremy Temkin - the
person assigned the Citibank wire-transfer theft. He said they never figured
out who the inside person was.
The interesting thing was that it turns out the people who investigate for the
US attorneys are FBI agents. Every meeting we had included a couple FBI agents
taking notes and turns questioning.
The nice FBI personnel I dealt with were from the New York Computer Crime
Squad. Special Agents Steven N. Garfinkel and David P. Marziliano.
This posting isn't about the many good FBI and other law enforcement people.
Sorry.
The other FBI case involved transfer of Salomon technology to the ISP account
of an employee who had accepted another job, but hadn't yet notified Salomon.
They mailed home to themselves Salomon's Risk Management financial code.
The Salomon Managing Director in charge was not amused.
The ex-Salomon person had transferred it to their home ISP account, and
started working for Jefferies Securities.
I found this transfer to Jefferies Securities in the backups too:
********** begin excerpt from 'Corruption at Salomon Brothers' **********
Dumb-and-Dumber incident:
@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
Sender: Fred_...@jefco.com
date: 28 Feb 96 8:14:56 EDT
subject: Greetings!
Recipient: Dr...@xxx.sbi.com
Drake.
Favor time! I need documentation on application packaging (FOR DUMB
PEOPLE). Yeah, I know you taught me it already, but I've forgotten it all.
I need to roll out packaging mechanisms here at Jefferies. I really miss
all the infrastructure mechanisms I took for granted at Salomon.
********** end excerpt from 'Corruption at Salomon Brothers' **********
That document was labelled as Salomon proprietary on each page.
The FBI got search warrants and went into Jefferies and took control of
a couple systems, and went home with the Ex-Salomon person and searched
there and took his computer systems. [The case is still pending @6/97]
The code is simple. It's choosing the keyword filtration sequence that's
tricky. I figured out how to determine it in an almost systemic way. Oddly
enough, I needed no keywords for specifically seeking out source code.
So, keyword monitoring is highly effective, I could even cover three feeds,
and, sigh, I should mention that it took well less than 5000 lines of
programming source code for me to implement it.
And I generated two FBI cases.
[
Think of what could happen should the FBI get its implementation of
the CALEA bill. They could go nuts, and say "see, that proves we need
to monitor thousands of phone calls simultaneously".
And into the abyss we go.
There would be no place to hide from the government,
even for lawful peaceful political protest.
Domestic ECHELON must be physically disabled.
]
There's more.
******************************************************************************
I Can See What You Are Thinking
- --- --- ---- --- --- --------
In the complaint, I breathlessly described being able to see more than just
dry security incidents. The point was germane to my analysis that one of the
reasons the corrupt member of Salomon's Internal Audit department could
seemingly not be punished by anyone was that his job as financial traffic
analysis person made him privy to the most damaging unreported SEC violations
that anyone at Salomon would know about.
If you spot criminal behavior, it is a very personal thing to the employee.
********** begin excerpt from 'Corruption at Salomon Brothers' **********
: I could see not only regular security incidents, but also who was queer,
: what your medical ailments are, whether you were looking for another job,
: where you lived, who you screwed, what you did on your off hours...
********** end excerpt from 'Corruption at Salomon Brothers' **********
One can see personal things, and the government often acts like a
psychological terrorist. It doesn't matter which party has the presidency.
What could I see?
: from male@company
: I am hung like a dragon.
Wait, I'll get to that stuff.
Here is an example of a "resume hit" report.
I had created an analytic to spot (among other things)
people leaving the firm...
***************** BEGIN OF JOBTALK EXCERPT *******************************
******************************************************************************
******************************************************************************
******************************************************************************
This report concerns Internet public wire traffic.
Internet traffic is monitored for security and compliance purposes.
----------------------
JobTalk Report N/NN/NN
----------------------
Standard description:
JobTalk is the miscellaneous feedback report.
Usually no direct sender/recipient action is taken.
This JobTalk Report is dedicated to "resume hits", or people who in one
fashion or another indicate they are or might leave the Firm.
The last entry, "Firstname Lastname #13" is a "Security Incident Light"
because he is leaving the firm and has started to transmit code he has
labelled "Copyright Firstname Lastname #13" out of the Firm.
Notify his manager...
The people are:
Firstname Lastname #1
Firstname Lastname #2
Firstname Lastname #3
Firstname Lastname #4
Firstname Lastname #5
Firstname Lastname #6
Firstname Lastname #7
Firstname Lastname #8
Firstname Lastname #9
Firstname Lastname #10
Firstname Lastname #11
Firstname Lastname #12
Firstname Lastname #13
Prepared by Guy on N/NN/NN.
******************************************************************************
******************************************************************************
******************************************************************************
Person #1
: @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
: File: <snip> Size: 1,893 Date: N/NN/NN
: from <Mary lastname>
: rcpt <Cathy lastname>
: Subject: re: fw: humor -forwarded -reply
: Hey Cathy-
: Okay so far. I'm thinking of changing my job. I'm interviewing with
: Morgan Stanley soon.
: [snip]
: miss you,
: Mary
: @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
: File: <snip> Size: 1,968 Date: N/NN/NN
: from <Mary lastname>
: rcpt <Cathy lastname>
: Subject: re: ?
: You're doing fine I'll bet. Myself: I am going to switch jobs again.
: A better offer was given to me by Morgan Stanley, and I'm contemplating
: it. Currently, I've been moved in with my boss. It sucks.
Person #2
: @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
: File: <snip> Size: 45,214 Date: N/NN/NN
: from <Bob@company>
: rcpt <dig...@compuserve.com>
: Subject: Contracts
: Hello,
: This mail address was given to me by Fred McChat who has started work
: at Swift. I'm sending my friend's CV in addition to my own.
: Please give me a call to talk about this on 0171 555 1212 or
: 0171 555 1213 after work hours.
: Thank you,
: Bob XXX
: the following is an attached file item from cc:mail. it contains
: information which had to be encoded to insure successful transmission
: through various mail systems. to decode the file use the uudecode
: program.
: --------------------------------- cut here ---------------------------------
: begin 644 resume.doc
: @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
Person #3
: @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
: File: <snip> Size: 5,159 Date: N/NN/NN
: from <female@company>
: rcpt <Dick@outside>
: Subject: la la la la la
:
: Update on my job search: I have a second interview with Fidelity on
: Thursday, to talk about becoming specialist's assistant on the Boston
: Stock Exchange. I have other interviews scheduled next week too.
: The Fidelity job allows me to complete my education as a trader.
: Being a specialist is actually the ultimate in listed trading.
: I feel I am close to something good.
: @@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@
[etc]
***************** END OF JOBTALK EXCERPT *********************************
A lot of people use company systems to hunt for another job; for example,
using http://www.jobserve.com/, emailing their resume, etc.
Anyone giving a clear indication they were looking for another job I called
in "resume condition".
When it is a risk management person saying he "wants to explain how it works
here", I write it up as a security incident.
It was extremely rare for a company to use a resume report for anything.
However, there is no description of what to do for any given variation of
this report, so...
When a team of people sent their resumes to a business, including that
of a Managing Director, some discreet calls were made to see if we were
losing a whole department. (No, it was for a joint business deal.)
----
* The Puzzle Palace, Author James Bamford, 1983 revision, p459
*
* When searching for derogatory references to President Richard M. Nixon
* [ "I had no prior knowledge of the Watergate break-in," said President
* Nixon looking straight at the camera on a national television address,
* "It's that simple." ], for example, technicians would have to program
* a variety of keywords, such as "Tricky Dicky." This, according to the
* former NSA G Group chief, would be converted to 'ky----ky."
*
* Should this selection process still produce a considerable amount of
* traffic, the data could then undergo 'secondary testing', such as the
* addition of the words "New York," to reduce the number.
You may wonder what keywords excel at picking up "resume condition" traffic.
You want the truth?
YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH
Just kidding. That was Jack Nickelson speaking for the NSA.
Here is how it is done:
o Select all traffic.
o Exclude commonplace traffic, such as mailing lists.
example: FROM <fire...@greatcircle.com>
This is done by selecting keywords that match against the routing
information in the email header: who it came from, who it is going to.
The phone analogy is recipient and originating phone numbers.
This cuts down on "noise". "Secret Power" gave examples of this too.
o Search all traffic for a set of keywords that are found (tuned) over
time to have the best results. SOME of the ones I used:
first day
last day
resign
new job
resume
interview
drug test
It's ironic that drug testing of employees is so wide-spread that it can
be used to pick out people looking for new jobs.
o Further exclusion logic (keywords) to isolate the meaning of the
keyword 'resume' to mean job history. Also, UK people say 'CV'.
Example: do NOT allow a sentence fragment like 'resume playing'
to trigger "resume condition" inclusion.
That's how it is done.
I then sit at a terminal and page through a
summary of the results, looking for 'hits'.
That's how DICTIONARY works too.
* The Puzzle Palace, Author James Bamford, 1983 revision
*
* P496-497: You would put in a whole slew of keywords.
* You flip through the results.
And it's damn effective.
I could pick needles out of a haystack. I could find a 16-line Risk Management
report in Salomon's daily 150-230 megabytes of Internet email traffic. It took
only one word: 'risk', and lots of exclusion logic, because the word is used
lots. I had never seen that format of risk report before. It was incoming too.
It sure didn't look like much, but...
The head of Risk Management at Salomon Brothers (real name) replied:
* From bookstaber@sbi Wed Jun 19 03:27:55 1996
* Date: Wed, 19 Jun 96 03:27:40 EDT
* To: guy@doppelganger
* Subject: Re: Risk Mgmt Report?
* From: bookstaber@sbi (Richard Bookstaber)
*
* This is proprietary risk/position information.
* Please let me know the circumstances -- who was sending it to whom.
*
* Is it intrafirm, or was it going to someone outside of the firm?
*
* I am in London now, but will check my e-mail.
So, that's spotting one email due to one
word out of say 200,000,000 characters.
Set it up, push a button, check search results.
I picked up so many people in 'resume condition' at Salomon, they ended
up saying they didn't need that report: "We know current conditions."
* "Secret Power", by Nicky Hager
*
* P125 The main computer systems are UNIX-based.
So is my code!!!
Runs under SunOS/Solaris UNIX on a Sun Microsystems SPARC 5 or SPARC 10.
Small world, in so many ways, ain't it?
: ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
: Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
: tc...@got.net 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
: W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
: Higher Power: 2^1398269 | black markets, collapse of governments.
: "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."
If you put the same fixed text in your traffic to trigger "noise" pickup:
it is put into the exclusion logic. Don't bother.
Of course, if you are Cypherpunk Tim May (or his wife), all your traffic
--- including phone calls --- gets its own daily summary file regardless
of content.
That's what I did (for company Internet traffic) when activities made it
prudent to put someone on the individual 'watch list'.
(For example, "Bob Brain".)
----
Then there was a manager under heavy stress, who was pissed at top management,
knew his department had a good chance of getting cut in the next several
months, then the talk turned to guns...
This was a very long diatribe; only a little is shown here because I got
tired re-writing the words so it's not literally their traffic anymore.
In email he sounded like a major flake. In person he sounded normal.
***************** BEGIN OF JOBTALK EXCERPT *******************************
An oddity: a Xxxxx Yyyyyyy is getting stressed out by his area's upcoming
personnel cuts; he's made a presentation to Mr. Cheese for project ideas
that might avoid him being cut. This stress is normal, but suddenly talk
about him being a gun-nut came up. It doesn't appear to be a problem, but
I thought I'd let y'all decide for yourselves. ---guy
> First, I am having a real bad day. I am dealing with it well though.
> In fact I admire myself for it. In the past several weeks I've begun
> to respect myself highly for putting up with all the obstacles and
> bullshit I run into EVERY*FUCKING*DAY. 99% of all other people don't
> have my strength and will. Which is why people fear me or find me
> threatening.
>
> I've got an employee who is a totally useless shit, whines, talks
> about me when I'm not there, stabs me in the back, etc. I should
> have fired him when I had the chance.
> [snip]
> Upper management is like a den of vipers.
> [snip]
> Don't bring up guns again at a party. Most people here in NY are
> fucking liberals and would throw the rest of us in deep dungeons.
> Everytime I've said I'm pro-gun I'm treated like a criminal even
> though I LEGALLY own one.
***************** END OF JOBTALK EXCERPT *********************************
There was lots and lots of drinking/sex traffic.
: Did I tell you I slept with Fred on Christmas Eve!!!
:
: After work we had a couple bottles of red wine, and went to the karoke pub!!
: Anyway, after spending the evening there, I was hammered. I drank tons.
: After the last dance he dragged me outside and was trying to shag me
: against a car!!! I wasn't too impressed by that.
:
: I can't resist him though. We went to his friends house and the next thing
: I remember is waking up naked in bed with him!!!
: It's okay if your e-mails are shorter than mine. Size is important,
: and you TOTALLY pass THAT test, however, size of e-mails does not count.
> I can't wait for this evening! I really hope I can lick your pussy
> during the commute home. ;-)
> I love eating you!!!
> I have a hard-on right now!
> umm, umm, your breasts and whipped cream...
One time I got curious enough to ask someone about them sending sexually
explicit traffic in the clear across the Internet.
It was someone using a back-and-forth style; one person does a few paragraphs
of a hot and heavy scenario between themselves and the other person. The
other person then picks up the thread for several more paragraphs...
I emailed the person, explained I was Internet security for the firm, and
said I should point out that while he was free to send these emails, I
wanted to warn him that traffic on the Internet can be scanned by gawd
knows who, and it might be possible for him to get embarrassed by it.
He emailed back and asked what I thought the chances of that happening were.
I said low.
Three days later they started their steamy traffic again.
Over months of time, one can accumulate an extended amount of information
about people by their traffic.
Very personal information.
In fact, you don't even have to send email to have personal items about you
disclosed. Just having an email address on your business card can do it.
Like when someone who sounded like a college girl who was a friend of their
family wrote to a very senior management person about a condition and whether
it was going to require surgery.
* P42 "Secret Power" by Nicky Hager
*
* The strange feeling of reading other people's private communications has
* long worn off and the contents are generally routine.
True, although some emails are hysterical. [The names are unchanged this time]
> This came from a 23-year-old stud in our ABC department. --guy
>
> I have a great NY story to tell you. This past Thursday "The Associate"
> starring Whoopi Goldberg premiered. Afterwards I went to the party where
> I met an okay looking girl with a smokin' body. To shorten the story, we
> go to her place at 60th St. between Park and Lex. All night she kept
> bugging me about not having any idea who she was. So right when we're
> getting naked she finally tells me: she is Kurt Russel's little sister.
> Of course I thought she was pulling my leg, but she pulls a photo book
> out and sure enough, she is Kurt Russel's little sister! I got her phone
> number, but boy she is a big LOSER.
This email didn't contain his age, yet I knew it and many other things about
him simply from collecting them over time. I had no special need to do so,
but found it could add important detail to a security incident report. As
previously shown, for an incident report on someone working on their own job
within the firm I compared the capabilities of the code he sent out to his
own job description which he transmitted in his resume many months prior.
Why waste information that's just flying by for the taking?
Care for a fun conspiracy theory?
If I were pro-ECHELON, I would monitor all the Senators and ALL their staff
AND all their families. That's just to start. I would also monitor ALL
up-and-coming politicians.
You never know when you're going to need to squeeze some support out of them.
Has Bill Clinton been compromised by NSA ECHELON monitoring?
* "The Secret War Against the Jews", Authors: John Loftus and Mark Aarons
*
* A large number of American candidates for public office have been placed
* under electronic surveillance by British intelligence officers sitting
* at their "temporary listening post" at Fort Meade.
*
* An admittedly secondhand source insists that the British eavesdroppers
* were the source of the 1992 campaign stories that presidential candidate
* Clinton had expressed pro-Soviet views while a student in London.
*
* Young Clinton's remarks were nothing more than an ambiguous comparison
* of Soviet and American efforts for peace in Vietnam, fairly innocent at
* the time.
*
* Because the wiretap itself could not be disclosed, it set off a scurry
* of searching through archives on both sides of the Atlantic for any
* incriminating documents. There was none, and in short order the British
* smear campaign died of its own weight.
*
* It is time the Congress and the public realize that in the age of
* computers, microwaves, and satellites, we are all Jews.
Have all key politicians been compromised, whether they even know it yet?
(Suddenly some people are trying to think back to whether they ever said
something in private they would greatly regret being made public: that
would be 99.9% of all telephone users. Too late.)
ECHELON is infinitely abusable, and has been repeatedly abused.
Our phone conversations are too personal, too unguarded.
About four years ago my phone rang. It wasn't the normal ring, more of a
couple dings. I picked up and could hear someone talking in addition to
hearing my dial-tone. I pushed a digit now and then to get rid of the dial
tone and keep the line open while I listened.
It was a daughter relating a story to her mother about how she had managed
to let herself have sex with one of her two roommates.
With another girl. And that it has caused complications in the living
arrangements.
It turned out her mother was homosexual too. (technically bi-sexual)
It was a fascinating conversation on my phone line.
When it was over, I called my own number from another of my lines and told
her she'd better contact the phone company! She indicated she lived several
blocks away from where I lived: it was a true phone company foobar.
Phone conversations reveal our inner selves.
******************************************************************************
Why I Monitor
--- - -------
Why do I feel companies should monitor their Internet traffic, but the
Government shouldn't monitor me and everyone else?
> Salomon is a "computer-based" firm.
>
> Any connections between Salomon's internal network and the outside world
> exposes Salomon to a potential number of problems.
>
> One of the largest data pipelines in and out of Salomon are its Internet
> connections.
>
> Therefore it is also a large security problem, which must be managed.
>
[snip]
>
> The terminology "email monitoring" has a Big-Brother ring to it.
>
> But monitor it we must - there is no choice.
>
> It connects all of our inside systems to all of outside.
>
> And it is the Internet ("public wire") traffic going in/out of Salomon
> we are checking - not internal email.
>
> The security rule for Internet traffic is "don't send anything you
> wouldn't want to read about in tomorrow's newspaper".
I think it's pretty obvious why company traffic involving company systems
is monitored. After all, companies aren't democracies.
Finally, I should point out that all the people at both sites were told
repeatedly that Internet email was being monitored; this includes all
traffic picked up by my JobTalk analytic:
> Salomon site.
>
> All sites start out with the employment contract stating unequivocally
> that the systems are the company's and are to be used only for work
> purposes. And that they are subject to inspection. You signed it.
>
> Salomon's goes further by stating the firm's computer systems may be
> audited and that they have the right to do so even if you have put
> personal information on the system.
>
> After the first couple of months of security incidents at Salomon,
> they began issuing global email broadcasts saying that a new security
> package "Internet Risk Management: email facility" had been installed,
> and that Internet email traffic was actively being monitored.
>
> They did so again and again.
>
> I think they sent out a memo to everyone too.
>
> Security incidents NEVER stopped.
>
> Major violations occurred again and again and again and again...
>
> I have come to realize that the number of security incidents a firm
> has is not related to how often they warn their employees not to send
> proprietary/confidential information out via email.
>
> The number of security incidents is a function of the number of employees.
>
> If you are a big computer-based firm (banks, brokerage, insurance etc),
> then you are guaranteed to have a huge amount of proprietary/confidential
> files flowing out of your Internet connection via email.
>
> Even if you tell them again and again that it is monitored and they will
> be fired for misuse.
>
> Even if you fire people.
>
> Even if you prosecute them.
