Cyberwar: How Terrorists Could Defeat the U.S., and Why They Won�t :.

Several of you requested the information I edited out of my recent essay, "Cyberwar: It Aint Rocket Science." I reworked the essay, added a lot to it (including what was removed) and changed the title. The reason I didn't just post the other info was because I was afraid it would get cut and pasted somewhere else, possibly without the disclaimer indicating that I'm NOT advocating terrorism. The last thing I need is for the suit wearing goons to get the wrong idea. So, I put the entire essay into Acrobat and locked it up. I guess that should be ok. Just in case anyone has any question about it, I'll repost the disclaimer right here:

WARNING: The information contained in this document is intended for educational purposes only. Anyone who attempts to undertake what is described in the �Possible Terrorist Scenario� section will be committing an act of war against the states involved. I am NOT encouraging anyone to carry out what is described in that section. I am exercising my First Amendment right to free speech to make people aware of the dangers posed to the global information infrastructure. Our society relies on these technologies, and an open discussion of the threats to these technologies is necessary in order to defend them.

Requires Adobe Acrobat Reader 5!
posted by Kevin at 9:26 AM

Hunter S. Thompson: Bush Has Created a Kingodm of Fear :.

Do not miss the actual audio of this interview. The CBS writer left the best parts out. "The tax payers are paying for this crazy shit!" "Bush has created a kingom of fear."

When our interview began, Thompson was watching a classic bit of Americana, circa 2002: a live CNN report about the police closing Alligator Alley, a stretch of highway in Florida, as they investigated a vague but worrisome report from a waitress in Georgia about a possible terrorist bomb threat.

Thompson said he was stunned by the attention stemming "from a conversation a woman overhears in some diner in Calhoun, Ga." She then phones her fear in to "some tip line."

Thompson didn't even try to conceal his amazement that the police would go so far as to "shut down the interstate highway" and BLOW UP PEOPLE'S LUGGAGE!"

The CNN story was an example of what he called the media taking its devotion to sensationalism "past all limits of absurdity." It was clear that Thompson was more outraged by the media attention being given to the story than to the realism of the threat.
posted by Kevin at 8:44 AM

A Reader's Bad Dream :.

Three days ago, a reader of this website sent me an email that described a "chilling nightmare" she had:

Two tactical (suit-case) nukes get detonated in the US - one on the West coast, one on the East. In the dream they targeted Miami and some place in Southern California.

Obviously, I read it, and I thought, "Yeah, that's pretty frightening" and went about my day. The only reason I'm posting this is because I just read this breaking news:

MIAMI (Reuters) - Police in Florida detained three men and detonated an item found in their car early on Friday after receiving information of a possible terrorist threat, police said.

The Highway Patrol closed off Alligator Alley, a main east-west road in south Florida, after stopping the vehicle.

Live TV showed a bomb squad team detonate what appeared to be a bag taken from the car.

The three men, said to be of Middle Eastern descent, were being questioned in police custody.

Authorities issued an alert after a woman reported overhearing a conversation in a restaurant in Georgia in which three men were discussing what she thought were terrorist plans, TV reports said.

It Was All a Hoax :.

Someone is going to go to jail. It's not possible to keep so many cops away from donuts and coffee for so long and not have someone go to jail.
posted by Kevin at 7:24 AM

Cyberwar: It Aint Rocket Science :.

This article paints a pretty grim picture, but, in reality, the situation is much worse.

Long ago (1996), I studied information warfare. I chose something I could write about with relative ease that baffled my Cold War era professors. Regardless, I learned a fair amount about infrastructure vulnerabilities, low intensity conflict and strategic information warfare. Oooooooh Ahhhhh. Can you tell I read a few Rand Corporation and SAIC documents.

Here it is. It's actually very simple.

If a terrorist group was really interested in taking down the United States, they wouldn't go for the Lex Luthor style diabolical crap that makes for good television. If they were serious, really serious, they would go for the computers and the data communication circuits that interconnect the computers.

