RE: Ball of Confusion (To you Steve!)

----------------- Bulletin Message -----------------
From: robert
Date: Jun 25, 2007 10:58 PM


And Don't F**k with me, lol!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NusZ_HfhaCw

RE: White House Defends Cheney's Refusal of Oversight

----------------- Bulletin Message -----------------
From: dave
Date: Jun 25, 2007 11:10 PM


Thanks to Scruffy: Enemy Combatant
RE: Dick Cheney ~ Above The Law !
Anthony (Namaste) peace, dave




Denise



Cheney Casts Himself Out








White House Defends Cheney's Refusal of Oversight

By Peter Baker
Washington Post Staff Writer
Saturday, June 23, 2007; Page A02

The White House defended Vice President Cheney yesterday in a dispute over his office's refusal to comply with an executive order regulating the handling of classified information as Democrats and other critics assailed him for disregarding rules that others follow.

White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said Cheney is not obligated to submit to oversight by an office that safeguards classified information, as other members and parts of the executive branch are. Cheney's office has contended that it does not have to comply because the vice president serves as president of the Senate, which means that his office is not an "entity within the executive branch."

"This is a little bit of a nonissue," Perino said at a briefing dominated by the issue. Cheney is not subject to the executive order, she said, "because the president gets to decide whether or not he should be treated separately, and he's decided that he should."

Democratic critics said Cheney is distorting the plain meaning of the executive order. "Vice President Cheney is expanding the administration's policy on torture to include tortured logic," said Senate Majority Whip Richard J. Durbin (D-Ill.). "In the end, neither Mr. Cheney or his staff is above the law or the Constitution."

The dispute stems from an executive order, issued in 1995 by President Bill Clinton and revised by President Bush in 2003, establishing a uniform, government-wide system for protecting classified information. Cheney's office, like its predecessor, filed reports about its handling of classified information to the National Archives and Records Administration oversight office in 2001 and 2002 but has refused to do so since. His office also blocked an on-site inspection to examine its handling of classified data.

The Archives' Information Security Oversight Office sent two letters to Cheney requesting compliance but never received a response. The office then asked Attorney General Alberto R. Gonzales in January to decide whether Cheney was violating the executive order, but he has not responded either. Instead, according to Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.), Cheney's staff tried to get the oversight office abolished this year.

Perino said the president does not think the office should be eliminated, "and I don't think that anyone has suggested that." Cheney spokeswoman Lea Anne McBride would not comment on the record yesterday about whether the office targeted the oversight office or why Cheney's staff complied with the order in 2001 and 2002 and then decided not to in 2003.

The argument that Cheney's office is not part of the executive branch prompted ridicule by many administration critics. Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, a group that has been highly critical of the White House, suggested that Cheney is "attempting to create a fourth branch of the government." If he is not governed by executive branch security requirements, the group asked if he is covered by Senate rules.

Rep. Rahm Emanuel (D-Ill.) said he plans to propose next week, as part of a spending bill for executive operations, a measure to place a hold on funds for Cheney's office and official home until he clarifies to which branch of the government he belongs. Emanuel acknowledged that the proposal is just a stunt, but he said that if Cheney is not part of the executive branch, he should not receive its funds. "As we say in Chicago, follow the money," he said.

Staff writer Shailagh Murray contributed to this report.

RE: Bush's Mafia Whacks the Republic

----------------- Bulletin Message -----------------
From: Precarious333
Date: Jun 25, 2007 9:23 PM


Bush's Mafia Whacks the Republic

In years to come, historians may look back on U.S. press coverage of George W. Bush’s presidency and wonder why there was not a single front-page story announcing one of the most monumental events of mankind’s modern era – the death of the American Republic and the elimination of the “unalienable rights” pledged to “posterity” by the Founders.

The historians will, of course, find stories about elements of this extraordinary event – Bush’s denial of habeas corpus rights to a fair trial, his secret prisons, his tolerance of torture, his violation of Fourth Amendment protections against unreasonable searches, his “signing statements” overriding laws, the erosion of constitutional checks and balances.

But the historians will scroll through front pages of the New York Times, the Washington Post and every other major newspaper – as well as scan the national network news and the 24-hour cable channels – and find not a single story connecting the dots, explaining the larger picture: the end of a remarkable democratic experiment which started in 1776 and which was phased out sometime in the early 21st century.