>
> It appears to be just like the general population and regular crime.
>
> All sites' management expressed confidence that repeated warnings and
> firings would soon stop the proprietary/confidential transfers.
>
> It turned out to be like saying if we have a slew of laws against
> crime and throw many people in prison, crime will soon stop.
>
> Well, it sounded reasonable when the managers said it about warning people
> email was being monitored and firing people.
>
> Even I was amazed at how wrong they were.
>
> That it didn't slack off (for more than two weeks) after warning people
> again and again.
Remember the Bob Brain report? Here's another slice:
> Note that this email occurred days after Brain's area had been
> notified that their traffic was being watched.
>
> date: Wed, 24 Apr 1996 15:55:42 -0400
> From: Bob Brain nnn-nnnn <bob@poison>
> To: <Harvard female>
>
> We were notified today in a firm-wide memo that our email going in/out
> the Internet is now being monitored. Big brother has arrived.
>
>
> Sender: bob@tridenthead2
> date: Fri, 26 Apr 1996 18:04:48 -0400
> From: bob@tridenthead2 (Bob Brain nnn-nnnn)
> Recipient: S...@XXX.com
>
> I've been thinking about it for a while, and I'm pretty sure I'm going
> to resign at Salomon shortly.
>
> A couple more big clients for our WWW site and even though it's less
> than half of my current income, I'll finally be able to devote myself
> full-time to the business. Yeah!
>
> F*** that would be awesome (pardon my language).
Remember the person the FBI was investigating for theft of Risk Management
source code? His manager told him and all the other employees in their
group that their email was being monitored. The manager told both me, Salomon
Legal, and the U.S. Attorney and the two FBI agents this.
Go figure.
I call this Internet-is-irresistible siren call: "Internet Fever".
When it comes to ECHELON, it was never discussed with the American people.
We never had a chance to vote on it.
It was done in secret.
It is done in secret.
When you lift up the phone, you don't hear a message warning you
that the NSA is monitoring it.
But they are.
"Anytime, anywhere" is their motto.
*****************************************************************************
On Being Monitored
-- ----- ---------
On being black.
African-Americans are a heavily monitored group.
* "Above the Law", by David Burnham, ISBN 0-684-80699-1, 1996
*
* Even while Lyndon Johnson fought for far-reaching civil rights
* legislation and spoke out against racism and government eavesdropping,
* the Johnson White House created a special squad of FBI agents to place
* wiretaps and bugs on most of the African Americans who came to Atlantic
* City during the 1964 Democratic convention.
----
A while back, I saw a black ex-police officer take a camera with him in
a car in LA at night. This was somewhere around the time of the Rodney
King beating. I was watching C-SPAN. Some sort of police officers
association meeting...
It was amazing how often he was pulled over, and the cheesy reasons the
officers gave.
"Your tail light was broken"
He got out with the camera still on, showed the tail light was fine, and
asked the officer what he was talking about.
"Oh, you're right. Sorry."
He was pulled over again and again and again.
----
The New Jersey State Police admitted they were targeting black drivers.
Pulling them over, and searching their vehicles inch-by-inch.
----
* The New York Times, December 14, 1995, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
*
* Six officers - five whites and one Asian-American - have plead guilty
* to corruption charges, including illegal searches, lying under oath
* and planting false evidence.
*
* The guilty pleas have led to a review of more than 1,600 arrests of
* mostly black and Hispanic suspects that were made by the officers
* from 1987 to 1994.
*
* Fifty-six convictions have already been overturned.
----
* The New York Times, November 26, 1995
* "Several Blacks Sue Beverly Hills, Asserting Bias by the Police"
* by Kenneth B. Noble
*
* Saying they had been victims of a callous police force, six blacks
* filed suit this week against the City of Beverly Hills, including
* the Police Chief and the Mayor.
*
* The plaintiffs include a handyman at a local church and the mother
* of two young boys, all of whom say they or their families were
* singled out because of their race.
*
* The handyman who works at an Episcopal church here, said that on
* one occasion he pulled into a parking lot and a police officer
* stopped him, pointed a gun at his head, called him a derogatory
* name and warned, "If you move, I'll shoot you." The handyman
* said he had been unlawfully stopped, harassed and interrogated
* by the police eight times since he started working there.
*
* Another plaintiff, the co-captain of the Beverly Hills High School
* football team, asserted that he had been pulled over at least 20
* times in the last 18 months.
*
* The Mayor and Police Chief were named in the suit because they had
* ignored numerous written and oral complaints of mistreatment.
----
Think Rodney King was an isolated event?
* The New York Times, May 13, 1997, snipped
* "Police Chief Says Officers Violated Policy in Beating", by Kevin Sack
*
* Atlanta's police chief concedes the videotaped beating of an African-
* American shows it violated departmental rules.
*
* Timmie Sinclair, 27, is a black Atlantan. Five officers surrounded him
* and one Sergeant "repeatedly bludgeoned with a baton" Mr. Sinclair while
* he was being handcuffed, and at least once while the other officers held
* him down on the ground.
*
* Mr. Sinclair was trying to fill a prescription for his sick child,
* became confused by all the roadblocks the Atlanta police setup for
* the annual "Black College Spring Break" weekend, and was attacked
* by the police for trying to get back on the Interstate highway.
*
* Mr Sinclair's wife and two children were in his car with him.
Think that would have happened to a white family during this annual Black
College Spring Break 'Freaknick' police coverage?
The police also illegally ordered the videotaper to stop taping.
----
Recently on ABC Primetime live, they wired for video and sound a nice car
owned by the father of the black son who drove it, with another black friend.
BTW, picture yourself being a black citizen to try and appreciate this.
Picture yourself as the monitored group.
Shortly after starting out, they were pulled over by police for a search.
Not one, but two squad cars came to do the search.
Because they crossed lanes while going through an intersection.
If you are white, when was the last time two squad cars searched your
vehicle inch-by-inch because you crossed lanes while passing through
an intersection? Never happened to me.
The police were recorded saying a container they found "probably had drugs"
in it. It was a make-up container. [All you little people are probably guilty]
When ABC asked the police chief later why they were pulled over,
he said for crossing lanes while going through an intersection.
ABC's cameras then showed cars doing that constantly at the same intersection.
They said they counted hundreds the same night.
The police chief then tacitly admitted they
were pulling over black people on purpose.
----
[ Yes, I am aware of the cocaine/crack sentencing discrimination. ]
You monitor any group real close, you'll get many arrests.
The implications of heavy monitoring are serious.
* Jan 30 1997, The New York Times, page A12
*
* Blacks make up 51 percent of the 1.1 million inmates in state and
* Federal prisons, the Sentencing Project study said, though
* blacks are only 14 percent of the nation's population.
*
* Of a total voting age population of 10.4 million black men nationwide,
* an estimated 1.46 million have lost the right to vote [as a result].
Wow.
This highly focused monitoring of blacks should be way illegal.
Blacks make up 14% of our U.S. population.
Blacks make up 51% of our prison population.
Never forget what it means to be heavily monitored: there is no place to hide.
Noone is an angel.
Are you?
What's in store next for black Americans?
# "This Modern World", by Tom Tomorrow [political cartoon, in NYT]
#
# Biff: You know why we should eliminate welfare, Wanda?
# It's been A COMPLETE FAILURE!
# After all -- there ARE STILL POOR PEOPLE!
#
# Wanda: Hey, good thinking Biff!
# And while we're at it, why don't we eliminate the FIRE DEPARTMENT?
# After all -- there ARE STILL FIRES!
# And talk about FAILURES -- what about the MEDICAL INDUSTRY?
# Why, there are still SICK PEOPLE everywhere you look!
#
# Wanda: And why don't we shut down the POLICE DEPARTMENT as well --
# since there are STILL CRIMINALS!
# For that matter, why have any laws at all?
# People still BREAK them ALL THE TIME.
#
# Biff: Look, it made sense when Rush said it.
#
# Wanda: I'm sure it did, sweetheart.
# Say, shouldn't his show be cancelled?
# After all -- there are STILL LIBERALS...
* "Can Unemployment Fall Further Without Setting Off Inflation?"
* By Richard W. Stevenson, The New York Times, September 7, 1996
*
* Six percent unemployment of the able-bodied population is the point where
* the Federal Reserve Board usually kicks in to raise interest rates. [the
* presidential campaigns are in their final stages between Dole and Clinton
* at this time]
*
* The Federal Reserve Board is expected to raise interest rates now that
* unemployment has reached 5.1 percent, so that the number of unemployed
* people will go up.
*
* SEVEN MILLION PEOPLE ARE CURRENTLY UNEMPLOYED.
# Tom Tomorrow
#
# Since the time in the 1970s when President Nixon ordered a nationwide
# salary freeze to combat inflation, the Federal Reserve Board has
# manipulated interest rates so that approximately 5 to 6 million people
# are purposely kept unemployed at any given time.
What???
You mean the government purposely keeps millions and millions and millions
of people unemployed at any given time, yet put time limits on welfare?
I don't recall hearing that in the public debate.
Question: What will poor people who can't get
jobs do when their welfare runs out?
Keeping in mind that the government purposely
keeps approximately 5 to 6 million people unemployed.
Answer: Increasing crime, increasing tension and conflict with police
departments, some rioting, and politicians banging the Drum of
War to take stronger police and monitoring actions. "Law & Order"
Stronger police action mainly against black people.
----
This monitoring discrimination of blacks is demonstratedly nationwide.
Therefore, it is also a smoking gun for arguing
for retention of affirmative action programs.
You don't really think it's just law enforcement, do you?
----
: "Lock 'em Up", The Washington Post, 5/19/96
:
: Harvard economist Richard Freeman thinks it's ironic that proportionally
: more people are in jail in the Land of the Free than in any other nation
: on Earth. The U.S.A. has FIVE TIMES the incarceration rate as the United
: Kingdom, Germany or France.
:
: Freeman says that prison is emerging as America's answer to the "reduced
: demand for less-skilled male workers." European countries deal with unem-
: ployable guys by putting them on the dole, he says.
:
: In this country, we throw them in jail after they commit a crime to survive.
----
Factoid: poor black households' telephone usage is dramatically different
from other groups and can be picked out statistically using just the time,
length, and number of calls per telephone.
[ page 61, "The Rise of the Computer State", David Burnham, 1984 ]
The Los Angelos Police said they kept beating Rodney King while he
was rolling around in pain on the ground was because he wasn't
following orders AND they thought he was on PCP. [What???]
"The only thing Rodney King was guilty of was resisting slaughter"
---Jimmy Breslin
----
July 1st, 1997, News 4 NBC TV NYC: Police Commissioner Bratton says an officer
who shot a black youth dead---in the back---violated no departmental rules
because he thought the youth was going to turn and shoot him. A grand jury
fails to indict the officer, during a secret presentation by prosecutors.
Preventitive shootings are now legal.
******************************************************************************
I have tried to show you:
o the power of high-traffic computer monitoring
o what happens to a group of people who are
closely monitored by law enforcement
Congress and CALEA are leading us into the 21st Penitentiary.
******************************************************************************
******************************************************************************
******************************************************************************
Part 3: 1984 Means a Constant State of War
---- ----- - -------- ----- -- ---
War #1 - Drugs
War #2 - Guns
War #3 - Child Pornography
War #4 - Terrorism
War #5 - Hackers
Welcome to America, land of unlimited Police State powers...
: The NYC police burst into the apartment, looking for drugs.
: In one room was a lone four-year-old black child.
:
: Four years old.
:
: The NYC Police officer took his gun and held it to the tiny child's head.
:
: NBC NewsChannel 4, showing the cutest little kid, talking hesitantly,
: "The Police man put the gun to my head, I was very a-scared!"
* "1984", author George Orwell, 1949, ISBN 0-679-41739-7
*
* Hardly a week passed in which the Times did not carry a paragraph
* describing how some eavesdropping little sneak --- 'child hero' was
* the phrase generally used --- had overheard some compromising remark
* and denounced his parents to the Thought Police.
# "The Emperor Wears No Clothes", by Jack Herer, 1992, ISBN 1-878125-00-1
#
# The Police-taught DARE program encourages students to turn in
# friends and family by becoming a police informant.
: Real life: a child in school answers the friendly and inquiring police
: officer teaching about drug dangers that yes their parents have some
: of the displayed paraphernalia.
:
: A search warrant is issued, the parents are arrested, and
: the child is put into custody of Child Welfare workers.
# "The Feds Under Our Beds", By James Bovard, The New York Times, 9/6/1995
#
# The Justice Department confiscated the home of an elderly Cuban-American
# couple in Miami after the couple was arrested for playing host to a weekly
# poker game for family and friends.
* "Nynex Mistake Brings Scholarship Offer", NYT, 4/26/1995
*
* Walter Ray Hill, 18, was arrested and jailed for two days based solely on
* his phone number being used for a hoax bomb threat.
*
* Nynex eventually realized one of its employees transposed a number when
* tracing the call. [Ever see Terry Gilliam's movie Brazil?]
*
* A Nynex spokesman said today that they were offering to pay his complete
* four-year tutition bill, and that the offer was unconditional.
In Washington, D.C., police aggressively hassle motorists to give them
permission to search their vehicles. On C-SPAN, U.S. Attorney Eric Holder
further states that if a member of the car makes "furtive gestures" the
police may search the car.
Question: If sweating at the airport can get you a deep probing anal
search by a manly security guard, what "furtive gesture"
will get your car searched when the police stop you and
shine a flashlight in your face?
Answer: Blinking.
Point: They are almost not bothering to pretend.
Law enforcement hysteria.
The Miranda ruling by the 1966 Supreme Court requires the police inform
criminal suspects of their legal rights before questioning them.
It is classical poetry, even when recited by Dragnet's Joe Friday.
* Justice Department report: "Excerpt From the Report to Meese", NYT, 1/22/87
*
* The Miranda decision reflects a willful disregard of the authoritative
* sources of law. The decision flies in the face of the principals of
* constitutional government and impairs the ability of government to
* safeguard citizens from crime.
*
* It is difficult to conceive of a legislature enacting it into law, either.
*
* It has caused specific evils and is a discredited attempt at criminal
* jurisprudence. Overturning it would be the MOST IMPORTANT ACHIEVEMENT
* THIS OR ANY OTHER ADMINISTRATION COULD ACCOMPLISH TO PROTECT UNITED
* STATES CITIZENS FROM CRIME.
A constant state of war, for 'national security and national safety' reasons.
The novel '1984', about oppressive government, contains three key features:
o Massive surveillance mechanism
o Constant state of War
o Physical and psychological terror to
control targeted individuals and groups
The constant state of War is used by politicians to
control us little people. As it was in the book 1984.
Did you know the U.S. has been in a state of Drug War since the 1960s?
This section of the manifesto is about constantly beating the Drum of War...
* "1984", author George Orwell, 1949, ISBN 0-679-41739-7
*
* Winston could not definitely remember a time when his country had not
* been at war...war had literally been continuous, though strictly speaking
* it had not always been the same war.
*
* The enemy of the moment always represented absolute evil.
* "Taking Control - Politics in the Information Age"
* Authors Morely Winograd & Dudley Buffa, 1996, ISBN 0-8050-4489-2
*
* From Richard Nixon's law and order campaign in 1968 to George Bush's
* infamous Willie Horton ad in 1988, Republicans have attempted to define
* their differences with Democrats by a no-nonsense position on crime and
* criminals.
*
* It helped Republicans win the presidency, and it also gave them the
* tool by which to control the Democratic majorities in Congress that
* might allow their opponents to label them as soft on crime.
*
* No Democrat, except those in overwhelmingly Democratic districts, could
* afford to cast any votes in Congress that might allow their opponents
* to label them soft on crime.
A constant state of law enforcement hysteria.
The absolute pinnacle of War terminology was the phrase "Zero Tolerance".
We will monitor and prosecute mercilessly with mandatory minimums because
letting even one criminal not be caught means you are soft on crime.
Everyone is potentially guilty. We need a Police State to combat crime.
* USA Today, undated: HOME GARDEN RAIDS: Federal drug agents want to
* raid indoor home gardens in search of marijuana plants. The DEA has
* subpoenaed Florida garden centers to turn over records showing who
* has bought items like fluorescent lamps and plant food. [What???]
* CBS News, Dan Rather reporting. See this camera on a building at the
* mall? It's aimed at this lighting store's customers, recording them
* and the licenses on their cars. Little old lady: I was growing some
* plants indoors, here aren't they pretty? When the police burst in...
* USA Today, undated: Kalispell, Montana---Police said unusually high
* electric bills tipped them to marijuana-growing operation.
* CBS 48 hours: flying over everyone's properties, infrared scanning homes
* looking for heat loss: there's one bleeding heat from one part of the
* house. Let's get a search warrant.
* USA Today, undated: "LOITERING LAW": a new Dallas city ordinance allows
* police TO ARREST AND SEARCH PEOPLE WHO LOOK LIKE DRUG DEALERS.
We've come a long way from 'presumed innocent'.
Now: presumed potentially guilty.
* "Riot May Push Md. to Expedite Prison Building", The Washington Post
*
* An inmate riot last week at one of Maryland's most crowded and violent
* prisons will help force the state to consider a more rapid pace of
* prison construction, key state legislators said.
This level of monitoring has given us a world record % of prison population.
So much for 'The Land of the Free'.
* As a result, over 100 inmates were transferred to the state's "super-
* maximum" prison. Signs of looming trouble became evident weeks ago.
Signs of looming trouble have been ignored for years.
# "Notes and Comment", The New Yorker, April 13, 1992
#
# Traditionally, vast prison systems have adorned tyrannies.
#
# However, due to mandatory minimum sentencing and the profitable War on
# Drugs (due to a 1978 Federal forfeiture law), the United States has
# become the unchallenged world leader in incarceration rates.
#
# We are so far ahead of every other nation we can be rest assured of
# remaining No. 1 for many years.
#
# What kind of society are we hoping to create by this policy of wholesale
# incarceration? What will these millions of branded people, most of them
# unskilled, uneducated, and brutalized by imprisonment, be prepared to do
# when they emerge after many years?
This section is also about abusing citizens to control targeted individuals.
Examples are scattered throughout. Here come some now...
* "1984", author George Orwell, 1949, ISBN 0-679-41739-7
*
* Something crashed onto the bed behind Winston's back. The head of a
* ladder had been thrust through the window and had burst the frame.
* Someone was climbing through the window. There was a stampede of
* boots up the stairs.
*
* The room was full of solid men in black uniforms, with iron-shod
* boots on their feet and truncheons in their hands.
*
* There was another crash. Someone had picked up the glass paperweight
* from the table and smashed it to pieces on the hearth-stone.
: On May 23, 1994, the BATF and the IRS "searched" the Lamplugh home.
: All firearms were drawn. An M-P5 machine gun was stuck in Harry's face.
: They did not announce who they were or why they were there, and no search
: warrants were displayed. "When I asked if they had a search warrant, their
: first reply was 'shut the fuck up mother fucker; do you want more trouble
: than you already have?', with the machine gun stuck in my face" Harry said.
: "They then proceeded to tear my house apart."
:
: "Because I have cancer, I usually have about 20 bottles of prescription
: drugs on top of my bureau. For some unknown reason, they thought it
: necessary to open the bottles and scatter the contents all over the floor.
: Consequently, two of our cats got into the medication and died horrible
: deaths." In one final unconscionable act, female agent Donna Slusser
: deliberately stomped to death a cherished Manx kitten, and kicked it under
: a tree.