What I found when I was in school is that the Department of Defense is literally frightened to death about physical information infrastructure attacks because THERE IS NO EFFECTIVE DEFENSE! You never hear about physical vulnerabilities because it's just not allowed to be talked about. It makes sense that Dumbo's Department of Homeland Security is not focusing on the types of things that really could take the U.S. down. There's just nothing they can do.

All the hoo haa about viruses, hackers, etc. doesn't address the primary threat. The physical nature of information systems is their main vulnerability. If terrorists just start breaking shit, we're in trouble. It's that simple.

The following is the type of scenario for which no effective defense exists. Everyone knows it. The government knows it. The terrorists know it. Even some of the Rand authors refused to deal with this because it made their complex models useless:

[I deleted what I just wrote because I'm afraid I might get a visit from some suit wearing goons. .mil has been visiting lately and I don't want them to get their panties in a knot. I don't know what they consider hate speech, enemy combatant speech, terrorist innuendo, or whatever people are disappearing for this week. If you want to know what I wrote, email me. It's quite innocuous, but I just thought about being branded an enemy combatant and disappearing. Wow. This is the first time I've ever abridged my speech out of fear.]

The nightmare scenario above would collapse the world economy in a matter of days. No nukes. No chemical or biological weapons. The reality is that if some group accomplished 10% of what is described above, things would start to get VERY interesting in a hurry.

You always hear that the Internet was designed to route information around dead or crowded nodes. Well, what you don't hear is that this theory only applies when the amount of traffic on the system DOES NOT OVERWHELM the routers, switches and communications media. Another thing you don't hear about is that service providers are running their networks at or near capacity in order to avoid buying expensive equipment and additional fiber paths. So, what happens if a terrorist group [deleted to avoid visit by suit wearing goons]? Watch what happens when Slashdot posts a link that sends hundreds of thousands of users to a low end web server on a slow connection.

What does all of this mean to the man on the street? The short answer is, the sun will still rise, the birds will still sing, but that's about it. Try to get cash from an ATM. Try to make a phone call. Try to drive your car on city streets with no working traffic lights. If you're a trader on Wall Street, try to fill orders. Oh, woops, you wouldn't have any orders... I think you get the picture. How long could this kind of scenario go on, nationwide, before the implications became global? Oh, woops, a few hours into that situation and soldiers are already deploying on a street corner near you...

The imbeciles on the boob tube seem to mention airport security quite a bit. How often do you hear about [deleted] and [deleted]!?

Food for thought.

Research Credit: JH
posted by Kevin at 7:17 AM

At Minimum, White House Complicity :.

This is basically some of the Oh Lucy material in essay form. As time goes by, this high weirdness will begin to eat at people. Although, the THEM took out a president, and here we sit:

The revelations that have emerged constitute prima facie evidence that elements within the US state apparatus were running interference for those who organized the hijackings, protecting them from surveillance and arrest through a virtual stand-down of normal counterintelligence and air defense procedures.

Complicity on the part of these forces does not necessarily mean that September 11 was organized in every detail by the US government. It is quite possible that those who facilitated the activities of the hijackers thought that a standard hostage-taking was being planned, and did not envision the scale of the damage and casualties. They might have wanted the action to go forward to provide a suitable pretext for American military intervention in Central Asia and the Middle East, for which a simple hijacking would have sufficed. It is undeniable that the Bush administration seized on the September 11 atrocities as the pretext for implementing far-reaching war plans long in the making.

Whatever the exact connection, the White House is clearly frightened that any serious investigation into September 11 would produce a political uproar, plunge the Bush administration into a deep political crisis, and disrupt its plans for wider war.

Research Credit: TR
posted by Kevin at 6:29 AM

Hold Nose: U.S. Releases Report on Afghan Massacre :.