How, these historians may ask, did the U.S. press corps miss one of history’s most important developments? Was it a case like the proverbial frog that would have jumped to safety if tossed into boiling water but was slowly cooked to death when the water was brought to a slow boil?

Or was it that journalists and politicians intuitively knew that identifying too clearly what was happening in the United States would have compelled them to action, and that action would have meant losing their jobs and livelihoods? Perhaps, too, they understood that there was little they could do to change the larger reality, so why bother?

As for the broader public, did the fear and anger generated by the 9/11 attacks so overwhelm the judgment of Americans that they didn’t care that President Bush had offered them a deal with the devil, he would promise them a tad more safety in exchange for their liberties?

And what happened to the brave souls who did challenge Bush’s establishment of an authoritarian state? Why, the historians may wonder, did the American people and their representatives not rise up as Bush systematically removed honorable public servants who did their best to uphold the nation’s laws and principles?

One could go down a long list of government officials who were purged or punished for speaking up, the likes of Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill, Army Gen. Eric Shinseki, counterterrorism adviser Richard Clarke, former U.S. Ambassador Joseph Wilson and Deputy Attorney General James Comey.

The Taguba Purge
Yet possibly the most troubling case was revealed in mid-June by The New Yorker’s investigative reporter Seymour M. Hersh, the case of Army Maj. Gen. Antonio M. Taguba, who investigated the abuses of detainees at Abu Ghraib prison and issued a tough report that prevented the scandal from being swept entirely under the rug.

Rather than thank Taguba for upholding the honor of the U.S. military, the Bush administration singled out this hard-working, low-key general for ridicule, retribution and forced retirement in early 2007.

In an interview with Hersh, Taguba described a chilling conversation he had with Gen. John Abizaid, head of Central Command, a few weeks after Taguba’s report became public in 2004. Sitting in the back of Abizaid’s Mercedes sedan in Kuwait, Abizaid quietly told Taguba, “You and your report will be investigated.”

“I’d been in the Army 32 years by then,” Taguba told Hersh, “and it was the first time that I thought I was in the Mafia.”

It was also an early indication that Taguba’s military career was nearing its end. In January 2006, Gen. Richard Cody, the Army’s Vice-Chief of Staff, called Taguba and without pleasantries or explanation told Taguba, “I need you to retire by January 2007.”

So, the general who had violated the omerta code of silence was banished from Bush’s Mafia.
Hersh wrote that the sensitivity over Taguba’s report went beyond its graphic account of physical and sexual abuse of Iraqis detained at Abu Ghraib; it also brought unwanted attention to a wider pattern of criminal acts committed with the approval of President Bush and Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

“The administration feared that the publicity would expose more secret operations and practices,” including a special military task forces or Special Access Programs set up to roam the world and assassinate suspected terrorists, Hersh wrote.

Hersh quoted a recently retired CIA officer as saying the task-force teams “had full authority to whack – to go in and conduct ‘executive action,’” a phrase meaning assassination.

“It was surrealistic what these guys were doing,” the ex-officer told Hersh. “They were running around the world without clearing their operations with the ambassador or the [CIA] chief of station.” [New Yorker, June 25, 2007, edition]

In other words, President Bush not only had arrogated to himself the right to snatch people off the street and lock them up indefinitely without trial but he had dispatched assassins around the world to eliminate alleged “bad guys.”

The bigger picture – the stark and grim image of what had transpired over the past half dozen years in the name of the American people – was that the United States could no longer claim to be a nation of laws and liberties. It had become a country governed by a criminal mob deploying an unsavory collection of capos, consiglieres and hit men.

In this view, George W. Bush was no longer President of a Republic but Godfather of the world’s most intimidating crime syndicate. But that was a reality that the U.S. news media could not afford to acknowledge in real time, though it might become the unavoidable conclusion of future historians.

http://www.consortiumnews.com/2007/062007.html

RE: RE: News Corporation paid zero taxes

----------------- Bulletin Message -----------------
From: ♥ Angel ♥ ™ ~For Truth~
Date: Jun 25, 2007 4:00 PM


Thanks: § Lori §



News Corporation paid zero taxes:

News Corporation paid zero taxes

-"One firm focuses almost exclusively on parts of the tax code that affect the News Corporation. By taking advantage of a provision in the law that allows expanding companies like Mr. Murdoch’s to defer taxes to future years, the News Corporation paid no federal taxes in two of the last four years, and in the other two it paid only a fraction of what it otherwise would have owed. During that time, Securities and Exchange Commission records show, the News Corporation’s domestic pretax profits topped $9.4 billion."

