From: nobody@REPLAY.COM (Anonymous)
Date: Fri, 19 Jan 1996 17:39:57 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: NSA vacuuming down Internet traffic
Message-ID: <199601190923.KAA10526@utopia.hacktic.nl>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


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WRT:

    "...the same article had Madsen stating that the NSA is 
    vacuuming down Internet traffic. he gave the likely entry 
    points that they are doing this."

It's a virtual lead-pipe cinch that this is being done and
probably has been going on for longer than anyone would like to 
think.

In the 1960's - 1970's when international cable traffic was in 
its computer infancy, access was had to EVERY CABLE MESSAGE 
passing through the message switches of U.S. common carriers.
This means no only every international cable message originating 
from or destined to a U.S. point, but also included every message 
ROUTED THROUGH the U.S., such as Europe <--> South America. 

There was no great skullduggery involved -- the common carriers 
simply made copies of their own log tapes and handed them to 
messengers from the, ah, FCC (ahem). It was on the operations 
checklist and no one thought twice about it. It may be urban 
legend to some, but I've seen it with my own eyes, handled the 
tapes with my own hands. 

If anyone else wishes to move this from the status of urban 
legend to something more solid, all they have to do is locate and 
ask people who worked in message switch operations at RCA Global 
Communications, ITT World Communications, or Western Union 
International, the three common carriers of that time.

Knowing this, I would assume something similar was done at 
overseas locations of the same carriers and at such other access 
points as could be compromised. An organization such as NSA that 
viewed this as SOP would have to be brain dead not to be doing
the same thing with the Internet. The only question in my mind is 
how far they have gone beyond USENET and the newer, fertile 
ground of web sites. Are they vacuuming packets and reassembling 
email? Just how many laser discs have been filled with coherent 
traffic?

Time to exercise those plain, brown envelopes.


We Jurgar Din
(that will have to suffice: I do not yet live in a free country)

+"The battle, Sir, is not to the strong alone. It is to the+
+vigilant, the active, the brave. Besides, Sir, we have no +
+election. If we were base enough to desire it, it is now  +
+too late to retire from the contest." -Patrick Henry 1775 +


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