From: j.d.stumbles@reading.ac.uk (John Stumbles)
Date: Fri, 10 Nov 1995 21:47:02 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: INFO BLACKOUT _fwd_
Message-ID: <"mail2.readin:061930:951110131700"@reading.ac.uk>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


I saw this on the NZ.general newsgroup and had to share it with the list. 
'fraid it's just the reply - the  original must've expired by the time 
I got there (and I couldn't be bothered to go looking for an archive to 
track it down in).

Enjoy...

>ab330@torfree.net (Bob Allisat) wrote:
>
>
>>Powerful national security insiders have established effective control
>>over the entrance gateways to the Internet. Disturbing signs are now 
>>emerging that the "information superhighway" has been targeted for 
>>systematic surveillance and political dossier-building on Americans'
>>opinions.
>
>	Oh, really?
>
>>SAIC is a $2 billion defense and FBI contractor with a board of
>>directors that reads like a Who's Who of the intelligence community.
>>Board members include Admiral Bobby Ray Inman, the former director of
>>the National Security Agency (NSA) and deputy director of the CIA; Melvin
>>Laird, defense secretary under Richard Nixon; Donald Hicks, former head
>>of research and development for the Pentagon; Donald Kerr, former head
>>of the Los Alamos National Laboratory; and General Maxwell Thurman 
>>(ret.), the commander of the U.S. invasion of Panama.
>
>>The corporation also has a legion of computer network specialists and
>>an entire division of computer consultants. 
>
>		As does IBM, DEC, AT&T, MicroSoft, shal I go on?
>
>>SAIC currently holds contracts
>>for re-engineering the Pentagon's information systems, automating the
>>FBI's computerized fingerprint identification system, and building a
>>national criminal history and information system.
>
>	Nope, I believe that's DISA's job now (was DCA)
>
>>The Internet is a marvel of computer softward technology. It was designed
>>to survive a nuclear attach 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.
>
>	Wow, TCP/IP is a marvel?  this guy must hate Novell.
>
>>But control of the Internet domain name registration means the ability
>>to remove troublesome--or outspoken--computer systems from the network.
>>Potentially, this control also confers the power to insinuate "phantom"
>>domains into the network--for surveillance purposes, for example,--or
>>for real-time, automatic censorship.
>	So the government can wipe out all nameservers at once?  This is
>geting better....
>
>>Furthermore, anecdotal evidence gathered by this author (Matthews)
>>suggests that actual "truth control" is taking place on the net now.
>>E-mail messages with controversial contents--including details of the
>>SAIC takeover of domain names--have consistently disappeared as they
>>travel across the network. News items concerning the Vincent Foster
>>"suicide" investigation and allegations of NSA bank spying through
>>compromised Inslaw softward are being quickly and automatically 
>>cancelled. And the cancellations are not by their authors.
>
>	Must be a bad MX server somewhere.
>
>>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 registration or interposing compromised 
>>"domains" at critical 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.
>
>	Well that means well just have to use IP addresses, right?
>
>>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.
>
>		It sure is easy to cut an island off, but a continent or more?
>
>>In Hong Kong the Internet wasn't quite strangled, but the British auth-
>>orities 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.
>
>>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 intelli-
>>gence professionals skilled at manufacturing events--and then 
>>manufacturing public opinion and consent by controlling the truth. Will 
>>Internet disinformation, censor-ship or "shutdowns" signal the next American
>>crisis?
>
>	So, you basically said that the government is willing to cripple
>itself by shutting down the Internet and MILNET.  This guy needs a
>kick in the teeth or something to wake him up.  Next thing you know is
>that he'l claim to be abducted but CIA agents posing as Elvis
>impersonators.  And he'll start believing elis still lives.
>
>		-Dale
>

John Stumbles                                      j.d.stumbles@reading.ac.uk
Computer Services, University of Reading       http://www.rdg.ac.uk/~suqstmbl 
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