* "1984", author George Orwell, 1949, ISBN 0-679-41739-7
*
* There was a gasp and thump behind Winston, and he received a violent
* kick on the ankle which nearly flung him off balance.
*
* One of the men had smashed his fist into Julia's solar plexus,
* doubling her up like a pocket ruler. She was thrashing about
* on the floor, fighting for breath.
*
* Winston dared not turn his head by even a millimeter, but sometimes her
* livid, gasping face came within the angle of his vision.
: The BATF agent slammed Kimberly Katona, then several months pregnant,
: against the wall so hard she began bleeding. She soon miscarried.
:
: Did BATF apologize to this family? No. Instead, BATF pressed
: criminal charges. A judge threw the charges out of court.
I'm sure the BATF agent had a good reason for violently shoving Ms. Katona:
he thought he saw the fetus pointing a gun at him.
"A kinder, gentler America" --- President George Bush
DoubleThink. We are doing this to protect you.
And the Lamplugh's? They were in the politically incorrect business of
managing gun shows.
----
Cryptography is the most important tool to come along for privacy in
communications ever; it uses the power of computer software to shield
us from endlessly intrusive government computer monitoring.
These categories of War are the big lie (propaganda technique) used by law
enforcement to discredit any and all privacy concerns. These are the reasons
why we can't use cryptography to give us the beginnings of privacy from the
Government.
That the dangers of it protecting someone involved in these activities
outweighs right to privacy of everyone else in the United States.
That our communications must be compromised by Government "Key Recovery".
What a bunch of hooey.
******************************************************************************
War #1 - Drugs
--- -- -----
* The New York Times
*
* December 7 1995. A&E Investigative Reports "Seized by the Law" draws
* attention to a recent embellishment of the criminal law that permits
* Federal agents and the state and local police to confiscate cash and
* property on the suspicion that their owners are involved in drug
* trafficking.
*
* Just suspicion.
*
* No arrest or indictment, much less conviction, is required.
The Dark Ages in America.
* And the fact that most of the proceeds stay with
* the police may be a temptation to confiscation.
Naw, that would never happen.
----
Fear, loathing, suspicion, unlimited police powers...welcome to America...
* "Above the Law", by David Burnham, ISBN 0-684-80699-1, 1996
*
* As he had done many times before, African-American Willie Jones was about
* to board an American airlines flight to Houston to buy flowers and shrubs.
* He was a second-generation family florist and on February 27, 1991 he was
* carrying $9600 in cash because the wholesalers prefer cash.
*
* This time, however, apparently because Jones fit a "profile" of what drug
* dealers are supposed to look like, two police officers stopped him,
* searched him and seized his $9600. The businessman was given a receipt
* and told he was free to go.
*
* "No evidence of wrongdoing was ever produced. No charges were ever filed.
* As far as anyone knows, Willie Jones neither uses drugs nor buys nor sells
* them. He is a gardening contractor who bought an airplane ticket. Who lost
* his hard-earned money to the cops." After a long legal battle and a lot of
* publicity, Jones got his money back.
* [snip]
*
* Paolo Alvarez: "I believe in God, but the government's seizure of all my
* savings was really horrible. I felt trapped and I almost flipped out."
*
* Alvarez was a landscape contractor, cautious and frugal, who saved his
* money. Several years ago, however, Alvarez began listening to the
* speeches of Ross Perot, especially Perot's exaggerated [beat the drum
* of fear] warnings that the nation's savings and loan institutions
* were about to collapse. As a reult of mounting anxiety generated by
* the Texas businessman, Alvarez decided to move the nest egg from his
* savings and loan.
*
* He placed some of the money in a regular bank and hid the balance in
* small caches around the house.
*
* When the sky did not fall, when Ross Perot's predictions did not come
* true, Alvarez began slowly moving the cash in his house back into a
* bank. Partly because of his fear of a possible robbery, he chose to
* redeposit his money in relatively small amounts, $5000 or so at a time.
*
* While Alvarez had come to know Perot's gloomy predictions were off the
* mark, he did not know that the federal international government, in its
* hysteria about drugs, had persuaded Congress to greatly expand the
* government's civil and criminal powers to seize assets of individuals
* it felt might be up to some illicit business. The government's concern
* was so overwhelming that in 1986 Congress was prevailed upon to add a
* provision to the seizure law forbidding any "structuring" of financial
* transactions in a way so as to evade and existing requirement that cash
* transfers of more than $10,000 had to be reported to the government.
[
The New York Times, April 13, 1997
U.S. Under Secretary Raymond W. Kelly signed an order on Aug 7th requiring
New York businesses transmitting cash to report all transactions over
$750. The order was not publicly announced. It is part of emergency
powers. [President Clinton subsequently makes it permanent nationwide.]
----
NYC Mayor and former federal prosecutor Rudolph Giuliani has made
some emphatic statements proposing $100 dollar bills be eliminated
to combat drug dealers. Perhaps all cash will be next.
]
* On November 11, 1993, apparently tipped off by a friendly bank clerk who
* thought Alvarez's redeposits looked like "structuring", the Internal
* Revenue Service seized $88,315.76, the life savings of a hard-working
* immigrant.
*
* The government, of course, had no evidence that Alvarez was using the
* money for improper purposes, or was in any way connected with drugs or
* drug-dealing, for the simple reason that he wasn't doing any such thing.
*
* In this case, under the astonishing provisions of our nation's asset
* forfeiture laws, the mere administrative finding that Alvarez had
* "structured" his transactions was enough to justify the seizure.
[
We have Federal laws against terminating someone's benefits based solely
(automatically by computer) on "computer matching" hits of possible
ineligibility. But NOTHING to protect us from this nearly IDENTICAL
use of computer data to terminate "benefits".
]
* To the government, the question of whether the money had been legally
* earned or was the product of a nefarious drug sale was of no concern.
*
* Maybe worse than the nebulous structuring provision is a feature of the
* same group of laws that places the burden of proof on the victim. In
* other words, rather than the government having to prove that Alvarez
* had violated the statute before it seized his money, Alvarez had to
* prove that he was innocent of any wrongdoing before he could get it
* back. Further adding to the profound unfairness of the seizure process
* is an incredible provision that anyone who wants to challenge an action,
* who wants his day in court, must file a bond with the government of
* either $5000 or 10 percent of the value of the seized property. Alvarez
* had to borrow the money from his credit cards.
*
* The Assistant U.S. Attorney Jonathon R. Howden, flooded by financial
* statements by Alvarez's defense attorney (who was a retired career
* criminal investigator with the IRS), admitted he would not take the
* case to court. That step took seven months.
*
* However, Howden made an astonishing attempt to keep half of the $88,000
* the government had seized from Alvarez's bank account. Howden offered
* Alvarez two options: settle the matter by agreeing to a 50 percent
* forfeiture, or the money will be returned to the IRS, who might keep
* it. Alvarez's lawyer called his bluff and got the money back after
* a full year had elapsed. Loss of a full year's interest and $5000 in
* legal fees were the result.
*
* The government's abrupt assault shocked Paolo Alvarez to his core,
* leaving him with powerful feelings of fearful despair and isolation.
*
* While the fear was obviously justified, the feeling of isolation was
* way off the mark. He has lots of company.
[snip]
*
* The federal government seized the home of an elderly couple under the
* Drug War's "facilitation" provision. The judge was so embarrassed he
* gave the couple half the cash value of their house back. The drugs had
* belonged to the teenaged-grandson. "The whole program is a nightmare,"
* said their lawyer, "If it keeps up, the Justice Department is going to
* be the largest property owner in Connecticut."
[snip]
*
* Between 1985 and 1993, as a result of more than 200,000 forfeitures, the
* Justice Department Asset Forfeiture Fund took in over $3.2 billion.
*
* In 1993 alone the department took in $556 million, twenty times more
* than it did when the program began in 1985.
And what were some of the reasons of the dramatic
increase in forfeitures between 1985 and 1993?
What caused it to increase by more than a MAGNITUDE?
* "Above the Law", by David Burnham, ISBN 0-684-80699-1, 1996
*
* In June 1989, the Deputy Attorney General ordered the nation's U.S.
* attorneys to "take all possible actions" on forfeitures, even if it meant
* dropping other matters. "You will be expected to divert personnel from
* other activities."
*
* One year later, the Attorney General himself warned the U.S. attorneys
* that the Justice Department had fallen far behind its budget projection
* in the collection of assets. "We must significantly increase production
* to reach our budget target... Failure to achieve the $470 million
* projection would expose the Department's forfeiture program to criticism
* and undermine confidence in our budget projections. Every effort must be
* made to increase forfeiture income during the remaining three months of
* fiscal year 1990."
*
* In addition, forfeiture activities affect how many federal prosecutors
* will be allocated to each U.S. Attorney by the Justice Department.
[snip]
*
* Says Senator Henry J. Hyde: "The more they seize, the more they get for
* their own 'official use'. Federal and state officials now have the power
* to seize your business, home, bank account, records and personal property,
* all without indictment, hearing, or trial. Everything you have can be
* taken away at the whim of one or two federal or state officials operating
* in secret."
*
* The so-called War on Drugs, the Congressman continued, "has been
* perverted too often into a series of frontal attacks on basic
* American constitutional guarantees --- including due process,
* the presumption of innocence, and the right to own and enjoy
* private property."
----
* 2 Customs Agents are Facing Charges in Kidnapping Case
* by David Kocieniewski, The New York Times, 1996
*
* Two United States Customs inspectors have been charged with kidnapping
* and beating someone they suspected was a drug dealer last year while
* trying to rob him of cash and cocaine, Federal prosecutors said.
*
* Three men charged in all put on bullet-proof vests and police badges,
* according to the complaint, and stopped the victim after identifying
* themselves as Federal agents. The Federal agents then beat the man,
* handcuffed him, forced him into their car and drove off, witnesses
* said.
*
* The victim, whom Federal officials refuse to identify, dashed from the
* car when it stopped at an intersection and persuaded a motorist to take
* him to a police station.
Wow. People seeking sanctuary from Federal thugs in the local police station.
They thought the person had 220 pounds of cocaine.
A corrupt justice system from the U.S. Attorney General
all the way down to the lowest individual agents.
We're becoming more like Mexico every year.
----
* Internet posting...
*
* Joe Pinson
* 30 years old, MEDICAL MARIJUANA user.
* FIVE YEARS MANDATORY MINIMUM, FIRST OFFENSE.
*
* Mr. Pinson was a part-time bus driver for the Jewish Hospital before
* his arrest. He grew up suffering from severe asthma and tried all
* kinds of medicines to alleviate his problem. At age 18, he discovered
* that smoking marijuana made it easier for him to breathe. For the
* next decade he smoked marijuana and was able to enjoy activities he
* had never been able to do before.
*
* In 1993, at age 30, Joe decided to grow his own marijuana in the attic
* of the house he shared with his mother. He purchased some growing
* equipment from an indoor gardening store that was under surveillance
* by the DEA. The DEA traced Joe to his home, checked his electric
* bills to see if it was unusually high, and then flew over his house at
* 2:00 a.m. in a helicopter equipped with an infrared device. The
* infrared equipment showed a white light emanating from Joe's roof,
* indicating the escape of a large amount of heat, while the other roof-
* tops were black.
*
* Joe was arrested and took his case to trial. The jury found Joe
* guilty of cultivating marijuana, but not guilty of possessing it with
* intent to distribute.
I said before the Drug War was highly politicized.
It's a matter of politics over matter when the government's Drug War elevates
marijuana above its true pharmacological controlled substances classification;
it's a matter of hysteria to escalate it to the same top category as heroin
and LSD, 'Schedule I Substances'. Even cocaine is only Schedule II.
Late 1996 / early 1997, several states, including California, passed laws
via citizen initiative ballots that legalized marijuana if a doctor prescribes
it. Usually for nausea or weight loss from chemotherapy or AIDS.
A massive Federal and State Drug War hysteria
campaign failed to stop people approving it.
* The New York Times, Oct 3, 1996, San Francisco
* "Skirmish in Anti-Drug War: California vs. 'Doonesbury'", by Tim Golden
*
* There a drug wars, and there are drug wars...
*
* Marching bravely into the cultural swamp where Dan Quayle once bogged
* down in combat with the television single mother Murphy Brown,
* California's Attorney General, Dan Lungren, has taken his fight
* against the medical use of marijuana to Zonker Harris, the laid-back
* hero of the comic strip 'Doonesbury'. Like the former Vice President,
* Mr. Lungren appears to have underestimated his adversaries' capacity
* to make fun of him.
* [snip]
*
* Mr. Lungren raided a marijuana outlet after two years in which the
* United States Attorney in San Francisco and the city's District
* Attorney had both declined to prosecute it.
* [snip]
*
/ "Zonker": I can't believe anyone would shut down the Cannabis Buyers'
/ Club! Who ordered the bust?
/ Other character responds: "Dan Lungren, the State Attorney General.
/ Local cops wouldn't do it, so they had to bring in the Republicans."
*
* "No one should be laughing," said Mr. Lungren, asking newspapers in
* the state to censor the rest of the week's cartoons as a public service.
*
* No one followed the Attorney General's request.
Other Federal and state government officials were SHOCKED that
it passed and made angry noises and tried to interfere.
* The New York Times, Aug 29 1996, Ventura, California, By Katharine Seelye
* "Dole Criticizes Clinton as Lax On a Policy to Combat Drugs"
*
* Dole, speaking out against Proposition 215, which would allow marijuana
* to be used as medicine: "If somebody, say from Mexico or any other country,
* aimed a missile at California, you would do something about it. And they're
* aiming millions and millions of missiles right at these young people right
* here, whether it's a needle, whether it's a cigarette, whatever the delivery
* system is. It's poison [at least it's not paraquat!], and it's got to stop
* in America. My view is that drugs are wrong, you shouldn't use drugs, you
* shouldn't smoke cigarettes---let's just throw them all out at the same
* time."
*
* Mr. Dole later qualified his remarks: "I didn't say anything about
* cigarettes." [what???]
Proposition 215 passed into law.
It was a major repudiation of Drug War hysteria.
A major repudiation of the Schedule I Substances classification of marijuana.
DEA: "Drugs in this schedule are those that have no accepted medical use in
the United States and have a high abuse potential."
And just why did the citizens of California have to pass a ballot to
approve medical use of marijuana?
* "The Emperor Wears No Clothes", by Jack Herer, 1992, ISBN 1-878125-00-1
*
* From 1979 to 1989 (when the law lapsed), California had a law that was
* supposed to help people get cannabis for medical reasons. Patric Mayers,
* with his testimony and personal lobbying, was instrumental in getting the
* California Legislature to pass the state law allowing cannabis for medical
* use. Mayer's life was saved in 1976 when his doctors illegally advised him
* to use marijuana for his chemotherapy nausea. He weighed only 93 pounds.
*
* However, first as state Attorney General then governor, George Deukmejian
* deliberately refused to carry out the program passed by California
* legislators.
So, elected officials first thwarted the law, and then thwarted the citizens'
direct vote on the matter. What a bunch of...
* "Medical Use of Marijuana To Stay Illegal in Arizona", by Tim Golden
* The New York Times, 4/17/97
*
* Acting together, the Arizona Senate, Legislature and Governor have
* neutralized a citizens' initiative that would have allowed doctors
* to prescribe marijuana to sick or dying patients. It came four days
* after a Federal judge in San Francisco blocked the Clinton administrations
* plan to sanction doctors who recommeded marijuana under the terms of a
* similar initiative in California.
*
* Arizona politicians are allowed to modify the decisions of voters if the
* law is not approved by the majority of all registered voters, not just
* the people who actually voted. [What???] No proposition has ever met that
* criterion.
*
* Arizona voters approved proposition 200 last November by a ratio of 2 to 1.
Drug War results:
> Our prison population has tripled over the last 20 years.
> As of June 1996, 1.6 million of us were in prisons and jails.
> Incarceration rates for drug offenses - which are not considered major
> crimes - have increased significantly while other categories are fairly
> constant.
* The Wall Street Journal, September 7, 1989
*
* Nobel prize-winning economist Milton Friedman, "Every friend of freedom...
* must be as revolted as I am by the prospect of turning the U.S. into an
* armed camp, by the visions of jails filled with casual drug users and of
* an army of enforcers empowered to invade the liberty of citizens on slight
* evidence.
> Drug offenders were 6.4 percent of state prison populations in 1980.
> Drug offenders were 22.3 percent of state prison populations in 1994.
>
> The growth from less than 20,000 to nearly a quarter of a million was
> nearly tenfold.
>
> Nonviolent drug offenders making up 58% of the federal prison population.
Name a single person ever who was robbed by
someone suffering from marijuana withdrawal.
Law Enforcement Hysteria, Propaganda and Lies:
And that Drug War hysteria commercial about the train wreck by the engineer
on pot? They can't quite bring themselves to tell you he had been drinking.
And they still show this ad...
* "The Emperor Wears No Clothes", by Jack Herer, 1992, ISBN 1-878125-00-1
*
* In one ad, the wreckage of a train is shown. Now, everyone will agree
* that no one should attempt to drive a train while high on marijuana.
* But a man's voice says that anyone who tells you 'marijuana is harmless'
* is lying, because his wife was killed in the train accident.
*
* This contradicts the direct sworn testimony of the engineer responsible
* for that disaster; that "the accident was not caused by marijuana." It
* deliberately ignores his admissions of drinking alcohol, snacking,
* watching TV, generally failing to pay adequate attention to his job,
* AND DELIBERATELY JAMMING THE TRAIN'S SAFETY EQUIPMENT prior to the
* accident.
[snip]
*
* And in yet another ad, the lies finally got them in trouble. The ad showed
* two brain wave charts which it said showed the brain waves of a 14-year-
* old "on marijuana".
*
* Outraged, researcher Dr. Donald Blum from the UCLA neurological studies
* center told KABC TV (Los Angelos) news November 2, 1989, that the chart
* actually shows the brain waves of someone in a deep sleep --- or a coma.
*
* He said he had previously complained directly to the Partnership for a
* Drug Free America and they ignored him. They finally pulled the ads.
[snip]
*
* The Heath/Tulane Study of 1974 has been widely sited nationally as
* evidence that marijuana is harmful. One set of Rhesus monkeys began
* to atrophy and die after 90 days of pot smoking.
*
* When Playboy and NORMAL finally received the methodology of the study
* in 1980 after six years of trying, they were stunned.
*
* The Rhesus monkeys had been strapped into a chair and pumped the
* equivalent of 63 Columbian strength joints in "five minutes, through
* gas masks," losing no smoke.
*
* The monkeys were suffocating!
On June 27, 1997 a story broke about a new report showing "heavy marijuana
use makes the same changes in the brain as cocaine and heroin, and it causes
the same withdrawal symptoms in the brain".
Only MSNBC reported it this way: Brian Williams said, "A new preliminary
study shows that cocaine, heroin, ALCOHOL and marijuana all cause similar
changes in the brain over time." But the picture and thrust of the story
was still focusing on marijuana.
What was COMPLETELY MISSING was shown on C-SPAN the previous day, when
Senator Byrd gave an EXTENSIVE presentation showing ALCOHOL WAS THE LEADING
GATEWAY DRUG TO COCAINE AND HEROIN USAGE!
* "The Emperor Wears No Clothes", by Jack Herer, 1992, ISBN 1-878125-00-1
*
* Tobacco smoking kills more people each year than AIDS, heroin, crack,
* cocaine, alcohol, CAR ACCIDENTS, FIRE AND MURDER COMBINED.