The summary stated: �A search of the first targetted compound, about two to four hours after the AC-130 had departed, revealed bloodstains and evidence of the AC-130 weapons impacts. There were no weapons or spent cartridges of any type readily observed within the compound.� Subsequent visits failed to reveal �the presence of any anti-aircraft weapons or even a significant presence of shell casings from any weapon�. The report noted that a fact-finding team found �two small piles of RPK rounds (about 12 total shells)�, but failed to indicate the location.

The report makes no attempt to explain the missing gun other than to insinuate that it was removed along with any ammunition and other evidence�with the complicity of the villagers. But those at the wedding party had no motivation for lying�many of them were close supporters of the US-backed Afghan President Hamid Karzai who personally knew some of the dead. As Muhammad Shah told the New York Times, �We were the first to help Hamid Karzai, so we did not think they [the US] would bomb our village.�

On the face of it, the official account is absurd: Taliban fighters, with the assistance of Kakarak villagers, plant an anti-aircraft gun in the midst of a wedding party, fire on a US gunship which responds with a devastating barrage that kills nearly 50 people and wounds over a hundred. Yet in the midst of the mayhem, the gun, still presumably largely intact, is removed from the scene along with spent ammunition and any other signs of its presence. And all of the survivors lie to protect the Taliban.

Research Credit: TR
posted by Kevin at 6:28 AM

Rumsfeld: F Yas All, F Yas All :.

A U.S. invasion of Iraq will be self defense!? Never mind that Iraq is now one of the poorest countries on the planet. Never mind that the U.S. is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of thousands of children in Iraq since the end of the first Gulf War. Never mind that... Oh nevermind...

(You know, Rumsfeld strikes me as THE most evil creature I've ever come across. Even more than the old man Bush.)

Donald Rumsfeld, defence secretary, rejected calls on Monday for the US to provide further evidence of Iraq's attempts to develop nuclear weapons in order to justify any strikes against Saddam Hussein's regime.

Mr Rumsfeld said the US was not seeking to place the Iraqi leader on trial or to "punish somebody for doing something wrong".

"That really isn't the case here," he told ABC's Good Morning America. "This is self-defence. And the United States' task is to see that we don't allow an event to happen that then one has to punish someone for."

Research Credit: TR
posted by Kevin at 6:26 AM

Mandela: U.S. Threatens World Peace :.

On Afghanistan, Mr Mandela said that US support for the mujahideen (including Osama Bin Laden) against the Soviet Union and its refusal to work with the United Nations after the Soviet withdrawal led to the Taleban taking power.

"If you look at those matters, you will come to the conclusion that the attitude of the United States of America is a threat to world peace," he said.

Mr Mandela said that the US was clearly afraid of losing a vote in the United Nations Security Council.

Israel has weapons of mass destruction. Nobody mentions that.

Research Credit: TR

posted by Kevin at 6:24 AM

George W. Bush: Filthy, Hypocrite, Monster :.

"Our deepest national conviction is that every life is precious, because every life is the gift of a creator who intended us to live in liberty and equality."--- George W. Bush 9/11/02

The world is in deep trouble. The rhetoric of the United States, relative to its actual behavior, makes the propaganda of the Third Reich look like a boyscout exercise. In his masterpiece, "Voltaire's Bastards," John Saul writes, "A civilization unable to differentiate between illusion and reality is usually believed to be at the tail end of its existence." Oh, dear God, we are in very deep trouble.

Feast your eyes on what Bush's "deepest national conviction" means on the ground. The next time you see that imbecile, with his bewildered, simian expressions, mumbling about liberty, equality and the rest of it, think of these images. Here is a more detailed accounting of U.S. caused civilian deaths in Afghanistan (Excel spreadsheet, 2.6MB, rightclick, save as).

Do you have any idea of what's being done in your name? If you're reading this web site, I'm probably preaching to the choir. But if you don't try to do something to wake up the average idiot on the street, WE ARE DOOMED. Absolutely doomed.
posted by Kevin at 3:00 AM

The War on Freedom and Democracy :.

This report details, among other things, efforts underway by the EU to stifle dissent. Now that "capitalism" is thought to have emerged victorious over command style economies, there is a move underway to de-couple "democratic" forms of government from "capitalist" economies.