RE: An afternoon with Hunter S. Thompson, Damm i love this man!

----------------- Bulletin Message -----------------
From: frEinLy Fier l l 9 (eMenY teRribaLisT)) .
Date: Jun 25, 2007 3:28 PM


An afternoon with Hunter S. Thompson




Subversionary


E-Dubs
Many
thanks to:

Jason



An Afternoon with Hunter S Thompson

This week is a special week, faithful TayTVers have once again made a wise choice by voting The Hunter S Thompson Tag into the Hall of Champions. After being the runner up in Tag Series XIV the Hunter S Thompson Tag Archive has come through to win Tag Series XVI. I hunted down a good two hours worth of videos here, and my taytving friend Karen wrote the post, enjoy your lazy Sunday.

Let's begin with a scene from the Movie Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.

Hunter S. Thompson began his writing career in 1956 by becoming sports editor of the Elgin Air Force base newspaper in an attempt to avoid more active duty, having signed up for the Air Force on what was basically a whim a week after serving his first (and only) time (although he was arrested, but never convicted many subsequent times in his life) in jail after being charged as an accessory to robbery for having been in a car with the person who actually committed the robbery.

Thompson is credited as the creator of Gonzo journalism, a style of reporting in which the reporters involve themselves in the action to such a degree that they become the central figure of the story itself. Often mixing fact with fiction and using a stylized breakneck stream-of consciousness narrative, perhaps the first, and most famous example of a Gonzo novel is Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, which was further popularized by the 1998 movie of the same name. The release of the film also introduced a new generation to Thompson’s writing, and caused his long-lost novel The Rum Diary to be published, along with the first two volumes of his collected letters, which were greeted with critical acclaim.

A self-proclaimed outlaw, “I always figured I would live on the margins of society, part of a very small outlaw segment. I have never been approved by any majority. Most people assume it’s difficult to live this way, and they are right – they’re still trying to lock me up all the time,” (from Kingdom of Fear, 2003) Thompson moved to San Francisco in the mid-sixties and immersed himself in the anti-Vietnam drug-riddled counter culture of the time and place along with other notable writers and activists such as Jack Kerouac, Ken Kesey, William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg. During this time, he lived and rode with the Hell’s Angels to glean fodder for his first novel, Hells Angels: The Strange and Terrible Saga of the Outlaw Motorcycle Gangs, which earned him moderate critical acclaim, not to mention a savage “stomping” from the Angels.

In late 1968, Thompson and his family moved into what Thompson described as his "fortified compound," in Woody Creek, Colorado, a small mountain hamlet outlying Aspen where he would reside for the rest of his life. In 1970 he ran, and nearly won the election for sheriff of Pitkin County, Colorado, on the "Freak Power" ticket, promoting the decriminalization of drugs (for personal use only, not trafficking, as he disapproved of profiteering), tearing up the streets and turning them into grassy pedestrian malls, banning any building so tall as to obscure the view of the mountains, and renaming Aspen, Colorado, "Fat City." - Read more about the Battle of Aspen.

Hunters election run

Thompson died at his home from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head in February of 2005. What family and police describe as a suicide note was delivered to his wife 4 days before his death and later published by Rolling Stone Magazine. Entitled "Football Season Is Over.” it read: "No More Games. No More Bombs. No More Walking. No More Fun. No More Swimming. 67. That is 17 years past 50. 17 more than I needed or wanted. Boring. I am always bitchy. No Fun — for anybody. 67. You are getting Greedy. Act your old age. Relax — This won't hurt."

Hunter with Ralph Steadman plan his funeral in 1977

Now for your enjoyment; the full length feature of Fear and Loathing in Gonzovision.

Quote: Google Video

Hunter S Thompson and long time artistic collaborator Ralph Steadman are filmed as they travel to Los Angeles for an early planning meeting about the movie Where The Buffalo Roam.