*
* Cigarette smoking is as addictive as heroin, complete with withdrawal
* symptoms, and the percentage of relapses (75%) is the same for "kicking"
* cocaine and heroin users.
*
* It is far and away the number one cause of preventable death in the U.S.
* today. Tobacco smokers have ten times the lung cancer of non-smokers,
* twice the heart disease and are three times more likely to die of heart
* disease if they develop it.
*
* Yet tobacco is totally legal, and even receives the highest U.S. Gov.
* farm subsidies of any agricultural product in America, all while being
* our biggest killer! What a total hypocrisy!
My dad has been to Europe once: "I didn't have time to sight-see when
we hit the beaches though". He enlisted at 17, and was captured during
the Battle of the Bulge, which involved General Patton.
My dad said that when he saw fellow GIs in the German prison camp trading food
for tobacco and even adding wood shavings to extend it: that's when he decided
not to smoke.
"Tobacco isn't addictive" ---Politician Bob Dole, taker of tobacco monies
I've always wondered which Senators were paid off to exempt billboards from
having their health warnings be the same proportion as those in magazine ads.
And how did they justify it?
Here is an example of our law enforcement's attitudes toward marijuana:
* "Above the Law", by David Burnham, ISBN 0-684-80699-1, 1996
*
* FBI Director William S. Sessions, questioned by the Senate Judiciary
* Committee in March 1986, acknowledged that he once told one of his
* assistants that he thought several Ku Klux Klan members accused of
* lynching a black man "were OK until I learned they smoked pot".
This is a historically consistent view espoused by Government officials:
# "60 Years of Reefer Madness", High Times Magazine, July 1997
#
# 1937: Harry Anslinger, head of the Federal Bureau of Narcotics, read into
# official testimony (without objection) before Congress, stories of
# "coloreds" with big lips seducing white women with jazz and marijuana,
# claiming that 50% of all violent crime by blacks and Latino immigrants
# has been traced directly to marijuana.
* "Phantom Numbers Haunt the War on Drugs"
* By Christopher S. Wren, The New York Times, April 20, 1997
*
* Politicians are said to use statistics the way drunks use lampposts: for
* support rather then illumination. The aphorism seems more apt for the War
* on Drugs, which abounds with statistical lampposts that shed little light
* on the nation's preoccupation with illegal substances.
*
* When sensibly vague estimates based on the little that is known won't
* suffice, law enforcement officials oblige constituents with numbers that
* one police officer characterized as "P.F.A.," or "pulled from the air."
*
* When the State Department's annual survey said Mexico's annual marijuana
* production in 1989 was 30,200 tons, it was PFA.
*
* Assuming half the production makes it into the U.S., half the population
* between 15 and 40 in this country would have had to smoke a joint a day.
*
* By 1996 the State Department's annual survey stabilized at a more realistic
* 3,400 tons a year.
*
* However, the State Department's annual survey for 1996 stated Columbia's
* cultivation of coca, the raw ingredient for cocaine, jumped 32% over 1995.
*
* This was deliberate manipulation of the statistics: unlike previous years,
* the State Department suddenly stopped figuring in the 55,715 acres that
* the Columbian police fumigated with herbicide.
*
* The number had actually gone down, but President Clinton cited the upswing
* to support his Feb. 28 decision to decertify Columbia as helping in the
* War on Drugs. Mexico was certified.
A majority of citizens in several states have
now told the government they are full of hooey.
The Drug War is primarily about governmental politics and governmental power.
Not about drugs.
Can't afford to look soft on crime, or your opposition will stomp you.
The government uses these "wars" to claim ever greater power over us.
To justify violent no-knock searches by agents not even carrying warrants.
To justify killing the 'exclusion rule' to protect police not citizens.
To justify draconian asset forfeiture laws.
To justify using deadly force.
It's no longer the 1920s, but our government still has reefer madness.
In another astonishing case of corruption due to Congressional asset
forfeiture laws, and yet another violent result of marijuana's Schedule
I Substances classification:
ABC news: the Parks Department wanted a prime piece of land called
"Trail's End". It was owned by a private family. They refused to sell.
The reporter is in the helicopter with the agent who identified marijuana
growing on the property from an identical helicopter fly-over.
The agent said he specializes in that sort of thing, and he was flown
over the property for an evaluation.
He told the other federal agents that he could not determine that there
was any.
The G-MEN flew him over again: "they pressured me to change my evaluation,
and I did, even though I couldn't detect any marijuana. They got me to
say 'maybe I see some for sure'."
A large multi-departmental group of federal and county agents stormed the
house, and shot the male owner to death.
The widow continues to live there.
Before moving in, law enforcement had the property appraised for its value.
Eventually, the county admitted it wanted the property.
This is our Drug War for national security reasons.
The government now says it regrets calling it a Drug War.
Then appointed a retired Military General as Drug Czar.
Drug Czar William Bennett was an active nicotine addict until his first day
of work. The ONLY reason he quit smoking was because it would have been
politically incorrect to smoke while leading the War on Drugs.
* On October 19 1996, Clinton announced that his administration will develop
* a plan to test the urine of driver's license applicants under the age of
* 18, and he gave drug czar Barry McCaffrey 90 days to present the plan to
* him.
*
* "Our message should be simple: no drugs, or no driver's license," Clinton
* proclaimed.
*
* Clinton took this action in the closing weeks of the presidential race
* after Bob Dole attacks his joking comments about marijuana on MTV.
*
* The plan will likely require federal legislation, probably making highway
* funds contingent upon a state's implementation of the plan.
*
* About three million teenagers will seek driver's licenses each year and
* therefore be tested for drugs. At a rate of one-percent false positives,
* 30,000 completely clean kids will fail their drug tests. They will be
* denied driver's licenses. How will their parents react? Many kids are
* likely to be emotionally scarred by the false accusations of drug use,
* and some may even attempt suicide out of their shame.
Thank you very much Free World Leaders for that intelligent discourse on
marijuana. What would we do without you? We love being your lemmings. Keep
beating the Drums so we can march into your ocean of insanity.
"Zero Tolerance" is an extremely dangerous attitude to have regarding crime.
Zero Tolerance by definition means excessive vigilancy.
# "War on Drugs Runs Up Against the 4th Amendment"
# By Tony Mauro, USA Today
#
# J. LeWayne Kelly went to the Austin, Texas, airport two months ago.
#
# But because he's black, dressed casually and wore expensive cowboy boots,
# he soon was surrounded by strangers---police who suspected him of being
# a drug courier.
#
# Mr. Kelly had gone to the airport only TO PICK UP A FRIEND.
#
# He felt numb, agreed to be searched because he didn't want to get beaten.
#
# Kelly tried an experiment. He had a white friend WEAR THE SAME OUTFIT he
# had worn that day and retrace his steps at the airport.
#
# Police gave the friend not even a glance.
#
# His lawyer filed a class-action suit in a Texas state court.
#
# "The Supreme Court has hobbled the Fourth Amendment so much that I
# never even thought about filing in Federal court."
A major foobar in Zero Tolerance mania occurred
when the government seized a ship over a couple joints.
The government had seized the ship from itself.
The Drug War. The Drug War. The Drug War. The Drug War. The Drug War.
Hear it enough times and you believe it is a national security problem.
Rather than an entirely domestic consumer problem.
Yes, the drugs - a HUGE amount of drugs - cross our national borders. But it
is being PULLED in, a completely different situation than Military defense
of our borders against a FOREIGN enemy.
I wonder how it all gets into the country. It's as if it has its own special
unmonitored border crossing, where it can drive truck after truck through.
And what happens when you bang the drum of hysteria long enough?
Bizarre distortions in our social fabric:
widespread fear, loathing and suspicion.
And: censorship.
Tom Petty wins MTV's highest video award, but they always censored the
word 'joint' in the video! MTV, the spirit of Rock'N'Roll...not.
Maybe they're just doing what they can: they played the word BACKWORDS
in the video...a British band was on trial in the U.S. a few years ago
charged with putting backward-playing lyrics on their album (acquitted).
But it's okay if Jay Leno shows a Clinton look-alike smoking a bong.
Drug addicts can't get clean needles, furthering the AIDS epidemic.
# "AIDS VIRUS FEEDS ON FEDERAL NEEDLE POLICY"
# By Steven Wishnia, High Times Magazine, July 1997
#
# No federal action is planned to end the ban on federal funding for needle
# exchange programs by the Clinton Administration, despite mounting scienti-
# fic evidence that shooting up with unclean needles is the second most
# common risk behavior (40%) for HIV infection.
#
# It is a very cost-effective way of saving lives.
#
# SIX federally funded studies done between 1991 to 1995 concluded that
# needle exchange programs reduce HIV transmission and do not encourage
# drug use.
#
# Someone who spoke with Senator Arlene Spector said that "Noone's willing
# to take the political step."
#
# Instead, the biggest federal funding for AIDS prevention in 1996 went to
# programs urging teenagers to abstain from sex ["have sex outside marriage
# and you could DIE"].
#
# The National Institute of Health concluded: "The behavior placing the
# public health at greatest risk may be occurring in legislative and other
# decision making bodies. Millions of unnecessary deaths will occur as a
# result."
#
# The Surgeon General has the power to revoke the ban unilaterally.
Ever see the full page ad showing a group of sweet kids,
asking you to spot which one will become the drug pusher?
That's how the government views us little people: all are potentially guilty.
The government hysteria over drugs has led to students being suspended
for having Advil, under school Zero Tolerance for drugs policy.
Reefer madness leads to Advil insanity.
It is a "gateway" madness. ;-)
No wonder kids don't respect the government's anti-drug crusades.
They are subject to random drug testing if they want to play sports.
* Boston Globe, June 12, 1997
*
* PORTSMOUTH, N.H. (AP) - A full-time plainclothes police officer and
* drug-sniffing dogs will be put to work at Portsmouth High School to
* control drug use. The plan also calls for volunteer drug testing of
* pupils and creating a Scholastic Crimeline, a tip service for the
* kids to snitch on friends, parents.
1984 means a constant State of War.
The government is totally nuts, hooking our flesh up to machines to verify
the pureness of our "precious bodily fluids" [Dr. Strangelove].
Isn't a government demand that our flesh be logically hooked together with
machines the definition of 'cyborg'?
* "The Emperor Wears No Clothes", by Jack Herer, 1992, ISBN 1-878125-00-1
*
* A new billboard has appeared in Ventura, California, promoting the
* "Zero Tolerance" campaign. It says: "Help a friend, send him to jail."
$ "Gingrich Suggests Tough Drug Measure", NYT, August 27, 1995
$
$ Speaker Gingrich said he would ask Congress to enact legislation imposing
$ the death penalty on drug smugglers, and suggested MASS EXECUTIONS of
$ people convicted under the law might prove an effective deterrent.
$
$ Mr. Gingrich told about 1,500 people at a youth football and cheerleading
$ jamboree, "And they'd have only one chance to appeal, then we'd kill them
$ within 18 months."
On January 7, 1997, Gingrich introduced H.R. 41, "Drug Importer Death Penalty
Act of 1997", which "mandates that a person convicted of bringing into the
United States '100 usual dosage amounts' of several illicit substances --
including two ounces of marijuana -- be sentenced to federal prison for life
without parole; a second offense brings the death penalty."
# "Dole Calls for Wider Military Role in Fighting Drugs"
# By Katherine Q. Seelye, The New York Times, August 26, 1996
#
# "I want the Military to expand its use of technology, including
# reconnaissance and satellites and area surveillance and listening
# posts...and call the National Guard to move in," said Presidential
# candidate Bob Dole.
#
# "In the Dole Administration, we're going to return to what works. We're
# going to replace the President's inattention to dangerous drugs with a
# clear and forceful policy of zero tolerance."
#
# "That's ZERO TOLERANCE."
#
# "ZERO TOLERANCE for drug smugglers. ZERO TOLERANCE for drug pushers.
# ZERO TOLERANCE for drugs in the workplace and drugs in school. And
# ZERO TOLERANCE for illegal drugs, period."
#
# "ZERO! ZERO! ZERO!"
#
# "We will REDOUBLE our efforts to put drug criminals behind bars."
#
# "We will only appoint judges who will throw them in jail."
Thank Gawd he didn't become President.
* July Fourth, 1997, C-SPAN Congressional Television
*
* Mark Klaas, father of 12-year-old Polly Klaas, who was murdered by a
* repeat-offender that was paroled from prison, said in support of prevention
* programs: "Building more prisons to fight crime is like building more
* cemeteries to fight the spread of AIDS. It's a bad quick fix. Police
* chiefs across the country support [me] this 4 to 1. Unfortunately, Congress
* can't act "soft" on crime, and is about to pass a very bad bill on
* juvenile crime."
More bizarre distortions in our social fabric due to Zero Tolerance:
6/10/97 MSNBC: California: a ten-year-old girl who reported a classmate
for having a joint was also suspended by the principal, under the school's
Zero Tolerance for drugs policy. Her offense: handling the joint to see if
the other student was kidding her before reporting the other student. The
principal said "too bad, that's what 'Zero Tolerance' means". The little
girl and her mother are shocked. [I am not making these up!!!!!]
6/18/97 NBC News Channel 4 NYC: A career teacher is forced to resign because
she thought her student was kidding about having a baggie of pot. Students
and parents are stunned. The teacher said she believed her students had better
sense than that, and since she inspected it and it smelled like oregano she
was sure they were kidding her. Students and their parents protest, the school
board asks her back, but she says no, she is too disgusted at her treatment.
Zero Tolerance victims, falling into the abyss.
State troopers really know their "business":
: Robert Fitches, a 22 year-old said in his Federal lawsuit that he was
: humiliated when state troopers ordered him to drop his pants during a
: drug search along Interstate 15 in Davis County.
: Source: Salt Lake City Tribune 7/8/95
Maybe this is an accurate analogy of why dragnet-monitoring is wrong:
: The Sheraton Boston Hotel was discovered videotaping employees changing
: clothes in locker rooms. The 1991 surveillance caught employees using
: drugs, Sheraton said. Source: Senate Labor Committee on Employment, 6/93
If you strip us naked you will detect more crime, but also, you strip
individuals naked without specific individuals being suspected of a crime.
Dragnet monitoring should not be the American way.
Unrestricted cryptography must be made legal now,
so we are no longer naked to ECHELON monitoring.
It will be a beginning.
: Privacy Journal's War Stories (75 pages, $21.50) is available from
: PRIVACY JOURNAL, P.O. Box 28577, Providence RI 02908, 401/274-7861,
: electronic mail: 510...@mcimail.com.
:
: Beverly Folmsbee of Pittsfield Massachusetts, who was not suspected
: of any drug use, left her job after declining to take a "degrading"
: urinalysis test at her company, then known as Tech Tool Grinding &
: Supply Inc.
:
: It required disrobing, donning a hospital gown, and submitting to
: bodily inspection by a medical staff person.
:
: But the highest court in the state said that the testing was legitimate.
: Source: Folmsbee v.Tech Tool Grinding & Supply Inc., 417 Mass. 338, 630
: N.E. 2d 586 (1994).
It is totally urinating what the politicians and
courts have allowed in the name of the Drug War.
: Privacy Journal's War Stories, By Attorney Robert Ellis Smith
:
: Burlingame, CA, 1990: A flight attendant suffered medical complications
: because of Federal requirements that compel drug-monitors to have
: employees drink water until they can provide a urine sample. The 40-year-
: old woman was unable to urinate in a random drug test. She drank three
: quarts of water and even vomited some of it but could not urinate in the
: noisy crowded test site. She became ill at home and a doctor diagnosed
: her condition as "water intoxication." The lack of privacy inhibits
: 25 percent of people from urinating, surveys show [JAMA 1/2/91].
Drug testing doesn't even work. Could there be a
more important use for it than public safety?
It made no difference to the drunk and sleepy subway motorman in the
spectacular underground smash-up at the Union Square Station in NYC.
Even if he had a drug test before his shift, he still would have
had the accident. Non-invasive (eye-hand co-ordination and other)
tests would work better and not shockingly subject us to highly
intrusive poking.
It also doesn't work inasmuch as it has had no affect whatsoever on drugs.
* Main Justice, by Jim McGee and Brian Duffy, 1996, ISBN 0-684-81135-9
*
* The drug war never had a stronger supporter than President George Bush.
*
* He showered the nation's drug warriors with money---nearly tripling the
* overall anti-narcotics budget from $4.3 billion in 1988 to $11.9 billion
* in 1992.
*
* The results were disappointing.
*
* After four years there was more cocaine on the streets than ever.
* Naturally, it was also cheaper than ever.
*
* The overall crime rate was unchanged too.
*
* Inside Main Justice, such numbers are depressing. To those outside the law
* enforcement community, it might have seemed an ironic, even heretical
* notion, but to many of the career lawyers and prosecutors inside Main
* Justice it was an article of faith that solving the nation's drug problem
* could not be accomplished by prosecution and jail sentences alone. These
* career people feel the answer is self-evident: Education, rehabilitation
* and improving the grim lot of most of those prone to drug addiction ought
* to become national priorities.
*
* Said David Margolis, who had supervised the Criminal Division's anti-
* narcotics efforts in the early 1990s: "Anyone who thinks that drug
* enforcement is primarily a law enforcement issue, they're smoking wacky
* tabacky."
Tell all the damn manipulative politicians.
Jail's not even cost effective.
* RAND Study Finds Mandatory Minimums Cost-Ineffective
* ----------------------------------------------------
*
* Excerpt from RAND Press Release:
*
* Washington, DC, May 12, 1997 -- If cutting drug consumption and
* drug-related crime are the nation's prime drug control
* objectives, then the mandatory minimum drug sentencing laws
* in force at the federal level and in most states are not the
* way to get there.
*
* This is the key finding of "Mandatory Minimum Drug
* Sentences: Throwing Away the Key or the Taxpayer's Money?",
* a new RAND study that provides the first quantitative
* analysis of how successful these measures are in achieving
* what Director Barry McCaffrey of the Office of National Drug
* Control Policy has called "our central purpose and mission -
* - reducing illicit drug use and its consequences."
In Florida, they charged a mother with delivering cocaine to her baby.
A problem with this is the mother-addict repeatedly applied for rehab
programs, but there were no available slots. Not enough funding.
Law enforcement drug hysteria. Decades of Drug War.
Those rumor-level stories about our government encouraging
drugs to reach the inner cities were weird.
Remember, we've been having a Drug War for four decades now.
I guess there is a certain logic to it. Obviously the government is into
hysteria on the matter: it is then possible that they would want to continue
having a drug problem so they could continue the hysteria.
Even the Attorney General was drooling over drug forfeiture dollars, to the
point of shunting aside other cases.
Recently...
: CBS 60 Minutes, Steve Croft reporting.
:
: Remember that story of the hero customs agent snagging a tanker truck full
: of cocaine? There is a strange twist to the story.
:
: The Federal agent's manager repeatedly tried to interfere with him making
: the bust.
:
: The agent's dog had flagged the truck; the agent weighed it and found a
: discrepancy. His manager said it must be in the tires. You can only check
: the tires for drugs he was told.
:
: But the agent persisted, and made the bust. His manager let the driver
: of the truck leave. The driver literally fled on foot back to Mexico.
What the hell was that about???
Was it a single corrupt Federal agent?
: CBS 60 Minutes, Steve Croft reporting.
