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-
- Computer underground Digest Fri, Jan 29, 1992 Volume 4 : Issue 04
-
- Moderators: Jim Thomas and Gordon Meyer (TK0JUT2@NIU.BITNET)
- Associate Moderator: Etiam Shrdlu
-
- CONTENTS, #4.04 ( Jan 29, 1992)
- File 1: Media Watch (Moderators)
- File 2: User Bill of Rights Introduced
- File 3: The Casolaro Murder--The Feds' Theft of Inslaw Software
- File 4: PRA and Owens Bill
- File 5: EFF on PRA/Owen bills
- File 6: PRA/Owens Bill (response to EFF response)
- File 7: Re: CuD 402--Law Enforcement, the Government & You
- File 8: The Harsh Reality of Life
- File 9: Len Rose seeks Unix work upon release
-
- Issues of CuD can be found in the Usenet alt.society.cu-digest news
- group, on CompuServe in DL0 and DL4 of the IBMBBS SIG, DL1 of LAWSIG,
- and DL0 and DL12 of TELECOM, on Genie, on the PC-EXEC BBS at (414)
- 789-4210, and by anonymous ftp from ftp.cs.widener.edu (147.31.254.132),
- chsun1.spc.uchicago.edu, and ftp.ee.mu.oz.au. To use the U. of
- Chicago email server, send mail with the subject "help" (without the
- quotes) to archive-server@chsun1.spc.uchicago.edu.
-
- COMPUTER UNDERGROUND DIGEST is an open forum dedicated to sharing
- information among computerists and to the presentation and debate of
- diverse views. CuD material may be reprinted as long as the source
- is cited. Some authors do copyright their material, and they should
- be contacted for reprint permission. It is assumed that non-personal
- mail to the moderators may be reprinted unless otherwise specified.
- Readers are encouraged to submit reasoned articles relating to the
- Computer Underground. Articles are preferred to short responses.
- Please avoid quoting previous posts unless absolutely necessary.
-
- DISCLAIMER: The views represented herein do not necessarily represent
- the views of the moderators. Digest contributors assume all
- responsibility for ensuring that articles submitted do not
- violate copyright protections.
-
- ----------------------------------------------------------------------
-
- Date: Thu, 27 Jan 92 18:32:10
- From: Moderators <tk0jut2@mvs.cso.niu.edu>
- Subject: File 1--Media Watch (Moderators)
-
- BOARDWATCH: The Jan/Feb issue of _Boardwatch_ technical information of
- interest to BBS hobbyists and modemers with legal news and general
- information useful to students of cyberspace. For law buffs, three
- stories (Virginia telecom vs. Virginia BBSs, the American On-Line
- pornography case, and Lance Rose's piece on Whistleblowers' BBS)
- provide a concise summaries of legal issues. The issue also includes
- a BBS listing of boards in Denver and in what used to be East Germany.
- Although $36 a year for 12 issues, it's a great bargain and an
- invaluable resource. For info, contact jrickard@boardwatch.com
-
- PHRACK: The latest (Jan '92) "Diet Phrack" (#36) is out, and is the
- best issue since Knight Lightning left two years ago. The issue can
- be obtained from the CuD ftp archive site (see header, above) or by
- contacting the PHRACK editors directly (see CuD #4.02 for details).
- Table of Contents for Phrack 36:
-
- 1. Introduction to Diet Phrack (Phrack 36) by Compaq Disk and Dr. Dude
- 2. Diet Phrack Loopback by Phrack Staff
- 3. In Living Computer starring Knight Lightning
- 4. The History ah MOD by Wing Ding
- 5. *ELITE* Access by Dead Lord and Lord Digital (Lords Anonymous!)
- 6. The Legion of Doom & The Occult by Legion of Doom and Demon Seed Elite
- 7. Searching for speciAl acceSs agentS by Dr. Dude
- 8. Phreaks in Verse II by Homey the Hacker
- 9. Real Cyberpunks by The Men from Mongo
- 10. Elite World News by Dr. Dude
- 11. Elite World News by Dr. Dude
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Mon, 27 Jan 1992 11:07:44 -0500
- From: Craig Neidorf <knight@EFF.ORG>
- Subject: File 2--User Bill of Rights Introduced
-
- USER "BILL OF RIGHTS" INTRODUCED January 23, 1992
-
- TAMPA, FLORIDA.-- .The North American Directory Forum (NADF)
- introduced a "User Bill of Rights" to address security and privacy
- issues regarding entries and listings concerning its proposed
- cooperative public directory service. NADF members also approved
- continuing efforts on an experimental publish directory pilot at their
- eighth quarterly meeting.