Following are a few notable Hunter S. Thompson quotes from his 2003 novel Kingdom of Fear: Loathsome Secrets of a Star-Crossed Child in the Final Days of the America Century. (More HST quotes here.)

Quote: Kingdom of Fear

I have seen Jews run amok in Palestine like bloodthirsty beasts with no shame, and six million brainless Baptists demanding the death penalty without any trial at all for pagans and foreigners and people like me who won’t pray with them in those filthy little shacks they call churches, They are like a swarm of filthy rats fleeing a swoop fire, and I want no part of them. Indeed, I have my own faith and my own gods to worship, and I have been doing it with a certain amount of distinction for ten thousand years, like some fine atomic clock with ever-lasting batteries

Just after Kingdom of fear was released Hunter spoke to Conan O'Brian, they discuss a shooting range trip they had together. Not a fan of Conan? You can also watch an Interview with Hunter conducted by Charlie Rose in 1997.

Quote: Kingdom of Fear

Politics is the art of controlling your environment. Indeed. Never forget it, or you will become a Victim of your own environment. Rich nerds and lawyers will stomp all over you worse than any A-rab.

Quote: From a Chapter entitled Jesus Hated Bald Pussy:

Let’s face it – the yo-yo president of the U.S.A. knows nothing. He is a dunce. He does what he is told to do – says what he is told to say – poses the way he is told to pose. He is a Fool. This is never an easy thing for the voters of this country to accept. No. Nonsense. The president cannot be a Fool. Not at this moment in time – when the last vestiges of the American Dream are on the line. This is not the time to have a bogus rich kid in charge of the White House. …if he wantonly and stupidly endorses mass murder as a logical plan to make sure we are still Number One – he is a Jackass by definition – a loud and meaningless animal with no functional intelligence and no balls. To say that this goofy child president is looking more and more like Richard Nixon in the summer of 1974 would be a flagrant insult to Nixon. Whoops! Did I say that? Is it even vaguely possible that some New Age Republican whore-beast of a false president could actually make Richard Nixon look like a Liberal?

Explore the Tag Series Archive

RE: Foods Carrying USDA '95% Organic' Seal Are Now Allowed....

----------------- Bulletin Message -----------------
From: Erin
Date: Jun 25, 2007 3:54 PM

ALERT - USDA Announcement: Foods Carrying the USDA '95% Organic' Seal Are Now Allowed to Contain Factory Farmed Intestines, PCBs, and Mercury

• Press Release
  For Immediate Release
  Organic Consumers Association, 6/22/2007
  Straight to the Source
  
  

CONTACT: Ronnie Cummins 218-226-4164 June 22, 2007   

Despite receiving more than ten thousand comments from consumers and family farmers opposing various aspects of a late May 2007 proposal, the USDA has approved a rule that will allow 38 new non-organic ingredients to be allowed in products bearing the "USDA Organic" seal.  But the agency says this may just be interim approval, and has offered to extend the public comment period another 60 days (the original public comment period was only 7 days). Take action and send a letter to the USDA here.

The Organic Consumers Association filed a petition during the USDA's short seven-day comment period on the issue outlining various problems with some of the proposed ingredients (read full petition here: http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_5225.cfm).  The USDA is required to post all such incoming comments online, and 99% of the comments currently posted there show the public opposes the passage of this proposal.

The USDA's passage of this proposal has resulted in the following:

-Anheuser Busch will be allowed to sell its "Organic Wild Hops Beer" without using any organic hops at all.

-Sausages, brats, and breakfast links labeled as "USDA Organic" are now allowed to contain intestines from factory farmed animals raised on chemically grown feed, synthetic hormones, and antibiotics.

-Products labeled as "USDA Organic" and containing fish oil may contain toxins such as PCBs and mercury (note: nonorganic fishoil products have this same risk, but despite the USDA ruling, it is against the National Organic Standards to allow such toxins in organic foods).

"It's disheartening to see how profit motivated businesses like Kraft, Wal-Mart and Anheuser-Busch have more sway over the U.S. Department of Agriculture than family farmers, independent organic producers, and consumers," said Ronnie Cummins, OCA's National Director.

OCA's Environmental Scientist, Craig Minowa, noted that foods labeled as 100% organic will still be 100% organic. "This rule applies to products that are 95% organic or less," said Minowa of the USDA's decision, adding that "The ruling is yet another reason for organic-minded shoppers to carefully read ingredient labels, look for '100% Organic' labels, and buy from local family farmers via your area co-op, farmers market or CSA."