:
: Standing at a fence about a hundred feet from the U.S. Customs lanes,
: Steve Croft and an ex-agent with a walkie-talkie tuned to the right
: frequency began videotaping the border crossings.
:
: Truck after truck drove right through the individual Customs lanes,
: not even stopping. "Nafta express lanes" explained the ex-agent.
:
: Truck after truck drove straight into the U.S. unmonitored.
:
: Then a message came through the walkie-talkie: "We got some cameras
: watching, better get out there and cover traffic".
:
: Suddenly several Customs agents came out of the booths and started
: inspecting trucks.
That makes at least five people at a minimum!
What the hell is going on???
IF the rumor is true, THIS looks like it would be the smoking gun.
How did our country get so twisted around that they can invade our
bodies to drug test, yet allow truck after truck after truck to
just wander right in knowing HUGE drug shipment after HUGE drug
shipment is crossing? Gosh, there's no drug problem with Mexican
police, military and even their president.
* The New York Times, February 19 1997
*
* Brig. General Jesus Gutierrez Rebollo, Mexico's top Military Drug War
* point man, was arrested on charges of receiving payoffs from Jaurez
* cartel kingpin Amado Carrillo Fuentes, Defense Minister Enrique Cervantes
* announced.
*
* U.S. Drug Czar Gen. Barry McCaffrey had weeks earlier called General
* Gutierrez "a guy of absolute unquestioned integrity."
And what if some terrorists wanted to sneak in an atom bomb?
Put a NAFTA sticker on it and drive right on in, y'all. Welcome to the USA.
If you want to really be certain, hide the A-bomb in a truck full of cocaine.
If a terrorist nuclear bomb ever goes off in this country,
it drove in from Mexico.
Meanwhile, Los Alamos National Laboratories developed technology that
allows an officer walking or driving down the street, as shown on MSNBC TV
6/9/97 www.TheSite.com, to determine whether anyone on the sidewalk is
carrying a gun.
The priorities are all out of whack.
Apply Military technology towards securing the border, not by spending
billions and billions and billions each year to secure each and every
one of us.
We don't put governing-monitors on all car engines to control speeding.
Get an Operations Research clue.
Is our government perpetuating the availability of drugs?
The 60 Minutes report sure makes it look like it is.
How could letting unchecked Mexican truck after unchecked Mexican truck
through not be?
! FBI Director Louis J. Freeh, Senate Judiciary Committee, June 4, 1997
!
! NEW CORRIDORS HAVE OPENED TO CONTINUE THE FLOOD OF DRUGS INTO AMERICA.
No shit, Sherlock! Ya don't nafta say another word.
Every single truck can be checked using Military technology.
Robots build our American cars: make a wide range of standardized "Nafta"
containers and have robots empty the trucks (obviously not tanker trucks,
that's a different robot-checking line), have the robots inspect the
containers under the scrutiny of customs agents, then reload the truck.
Here's some border securing technology:
* Los Alamos National Laboratory, http://www.esa.lanl.gov/ars/ars-home.html
*
* Acoustic Resonance Spectroscopy (ARS) is a technology developed at
* Los Alamos National Laboratory for the noninvasive identification
* of the fill content of sealed containers.
*
* Identification is accomplished by analyzing the effect that the fill
* material has on the resonance modes of the container. Based on the
* acoustic vibrations of an object, this Los Alamos instrument quickly
* and safely identifies the fill content of containers [for purity of
* one kind of substance I guess].
*
* [The instrument is implemented and pictured] The ARS instrument was
* selected to receive one of R&D Magazine's 1995 R&D 100 Awards; the
* awards are given annually for the one hundred most significant
* technical innovations.
*
* The technique is suitable for any noninvasive identification of fill
* materials in sealed containers.
But no, massive monitoring of people suspected of no crime is the
appropriate response.
They were just warming us up for the CALEA telephone monitoring bill.
----
Here is part of the story on why we let trucks full of cocaine and
heroin just roll right into the United States.
* "Diminished U.S. Role Below Border Plays Into Traffickers' Hands"
*
* By Molly Moore and John Ward Anderson
* Washington Post Foreign Service
* Sunday, September 8 1996; Page A01
* The Washington Post
*
* Due to their new 'Mexicanization policy':
* Mexico became the main gateway into the United States for illegal
* narcotics, with the amount of cocaine making the journey climbing to
* an estimated 210 tons last year.
*
* Mexico's drug arrests plunged nearly 65 percent, from 27,369 the year
* before the policy changes to 9,728 last year, according to data that
* the Mexican government supplied to the State Department.
*
* Cocaine seizures in Mexico were cut in half, dropping from more than
* 50 tons in 1993 to slightly more than 24 tons in each of the last two
* years -- the smallest amounts since 1988, Mexican government figures
* show.
*
* The GAO report charges that Mexico's greatest problem is, in
* fact, the "widespread, endemic corruption" throughout its law
* enforcement agencies. Earlier this month, in an indictment of his own
* department, Attorney General Lozano fired 737 members of his federal
* police force -- 17 percent of his entire corps -- saying they did not
* have "the ethical profile" required for the job. In a recent meeting
* with foreign reporters, Lozano said it could take 15 years to clean up
* the force.
*
* In November 1993, President Clinton signed Presidential Decision Directive
* No. 14, shifting U.S. anti-drug efforts away from intercepting cocaine as
* it passed through Mexico and the Caribbean, and, instead, attacking the
* drug supply at its sources in Colombia, Bolivia and Peru.
The President himself ordered them to stop checking!!! This is in the same
leadership vein as Reagan declaring himself a "Contra".
And why did President Clinton change strategy?
He didn't have much choice. The Mexicans didn't want to work with us anymore.
We greatly pissed them off. U.S. law enforcement literally knows no limits.
* The United States subsequently arranged for a Mexican doctor involved
* in a murder, Humberto Alvarez Machain, to be kidnapped from Mexico and
* spirited to the United States to stand trial.
*
* The abduction outraged the Mexican government.
*
* When the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the legality of the kidnapping in
* June 1992, Mexico temporarily suspended its participation in joint
* anti-narcotics operations with the United States.
*
* Then Mexico adopted its Mexicanization policy a year later [keep American
* drug enforcement out of Mexico], and the State Department said that the
* abduction was directly to blame for Mexico's increased concerns about
* national sovereignty.
Of course, that's no reason not to check our U.S. borders.
We never learn:
# "CIA Suspect's Prosperous Clan Reacts Angrily to Arrest in Pakistan"
# By Kenneth J. Cooper, The Washington Post, June 22, 1997
...combined with...
# "Spiriting Off Fugitive By U.S. Irks Pakistanis"
# By John F. Burns, The New York Times, June 23, 1997
#
# Mir Aimal Kansi, who was wanted for killing two CIA employees and wounding
# three others in an attack outside their Langley headquarters, was
# transported from Pakistan within hours of his arrest.
#
# Leaders of minor political parties in the capital have taken up the issue,
# criticizing the national government for ignoring its own extradition laws
# and permitting a foreign country to haul off a Pakistani citizen without
# giving him a court hearing as provided by law.
#
# "Of course, we are angry," said a video store owner.
#
# Pakistani newspapers have described the swift transfer as a loss for the
# nation's prestige and the rule of law. The Lahore News said, "any person
# who is sought by a foreign power, no matter what his crime, must have the
# right to expect normal extradition proceedings before being whisked away
# from his homeland."
#
# In the Kansi case, the government ignored a 1972 extradition law that
# requires a Pakistan citizen to be given a hearing before a magistrate
# and the chance to appeal to higher courts.
#
# A prominent Pakistani, Hamid Gul, a retired army general who is a former
# director of Pakistan's military intelligence agency, has said he will
# challenge the Government's action in the Pakistan Supreme Court.
#
# When Pakistan demanded that a Pakistani Air Force pilot seized in New York
# in April on heroin-smuggling charges be returned to face trial here,
# American officials insisted United States extradition laws be followed.
#
# Hamidullah Kansi said, "What is American law? Is it fair?
# Does American law say you go anywhere and pick up anybody?"
According to the U.S. Supreme court: yep.
We don't have to respect other countries' laws.
We are the New World Order.
----
And judges have agreed we should be mass monitored for fluid correctness.
Which unwittingly added to the beating of the War drums, not in any way
solving the drug problem...judges themselves are now monitored for
politically correct mandatory minimum prison sentences.
What goes around, comes around...
----
# "Minister Who Sought Peace Dies in a Botched Drug Raid"
# By Sara Rimer, The New York Times, March 28, 1994
#
# Boston, March 27--- Tensions between the police and black Bostonians
# intensified after the murder of Carol Stuart in 1989. Charles Stuart
# said that a black robber had killed his pregnant wife.
#
# Police subsequently stopped AND SEARCHED many black men in the Mission
# Hill neighborhood, where the shooting had occurred, and eventually
# arrested a suspect, a black man with a criminal record.
#
# A month later, Mr. Stuart was implicated by his brother in the murder,
# and he committed suicide by jumping into Boston Harbor.
#
# An elderly Methodist minister, described as a quiet and dignified man
# who has for decades comforted and counseled people throughout the
# Caribbean and struggled against drug abuse on the islands, died Friday,
# when a SWAT team burst into his apartment unannounced, looking for drugs.
#
# They misread a floor plan by "an informer."
#
# The same Drug Control Unit was investigated for a death in 1988, and it
# was revealed that their officers routinely FABRICATED INFORMERS to obtain
# search warrants.
#
# The agents chased the 75-year-old minister to his room, then broke through
# his bedroom door...he became so frightened while being handcuffed that he
# began vomiting and collapsed. He died a few minutes later.
#
# The Reverand Accelynne Williams was a scholar who could read Greek and
# Hebrew.
The New York Times, CyberTimes, April 29, 1997
The Police and Civil Liberties
A unanimous Supreme Court affirmed the importance of civil liberties
yesterday when it ruled against exempting ALL drug raids from the Fourth
Amendment's requirement that police executing a search warrant knock and
announce their presence before entering someone's home or hotel room.
The Court's unanimity in the case is a special embarrassment for the Clinton
Administration, which argued that a no-knock entry should routinely be allowed
in drug searches unless the police knew that neither they nor the evidence
would be in danger if they announced their presence.
----
Illegal drugs are a great benefit to drug dealers.
The Drug War is a great benefit for perpetuating
and expanding corrupt Governmental power.
# "Smoke and Mirrors---The War on Drugs and the Politics of Failure"
# By Dan Baum, ISBN 0-316-08412-3, 1997
#
# The War on Drugs made the criminal justice system one of the top growth
# industries during the eighties and nineties.
#
# Police jobs at all levels of government swelled by 36 percent and prison
# jobs by 86 percent during the Reagan years alone, while overall government
# employment rose by only 16 percent. Federal prosecutors doubled under Bush.
# For those in the enforcement trades, the War on Drugs was boom time.
#
# For everybody else, the period was marked by a commensurate increase in
# police intrusion. There are rarely victims or witnesses in drug crimes.
#
# Drug use usually takes place in private, and drug dealing occurs between
# a willing seller and a willing buyer.
#
# So to wage the Drugs War an expanding army of police had to use ever more
# wiretaps, dog sniffs, snitches, warrantless searches, surveillance, and
# undercover operations.
#
# The administration elected on a promise to remove government from people's
# lives had turned the country---in one law professor's phrase---into a
# "society of suspects."
******************************************************************************
War #2 - Guns
--- -- ----
# www.gunowners.org
#
# The Police even pointed a machine gun at the
# head of Mrs. Kuriatnk's six-year-old daughter.
Actually, I think the government says 'because organized crime would use
cryptography'; but criminals with guns is the generalization.
If you were a criminal, would you select cryptography that is 'Key Recovery'
("GAK" Government Access to Keys) compliant?
I don't think so.
"But we'll catch stupid criminals using GAK crypto!"
---Scott Charney, Computer Crime Unit, Department of Justice,
at 5/22/97 NYC cryptography conference
And equally stupid Congress members will support that logic.
The subject of law enforcement v. guns brings up a subtopic:
Burn Baby Burn
---- ---- ----
I was watching MSNBC's "Time and Again" with Jane Pauley, and they went over
the Patty Hearst kidnapping by the "Symbionese Liberation Army".
The terrorists kept Ms. Hearst locked in a closet so small she couldn't move.
They would play games with her head, like suddenly dragging her out of the
closet, hold a gun to her head, and sometimes pull the trigger (on an empty
chamber).
Then they started screwing her. Again and again.
They took complete control of a sweet young college kid. The government knows
how that works. Yet the government charged her with bank robbery even though
she was under their mental control.
She had renounced her rich parents and taken a new name.
Happens all the time.
The FBI called her a 'common criminal'.
Then put her on their Top Ten Wanted List.
Maybe they thought she had taken Terrorism 101 at school and
ambitiously decided to start robbing banks of her own accord.
Anyway, there was an episode before they caught her where six
members of the SLA were armed and wholed up in a house.
Outcome?
Five of them were burned to death.
How did the house get set on fire?
A tear gas grenade.
They apparently cannot be deployed without setting a place on fire?
If a place gets set on fire, and the government has many guns pointed at
you, you might not decide to get out in time until it is too late.
o 5 SLA people burned to death from a tear gas grenade.
o An armed wholed-up person burned to death in San Diego on May 2, 1997.
The police fired CS gas into the house. According to the Union Tribune
newspaper: as the CS gas filled the house it ignited, and caused the
entire structure and surrounding trees to be engulfed in flames.
o A member of a violent militia group called 'The Posse' was armed and
wholed up: they simply *purposely* set the house on fire. Burned
him to death.
o Philadelphia police purposely drop an incindiary device on the top
of a building housing an armed and holed-up African-American group
(men, woman & children) called 'Move'. They burned down the entire
neighborhood of 62 homes. 9/28/96 NYT: 1.5 million dollars was awarded
to survivors. Eleven men, women and children died in the fire purposely
set ("a satchel of explosives") by Police Commissioner Gregore Sambor
and Fire Chief William Richmond to open a hole in the building for tear
gas delivery. But Pennsylvania state law was ruled to grant them
personal immunity from Federal civil rights charges because they were
state employees [what???]. The incident occurred in May 1985.
o Waco. CS tear gas attack by the FBI using Army tanks.
The government, across the decades, keeps managing to burn people to death,
rather than bringing them to trial.
Often, tear gas is involved.
----
Randy Weaver at Ruby Ridge.
Persisting, a BATF informant persuaded Weaver, a DECORATED GREEN BERET
VETERAN of Vietnam with NO CRIMINAL RECORD, to sell him two shotguns,
but insisted that Weaver saw the barrels off one-quarter inch short of
the legal limit.
Monitoring him, they knew Mr. Weaver needed money for his family.
Why did the government target Mr. Weaver?
Blackmail.
One of the FBI's favorite activities is spying on political organizations.
They wanted to use him to infiltrate white supremacists groups for the
government. Or face prosecution.
When Weaver refused, he was indicted on guns charges. He was sent two
conflicting court appearance dates. He became paranoid the Government
was out to get him, so he didn't show up. [He was eventually acquitted
of all charges except the original not showing up in court!]
To justify a militaristic retaliation, BATF agents lied to the U.S.
attorney's office. BATF agents claimed that Weaver had a criminal record
and that he was a suspect in several bank robberies.
Both charges were fabrications, even according to BATF Director John Magaw,
who admitted the accusations were "inexcusable" in testimony before Congress.
THREE HUNDRED armed federal agents conducted a siege of the Weavers' mountain
home, first killing Randy Weaver's dog, then his son, then his wife.
A law enforcement wilding.
* The CATO Institute, "Congressional Testimony", May 24, 1995
* http://www.cato.org
*
* The Marshals, wearing camouflage and carrying silenced machine guns, did
* not identify themselves or their purpose, but they did shoot one of the
* dogs. Sammy Weaver, fourteen-years-old, returned fire, and was promptly
* shot by a Marshal.
*
* Sammy turned and fled, with his nearly severed arm flopping as he ran.
*
* Sammy was promptly shot dead in the back.
An FBI sniper, Lon T. Horiuchi, testified he could hit a quarter at 200 yards.
* The CATO Institute, "Congressional Testimony", May 24, 1995
*
* An FBI psychological profile, prepared before the attack, called Vicki
* Weaver the "dominant member" of the family, thus implying that if she
* were "neutralized" everyone else might surrender.
Horiuchi shot Weaver's wife in the head while she held her baby.
Her head exploded.
Her dead body was laid out on the cabin floor, covered with a blanket:
* The CATO Institute, "Congressional Testimony", May 24, 1995
*
* During the next week, "the FBI used megaphones to taunt the family.
* 'Good Morning Mrs. Weaver. We had pancakes for breakfast. What did
* you have?'" asked the FBI agents in at least one exchange.
*
* Weaver's daughter, Sarah, 16, said the baby, Elisheba, was often
* crying for her mother's milk when the FBI messages were heard.
The Justice Department's own report recommended criminal prosecution of
federal agents; the surviving Weavers won $3.1 million in civil damages
from U.S. taxpayers.
Deval Patrick, the Assistant Attorney General for civil rights, and
Louis Freeh, Director of the FBI, took no serious action.
Larry Potts was the senior official in charge of the operation. Not only
was he not prosecuted, Freeh promoted him to acting deputy FBI director.
* "Documents Were Destroyed as FBI Resisted Siege Investigation, Report Says"
* By David Johnston, July 16, 1995
*
* Mr. Pott's former subordinate Michael Kahoe admitted he destroyed key
* documents on the Ruby Ridge assault. The Justice department reports
* documents were destroyed and missing. "We are troubled by the apparent
* lack of a system to preserve such critical records."
*
* The Justice Department, in a March 18, 1993 memo stated, "the FBI's
* intransigence appears to EMANATE from Larry Potts level OR ABOVE."
Larry Potts was a buddy of Louis Freeh. Within the FBI, these special
people are called "FOL" - Friends of Louie. [NYT 5/11/97]
Janet Reno (who had veto power over the promotion) testified what happened
at Ruby Ridge wasn't enough to cause her to veto the promotion, foreshadowing
her actions at Waco.
After two months, controversy (as opposed to events) over Potts' role in
Ruby Ridge prompted Freeh to remove him from the position, to politically
cover his own tush.
Potts and four other top FBI officials have been suspended while a federal
criminal probe investigates the destruction of documents related to the
incident.
A total of twelve agents were disciplined. None have yet been prosecuted.
The Federal government subsequently named after a U.S. Marshal who was
killed, but who also shot Randy Weaver's son dead in the back: a new
Marshals training center.
The Federal government's behavior in the incident can only be described as
sickening: targeting a citizen (a veteran, no less) who committed no crime
AND EVEN HAD NO CRIMINAL RECORD (but had politically incorrect views) for
blackmail, then acting vengefully when he wouldn't act as their rat fink.
Shoot-to-kill. Sniper team. Military fatigues.
A terrorizing organization: how else to explain the cruel cruel taunting.
A terrorist organization by virtue of shoot-to-kill orders.
----
Waco.
Gun charges.
The deaths of all those people were 80% the fault of the government.
I say that even though I believe the Koreshians set the fire.
You'd go mad too after screaming dying rabbits are blasted into your dreams
every night, and in the end were attacked by five hours of toxic tear gas.
You would literally be trapped in hell with the devil pointing guns at you.
Some of the reasons for 30% of the blame:
o The mandatory documentation of the raid plan was never distributed.
o The warrant they were to serve was also left behind.