Of course, even before 9/11, the everyday terms used by all sides were already corrupt. True capitalism does not exist anywhere on this planet. What many refer to as capitalism is actually mercantilism or corporatism. There are very few, if any, tangibly legitimate representative governments, and NO truly democratic governments. Most governments are plutocracies, with the U.S. being the most powerful of them all.

I hate to have to break out my poli-sci nerd hat, but to use terms like "democracy" and "capitalism" to describe current systems is the height of folly. These terms simply bare no relationship to the actual political and economic systems in operation on this planet. One of the major intellectual epiphanies of my life occurred when I realized that all politicoeconomic systems exhibited varying degrees of fascism. Keeping this in mind allows one to dispense with a surprising amount of bullsh*t when looking at current events.

We are witnessing the creation of a "northern axis" with a common internal security policy... The USA is, in effect, the 16th member of the EU. We have, in effect, an EU "democracy" built on sand. A democracy which has little meaningful legitimacy. Thus there was in place a democratic culture which was very poorly placed to resist the kind of attacks on liberties and rights we are now witnessing.
posted by Kevin at 4:23 PM

While All Other Civilian Aircraft Were Grounded... :.

In the days following 9/11, the only aircraft allowed to fly in U.S. airspace were U.S. military aircraft. Well, that is mostly true. If you happened to be a member of the bin Laden family, you would have been able to board a very exclusive flight. This is one of the more bizarre and stunning realities of the entire 9/11 situation. I remember hearing about this for the first time a few weeks after 9/11. I didn't believe it. I thought it had to be an urban legend. But then again, it makes a bit more sense when you consider the fact that the bin Laden family is a large investor in George Bush Senior's Carlyle Group. Hey, you don't want your business partners to be subjected to any undue scrutiny, or inconveniences, especially when a member of their family was alleged to have been responsible for the largest single act of terrorism in the history of the world. Oh no. That wouldn't be good for business:

The plane to which Carter refers was an aircraft chartered by the Saudi government in the days after the terrorist attacks. The individuals were two dozen members of Osama bin Laden's extended family who had been living in the United States. Saying they were afraid that family members might suffer retribution in the U.S., the Saudis asked for American assistance in getting them out of the country. With the help of the FBI, the Saudis and the bin Laden family chartered an aircraft to pick up family members in Los Angeles, Orlando, and Washington, D.C. The bin Laden plane then flew the relatives to Boston, where � one week after the attacks � the group left Logan Airport bound for Jeddah.

At the time, the massive 9/11 investigation was just beginning. The government had begun detaining hundreds of people who were held for days, weeks, or months while U.S. agents performed extensive background checks and interviews. In addition, the government announced its intention to question thousands of men from Muslim countries who might simply have known something of interest to the investigation. "The Department of Justice is waging a deliberate campaign of arrest and detention to protect American lives," Attorney General John Ashcroft said on November 27.

But the bin Ladens did not have to worry about that. While FBI agents looked into bin Laden family members in the Boston area immediately after September 11, it appears that the agents' first chance to interview them � or other family members who lived elsewhere in the country � came on the day they left the U.S. Each family member was given the all-clear on the basis of a single, day-of-departure interview � conducted, in Bill Carter's words, "at the airport, as they were about to leave."
posted by Kevin at 3:36 PM

One Year Later
posted by Kevin at 5:46 AM

Qatar: The Gateway to Empire :.

On 8/30/02, I wrote, "I think Saudi Arabia, not Iraq, is the actual crown jewel in the eyes of U.S. geostrategists."

We all know what is going to happen to Iraq. That is a done deal.

What is less clear is what is going to happen to Saudi Arabia. Take a look at a map of the region... Is there anyone out there who thinks that the establishment of U.S. Central Command less than three hundred miles from Riyadh is a coincidence?

WASHINGTON � Soon after President Bush's speech to the United Nations on Thursday, where he will lay out the case for ousting Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, U.S. Central Command headquarters will start moving from Tampa, Fla., to an air base in Qatar, highly placed U.S. military sources told Fox News.