Take action and send a letter to the USDA here.

ORGANIC CONSUMERS ASSOCIATION ·
6771 SOUTH SILVER HILL DRIVE·
FINLAND, MN 55603 USA
Telephone: 218-226-4164 · Fax: 218-353-7652·
email: adam@organicconsumers.org;
http://www.organicconsumers.org

 

RE: RE: Yes, Virginia, you are one fucked up state

----------------- Bulletin Message -----------------
From: ♥ Angel ♥ ™ ~For Truth~
Date: Jun 25, 2007 3:55 PM


From: R4ND0mLI9HT



This is also a state with hefty fines for using a radar detector.

SOURCE

Virginia Introduces $3550 Speeding Ticket
Virginia legislator introduces new speeding ticket tax that boosts penalties beyond $3550, driving business to his traffic law firm.


Virginia motorists convicted of minor traffic violations will face a new, multi-year tax beginning July 1. Led by state Delegate David B. Albo (R-Springfield), lawmakers slipped a driver responsibility tax into a larger transportation funding bill signed by Governor Tim Kaine (D) in April. Albo, a senior partner in the Albo & Oblon, LLP traffic law firm, can expect to see a significant increase in business as motorists seek to protect their wallet from traffic tickets that come with assessments of up to $3000 in addition to an annual point tax that tops out at $700 a year for as long as the points remain.

"The purpose of the civil remedial fees imposed in this section is to generate revenue," the new law states. (Virginia Code 46.2-206.1)

Driving as little as 15 MPH over the limit on an interstate highway now brings six license demerit points, a fine of up to $2500, up to one year in jail, and a new mandatory $1050 tax. The law also imposes an additional annual fee of up to $100 if a prior conviction leaves the motorist with a balance of eight demerit points, plus $75 for each additional point (up to $700 a year). The conviction in this example remains on the record for five years.

Other six-point convictions include "failing to give a proper signal," "passing a school bus" or "driving with an obstructed view." The same $1050 assessment applies, but the conviction remains on the record for eleven years.

Although the amount of the tax can add up quickly, the law forbids judges from reducing or suspending it in any way. The tax applies only to Virginia residents, so that out-of-state motorists only need to pay the regular ticket amount. Michigan, New Jersey, New York and Texas also impose a somewhat more modest driver responsibility tax which they apply to out-of-state residents.

The Virginia Supreme Court provides a full explanation of the new penalties for each traffic infraction in the 34k PDF file at the source link below.

RE: Tommy Chong owns female reporter Live on NBC

----------------- Bulletin Message -----------------
From: US Troops need a Wake Up Call like a Farenheit 101
Date: Jun 26, 2007 11:38 AM


Hey, lets just focus on what's really important!!! Paris Hilton!!!

From: Reactionary Pupil
Date: Jun 26, 2007 8:26 AM

RE: Olbermann's Heroes!

----------------- Bulletin Message -----------------
From: Lullaby Academy
Date: Jun 26, 2007 8:02 AM


thanks!:
THE ANTI SHEEPLE
The Unknown



((( FUNNY HOW CHILDREN MAKE ADULTS LOOK LIKE CHILDREN )))

RE: Outrageous Police Video

----------------- Bulletin Message -----------------
From: Veritas (Latin For Truth)
Date: Jun 26, 2007 8:16 AM


----------------- Bulletin Message -----------------
From: Stop the Deletions
Date: Jun 26, 2007 5:06 AM


Does this guy have nothing better to do. I can't believe he chased after the kid who said he had a picture of him choking the other kid. Imagine that, you arrest one person, and then you leave that person completely alone while chase down someone who caught you on tape choking a 13 year old. I guess it was more important to cover his ass than enforce whaatever he believed to be the original crime in the first place, which appears to be some city ordinance which gives the police to gather up kids like they are allready convicted fellons. If anyone has more info on this incident please let us know.


----------------- Bulletin Message -----------------
From: Vee
Date: Jun 26, 2007 12:49 AM


From: HECKTOR DANGUS esq.
Date: Jun 26, 2007 4:44 AM


this is how one fat bald pig celebrated Go Skateboarding Day in Hot Springs, Arkansas this year....



posted by

JUPITER (Is it over yet...)