"We don't need no stinkin' warrants"
o It is well-documented that David Koresh had left the complex many
times while under the surveillance of as many as eight A.T.F. agents.
o The F.B.I. cut off all utilities and sanitation. Government loudspeakers
blared nonstop with such sounds as jet planes, and the cries of rabbits
being slaughtered. [I have three loving bunnies who have free roam
inside my apartment: the Feds are sick puppies. What would the public
have thought if it were dying cats or dogs?] Tanks fired percussion
grenades. Stadium lights kept the house illuminated around the clock.
Helicopters flew overhead. This does not contribute to trust in the
government negotiators, nor does it help the Koreshians make rational
decisions. Like walking out unarmed before a Federal army, using tanks
from the U.S. Defense Dept. [It should still be called the War Dept.]
o C.S. gas is never supposed to be used inside a building. Used inside,
it can create fires, and it can produce cyanide, which can immobilize
and kill. The manufacturer of C.S. gas, Aldridge Chemicals emphasized
that this product was intended for outdoor riot control only; it was
not supposed to be a weapon.
In fact, the company says it stopped selling C.S. to Israel in 1988
because the government there was shooting the chemical into buildings
occupied by Palestinians. Many of those people subjected to the gas
became ill, and others died from the exposure in enclosed quarters.
You would think Israelites would be sensitive to deadly gassing of
people in enclosed areas. [Gas use as reported by Amnesty
International's Chemical Report on C.S. Agent #6.]
o The F.B.I., through the Department of Justice, requested that Texas
Governor Ann Richards allow the use of helicopters from the Texas
National Guard at Waco. Texas law forbids the use of the National
Guard in police action against a citizen of the state, except when
drugs are involved in a criminal action.
But the A.T.F. fabricated a drug charge ("ugh, they're operating a
methamphetamine lab or something huh-huh-huh") to gain the use of the
helicopters. Later, Governor Richards stated publicly that she had
been lied to by the Department of Justice.
o They knew the secrecy of the operation had been blown. How macho to
plow ahead anyway. They must feel invincible in those stormtrooper
outfits.
Here is the fifty-percent reason.
A little technical quibble.
Reckless disregard for human life, leading to a disaster.
The following descriptions are entirely from Janet Reno's own testimony,
along with other Federal agents and neutral expert testimony.
The approximate date was 6/27/95, on C-SPAN, "Justice Department Oversight,
Senate Judiciary Committee". Senator Arlene Spector presiding.
Ms. Reno testified that the turning point in her decision to forcibly move
against the Waco compound came after she had "discussions" with senior
government people she would NOT NAME.
It is a "Challenger" type disaster, where public pressure caused them to
screw up. The same irony: they didn't want to look bad.
Janet Reno was asked to take off her "safety hat" and
put on her "management hat". She did. She's a good ol' boy.
My apolitical reasons for saying Janet Reno's decision to move against
Waco the way they did was reckless endangerment of life, entirely from
C-SPAN testimony:
o pumped in CS tear gas, which the US has signed a chemical weapons
treaty not to use against countries we go to war against. They were
aware of the indoor lethal capabilities of C.S. gas, because these
were spelled out in the manual.
o pumped in an extra heavy amount of it due to OUTSIDE winds.
o Reno had NO reliable data from her FBI-referred military
expert on the affects of the gas on children or the elderly,
yet proceeded.
o turned off the electricity, and knew they were using candles
as a result. The F.B.I. and the A.T.F. were fully aware that
the Davidians were using kerosene lanterns inside the compound
both day and night. They knew this because they had infrared
surveillance equipment in the air and on the ground at the complex,
and because of microphones they embedded in the building.
o pumped the highly flammable CS gas for five freakin' hours.
o expert testimony said if the candles ignited the
CS gas: "The air would catch fire".
o Janet Reno testified they COULD NOT FIGURE OUT a way to pump in
fire-retardant gas, even though they worked hard at it. They even
considered an armored fire truck that apparently exists somewhere.
The highly flammable situation became reckless endangerment of life
when Reno, after trying "very hard" to figure out a way to pump
fire-retardant gas in at the same time as the C.S. gas: failed to
figure out a way, yet proceeded. [After someone "talked" to her.]
Senator: Did the FBI consider delivering Avalon fire-retardant gas?
Reno/FBI: No, how could we deliver it without getting shot?
It's called running another tube out the tank turret, just as was done
for delivering the highly flammable chemical-weapons grade tear gas in
the first place. Use another tank if necessary.
It was that simple.
"We did not know the complex was on fire at first, but we started
smelling smoke. We didn't know what to do.
We were afraid that if we came out of the building, we would be shot.
All of a sudden, the smoke came. I couldn't see my husband any more."
After the whole thing was over, the BATF raised its own flag over
the ruins.
Burn baby burn. 80 men, woman and children.
The official FBI fire plan [their own C-SPAN testimony], which they followed,
was letting them burn.
Janet "Barbecue" Reno. Who testified she would do nothing different again.
You want to take "responsibility" for it: then resign.
Law enforcement gun hysteria.
Like a scene from a nightmarish movie [such as Terry Gilliam's Brazil]
the Feds, while poking holes in the building with a tank snout and spraying
dangerous amounts of toxic tear gas, and while knocking down extended areas
of the compound (as shown and commented on by ABC news) with another tank in
the rear, blared 1984 Newspeak over loudspeakers at the hapless victims:
"THIS IS NOT AN ATTACK. REPEAT THIS IS NOT AN ATTACK."
******************************************************************************
War #3 - Child Pornography
--- -- ----- -----------
"There were children watching this program. They were exposed
to full frontal nudity and irresponsible sexual activity."
---Rep. Tom Coburn (R-OK), criticizing "Schindler's List."
* NYC 1996: The FBI "investigates" ads on the sides of city buses
* for child pornography. The ads are by Calvin Klein.
The FBI is dizzy from bus fumes.
"Child porn" is one of the great "law enforcement concerns" about
cryptography. The FBI has groused that encryption has stymied prosecutions.
Let us take into consideration actions by the government because of
their "law enforcement concerns" on child pornography.
They have raided private homes and seized computer equipment after monitoring
Internet traffic and spotting regular people browsing WWW/USENET clicking on
an article they CAN'T SEE UNTIL THEY CLICK ON IT which contained nude pixels
representing children.
Out of fear that child-molesting child pornographers might encrypt these
files, even pro-cryptography legislation has 'using cryptography to commit
a crime gets you an additional five years'.
What happens with a five year prison clause?
Well, let's say the person clicked on what turned out to be child pornography.
So they click on something else and that wipes it off the screen.
It's still sitting in their browser's cache.
* "Man Arrested After Retrieving Child Pornography by Computer"
* The New York Times, May 19, 1995
*
* A Los Angelos man has been arrested on charges of possessing child porno-
* graphy that he obtained over the Internet. His Internet traffic was under
* surveillance because he placed an ad seeking an "open relationship" with
* couples interested in "family nudity."
*
* City Attorney James K. Hahn said "Certainly if you see something flicker
* across your computer monitor, then you are not in possession, but if you
* go to the difficulty of downloading...then you're guilty."
As you can see, this technical detail totally escapes some people.
Continuing: then the Feds raid their place.
Naturally, they charge you with possession of child pornography.
Let's further say you have some gibberish
files which might be encrypted material.
The government then says if you don't plead guilty to child porn, then we'll
prosecute you for the crypto-crime provision of this bill too.
i.e. Cypherpunk Tim May's succinct complaint "It's wrong when I'm a felon
under an ever increasing number of laws".
Because government will lean on you with it:
In the AAA BBS case, a company delivering raunchy porn or just nude pictures,
the government threat included prosecuting the person's wife too. Just like
it could in the private home raid scenario above. Only now with a new club
to swing. It was the main reason the husband agreed to plead guilty. He
wouldn't risk his wife to a trial just to protect his own rights.
The government will use every available tool to menace crypto users.
NYT, quoting a Supreme Court member on police use of legislative language:
"They will take it as far as they can."
They have absolutely no scruples, often.
In the AAA BBS case, the Feds PURPOSELY PULLED graphics legal in California
into hick Tennessee, and succeeded in jailing the CA owner.
Wow. The Feds must have been drooling when Congress passed the CDA.
In addition, they sent UNSOLICITED real child porno to the owner, and charged
him with possession of child porno.
No code of ethics or conduct.
No scruples.
Predatory pinheads.
----
* "WHITE HOUSE IS SET TO EASE ITS STANCE ON INTERNET SMUT"
* The New York Times, By John M. Broder, June 16 1997
*
* Administration officials, in a draft report dated June 4 1997, have been
* quietly fashioning a new communications policy that leaves most regulation
* of the Internet to industry and people themselves, due to an expected
* repudiation of the Communications Decency Act by the Supreme Court.
*
* Reno's people, [beating the Drum of War] told the Supreme Court "the
* Internet was a revolutionary threat to children rendering irrelevant all
* prior efforts" to protect them from pornography.
*
* "We all knew at the time it was passed that the Communications Decency Act
* WAS UNCONSTITUTIONAL," said an anonymous senior government official [yea
* anonymity!].
*
* "This was purely politics."
*
* "How could you be against a bill limiting
* the display of pornography to children?"
Thank you once again, Free World Leaders,
for that intelligent political discourse.
On 6/26/97, CDA was ruled unconstitutional 7-2 by the Supreme Court.
----
Predatory behavior.
* The New York Times, April 19, 1992
*
* The Supreme Court, in a 5-4 ruling, overturned the conviction of a
* Nebraska farmer on charges of receiving child pornography. The only
* pornography the government found was the one item it sent him, "Boys
* Who Love Boys".
*
* It took the government over two years of solicitation to get him to
* order it; he says he didn't know it was illegal.
*
* Among other things, the government said he should order if he 'believes
* in the joy of sex'.
*
* He then heard from yet another Government creation, "Heartland
* Institute for a New Tomorrow" (HINT), which proclaimed that:
*
* o "We are an organization founded to protect and promote sexual freedom and
* freedom of choice. We believe that arbitrarily imposed legislative
* sanctions restricting your sexual freedom should be rescinded through
* the legislative process."
*
* o "Not only sexual expression but freedom of the press is under attack.
* We must be ever vigilant [503 U.S. 545] to counter-attack right wing
* fundamentalists who are determined to curtail our freedoms."
*
* o "As many of you know, much hysterical nonsense has appeared in the
* American media concerning "pornography" and what must be done to stop
* it from coming across your borders. This brief letter does not allow
* us to give much comments; however, why is your government spending
* millions of dollars to exercise international censorship while tons
* of drugs, which makes yours the world's most crime ridden country are
* passed through easily." [snip]
*
* There followed over the next 2 1/2 years, repeated efforts by two
* Government agencies, through five fictitious organizations and a bogus
* pen pal, to explore his willingness to break the new law by ordering
* sexually explicit photographs of children through the mail.
*
* While the ruling has brought some relief, the farmer lost his job, had
* to sell forty acres of his family farm to pay legal fees, and now
* everyone knows he's gay. "I guess I don't have any privacy anymore.
* Doesn't the government realize that it can destroy a man's life?"
The Supreme Court majority ruled it was an extreme misuse of Government
power in which an innocent person was led to commit a manufactured crime.
[NYT 4/7/1992, front page]
Guess what job he had for the two years the government repeatedly stroked
him to buy youth-oriented naked publications?
A children's school bus driver.
----
It's not a pretty thought, but legislators should consider that there is
a distinct category of child pornography possession that I would call
"Click-Crime".
People who come across child pornography, and for whatever wrong reason
save a copy of the picture. They didn't mean to become vile heinous
doomed-to-burn-in-hell creatures; it's just one of those things where people
make the wrong decisions when encountering something in the privacy of
their own home.
As the government monitors the Net closer, they will spot tens of
thousands of these people. They've already arrested hundreds of them.
* FBI sting nets over 200 arrests for child pornography
* 6/97 stat: 94 convictions, 104 "pending" convictions
It's not hard to spot them, and may I point out that it happens despite
free uncrackable encryption (PGP) being available worldwide for years.
Yeah, I know, it's heresy to try and suggest there's a category called
"child pornography light". Here are some sample cases of the broad base
of people involved:
* The New York Times, 3/6/97
* Minister Gets Probation in Pornography Case
*
* A Baptist minister who copied child pornography images off the
* Internet received three years' probation in exchange for his
* guilty plea to a reduced charge.
*
* He must pay a $1,000 fine, forfeit his home computer, not have
* any unsupervised contact with children under 17 and undergo
* counseling.
*
* The minister, 47, was arrested in January.
*
* Computer technicians at a repair shop had found 30 pornographic
* images of children in his computer and notified the state police.
*
* The minister pleaded guilty on Monday in village court to a
* reduced obscenity count, a misdemeanor.
Of course, the Feds are not prosecuting these as misdemeanor cases.
* The New York Times, 5/10/97
* Ex-Prosecutor Indicted on Pornography Charges
*
* A former deputy district attorney who has prosecuted sex crimes has
* been indicted on child pornography charges. Peter Harned was charged
* with transporting, receiving and possessing child pornography from
* July 1995 to July 1996.
*
* Mr. Harned worked at the District Attorney's office for 11 years,
* where he handled child pornography as well as homicide cases. He
* was dismissed last summer after he was arrested on state charges
* involving child pornography. The Federal counts, which carry
* tougher penalties, will replace the state charges.
*
* The child pornography files were discovered in Mr. Harned's home
* computer when it was taken in for repair. The computer store
* alerted law enforcement officers.
Be careful what you...
----
Also, there seems to be a disagreement between citizens and
the Government over what even constitutes child pornography.
* The New York Times, 1995
* Newark, NJ, Jan 12 (AP)
*
* A judge ruled today that a father must stand trial for taking nude photos
* of his six-year-old daughter, despite the man's claim that the pictures
* were art, not pornography.
*
* The judge ruled they were not art, despite Mr. Feuer's instructor, Susan
* Klechner of the International Center of Photography in New York City,
* submitting an affidavit saying the pictures were taken for the course
* and were consistent with the assignment.
*
* After his arrest, Mr. Feuer was ordered not to have contact with his
* daughter and could not stay at his home while the prosecution's
* investigation continued.
*
* The order was lifted last April, but David Ruhnke, Mr. Feuer's lawyer,
* said "It's really difficult to overstate what a nightmare this has
* been for him."
*
* Mr. Ruhnke further complained that the judge revealed Mr. Feuer's name
* in court papers while he was still making motions to dismiss the case,
* to protect the girl.
Parents charged with child pornography for taking photos of their children.
Thought Police.
----
We netizens are rightfully paranoid of the
American government, because it has no scruples.
What the FBI did to photographer Jock Sturges was criminal.
Excerpt from 'TO: A Journal of Poetry, Prose + the Visual Arts', Summer 1992:
* Hounded by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in a bizarre witch-hunt
* at an expense to the taxpayers of over a million dollars, Sturges had
* survived an attempt to destroy his life and his work and was now
* countersuing the agency.
*
* Recapitulated briefly, Sturges, who's based in San Francisco, has for
* years been photographing young people whose families practice nudity.
*
* He's done so with his subjects' permission, as well as that of their
* parents, who often appear in the photographs along with their offspring.
* Rejecting the use of standard model releases, with their blanket
* permissions, the photographer chooses instead to request approval
* from his subjects for each and every exhibition and publication
* of each and every image --- an exemplary scrupulousness.
*
* Then, in 1990, alerted to the "questionable" content of some of his
* images by a local processing lab, the FBI arrested Joe Semien, Sturge's
* assistant, invaded the photographer's San Francisco studio without a
* warrant, and seized all his prints, negatives, records, and equipment;
* thereafter, without arresting Sturges, or even charging him with
* anything, they refused to return his property and did everything
* possible to destroy him personally and professionally by branding
* him a child pornographer
On September 15, 1991, The New York Times reported that the Feds took the
case to a grand jury after 17 months, and they immediately threw it out.
And that "this was unusual because only the prosecution's evidence is
presented to a grand jury and they generally return indictments at
the Government's request".
Excerpt from 'TO: A Journal of Poetry, Prose + the Visual Arts', Summer 1992:
* Jock Sturges:
*
* It took another month to get the U.S. Attorney to admit they had
* finished the investigation and that the case was closed.
*
* Before they were through they had interviewed forty-four families in
* France to whom they lied outrageously.
*
* It seems the Feds were unable to get the French interested because
* the French Police thought the photographs were just lovely. So the
* French were given the impression by the U.S. government that I had
* been convicted of incest in the United States and that I was a
* dangerous individual.
*
* And based on this assumption, the French Police conducted their own
* interviews, but my friends happily knew me well enough. When they
* found out they had been misled, the French Police called everybody
* back and apologized.
*
* Nevertheless, an enormous amount of effort was put out in France to
* go and talk to all these people and a similar thing was done in
* Germany. This was not all free. It was hideously expensive. And the
* repercussions --- I don't know what they are yet. I haven't talked
* to all the families.
*
* In the end, everything I received back was essentially destroyed.
*
* My computer was broken.
*
* All my prints were badly damaged.
*
* Some of them had been wadded up and thrown away and then taken out
* of the waste basket and flattened out again.
It cost Sturges $100,000 in legal fees, loss of major clients, much income,
seizure of his life's work, the tools of his trade, and made him feel
depressed about his life's work.
Our government uses Orwellian terror tactics
to control the politically incorrect:
Jock Sturges:
At my lowest point in this affair, I almost decided to jump
from the San Francisco bridge. I had stopped my car.
----
# FBI
# 450 Golden Gate Avenue
# San Francisco, CA 94102
#
# Dear Sirs, 7/6/90
#
# I am responding to a report on CNN last night.
#
# They showed a photographer, Jock Sturges, and some of his unpublished
# photos, and said the FBI confiscated them. According to the report, no
# sex was involved in the photos, he's a reputable photog, and the San
# Francisco City Council went so far as to pass a bill/resolution saying
# the FBI should release the collection.
#
# Why have you confiscated photos if no sex is involved? As far as I can
# tell, the photos would be no different from some photog books listed
# in the Library of Congress.
#
# The fact that you've confiscated the photos, but still haven't charged
# the photog, seems to indicate you're operating on auto-pilot, and that
# there is nothing wrong with the photos. I've never seen a news report
# where law enforcement wasn't sure, for this particular charge.
#
# It seems that you think some people may have "dirty thoughts" if they
# see the photos; that would make you the "Thought Police"!
#
# Sincerely,
# Guy
# Certified return receipt P 283 152 497.
----
The New York Times was no help.
They subsequently reviewed his work and called it ~"boring, been there, done
that". As if what they thought of his photos had a damn thing to do with the
matter.
The New York Times then continued to print topless pictures of young girls,
such as on November 10, 1991. They even printed color nipples of young girls
ages 5-8, confident the FBI wasn't going to bust *them*.
How hypocritical and self-serving.
Get a load of this wording:
* "Former Black Panthers Leader Is Freed on Bail"
* By B. Drummond Ayres Jr., The New York Times, June 11, 1997
*
* ...any trial jury is sure to be asked to weigh Mr. Pratt's alleged violent
* excess against the ALLEGED EXCESSES COMMITTED BY GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS IN
* THE 1960's, PARTICULARLY ALLEGED EXCESSES IN SURVEILLANCE AND SUBVERSION
* OF ANTI-GOVERNMENT GROUPS like the Panthers.
Alleged?
I hear The New York Times "alleged" the "Pentagon Papers" were real!
