[118731] in Cypherpunks
Re: Hypothetical Scenario #1
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Magical Zombie Cow)
Wed Oct 6 19:45:44 1999
Date: Thu, 7 Oct 1999 02:20:50 +0300 (EEST)
From: Magical Zombie Cow <waste@zor.hut.fi>
To: unwelcome_guest@catholic.org
cc: cypherpunks@toad.com
In-Reply-To: <199910042332.XAA09124@webmail1.catholic.org>
Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.10.9910070147250.26931-100000@zor.hut.fi>
MIME-Version: 1.0
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Reply-To: Magical Zombie Cow <waste@zor.hut.fi>
On Mon, 4 Oct 1999 unwelcome_guest@catholic.org wrote:
> Hypothetical Scenario #1
>
> In our scenario, there comes a time when the Powers That Be decide to
> throw resources at discrediting the growing pro-privacy movement.
>
> As we all know, the Four Horsemen (in anti-crypto propaganda) are
> drug dealers, terrorists, organized crime syndicates, and child
> pornographers.
>
> A message is sent anonymously to a list like ours. The message
> contains a pro-drugdealingterroristpedophiliacmobster rant.
>
> The message is received on the hard drives of all members of the
> list.
>
> Key members of the list are tracked down and "invited" to a
> Congressional hearing.
>
> Said message is used as evidence against us in a McCarthy-style
> witchhunt.
>
> Would the media care to investigate the govt. claims, or would they
> simply pounce on us?
>
> (Please respond to the list-- incoming mail to this address goes
> unchecked.)
Dear Osama,
Yes, the scenario you describe is possible. It is now possible to go
to jail for the possession of "child pornography" in the form of
e-mail or files that were sent to you. The same applies to death
threats sent in your name or written plans to kill Bill Clinton or
other Americans, etc. Some may require the sending of proper materials
or weapons in your name, or attempts made in your name to acquire
them, stories telling of your madness and desire to kill, etc. Indeed,
I believe one american general was sentenced for planning to murder
his own wife, when the files where his plans were, accidentally became
public.
By the way:
http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,31726,00.html
This campaign is largely bullshit, but good propaganda value.
Simple keywords won't do the triggering in Echelon. The method used
is more sophisticared and to score you need to mimic the sentencing
structure or the topic of the documents sought much more closely.
You really need to write out such stuff as plans to spread anthrax in
the US, plans to kill Bill Clinton, write to Osama Bin Laden or some
other terrorist they seek, perhaps planning to sell anthrax spores
to him, or applying for a mercenary terrorist job in the US. However,
be aware that this will likely result in a serious investigation done
on you, and you will have to spend a few months being followed and
your phones being tapped, etc. This has been verified. It might bring
positive attention to your company if you sell stuff that might be
useful in the law-enforcement circles, however.
This might also be useful if you want to get the police/FBI/CIA to put
some attention on your friend's activities.
This could also be used for some scams, for example bating the FBI/CIA
and letting them understand that you are selling drugs or anthrax
stuff over the web, and let them make an expensive buy of baking
powder. No refunds.
Totally immoral, I know, but it is one of the really efficient ways of
fighting Echelon spying. This will also result in the fact that the
terrorists planning to really blow away the US with anthrax won't as
likely be caught, assuming they are stupid enough to use plain text
e-mail in the first place. IMO, anyone smart & crazy enough to cook
anthrax or execute an efficient terrorist strike in the US, is smart
and paranoid enough to use crypto as well, so this won't really matter
from the survival point of view. It does matter from the privacy point
of view.
Hopefully echelon will become useless and the spooks will learn their
lesson.
The job of the police should be to catch criminals. Not to prevent
crime by constantly monitoring people.
Paranoia is a sickness. Let them go mad because of it.
So send e-mails in your friend's name telling someone how you will
launch your anthrax bombs in two days on a trip, or some such story,
and laugh away. 1984 is here and the spooks will come when you act
a little suspicious. Try it for yourself.