&

Joe-Shizzle

RE: ED and Elaine Brown FLYER-- PLEASE REPOST

----------------- Bulletin Message -----------------
From: Pamela's Protest
Date: Jun 26, 2007 8:31 AM


ED and Elaine Brown FLYER

----------------- Bulletin Message -----------------
From: Athena 911 Truth spearshaker
Date: Jun 25, 2007 11:01 PM


ED and Elaine Brown FLYER
----------------- Bulletin Message -----------------
From: Pamela's Protest
Date: Jun 25, 2007 10:57 PM


OK EVERYONE I SPENT 4 HOURS ON SUNDAY NIGHT MAKING THIS FLYER ABOUT THE BROWNS! SO EVERYONE CAN SPREAD IT AROUND! I PUT IT IN A PDF AND IF YOU WANT TO SEND ME YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS I CAN SEND IT TO YOU SO YOU CAN PRINT IT AND MAKE LOTS OF COPIES AND HAND IT OUT AND POST IT IN YOUR TOWNS. POST IT ALL OVER YOUR TOWNS.
I WANT TO GIVE A 1000 KUDOS AND A BIG THANKS TO CHARLES COPELAND FOR TAKING THIS FLYER AND MAKING IT INTO BULLETIN FORM!!!!!! LOVE YA CHARLES.. SO SEND THIS TO ALL RADIO STATION AND NEWS STATIONS...
THANKS PAMELA'S PROTEST

RE: MICROSOFT ~ SUBVERSION OF WINDOWS BY NSA + Movie!

----------------- Bulletin Message -----------------
From: Vivid Imagination
Date: Jun 26, 2007 8:49 AM


Anthony (Namaste)
C.H.A.R.A.
& Georgilla the Gorilla


Is M$ Windows XP Professional an Advanced Bugging Device?

A hypothesis that Microsoft's Windows XP is a complex variation of a bugging device.

M$ Windows XP Professional Bugging Device?
By Mark McCarron

http://100777.com/node/1120

I read this all. It's long. You don't have to read it all to get the picture. There is different stuff towards the bottom


I am a certified computer professional. I know about and have disabled many of these features on my computer. For being one of the most used OSs on the planet, it is INCREDIBLY insecure. There are multitudes of back doors in Windows.

This article is a hypothesis of how Windows XP is an advanced bugging system. The TV in 1984 if you will. THen it all makes sense. There are several back door keys to windows given to the NSA. Microsoft came from the dirt, stole technology from Xerox(Big Brother), sold it
as their own and then became big brother a decade later.

Anybody see "Pirates of Silicon Valley"...So Fitting

---

Pirates of Silicon Valley (1999)

This film is the semi-humorous documentary about the men who made the world of technology what it is today, their struggles during college, the founding of their companies, and the ingenious actions they took to build up the global corporate empires of Apple Computer Corporation and Microsoft Inc.



Length 1 hr 36 mins 50 sec

http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=-1552555273778978142

---

I have had this article for a while now and it makes even more sense:



As someone into computer technology... let me tell you this really sucks.

Duncan Campbell
Careless mistake reveals subversion of Windows by NSA.

http://www.heise.de/tp/r4/artikel/5/5263/1.html

A CARELESS mistake by Microsoft programmers has revealed that special access codes prepared by the US National Security Agency have been secretly built into Windows. The NSA access system is built into every version of the Windows operating system now in use, except early releases of Windows 95 (and its predecessors). The discovery comes close on the heels of the revelations earlier this year that another US software giant, Lotus, had built an NSA "help information" trapdoor (1) into its Notes system, and that security functions on other software systems had been deliberately crippled.

The first discovery of the new NSA access system was made two years ago by British researcher Dr Nicko van Someren. But it was only a few weeks ago when a second researcher rediscovered the access system. With it, he found the evidence linking it to NSA.

Computer security specialists have been aware for two years that unusual features are contained inside a standard Windows software "driver" used for security and encryption functions. The driver, called ADVAPI.DLL, enables and controls a range of security functions. If you use Windows, you will find it in the C:..Windows..system directory of your computer.