----
The law refers to "lascivious exhibition of the genitals or pubic area".
The FBI takes that to mean naked. Obviously.
A poorly written bill, interpreted by predatory pinheads.
Guess what?
1/18/95 NYT: In a case that did not involve nudity or genital visibility,
Attorney General Janet Reno filed a brief with the Supreme Court that
said it was not necessary for a child pornography conviction. That is
how she interprets the language of the bill.
Wow.
And I thought Ed Meese was a bad Attorney General. Meese had written
to companies like the owners of 7-11 and told them selling Playboy and
Penthouse could get them Federal obscenity charges. That was his attempt
to get around the First Amendment.
10/3/96 NYT: Because of computers, a bill was passed that changes the
definition of child pornography to include generated images that do
not involve actual children.
Thought crime. Law enforcement child pornography hysteria.
Sturges incident: attacked by the FBI Thought Police Squad. Massive corrupt
use of governmental law enforcement authority to enforce mere political
correctness. Due to its size: by definition not an aberration.
It cost one million dollars of our tax money.
----
On June 19, 1997, Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John McCain introduced
his own bill (Senator Kerrey co-sponsor) which parrots the Clinton
administration's position and forced it to replace the Pro-Code bill.
He banged the Drum of War against Child Pornography.
* http://cgi.pathfinder.com/netly, By Declan McCullagh
*
* In the end, it was child pornography that derailed encryption legislation
* in the U.S. Senate and dealt a bitter defeat to crypto supporters.
*
* Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), committee chair and chief sponsor of the
* measure, led the attack, saying Congress must "stop child pornography
* on the Internet."
*
* He warned that "allowing encryption to be exported would permit child
* pornographers to use it."
*
* "If it's being used for child pornography? Are we going to say
* that's just fine? That's it's just business? I don't think so."
*
* Sen. John Ashcroft (R-MO) tried to disagree. "It's like photography. We're
* not going to [ban] photography if someone takes dirty pictures."
*
* At this point, one of the more deaf committee members asked,
* "Pornography? Are we going to ban pornography?"
*
* The Senate Commerce Committee then approved McCain's bill.
*
* For a committee whose bailiwick is commerce, the senators seemed somewhat
* detached from their mandate with business taking a backseat.
*
Thank you once again, oh Free World Leaders, for that intelligent discourse.
* The New York Times, June 15 1997
*
* "Washington Kidnaps Dick and Jane - See How Washington Uses Dick and Jane"
*
* These days much of the nation's political debate focuses on children - or
* on the needs and interests of children as defined by politicians.
*
* Mr. Horn, who was chief of the Childrens Bureau in the Bush Administration
* added, "A cynic would say that children are being used as props or proxies."
Color me cynical.
It should be noted, of course, that uncrackable encryption called PGP is
available worldwide for free for all common platforms of computers, that
McCain's bill would do NOTHING to address that (not possible anyway), and
so his argument WAS A TOTAL SHAM.
No newspaper in the country will explain that in their coverage.
The sole purpose of the McCain bill was to protect ECHELON.
# "The McCain Mutiny", By Todd Lappin, Wired Magazine, June 1997
#
# Question: How will we break the stalemate between the interests of
# industry and law enforcement in setting cryptographic policy?
#
# McCain: It's pretty clear that the administration's crypto proposals
# will have a harmful effect upon the industry. But we can't completely
# ignore the warnings we get from the heads of the FBI and the National
# Security Agency. We need to find a middle ground or else the president
# will veto the crypto bill and I doubt we can override the veto.
I am sure Senator McCain has no idea what the NSA is really doing.
Noone told him about domestic ECHELON, or how powerful keyword monitoring is.
******************************************************************************
War #4 - Terrorism
--- -- ---------
Until Timmy McPinhead decided to follow the Government's lead on killing people
---that it is okay to kill people to make a point---terrorism was always
referred to as being by "foreign" agents.
After the explosion, President Clinton called for FBI agents to be able to
tap phones at will, as they can do now for organized crime. In other words,
not only was there the OKC bombing terroristic act, the Government freedom
terrorists then demanded even greater Police State powers over all of us.
Internet signature in alt.activism.militia...
In 1794, James Madison pointed out "the old trick of turning every
contingency into a resource for accumulating force in the government."
----
I don't know any terrorists or foreign agents.
But the government seems to know plenty of people who are terrorists.
: The New York Times, 2/10/87
: "Is This America?", by Anthony Lewis
:
: She is 22 years old, a student in San Diego, California. She was born
: in Ramallah, in the West Bank, came to this country at the age of 3.
:
: She is an American citizen, of Palestinian origins.
:
: In her own words:
:
* I was studying, alone at the school library, on the night of Jan 28.
* At about 8:30 a large man, 6 feet tall, came up and shoved a paper in
* front of me. It said 'subpoena' and had my name on it. He flashed what
* looked like a badge and said 'We want you to come with us.'
*
* He had a gun in a holster at his waist.
*
* He took my left arm and handcuffed me to his right arm.
*
* Another man --- he also showed a gun --- came over and grabbed me
* roughly by the right arm. They took me out to a dark burgundy car,
* cuffed my hands in front of me and shoved me into the back seat.
*
* We drove for some time when they made me face backwards. In a
* residential area we drove into a garage and I was taken into the
* house, into a big bare room with a cement floor. There was a big
* metal desk.
*
* The room also had a metal pole set in the cement floor. It had a
* hook at the top, sort of like a tether ball pole.
*
* I was thrown into a gray metal chair, still handcuffed. The room
* was dimly lit, but with a bright fluorescent light coming at my
* face. They threw a picture down on the desk. It was a picture of
* me, my husband and a Palistinian friend of ours whom they had
* arrested. They slapped it and said 'Who is this man, identify
* him.' I refused and said what they were doing to me was illegal.
*
* One said, 'Honey, we ARE the law.'
*
* It was after midnight by now. They uncuffed my right hand, then
* cuffed my left hand to the metal pole. My left arm was stretched
* up to reach it.
*
* Then they left the house and left me hanging
* there like that for over three hours.
*
* They came back around 3:30 AM with a third man.
*
* I asked if I could use the bathroom.
*
* I was desperate to go.
*
* They would not let me.
*
* They told me that my husband was in custody, that they had just picked
* him up. [That was false.] They said we could work out a deal, I could
* be a witness for the prosecution of our friend.
*
* If I would do that, they would let my husband go.
*
* They also said they knew I only had $78 in my bank account, hinting
* that they could change that.
*
* A fourth man came into the house.
*
* I will never forget his eyes.
*
* He took out a small Palistinian flag and burned it.
*
* Then they took me out, back into the car. They stopped about two miles
* from my house. They said 'Listen Babe, when you least expect us, expect
* us. WE WILL ALWAYS BE AROUND.' I looked at my watch. It was 8:30 AM.
:
: Could that have happened in America? Readers will no doubt find it hard
: to believe, as I did.
:
: So did she.
:
: She was too frightened to talk at first. But now she is ready to testify,
: if her lawyers ask her to.
:
: Her friend was one of eight Palistinians arrested in Los Angelos who were
: taken at gunpoint in their home at 7 in the morning, then shackled in arm
: and leg irons.
:
: Each of them, too, was shown photographs and offered inducements to
: testify against someone.
:
: There was no evidence whatever that they had done or contemplated any
: act of violence.
:
: The charges had to do with reading or distributing Palistinian literature.
:
: But that is another story of unconstitutional outrage.
:
: Is this America?
:
: Realism requires us to recognize that it can happen here. It has happened.
: But it is not too late to find out how, and to punish the Federal agents
: who behaved like totalitarian thugs.
:
* "When we speak out", she said, "that's our protection."
:
: She still believes in America.
Orwellian terror tactics to control individuals.
It just never stops.
Black, Jewish, Palestinian, White Families With Guns, anti-war protesters,
computer users, Zero Tolerance victims, nudist photographers...
You don't want to be the group targeted by the government.
One of the most stunningly vile attempts to attack an
individual occurred just a couple years ago, in 1995.
The attack was itself a throwback to the old days of COINTELPRO, (Counter-
Intelligence Program), a massive unconstitutional FBI operation --- one of
it's most abusive ever --- to discredit the politically incorrect.
* Main Justice, by Jim McGee and Brian Duffy, 1996, ISBN 0-684-81135-9
*
* And it was not just the FBI. The CIA, the Pentagon and the National
* Security Agency [Military] had all turned their intelligence-gathering
* capabilities on American citizens.
And who was targeted?
Qubilah Shabazz, second oldest daughter of Malcom X.
* Both Sides in Shabazz Case Say Tapes Prove Their Point
* by Don Terry, The New York Times, April 1995
*
* Ms. Shabazz was indicted on Jan 11 on nine counts of using the telephones
* and travelling across state lines to hire a hit man to kill Mr. Farrakhan.
* Eight of the counts involved taped telephone calls between Ms. Shabazz and
* Mr. Fitzpatrick, a cocaine addict who faces a possible five-year prison
* sentence in an unrelated drug case. [read: blackmailed]
*
* Of the 40 recorded conversations, 38 were initiated by Mr. Fitzpatrick.
* "Most of the conversations during these calls consisted primarily of
* remarks by Mr. Fitzpatrick." said defense lawyer William M. Kunstler.
* [Kunstler was a silvered haired angel even while still on Earth]
*
* The Government had a statement initialed from Ms. Shabazz.
*
* "I jokingly asked Fitzpatrick if he would kill Louis Farrakhan."
*
* The statement was written by two FBI agents, who did not advise her of
* her right to remain silent and have a lawyer present.
*
* Federal officials in Washington and Minneapolis say Ms. Shabazz was
* 'obsessed' with killing Mr. Farrakhan, and they had enough on her to
* put her away for 90 years.
*
* Mr. Fitzpatrick prodded her: "I'm willing to do whatever you want me to
* do, this feels righteous." Ms. Shabazz replied "I don't really know
* what you're asking me." Mr. Fitzpatrick later told her "I'm just going
* to proceed."
Qubilah Shabazz was 4 when she saw her father die in a hail of bullets in
1965. She has been a trouble woman ever since.
* "...Shabazz...", The New York Times, June 8 1997 (front page)
*
* In telephone conversations taped by Federal prosecutors, Ms. Shabazz
* acknowledged she had psychological problems and had spent time at Bellevue.
Her mother long asserted Mr. Farrakhan played a role in the death of her
husband. Three members of Mr. Farrakhan's Nation of Islam were convicted.
And just what was so extraordinarily vile about this case?
Its purpose was to tear the black community apart.
Mr. Farrakhan, no fool when it comes to manipulation, joined in her defense.
And: Mr. Fitzpatrick had been a high school classmate of Qubilah Shabazz.
In courting her lifetime of anger at Mr. Farrakhan, he also courted her.
Love.
"A vile and evil seducer," said William Kunstler to the court.
He had proposed to her.
* "Always the Violence", The New York Times, by Bob Herbert, June 9 1997
*
* Percy Sutton, a close friend of the Shabazz family for more then three
* decades, said "It was so sad. This little kid [Qubilah's son Malcolm, 10]
* he ended up feeling guilty because he tried to persuade his mother to
* marry this guy [Fitzpatrick told the son about his marriage proposal].
* The guy told him 'We'll have our own house.' And Malcolm got all excited
* and he said, 'I'll have my own bedroom?' And the guy said 'Yes, you will.'"
It is safe to say this directly contributed to the burning and subsequent
death of Betty Shabazz. A distraught, torn, ten-year-old suffering the
effects of this persecution.
He had been taken away from his mother because of Fitzpatrick.
NBC Newschannel 4 NY, on the death of Betty Shabazz:
"Police say the boy was upset he couldn't live with his mother."
Kunstler forced the Government to drop its case...
* "...Shabazz...", The New York Times, June 8 1997
*
* Prosecutors dropped the case when it became
* clear she had NOT committed to the crime.
...and instead settle for her getting professional counseling.
Mainly to recover from what Mr. Fitzpatrick and the FBI did to her.
Mr. Fitzpatrick was paid $45,000 of our tax money for his services.
Mr. Fitzpatrick is a cocaine addict.
Remember, it's the 1990s now: same as it ever was.
American citizens are just pawns to be manipulated
by the U.S. intelligence and law enforcement agencies.
Dirt.
Or worse.
* "Above the Law", by David Burnham, ISBN 0-684-80699-1, 1996
*
* At 4:00 A.M. on December 4, 1969, for example, a special fourteen-man
* squad of Chicago police officers raided a house used by the Black
* Panther Party. During the shoot-first-ask-questions-later raid, police
* fired at least ninety-eight rounds into the apartment. Illinois chairman
* Fred Hampton and Peoria chairman Mark Clark were killed.
*
* An FBI informant gave the bureau specific information about where
* Hampton was probably sleeping, and a detailed floor plan of the house
* which the special squad used during its raid.
*
* Thirteen years later, in November 1982, District Court Judge John F.
* Grady determined that there was sufficient evidence of an FBI-led
* conspiracy to deprive the Panthers of their civil rights, and awarded
* the plaintiffs $1.85 million in damages.
: 5/30/97 MSNBC
:
: After more than a quarter of a century in prison, a Black Panther
: activist has won the right to a new trial. A judge ruled there had
: been prosecutorial misconduct. The judge overturned the conviction
: when it was disclosed the government prosecutors withheld critical
: evidence:
:
: o They never said the informer was working with and paid by
: the FBI.
:
: o A former FBI agent also agrees with his alibi: that he was
: in the Black Panther HQ at the time of the murder. That the
: FBI knew this because they were monitoring the HQ.
:
: o And the jury never knew the eyewitness, who has since died,
: had misidentified people in other cases.
:
: He has been turned down for parole 16 times, and had been in prison
: longer than most murderers.
:
:
: 6/10/97 MSNBC: Mr. Pratt has been freed over the U.S. Attorney's
: objections. His first minutes of freedom were spent with his
: 94-year-old mother.
:
: Court TV:
:
: Judge Dickey overturned the conviction last month, ruling that
: prosecutors failed to tell the defense that the key witness against
: Pratt was an infiltrator and paid informant for the FBI and police.
: *** This primary "witness" had claimed Pratt confessed!!! ***
:
: "It's madness in there," Pratt said after walking out of jail
: on $25,000 bail. "You have political prisoners on top of political
: prisoners. I'm only one of a great many that should be exposed,
: should be addressed."
:
: The same judge who presided over Pratt's original trial set him free.
: Johnny Cochran said Pratt spent the first eight years of his sentence
: in solitary confinement.
That's a long time to sit in jail just because the FBI didn't want to
reveal its monitoring operations, isn't it? It's 1997 now: same as it
ever was. And his imprisonment had the same slimy quality as the vicious
attack on Qubilah Shabazz, whom the government at first claimed they
"had enough on her to put her away for 90 years".
And just how do domestic civil rights organizations get labelled terrorist
or under the influence of foreign agents? Why was Qubilah Shabazz's father
considered a terrorist?
: "Secret and Sanctioned: Covert Operations and the American Presidency"
: by Stephen F. Knott, 1996, ISBN 0-19-510098-0
:
: Both presidents Johnson and Nixon had been convinced that Communist
: nations were bankrolling or directing the antiwar movement and had
: ordered investigations into this possibility.
:
: The CIA's investigations, which included operation CHAOS, found no
: evidence of external control or funding of the antiwar movement, the
: Black Panthers, or the Students for a Democratic Society.
* "The Rise of the Computer State", David Burnham, 1984
*
* p128: Federal authorities were concerned that foreign governments MIGHT
* try to influence civil rights leaders in the United States. The list
* of Americans monitored ballooned as political groups, celebrities and
* ordinary citizens were added to the 'watch lists'. The NSA surveillance
* was illegal and was instantly stopped [years later] when it appeared
* that Congress might learn about the eavesdropping.
Fear, loathing, suspicion and monitoring of civil rights movements.
All it took was the thought that foreigners were influencing Americans.
That's all it took to make the massive surveillance "legal".
Of course, massive surveillance means more than just surveillance:
* Main Justice, by Jim McGee and Brian Duffy, 1996, ISBN 0-684-81135-9
*
* The FBI had been spying on members of the civil rights movement
* to discredit Martin Luther King and destroy the civil rights
* movement, government files showed. There had been burglaries
* and illegal wiretapping on a grand scale.
Even after FISA legislation, with its strict "minimization" requirement,
CISPES & Co. happened.
Sometimes their suspicion of terrorist/foreign agent activity is laughable.
* "Above the Law", by David Burnham, ISBN 0-684-80699-1, 1996, short version
*
* It was just before April Fool's day, and Virginia Bernard thought the
* caller was one of her friends pulling a practical joke. Her husband, an
* ex-IRS official got on the phone, and after a brief discussion was
* convinced the man really was an FBI agent.
*
* Agent Emmett arrived: The seventy-three-year-old part-time teacher was
* asked: "why did you subscribe to 'Soviet Life' and why did you write to
* the Soviet embassy?"
*
* "I need to clear this up. It's in the interest of national security."
*
* With the invocation of the sacred words "national security," one of
* the most powerful mantras of the long-lived Cold War, Mrs. Bernard's
* seventy-nine-year-old husband burst out laughing. At any time, it
* would have been hard to imaging the connection between his wife and
* the fearsome world of espionage, the arms race and Check Point Charlie.
*
* But the wall had fallen, and Russia had a complete upheaval too. The FBI
* agent's linkage of his wife to "national security" seemed absurd. The
* agent, however, did not share George's amused astonishment.
*
* "Don't mock me," the couple remembers Emmett warning them.
*
* She had subscribed to the magazine for its impressive photography, and
* had written to the Soviet embassy to thank them for sending an icebreaker
* to free some whales, as suggested by a television show host.
How foolish of her to put her real name and return address on the letter.
* "Teen Sues FBI, Wants FBI File Purged", NYT, 11/12/89
*
* Todd Patterson, 17, became the object of an FBI investigation when he
* wrote to foreign governments as part of a sixth-grade project. He says
* he is interested in a Foreign Service career and worries about the
* effect the FBI files might have on his chances of obtaining security
* clearances. [snip]
*
* The Pattersons said that they began hearing interference on their
* telephone, including voices, after the visit by the FBI agent and that
* about 50 pieces of mail Todd received from foreign governments from 1983
* to 1988 showed signs of tampering.
*
* But a Justice Department lawyer told the court, "Just because they heard
* funny noises on their telephone and some foreign mail was damaged doesn't
* mean we should start rummaging through agency files and asking if there
* was a wiretap.
The FBI insists on keeping a file ("but we 'closed' it") on him even
though they should have seen he was not a threat to national security.
Fear, loathing, hysteria, and spying on our reading habits:
The FBI also had their counter-intelligence unit start a "Library Awareness
Program", which meant they wanted to know everyone who checked out certain
books.
What a bunch of peeping tommy guns!
* "LIBRARY SPY HUNT IS CURBED BY FBI", By Herbert Mitgang, NYT, 11/11/1988
*
* Bowing to pressure from a House subcommittee and continued resistance from
* librarians, the Federal Bureau of Investigation has set limits on its
* program seeking the help of librarians in "detecting Soviet spies."
*
* Under the Library Awareness Program. which the FBI says has been in exist-
* ence for years, librarians have been asked to report suspicious-looking
* people who might be Soviet spies, to be alert to which books and periodi-
* cals such people read or check out and to disclose the names and informa-
* tion about book borrowers suspected of using libraries for espionage
* purposes or recruiting library users for espionage [what???].