The sources said Central Command (CENTCOM) headquarters will start shifting people and equipment to Qatar, a small Persian Gulf state bordering Saudi Arabia, beginning Friday.

CENTCOM commands and controls America's military in 25 countries in Central and Southwest Asia, the Middle East and Northeast Africa.

The moving of the headquarters to the Persian Gulf is a very visible sign that the U.S. military is preparing for future operations against Iraq.

Qatar is situated about halfway along the west coast of the Gulf -- and recent improvements to the air base there have been significant.

The Al-Udied Air Base boasts the longest runway in the Gulf, 14,760 feet, allowing it to accommodate up to 120 warplanes. Recent satellite photographs show how construction has improved not only hangers but troop barracks as well.
posted by Kevin at 5:35 AM

Foreknowledge: Who Didn't Know? :.

Secret Hearings Conceal 9-11 Terrorist Links to State Department, Congress, White House

American Free Press has learned that the secretary of state and two other State Department officials, the CIA director, three senators, and a congressman actually met with the intelligence chief from Pakistan who, it has been alleged, wired $100,000 to fund the operations of suspected terrorist hijacker leader Mohammed Atta just prior to the attacks.

In fact, Pakistan�s intelligence service�the ISI�has had a long-standing and intimate relationship with the CIA, going back a generation. That the high-ranking ISI official linked to the events of 9-11 was huddling with American officials just prior to the 9-11 attacks is a devastating detail indeed�and not something that the U.S. government wants to be cranked into the discussion of possible U.S. foreknowledge of events surrounding the terrorist tragedy.
posted by Kevin at 4:28 AM

Foreknowledge: 9/11 Hijackers Had a FBI Informant as a Roommate :.

The body of evidence indicating U.S. government foreknowledge is growing to almost ridiculous levels:

At first, FBI director Bob Mueller insisted there was nothing the bureau could have done to penetrate the 9-11 plot. That account has been modified over time�and now may change again. NEWSWEEK has learned that one of the bureau�s informants had a close relationship with two of the hijackers: he was their roommate.

THE CONNECTION, JUST discovered by congressional investigators, has stunned some top counterterrorism officials and raised new concerns about the information-sharing among U.S. law-enforcement and intelligence agencies. The two hijackers, Khalid Almihdhar and Nawaf Alhazmi, were hardly unknown to the intelligence community. The CIA was first alerted to them in January 2000, when the two Saudi nationals showed up at a Qaeda �summit� in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. FBI officials have argued internally for months that if the CIA had more quickly passed along everything it knew about the two men, the bureau could have hunted them down more aggressively.

But both agencies can share in the blame. Upon leaving Malaysia, Almihdhar and Alhazmi went to San Diego, where they took flight-school lessons. In September 2000, the two moved into the home of a Muslim man who had befriended them at the local Islamic Center. The landlord regularly prayed with them and even helped one open a bank account. He was also, sources tell NEWSWEEK, a �tested� undercover �asset� who had been working closely with the FBI office in San Diego on terrorism cases related to Hamas.
posted by Kevin at 4:26 AM

Iraq: The Burden of Proof :.

It is not necessary to be a rocket scientist to understand that George Bush and Tony Blair are in trouble over Iraq's weapons of mass destruction. The problem is not military, not yet at least; it is political. Every time the two men pronounce that Saddam Hussein poses an urgent threat, they are asked for their proof. And every time, as again at the weekend at Camp David, they fall back on assertions and claims, suspicions and half-baked half-truths. The International Atomic Energy Authority, for example, has not issued a "new report" (Mr Bush's words) on revived Iraqi efforts to acquire a nuclear bomb. It has merely published some commercial satellite photos of new construction at WMD-linked sites that were dismantled during previous UN inspections. "We have no idea whether it means anything," says an IAEA spokeswoman. The worrying thought is that neither, in all probability, does Mr Bush.