ADVAPI.DLL works closely with Microsoft Internet Explorer, but will only run crypographic functions that the US governments allows Microsoft to export. That information is bad enough news, from a European point of view. Now, it turns out that ADVAPI will run special programmes inserted and controlled by NSA. As yet, no-one knows what these programmes are, or what they do.

Dr Nicko van Someren reported at last year's Crypto 98 conference that he had disassembled the ADVADPI driver. He found it contained two different keys. One was used by Microsoft to control the cryptographic functions enabled in Windows, in compliance with US export regulations. But the reason for building in a second key, or who owned it, remained a mystery.

A second key

Two weeks ago, a US security company came up with conclusive evidence that the second key belongs to NSA. Like Dr van Someren, Andrew Fernandez, chief scientist with Cryptonym of Morrisville, North Carolina, had been probing the presence and significance of the two keys. Then he checked the latest Service Pack release for Windows NT4, Service Pack 5 (2). He found that Microsoft's developers had failed to remove or "strip" the debugging symbols used to test this software before they released it. Inside the code were the labels for the two keys. One was called "KEY". The other was called "NSAKEY".

Fernandes reported his re-discovery of the two CAPI keys, and their secret meaning, to "Advances in Cryptology, Crypto'99" conference held in Santa Barbara. According to those present at the conference, Windows developers attending the conference did not deny that the "NSA" key was built into their software. But they refused to talk about what the key did, or why it had been put there without users' knowledge.

A third key?!

But according to two witnesses attending the conference, even Microsoft's top crypto programmers were astonished to learn that the version of ADVAPI.DLL shipping with Windows 2000 contains not two, but three keys. Brian LaMachia, head of CAPI development at Microsoft was "stunned" to learn of these discoveries, by outsiders. The latest discovery by Dr van Someren is based on advanced search methods which test and report on the "entropy" of programming code.

Within the Microsoft organisation, access to Windows source code is said to be highly compartmentalized, making it easy for modifications to be inserted without the knowledge of even the respective product managers.

Researchers are divided about whether the NSA key could be intended to let US government users of Windows run classified cryptosystems on their machines or whether it is intended to open up anyone's and everyone's Windows computer to intelligence gathering techniques deployed by NSA's burgeoning corps of "information warriors".

According to Fernandez of Cryptonym, the result of having the secret key inside your Windows operating system "is that it is tremendously easier for the NSA to load unauthorized security services on all copies of Microsoft Windows, and once these security services are loaded, they can effectively compromise your entire operating system". The NSA key is contained inside all versions of Windows from Windows 95 OSR2 onwards.

"For non-American IT managers relying on Windows NT to operate highly secure data centres, this find is worrying", he added. "The US government is currently making it as difficult as possible for "strong" crypto to be used outside of the US. That they have also installed a cryptographic back-door in the world's most abundant operating system should send a strong message to foreign IT managers".

"How is an IT manager to feel when they learn that in every copy of Windows sold, Microsoft has a 'back door' for NSA - making it orders of magnitude easier for the US government to access your computer?" he asked.

Can the loophole be turned round against the snoopers?

Dr van Someren feels that the primary purpose of the NSA key inside Windows may be for legitimate US government use. But he says that there cannot be a legitimate explanation for the third key in Windows 2000 CAPI. "It looks more fishy", he said.

Fernandez believes that NSA's built-in loophole can be turned round against the snoopers. The NSA key inside CAPI can be replaced by your own key, and used to sign cryptographic security modules from overseas or unauthorised third parties, unapproved by Microsoft or the NSA. This is exactly what the US government has been trying to prevent. A demonstration "how to do it" program that replaces the NSA key can be found on Cryptonym's website (3).

According to one leading US cryptographer, the IT world should be thankful that the subversion of Windows by NSA has come to light before the arrival of CPUs that handles encrypted instruction sets. These would make the type of discoveries made this month impossible. "Had the next-generation CPU's with encrypted instruction sets already been deployed, we would have never found out about NSAKEY."


FAIR USE NOTICE: This bulletin may contain copyrighted material. Such material is made available for educational purposes, to advance understanding of human rights, democracy, scientific, moral, ethical, and social justice issues, etc. This constitutes a 'fair use' of any such copyrighted material as provided for in Title 17 U.S.C. section 107 of the US Copyright Law. This material is distributed without profit.

