From: Rich Graves <llurch@networking.stanford.edu>
Date: Fri, 3 Nov 1995 05:19:44 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: censored? corrected [Steve Pizzo cited in The Spotlight]
In-Reply-To: <199511020847.AAA10833@jobe.shell.portal.com>
Message-ID: <Pine.ULT.3.91.951102013958.18049A-100000@Networking.Stanford.EDU>
MIME-Version: 1.0
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On Thu, 2 Nov 1995 anonymous-remailer@shell.portal.com wrote:

> NOTE: More than 8 hours have passed since I sent this text in plaintext
> directly to Cypherpunks without its being posted, so in this attempt I am
> sending it encrypted through ALUMNI remailer. - Gary Jeffers
> gjeffers@socketis.net

Shit happens.

>                     INFO BLACKOUT

BWAHAHAHA!

>  From THE SPOTLIGHT newspaper's TECHNOLOGY & LIBERTY column by Clark
> Matthews - Nov. 06, 1995 issue.

The Spotlight's official classification in the UC and Stanford library
databases is "Serials -- Anti-Semitic." I don't mean to offend anyone too
much, but the Spotlight is generally regarded to be rather lunatic-fringe.
Though the same is probably said of anyone on the cypherpunks list, hmm... 

>    This ominous news came in the first of a series of articles by investi-
> gative journalist Steven Pizzo in WEB REVIEW, an online magazine of cyber-
> culture and politics (http://gnn.com/wr/) published by Songline Studios of

Spotlight tends to be rather vague in its sources for a reason. I found
the article to which this apparently refers at
http://gnn.com/gnn/wr/sept29/news/natl/index.html. It is rather less
lurid, but might still be of moderate concern. See the October 13
followup. 

I'm copying this to Steve Pizzo. I'm sure he'll get a real kick out of
being cited in The Spotlight, whose politics are a little different than 
his.

>    Through a complex chain of licensing arrangements and corporate acqui-
> sitions detailed in Pizzo's article, this crucial control over Internet
> domain names has passed from the non-profit National Science Foundation to
> Network Solutions, Inc. (NSI) of Herndon, Virginia. Last May, amid growing
> public disbelief of Establishment media reports about the Oklahoma City
> bombing provocation, NSI was purchased by Scientific Applications Interna-
> tional Corporation (SAIC) of San Diego.

This is semantically and logically equivalent to:

Last May, amid growing public disbelief of Establishment media reports 
about the Oklahoma City bombing provocation [provocation?], Fred Rogers 
changed his shoes.

Obviously, Mr. Rogers is part of the conspiracy.

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

I know that at least part of this is true, at least in part.

SAIC also designed the hull of the Stars & Stripes yacht that won the 
America's Cup. Obviously Dennis Conner is part of a conspiracy that 
involves the Bavarian Illuminati, the Pope (who visited San Diego once), 
and New Zealand. Isn't it suspicious that the last America's Cup was 
contested and finally decided by the New York Supreme Court, the seat of 
the World Jewish Conspiracy?

Disclaimer: I was born in the San Diego area, and I know people who 
worked at SAIC, so I'm probably part of the conspiracy too.

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

I believe this is the first time I have seen the Post Office favorably 
cited.

>    But control of Internet domain name registration means the ability to
> remove troublesome-or outspoken-computer systems from the network. Po-
> tentially, this control also confers the power to insinuate "phantom"
> domains into the network-for surveillance purposes, for example-or for
> real-time, automatic censorship.

Anyone capable of sending this message should have known that this was 
complete BS.

>    Furthermore, anecdotal evidence gathered by this author suggests that
> actual "truth control" is taking place on the 'net now. E-mail messages
> with controversial contents-including the details of the SAIC takover of
> domain names-have consistently disappeared as they travel across the net-
> work.

And now we have PROOF! For THIS VERY MESSAGE, sent to THIS VERY LIST only
EIGHT HOURS AGO was MYSTERIOUSLY DISAPPEARED! Hide the women and children!

> News items concerning the Vincent Foster "suicide" investigation
> and allegations of NSA bank spying through compromised Inslaw software are
> being quickly and automatically canceled. And the cancellations are not by
> by their authors.

I know that several people who have been spamming the net with Foster 
garbage have been UDP'd. Read back issues of news.admin.net-abuse.misc.

> CRACKDOWN
> 
>    With domain names under the control of secret government insiders, it
> is even theoretically possible that large parts of the Internet could be
> SHUT DOWN AND SILENCED at critical times. This could be accomplished by
> suddenly altering domain name registrations or interposing compromised
> "domains" at crucial points.
> 
>    These compromised systems could serve as "black holes" at critical
> times, stopping e-mail and important news from reaching the world-or the
> rest of the country.
> 
>    Exercises in "turning the Internet off" have already taken place in
> Taiwan and Hong Kong. In Taiwan, the 'net was successfully shut down.
> All network traffic-including news, opinions and e-mail sent by computer
> users-was successfully "bottled up" on the island and prevented from
> reaching the world.
> 
>    In Hong Kong, the Internet wasn't quite strangled, but the British
> authorities who control that colony managed to throttle free electronic
> speech with the rest of the world until everything was bottlenecked into
> a few little-known satellite links.

Hmm, few specifics here. I wonder if they would care to elaborate. Nah.

It is, of course, true that countries including Singapore, China, 
Vietnam, and Cuba control net access rather tightly, and there have been 
reprisals against online dissidents.

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

Only the Shadow knows.

- -rich
 llurch@networking.stanford.edu


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