Research Credit: DG
posted by Kevin at 4:25 AM

Making a Bad Situation Worse :.

The modern world, the target of these crimes, offers only old responses. The most valuable response would be intelligence, but we do not have it. This is without doubt the scariest aspect. Even on its own soil, the vast US intelligence apparatus has spent a year failing to track down the source of anthrax attacks on prominent individuals. In tracking al-Qaida, the CIA and the special forces appear to be almost as vainly impotent. Look at how close they said they got to Bin Laden in Tora Bora, before letting him slip. We learn that pinpoint intelligence efforts against such elusive enemies are extraordinarily difficult.

So the alternative is introduced: sweeping laws, or non-laws, that gather up hundreds of ill-defined suspects for detentions and interrogations that have led, as far as we're allowed to know, nowhere. These desperate flailings are a substitute for effective action. They do incalculable harm to the quality of life of a great nation, without any compensating benefit. Terrorism is indeed the greatest threat to life, but the response can seemingly do no better than amplify the threat to liberty.

Research Credit: DG
posted by Kevin at 4:24 AM

Video Essays on 9/11, Dissident Views :.

BBC News Online presents a series of video essays on 11 September and the aftermath of the attacks. A cross section of authors and artists present their views on the events of that day and on the subsequent US-led war on terror.

Research Credit: DG
posted by Kevin at 4:23 AM

An Historical Perspective :.

In their attempt to bring order to the post-Ottoman Middle East, the western powers have become implicated (sometimes unfairly and sometimes with good reason) with rulers who are able to rule without having to depend on the ruled for their legitimacy. Unknown to most Americans, their government is held responsible for providing moral and material support to regimes which are based on the repression of most of their population.

Before the United States declared Saddam Hussein to be the most dangerous man alive (forgetting in passing that the use of weapons of mass destruction is not the prerogative of homicidal dictators alone - after all the first person to gas the Kurds was Winston Churchill and the only person to nuke two cities was Harry S Truman, both democratically elected), it supported him in his invasion of Iran, ignored his use of chemical weapons against the Iranians and later his own people, and was not too bothered about his human rights record until he invaded Kuwait.

'Globalisation, by making the distinction between home and aboard less clear cut, has meant that it is more difficult to sustain democracy at home and tyranny abroad.'
The history of western powers demonstrates that it is perfectly possible to have democracy at home and exercise tyranny aboard.

Research Credit: DG
posted by Kevin at 4:21 AM

One Generation Away from Intel DRM CPUs :.

Grab your ankles:

Bracing itself for another potential fight with computer privacy advocates, Intel Corp. said yesterday that its next generation of microchips, due next year, would include anti-piracy features that will protect computers against hackers and viruses while giving digital publishers powerful new tools to control the use of their products.

The technology, code-named LaGrande, was designed to protect computers from viruses and bad-natured hackers. But the feature will also give Hollywood, the recording industry, and software makers much stronger controls over the way consumers use their digital music, films, and computer programs.

Publishers, for example, may prevent PCs that run LaGrande and Microsoft Corp.'s software-based Palladium security technology from copying CDs, forwarding certain documents, or running unlicensed software.
posted by Kevin at 2:01 PM

FLASH: Live Missiles Moved To Battle Stations in Washington D.C.

I wasn't going to report the deployment of surface to air missile launchers and ground control radar in Washington yesterday because they said no missiles would be loaded. That just changed a minute ago. CNN just reported that live missiles are being loaded into the launchers and the exercise is now a combat deployment.

Also, the U.S. military in the Persian Gulf region is at threat condition "delta" which means they think attacks are imminent.
posted by Kevin at 1:47 PM

Mike Ruppert's "Oh Lucy" List Has Been Updated :.

This is a concise summary of the Bush Administration's pre-knowledge of 9/11. This is a must read for everyone. Print this out and pass it around. Post it far and wide. The information is coming out so fast, however, that even this updated list doesn't include the fact that the Taliban officially warned Washington.