*
* FBI Director William S. Sessions said the bureau would continue to contact
* public, university and corporate libraries in the New York City area about
* "hostile intelligence service activities at libraries." [fuh-gedda-boutit]
Of course, they know all the books you've ever bought using credit cards.
Fear, loathing, hysteria, and a loosening of the rules for "national security":
* "Above the Law", by David Burnham, ISBN 0-684-80699-1, 1996
*
* After the Oklahoma City bombing, Deputy Attorney General Jamie Gorelick
* and FBI Director Freeh announced that they had decided to reinterpret
* twenty-year-old Justice Department guidelines originally put in place to
* restrain the FBI from violating the constitutional rights of political
* dissidents.
*
* "If those guidelines are interpreted broadly and proactively, as opposed
* to defensively, as has been the case for many many years, I feel confident
* ...we have sufficient authority," Freeh told a Senate Committee.
*
* William Safire, the conservative New York Times columnist with libertarian
* leanings, was appalled, asking if there wasn't anyone in the government
* who remembered how the FBI played the game in the bad old days?
*
* "To the applause of voters fearful of terrorism," Safire wrote, "the pro-
* activists declare their intention to prevent crime. This would be followed
* by surveillance of suspect groups by using new technology, the infiltra-
* tion of political movements deemed radical or violence prone; and the
* stretching of guidelines put in place 20 years ago to restrain yesterday's
* zealots."
Fear, loathing, hysteria, and a massive misdirection of resources:
* At about the same time that the FBI agent was knocking on Mrs. Bernard's
* door, the bureau had 21,000 allegations of savings and loan fraud it was
* unable to investigate, and at least 2,400 inactive financial crime inves-
* tigations awaiting consideration. In the San Diego area, for example,
* lack of available agents meant the FBI would not even consider investi-
* gating bank fraud cases unless they involved losses of at least one
* million dollars.
******************************************************************************
War #5 - Hackers
--- -- -------
o Secret Service: Harassment of 2600
o Secret Service: Vile Persecution of Ed Cummings
o Secret Service: Harassment of Steve Jackson Games
* The New York Times, CyberTimes, June 20, 1997
*
* Panel Chief Says Computer Attacks Are Sure to Come
*
* By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
*
* WASHINGTON -- It is "only a matter of time" before critical U.S. computer
* systems face major attack, the head of a White House panel on the nation's
* infrastructure systems warned.
*
* Robert Marsh is the head of the President's Commission on Critical
* Infrastructure Protection.
Whatever should we do about those nasty hackers?
******************************************************************************
Secret Service: Harassment of 2600
------ ------- ---------- -- ----
A group of above-ground hackers associated with 2600 were having a lawful
peaceful public meeting at the Pentagon City Mall on November 6, 1992.
The meeting was busted up by mall police for no apparent reason.
Identification was demanded from everyone.
Bags were searched.
It's the 1990s now.
The harassment was publicized by 2600, and a reporter talked to the head
of the mall's security: he let slip that the Secret Service ordered them
to harass 2600's lawful peaceful public meeting.
That was definitely news.
The mall security manager then denied what he said about Secret Service
ordering the harassment: luckily the reporter recorded his conversation.
CPSR [Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility] and Marc Rotenberg
of EPIC [Electronic Privacy Information Center] began FOIA [U.S. Freedom
of Information Act] proceedings to find out about this incident.
The case raises significant issues of freedom of speech and assembly,
privacy and government accountability.
In response to an FOIA asking why this happened, the Secret Service
responded: "We are sure no one knows why we had the meeting disrupted".
They have made a mockery of FOIA.
This mockery of FOIA is still being litigated by EPIC.
An intentional illegal government surveillance program...it just never stops.
Marc Rotenberg has gotten the Secret Service to admit in court that this was
done to "investigate hacking into a company's telephone switch."
Since when did the "investigative" techniques used by the Secret Service
become valid for use in the United States? Going up to a bunch of mall
patrons and DEMANDING IDENTIFICATION from them and searching them?
How exactly was this supposed to further investigate a switch hacking?
For extended details of this governmental persecution of the politically
incorrect, see http://www.2600.com.
******************************************************************************
Secret Service: Vile Persecution of Ed Cummings
------ ------- ---- ----------- -- -- --------
Source material from http://www.2600.com, by someone calling themselves
"Emmanuel Goldstein", which in the book '1984' was known as the Hated Enemy
of the People.
2600, "The Hacker's Quarterly", is unhappy about what the Secret Service
did to one of its correspondents, Ed Cummings.
> The Secret Service has locked Ed Cummings up with violent criminals for
> nearly a year, solely because of his possession of written material,
> software, and bits of hardware. In other words, not much at all.
First, some background:
Ed Cummings was on probation for removing batteries from a tone dialer.
> All of this stems from an incident years ago when Cummings and two
> friends were being questioned by a Northampton County police officer.
>
> He had asked them about a tone dialer they had and, while he went into
> another room, somebody removed the batteries from the dialer. They were
> not under arrest and had not been instructed not to do this. However,
> based on this, Cummings was charged with "tampering with evidence" even
> though there was no proof that he had been the one to do it. Cummings
> refused to say who did and pleaded no contest. He was fined and that
> should have been the end of it.
Then it happened, in March 1995:
A Haverford Township Police officer arrested Ed Cummings.
His crime?
Talking with African Americans in a parking lot. A heavily monitored group...
The *sole* reason Ed Cummings was targeted was because he was talking to
black people.
What was he arrested for? Suspicion of drug dealing. (I'm guessing here.)
Did he have any drugs? None.
How do you arrest someone for drugs when they don't have any? I don't know.
What did he have? Electronic components: crystals.
No, not Starship Dilithium Crystals; just radio shack components.
Haverford Police put out word they had Ed Cummings; the Federal government
responded that they wanted the state case. It was transferred to the Feds.
Specifically, the Secret Service wanted to prosecute him.
Why the Secret Service? Because Ed was associated with the 2600 hacker's
publication. And because he had photographed a Secret Service agent who
had come snooping around. The Secret Service agent was picking their nose.
The local TV station showed it.
To which the Secret Service agents responded:
"Don't fuck with us. We're the biggest gang in town."
No other reason.
What eventually happened in court?
For possession of a 'red box' - a simpleton tone device that can fool
telco computers into making free calls even though the same computers
spot its usage:
> In the words of Ed Cummings, "I was forced to make a deal with the devil."
>
> The government had found data on a commercial diskette in his possession
> which they say was related to cellular fraud in California. While Ed says
> he has no idea what it is they're referring to, the odds of a jury being
> able to understand how someone could have a diskette and not be held
> accountable for every bit of data on it seemed uncomfortably slim.
>
> Also, by pleading guilty at this point and in this manner, Bernie will be
> sentenced in 10 days and will most likely be released at that time since
> he has already served the time he would probably be sentenced to.
>
> Of course, the down side to this is the fact that the federal government
> will interpret this as a green light to lock up anyone in possession of
> simple electronic and/or computer tools. And, as has been so aptly
> demonstrated by the Ed Cummings case, if they choose to treat the suspect
> as a terrorist and lock him/her up for six months with no bail, they won't
> have much of a problem finding a judge willing to do this.
>
> Sentencing took place on October 10 and Ed Cummings was sentenced to
> seven months in federal prison. The seven month period ended 4 days later.
Okay, so he pled guilty to having a red box, and was sentenced to time served.
Bad enough that any of that happened in the first place.
Now comes the extra vile persecution part...
Three months later, Cummings was in court on violation of probation charges,
because of his guilty plea on the red box.
> When Cummings was originally put on probation years ago, the probation
> officer told him he thought the whole thing was a big waste of time.
> The only thing he was accused of, after all, was taking batteries out
> of a tone dialer that a cop was questioning him about. And the really
> ironic part was that Cummings wasn't even the person who took the
> batteries out - it was one of his friends. But he was not about to turn
> a friend in for something so absurd. After all, this was a very minor
> thing - he paid a fine of nearly $3,000 and was put on probation and that
> was it.
>
> When the Secret Service threw Cummings in prison for possession of a red
> box in early 1995, they knew he could be screwed again when he finally
> got out since being arrested is a probation violation.
>
> And Special Agent Thomas Varney spent a great deal of effort to see that
> this is exactly what happened. He made multiple trips to Easton and
> convinced the local authorities to lock Cummings up as if he were the
> most sadistic of killers.
>
> On Friday, Cummings' probation officer did an aboutface and told the
> court that he thought Cummings represented a very great danger to the
> community. Outside the courtroom, he and the other local law enforcement
> people crowded around Varney like kids surrounding a rock star. He was
> their hero and maybe one day they would be just like him.
Well, isn't that strange: the Secret Service taking a strong interest in
the probation violation hearing of Ed Cummings for taking batteries out
of a tone dialer.
Not only were they interested, they testified against him!
> HERE WE GO AGAIN
>
> 1/12/96. In addition to the judge, Northampton County probation officer
> Scott Hoke, Secret Service agent Tom Varney, and Haverford Township
> detective John Morris were in attendance. Varney and Morris arrived
> in the same car.
>
> Tom Varney of the Secret Service then told the judge that he believed
> Cummings to be a major threat to society and that he was concerned
> because of the upcoming presidential campaign. It was unclear if he
> was actually implying that Cummings would somehow be a threat to the
> president but the judge and the police listened intently.
>
> This was the first time a Secret Service agent had come to their town.
> Varney continued to describe the threatening items that had been found
> in Cummings' residence: a copy of The Anarchist's Cookbook, publications
> from Loompanix, a mag stripe read head (no electronics) which "could have
> been used" to commit fraud, and material thought to be C4 but later
> proven not to be. However, Varney said, the fact that it could have been
> showed how serious this was. Nobody questioned his logic.
Wow, I'd better throw out my copy of "The Anarchist's Cookbook", eh?.
Oh wait: it would be more fitting if I blew it up.
* C-SPAN Television, Wednesday June 5th, 1997
*
* Andrew Grove, Chairman & CEO of Intel Corporation, is asked whether
* bomb-making information should be censored from the Internet.
*
* "No. The same information is available in libraries, and we don't
* censor libraries, nor should we. When I was thirteen I built a
* nitroglycerin bomb. It was an incredibly stupid thing to do,
* and I knew someone who had their hand blown off, but I am
* adamantly against censoring such material."
*
* "And unlike a library, a parent can buy a program that uses keyword
* monitoring to disallow Internet traffic per the parents' wishes.
* Such a program is available now, and costs only $29."
I think I looked at it for all of 30 seconds before putting in my bookshelf.
I don't remember the bomb-making details in it. I have a vague impression of a
lot of squiggly lines, suitable for a really bad coloring book. I also
purchased a variety of odd privacy-related publications from Eden Press.
What is the Official Federal Dangerous Book List?
What books did they check on for their 'Library Awareness Program'?
How was it determined these books made people dangerous?
Who approved this Fahrenheit 451 persecuted-for-books program?
The Thought Police had testified in court against Ed Cummings.
The judge rules on whether Ed is guilty of probation violation:
> The judge determined that a probation violation had indeed taken place
> and that Cummings should be held and a sentencing date scheduled within
> 60 days. The judge had just done the same thing for a man who had just
> committed his third DWI offense. In fact, he had killed someone. The
> judge ordered that person held on $50,000 bail. Ed Cummings, however,
> was another matter. The judge ordered Cummings held on $250,000.
>
> So Cummings was being held on a quarter of a million dollars because he
> was thought to have taken batteries out of a tone dialer years ago. He's
> in a 5 by 8 holding cell 22 hours a day with no windows and no clock.
> He never knows what time it is or whether it's day or night.
>
> The temperature reaches a maximum of sixty degrees and he has only one
> layer of thin cotton clothing and one blanket. To add to his misery,
> he was just notified that the Haverford Township police will destroy
> the property they seized from him last year unless he picks it up by
> Friday, January 19.
>
> The prison itself was built right after the Civil War. There are tons of
> roaches and graffiti in all the cells which dates back to the fifties
> - the last time it was painted. There are 1200 inmates.
>
> Currently Cummings is imprisoned in the maximum wing of the prison where
> people with the highest bail are kept. He's with murderers and rapists.
> Conditions are appalling. One of the prisoners is on death row - his name
> is Joseph Henry and he bit off a woman's nipples and clitoris before
> strangling her with a slinky. These are the kinds of people the Secret
> Service has condemned Cummings to be with.
Wow.
Pretty heavy for taking batteries out of a dialer.
This outcome is ENTIRELY DUE TO THE SECRET SERVICE.
Specifically: Special Slime Agent Thomas L. Varney, 215/597-0600 main# in PA.
Next, Ed Cummings is sentenced for taking batteries out of a tone dialer,
after even more Thought Police input from the Secret Service:
> Throughout the hearing, the main issue was whether or not Cummings was a
> threat to the community. Varney was ADAMENT in his assessment of Cummings
> as a danger but when pressed by Trujillo could come up with nothing more
> substantive than the BOOKS found in Cummings' home.
>
> These books came from publishers like Loompanix and dealt with such
> things as making bombs and establishing false identities. The other
> damning evidence was a list of Secret Service frequencies (from an
> issue of Monitoring Times), a copy of a magazine article that listed
> Secret Service codenames for President Reagan (dated 1983), and a
> material that the Secret Service had suspected was C4 explosives but
> which later turned out not to be.
>
> For some reason they feel COMPELLED TO MENTION THIS AT EACH HEARING as
> if C4 had actually been found when in fact the substance was something
> dentists use: DENTURE MOLD (the owner of the house was a dentist).
>
> The Secret Service specifically complained about his affiliation with
> 2600 Magazine (not a secret and not a reason to label someone a criminal).
[
The Secret Service is apparently unaware that 2600 magazine is the
world's preeminent above-ground hacker zine, subscribed to by members
of security departments all over Wall Street (at the least).
It is filled with fascinating information, highly useful for securing
one's systems. Here's a random sample factoid from 2600: although
on-site company switches are commonly programmed to block '900' number
calls, there is a hole in the programming logic that always lets '555'
exchange numbers through. ("Information wants to be free") Companies
that advertise 900 numbers take advantage of this.
For example, even though you can't dial most 900 numbers, you can
still call numbers like USA Today's 1-900-555-5555, which are
specifically chosen to get around the 900 programming restrictions.
Oh yeah: I remember another one that triggered firm-wide security
checks: 2600 described a hole in DOS that could allow others to
execute commands on your system by virtue of defining function
key contents (F1, F2..) on the fly AND THEN EXECUTING THEM.
]
> Cummings apologized to the court for his "odd curiosity" of the past,
> insisting that he merely collected books and information and never
> caused harm to anyone. His lawyer pleaded with the judge to allow
> Cummings to pick up the pieces of his life and not be subjected to
> any more inhumane treatment.
[
I feel sick upon reading he felt compelled to apologize for books.
]
> Judge Panella passed sentence: 6 to 24 months plus a $3,000 fine.
>
> We have also learned of a very similar case that took place in Kentucky
> late last year where a man was accused of the same offense that Cummings
> was. In this instance, however, he was accused of actually selling the
> black box that allowed cellular phones to be cloned.
>
> This was far more than Ed was ever accused of - he merely sold kits that
> could be built into boxes. The man in Kentucky decided to fight the
> charges and he showed how there were many legitimate uses for cloned
> phones. In front of a jury in Kentucky, he won the case. Unfortunately,
> Cummings' lawyer knew nothing about this and Cummings was forced to plead
> guilty last year in the mistaken belief that he would never be able to
> convince a jury that he hadn't committed a serious crime. Had he been
> found innocent, there never would have been a probation violation and
> Ed would be free today.
How absolutely disgusting of the Secret Service to persecute Ed Cummings.
The Secret Service are the same bunch of Cro-Magnums that put on rubber
gloves to search gay members of Congress visiting the President.
They didn't want to catch any gay cooties.
The President ordered all Secret Service members to take "sensitivity" classes.
There are two more things to know about this case of persecution.
One:
8/30/96
Ed Cummings was savagely beaten by another inmate.
His jaw is shattered, and his arm is also completely shattered.
He had surgery on both his arm and his jaw.
His jaw was so shattered, they had to "slit my throat in two places"
to put the metal in to hold it back together as it mends.
His mouth will be wired shut for 2-3 months.
There is also a chance of nerve damage which
might leave him with permanent droops in his face.
And two:
Cummings was imprisoned under a little known attachment to the
Digital Telephony bill allowing individuals to be charged in
this fashion. Cummings was portrayed by the Secret Service as
a potential terrorist because of some of the books found in
his library.
Ed Cummings was not a terrorist, yet was
portrayed as such by the Secret Service.
CALEA gave them the power.
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The Abyss has already begun swallowing American citizens.
It's not a pretty sight, is it?
******************************************************************************
Secret Service: Harassment of Steve Jackson Games
------ ------- ---------- -- ----- ------- -----
Another BIZARRE hacker witch-hunt.
See http://www.2600.com for this story.
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There are other wars too.
Against pornography.
* "Judge Says Military Bases Can Sell Sex Material"
* By John Sullivan, The New York Times, January 23, 1997
*
* A Federal judge struck down the Military Honor and Decency Act of 1996,
* which Congress described as a law promoting "honor, commitment and
* courage" among American troops.
*
* Playboy and Penthouse will continue to be sold at Military bases.
# "Pornography and Laughter", The New York Times, undated
#
# Most bold new ideas in Government circles are either ignored or shuffled
# off into the bureaucratic process never to reappear, but once in a while
# a suggestion is simply laughed out of existence.
#
# The other day, President Reagan was meeting with senior staff members at
# the White House, and the recent report by Attorney General Edwin Meese's
# Commission on Pornography came up, according to one of the participants.
#
# The commission majority had concluded that exposure to pornography "bears
# some causal relationship to the level of sexual violence, sexual coercion
# or unwanted sexual aggression," and Patrick J. Buchanan, the White House
# director of communications, proposed that the Administration use this to
# ban the sale of Playboy and Penthouse from all post exchanges on military
# bases.
#
# There was a long pause, and then, the source said, another White House
# official observed: "Well, that would certainly do wonders for our
# recruiting program."
#
# The room burst into laughter, in which President Reagan enthusiastically
# joined in, and then the idea was not raised again.
War against immigrants.
Imagine directing hospitals to turn illegal immigrant children into the police!
War against homosexuals.
When the government says it can't handle gays in the Military, it gives
the SAME arguments as it did when it said blacks should be kept out of
the Armed Forces.
How about requiring all new enlistees to agree they can handle being near
homosexuals before joining...eventually removing all the people upper
Military management claims cannot handle them: within five years drop
the persecution of homosexuals.
It's that "simple".
******************************************************************************
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paul wolf
Guy, I believe your story about the NSA ECHELON Dictionary program.
Although we must be wary of conspiracy theories and all kinds of
pranks and jokes, your writing makes so much sense that I cannot
help but believe what you say. I stand with you in calling for a
Congressional inquiry into this obviously illegal violation of our
4th Amendment right to be free from unreasonable search. The
national security exception to this just doesn't hold water when
the information is shared with domestic law enforcement agencies
for unspecified purposes. That was Nixon's brand of politics.
It's incredible that billions of taxpayer dollars are being spent
spying on ordinary people like us - this program needs to be exposed
to the American public and to the world. The ECHELON program must
be stopped.
Your story is one of the most important ones to have broken in
recent history. Thanks for having the courage to expose it.
- Paul