From: tcmay@got.net (Timothy C. May)
Date: Tue, 23 Jul 1996 13:50:44 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: Special Agent Safdar
Message-ID: <ae197f88100210046989@[205.199.118.202]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


I hadn't planned to comment, but I've seen messages like this one, and a
message from Perry, which appear to take "Anonymous" seriously, or at least
to take him as sending his message as a serious attack. I took it as a
broad satire, though lacking in the craziness which usually signals to all
that a satire or spoof (or facetiousness, depending on one's ideas about
irony) is involved.


At 7:33 PM 7/22/96, Alan Olsen wrote:
>-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
>
>At 02:32 AM 7/22/96 -0600, Anonymous wrote:
>>FBI Special Agent Safdar is upset enough by the revelation
>>of his true identity to issue a quick denial (on a sunday night, to get
>>more OT no doubt), but he doesn't even bother to try to refute the
>>central truth that his cover has been blown by a careless operator at
>>his home office who verified his employment and offered to take a message
>>for him.
>
>Denial?? Sarcasm perhaps...  No "denial" I could see.

Alan, I'm somewhat surprised that you could mention "sarcasm" without
thinking--as I did less than a fourth of the way through the "Anonymous"
piece you are quoting--that the whole piece was a close relative of
sarcasm. That is, a spoof, a satire, a joke. I think the first mention of
VTW being an agent of the Gubment might have been serious, albeit clueless.
But this later piece has all the hallmarks of an over-the-top satire on the
first "Safdar is an agent" piece.

Consider some "tells":

>>We don't have to wonder a second longer about the motives behind

"We don't have to wonder a second longer..." Pretty clearly over the top.

>Why would they have to operate a dummy organization?  All they have to do is
>get the names of the subscribers on this list.  Much more cost effective.

Indeed. Which is why the first piece is so obviously satirical.

>>We must call on the other organizations, like EPIC, EFF, CDT, and ACLU
>>to denounce the VTW\FBI fraud. Their board of directories, Blaze and
>>Schneier to face the truth in public that they they have been used.
>>The net as a whole to demand its pound of cyberflesh.

Further, we must insist that Diffie confess to his role in undermining the
only truly secure cryptosystem, the virtual one-time pad! By propagating
his filth about the strength of public key systems, aided by his
VTW-Tchurka agent Schneier, he has polluted our precious bodily fluids.

>And not to forget all the free code that Blaze and Schneier have handed out
>over the years.  Maybe that is a plot as well.  Maybe the typos in Applied
>Cryptography are a secret conspiracy to weaken the cryptography of the
>nation.  Next thing I expect you to say is that Queen Elisabeth is a drug
>dealer and/or other LaRouche style rants.

The House of Windsor is controlled by the psy-ops Tavistock Insitute, also
known as the White Visitation. Freud, a cocaine and morphine user, advised
Tavistock on psy-ops and the British opium trade. Esalen, a Tavistock-CIA
think tank and training center, has hosted several international meetings
of the Drug Cartel, including both the Cali Cartel and the notorious
Langley Cartel.

(Besides, doesn't the entire British Royal Family behave as if they're on
drugs? 'Nuff said.)

>>There are very big questions to be answered now and we must not
>>forget to keep asking them until they have been. How high did
>>this operation go? Agent Safdar is no Olly North! He didn't
>>do this on his own. Who ordered this?
>
>The voices in your head?  Actually, I have more interest in your motives
>than his.

Read up on the uses of this kind of humor.


>Your accusations are not accomplishing anything constructive.  I do not
>believe that they were designed to either.  I believe that they were
>designed to sow mistrust in the individuals who are making real progress
>against the Government held position that they have the right to spy on our
>every move.

But who would take the points seriously, besides you, Perry, and one or two
others? I just read it, and thought: "Mildly funny, but not quite crazed
enough."


Boycott "Big Brother Inside" software!
We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, we know that that ain't allowed.
---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
tcmay@got.net  408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA  | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
Licensed Ontologist         | black markets, collapse of governments.
"National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."