"Oh Lucy! - You Gotta Lotta
'Splainin To Do"

A TIMELINE SURROUNDING SEPTEMBER 11TH - IF CIA AND THE GOVERNMENT WEREN'T INVOLVED IN THE SEPTEMBER 11 ATTACKS WHAT WERE THEY DOING?
posted by Kevin at 3:01 AM

DRM Part 1: Losing Your Right to Root :.

Computer savvy people are well aware of the threat to privacy posed by digital rights management (DRM) schemes espoused primarily by Microsoft, the RIAA and the MPAA. The DRM freight train is building momentum and it's high time that average computer users begin to educate themselves about the threat. The Empire is definitely preparing to strike back. DRM advocates will tell you that the technology will keep you safe from viral scourges, fraudsters and prying eyes, in addition to making sure you don't do anything naughty with your DVDs or CDs.

Here's what they won't tell you:

In computer parlance, the root user is God on any system. The root user is capable of installing and using any software he or she chooses. The root user is capable of writing and compiling any code, and executing any binary file that does anything he or she chooses. If you are using a computer that you purchased for your own personal use, chances are, you are the root user. If you work for a large company, however, chances are that you aren't the root user on your work computer, and that someone else controls what you may and may not do on the system.

With DRM compliant hardware and software, you will no longer be the root user. You will no longer have the freedom to choose what you do with your computer. Your options will be constrained by authorized hardware manufacturers, authorized software publishers and authorized content creators. Everything you do could be compromised by the REAL root user: Microsoft. Your cryptographic keys, your private files, every word you type on the keyboard, every mouse click, every URL you visit, every application you use all become part of the DRM infospace. Basically, it will be like using a work computer at all times. Currently, if you somehow manage to get around the constraints imposed on your activities by your employer, you may get fired. If you decide to subvert DRM mechanisms, on the other hand, you will be committing a federal crime. DRM is not simply a software re-design. Powerful actors, both inside and outside the government, are preparing for a legislative push to require that hardware manufacturers build DRM mechanisms into their computer hardware. The nature of the scheme is such that a non DRM compliant operating system WILL NOT EVEN BOOT!

So, in the DRM world, who's root?

Ask Microsoft.

Note: For those Apple advocates out there, I think it's wishful thinking to assume that Apple will escape having to comply with any DRM legislation. Don't get me wrong, I wish we could all just flip the DRM world the bird and buy Macs. Unfortunately, there's just no way that Mac users will be allowed to be free while the rest of the computer using public is chained to DRM. There a billions of dollars behind this. Microsoft lobbyists are already inside the White House and crawling all over Congress. B Gates isn't about to spend billions of dollars to create the unholy DRM universe just to let it be subverted by 1 Infinite Loop. I haven't heard any comments out of Apple re: a DRM operating system (DRMOS). If anyone has any info, please let me know.

- - - - -

"The open-source people are still innovating, and that will continue," Perens said. "The problem is that we are dependent upon commodity hardware, but if motherboards won't boot Linux anymore then we are in trouble, and there are certainly people who want to make that happen."
posted by Kevin at 2:39 AM

DRM Part 2: Jefferson Would Challenge Bill to a Duel

Frequent contributor, TR, submitted the following piece on digital rights management:

"It's peculiar character, too, is that no one possesses the less, because every other possesses the whole of it. He who receives an idea from me, receives instruction himself without lessening mine; as he who lights his taper at mine, receives light without darkening me."
--Thomas Jefferson, on intellectual property.

Theft: a serious accusation. Given the above quote, it seems that at least one framer would be shocked at the appropriation of the term "theft" and its application to the "sharing of information" since the "victim" loses nothing but imaginary profits--imaginary in the sense that, if people are forced to pay, this valued information might turn out to be not so coveted after all.

When considering poor, little Microsoft's hopeful plea for intellectual property protection, it's important for their case to note that Windows itself was developed without resorting to stealing any information: like stealing TCP/IP code from the GNU development project; or stealing the idea of the user interface from Apple (who stole it from Xerox). Microsoft does make an interesting point, though, that innovation is stifled by stealing, since I wouldn't call Windows particularly innovative.