RE: U.S. Corporations Keeping Biowarfare Work Secret

----------------- Bulletin Message -----------------
From: robert
Date: Jun 26, 2007 8:49 AM


U.S. Corporations Keeping Biowarfare Work Secret
Published on Sunday, June 24, 2007.

By Sherwood Ross

 

A number of major pharmaceutical corporations and biotech firms are concealing the nature of the biological warfare research work they are doing for the U.S. government.

Since their funding comes from the National Institutes of Health, the recipients are obligated under NIH guidelines to make their activities public. Not disclosing their ops raises the suspicion they may be engaged in forbidden kinds of germ warfare research. According to the Sunshine Project, a nonprofit arms control watchdog operating out of Austin, Texas, among corporations holding back information about their activities are:

Abbott Laboratories, BASF Plant Science, Bristol-Myers Squibb, DuPont Central Research and Development, Eli Lilly Corp., Embrex, GlaxoSmithKline, Hoffman-LaRoche, Merck & Co., Monsanto, Pfizer Inc., Schering-Plough Research Institute, and Syngenta Corp. of Switzerland.

In case you didn't know it, the White House since 9/11 has called for spending $44-billion on biological warfare research, a sum unprecedented in world history, and an obliging Congress has authorized it. Thus, some of the deadliest pathogens known to humankind are being rekindled in hundreds of labs in pharmaceutical houses, university biology departments, and on military bases. An international convention the U.S. signed forbids it to stockpile, manufacture or use biological weapons. But if the U.S. won't say what's going down in those laboratories other countries are going to assume the worst and a biowarfare arms race will be on, if it isn't already. Sunshine says failure to disclose operations also puts corporate employees involved in this work at risk. Only 8,500, or 16%, of the 52,000 workers employed at the top 20 U.S. biotech firms work at an NIH guidelines-compliant company, Sunshine says.

Francis Boyle, an international law authority at the University of Illinois, Champaign, says pursuant to national strategy directives adopted by Bush in 2002, the Pentagon "is now gearing up to fight and 'win' biological warfare without prior public knowledge and review." Boyle said the Pentagon's Chemical and Biological Defense Program was revised in 2003 to endorse "first-use" strike in war. Boyle said the program includes Red Teaming, which he described as "plotting, planning, and scheming how to use biowarfare."

Besides the big pharmaceutical houses, the biowarfare buildup is getting an enthusiastic response from academia, which sees new funds flowing from Washington's horn of plenty. "American universities have a long history of willingly permitting their research agenda, researchers, institutes and laboratories to be co-opted, corrupted, and perverted by the Pentagon and the CIA," Boyle says. What's more, the Bush administration is pouring billions in biowarfare research while some very real killers, such as influenza, are not being cured.In 2006, the NIH got $120 million to combat influenza, which kills about 36,000 Americans annually but it got $1.76 billion for biodefense, much of it spent to research anthrax. How many people has anthrax killed lately? Well, let's see, there were those five people killed in the mysterious attacks on Congress of October, 2001 --- attacks that suspiciously emanated from a government laboratory at Fort Detrick, Md.

One would think the FBI might apprehend the perpetrator whose attack shut down the Congress of the United States but nearly six years have gone by and it hasn't caught anybody. Seem a bit odd to you? Some folks suspect the anthrax attack was an inside job to panic the country into a huge biowarfare buildup to "protect" America from "terrorists." That is, of course, just what happened.

Milton Leitenberg, of the University of Maryland's School of Public Policy, though, says the risk of terrorists and nonstate actors using biological agents against the U.S. "has been systematically and deliberately exaggerated" by administration scare-mongering.

And molecular biologist Jonathan King of Massachusetts Institute of Technology says, "the Bush administration launched a major program which threatens to put the health of our people at far greater risk than the hazard to which they claimed to have been responding." King added President Bush's policies "do not increase the security of the American people" but "bring new risk to our population of the most appalling kind."

In the absence of any credible foreign threat, Sunshine's Hammond said, "Our biowarfare research is defending ourselves from ourselves. It's a dog chasing its tail." Sadly, it looks more and more every day like a mad dog. 


For more on this subject, see the author's article in the July/August issue of The Humanist magazine. Sherwood Ross has worked as a reporter for major dailies and wire services. Reach him at sherwoodr1@yahoo.com

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