From: pjb@ny.ubs.com
Date: Mon, 25 Nov 1996 07:58:33 -0800 (PST)
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Secret Powers
Message-ID: <199611251558.KAA08303@sherry.ny.ubs.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


i have just completed Secret Powers (reading it, that is).

unless you live in NZ, i don't think that there is much here for you.  even 
the NZ stuff was pretty tame, unless you have been living under a rock, there 
is nothing here that wasn't already known.  lots of pictures of NZ politicians 
and such stuff.  also, a picture of a vax with a caption that implies that 
these are the NSA's echelon-network computers, sigh.

the author can't seem to stay focused for very long.  also, it's hard to see 
what his underlying message is, unless, of course, it's simply to sell books 
and make money, which is in no way a bad thing.  on the one hand, he keeps 
harping on the theme of how the UKUSA (but really NSA) is forever telling NZ 
what to collect and what to do,  and how NZ should be their own masters, but 
then he talks about how very much data NZ receives every day from the NSA. 
 i guess he never heard the one about the one who pays the piper getting to 
call the tune.

he also keeps trying to make something sinister about the use of acronyms and 
code words, and insists that the radomes are to prevent anyone from calculating 
the look angle and therefore the likely satellites that the dish is looking 
at.  at another point, however, he mentions how the salt water corrosion destroyed 
an antenna array, but never seems to be able to figure out that radomes also 
protect the equipment inside from these very destructive elements.  in general, 
a lot of nonsense that doesn't every get tied together.
 
there is also this recurring theme about NZ's independence and it's nuclear-free 
shit.
perhaps there are really people in NZ that care about this stuff, but in this 
day and age, it's hard to image that there would be.

it's not like the book is poorly written or researched or anything like that, 
and it's certainly a hell of a lot more than i have done, but otherwise, .......

money isn't  much of a problem to me, so i don't regret buying this book, but 
if you aren't in the same position, i'd give this one a miss.  better to wait 
for the new release of The Puzzle Palace.  BTW, does anyone have an update 
on this? are the authors having friendly chats with the boys from the fort, 
or something like that?

if however, you really want to read it, the publishers were very prompt about 
selling me a copy  and shipping it to me via air, and were generally pleasant 
to deal with.

cheers,
        -paul