But forget about piracy for profit, what about duplication of legal copies? For backup purposes, say? Certainly Microsoft appreciates its ability to freely duplicate information each April, when they duplicate and distribute millions of additional copies of their products and then deduct them, at full retail price, as charitable contributions for tax purposes. By doing this, the most profitable software company in the world pays less tax than a teacher in a poor high school that gets busted by the BSA for unlicensed DOS 3.3 copies.*

Apparently, even though one can tape music off the radio, or freely check out books from a library, now with the internet it's just too easy to distribute high quality copies of the binary gold. Well, it happened to the scribes after Gutenberg and the feudal lords after gunpowder: Ah, what to do when technology advances and wipes away your market? How about simply legislating your market back into existence? That's the trick. That way only a small number of us have the right to "share" information--and that small number is getting smaller everyday.

SCIENTIA EST POTENTIA

------------

* The BSA asked the district to investigate, and after auditing the school in 1998, the school district, working with the BSA, discovered several hundred unauthorized copies, including 132 versions of MS-DOS, according to a Los Angeles Times report. The total cost of the copying could have run into the tens of millions. Each violation carries a potential penalty of $150,000; the fines for just the MS-DOS copies could add up to as much as $19.8 million, not even counting lawyers' fees.

http://archive.salon.com/tech/feature/2001/07/10/microsoft_school/print.html
posted by Kevin at 1:53 AM

9/11 Warnings Through Official Channels Ignored :.

Is bin Laden the ultimate "double"? Maybe not. But it sure would explain a hell of a lot of things. My guess is that he is (55% chance) and, therefore, still alive. Break the situation down into its most basic components: Who was ultimately responsible for Afghanastan falling into U.S. hands? Bin Laden.

Weeks before the terrorist attacks on 11 September, the United States and the United Nations ignored warnings from a secret Taliban emissary that Osama bin Laden was planning a huge attack on American soil.

The warnings were delivered by an aide of Wakil Ahmed Muttawakil, the Taliban Foreign Minister at the time, who was known to be deeply unhappy with the foreign militants in Afghanistan, including Arabs.

Mr Muttawakil, now in American custody, believed the Taliban's protection of Mr bin Laden and the other al-Qa'ida militants would lead to nothing less than the destruction of Afghanistan by the US military. He told his aide: "The guests are going to destroy the guesthouse."
posted by Kevin at 1:20 PM

Excellent Video: "What I've Learned About U.S. Foreign Policy" :.

I recently obtained and watched Frank Dorrel's excellent video compilation, "What I've Learned About U.S. Foreign Policy." The video is excellent and provides more accurate information about U.S. Foreign Policy in two hours than I got out of four years of fraudulent, university level education in International Relations. At $10, including shipping, everyone should buy this tape. (Frank sells the tape for $5 if you see him in person at an event.)

If you happen to be a student of politics, your education would be greatly enhanced by watching this video. If you just have the feeling that something is very wrong, but are unable to vocalize what is happening, this video will fill in many of the blanks. I've been told that this web site assumes a working knowledge of some of the lesser known realities of U.S. history. If you feel like you're in this boat when reading this site, watch Frank's video and you will be up to speed in two hours!

The most incredible aspect of this video is that the situation has devolved MUCH further since 9/11. The video was produced before 9/11, but, after you watch it, you will have some excellent intellectual tools with which to analyze current U.S. behavior. You will see that nothing has changed except the need for increasingly synergistic propaganda. You will also note that the types of policies that the U.S. encouraged throughout much of the world (gross violations of human rights, suppression of dissidents, counter-insurgency scams, etc.) are now coming to a town near you! Think of some of those scenes in El Salvador, Nicaragua, Panama or East Timor, with bodies strewn everywhere. What is to prevent the same thing from happening here? Wake up, people.
posted by Kevin at 12:54 PM