-
- The "User Bill of Rights" addresses the concerns of the individual
- user or the user's agent, and is in response to issues brought to the
- attention of the NADF.
-
- Final plans were completed for the X.500 directory pilot scheduled to
- begin in the first quarter of this year. The pilot will be used by
- the NADF to validate its technical agreements for providing a publish
- directory service in North America. The agreements have been recorded
- in standing documents and include the services that will be provided,
- the directory schema and information sharing required to unify the
- directory. It will test the operation of X.500 in a large-scale,
- multi-vendor environment.
-
- All NADF members are participating in the pilot. The members are
- AT&T, Bell Atlantic, BellSouth Advanced Networks, Bellcore
- representing US West, BT North America, GE Information Services, IBM,
- Infonet, MCI Communications Corp., Pacific Bell, Performance Systems
- International, US Postal Service and Ziff Communications Co. Joining
- the NADF at this meeting are Canada Post Corporation and DirectoryNet,
- Inc.
-
- The NADF was founded in 1990 with the goal of bringing together major
- messaging providers in the U.S. and Canada to establish a public
- directory service based on X.500, the CCITT recommendation for a
- global directory service. The forum meets quarterly in a
- collaborative effort to address operational, commercial and technical
- issues involved in implementing a North American directory with the
- objective of expediting the industry's transition to a global X.500
- directory.
-
- This quarter's meeting was hosted by the IBM Information Network,
- IBM's value-added services network that provides networking,
- messaging, capacity and consulting services.
-
- +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
-
- USER BILL OF RIGHTS (for entries and listings in the Public Directory)
-
- The mission of the North American Directory Forum is to provide
- interconnected electronic directories which empower users with
- unprecedented access to public information. To address significant
- security and privacy issues, the North American Directory Forum
- introduces the following "User Bill of Rights" for entries in the
- Public Directory. As a user, you have:
-
- I. The right not to be listed.
- II. The right to have you or your agent informed when your entry is created.
- III. The right to examine your entry.
- IV. The right to correct inaccurate information in your entry.
- V. The right to remove specific information from your entry.
- VI. The right to be assured that your listing in the Public Directory will
- comply with US or Canadian law regulating privacy or access information.
- VII. The right to expect timely fulfillment of these rights.
-
- +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
-
- Scope of Intent - User Bill of Rights
-
- The North American Directory Forum is a collection of service
- providers that plan to offer a cooperative directory service in North
- America. This is achieved by interconnecting electronic directories
- using a set of internationally developed standards known as the CCITT
- X.500 series.
-
- In this context, the "Directory" represents the collection of
- electronic directories administered by both service providers and
- private operators. When an entry containing information about a user
- is listed in the Directory, that information can be accessed unless
- restricted by security and privacy controls.
-
- A portion of the Directory -- The Public Directory -- contains
- information for public dissemination. In contrast, other portions of
- the Directory may contain information not intended for public access.
- A user or user's agent may elect to list information in the Public
- Directory, a private directory, or some combination. For example, a
- user might publicly list a telephone number or an electronic mail
- address, and might designate other information for specific private
- use.
-
- The User Bill of Rights pertains to the Public Directory.
- Source: NADF, January 1992
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Thu, 16 Jan 1992 21:29:00 LCL
- From: sender@garbled.by.new.batch.program
- Subject: File 3--The Casolaro Murder--The Feds' Theft of Inslaw Software
-
- ((Moderators' note: The following excerpts from a WBAI-FM interview
- were sent to us by a reader whose header was maliciously garbled by an
- experimental editing program. Our new associate moderator, Etiam
- Shrdlu, assumes full responsibility and apologizes. The poster
- indicated that the interview originally appeared on Activist-L bitnet
- hotline. Background information on the Inslaw case, in which the U.S.
- government is suspected by some of conspiring to steal software and
- cover up its theft, see CuDs 3.30, 3.31, and 3.33)).
-
- +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++=
-
- The following interview was broadcast over Pacifica Radio Network station
- WBAI-FM
- 505 Eighth Ave., 19th Fl.
- New York, NY 10018 (212) 279-0707
-
- on September 29, 1991.
-
- * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *
- SAMORI MARKSMAN:
- We go to our next guest, Harry Martin, who is the publisher of
- the Napa Sentinel [Napa, California] and who has been doing an
- extraordinary amount of investigatory work around the Inslaw affair.
- We will begin by welcoming Harry Martin back to WBAI. Good morning.
- Just to let you know that I'm in the studio with Paul DeRienzo.
- .....
- [deleted some previously discussed information]
-
- HARRY MARTIN:
- The person who is awaiting criminal prosecution is Michael
- Riconosciuto, of course. But mind you, he was not arrested at the time
- he made the deposition. He gave a deposition to Congress, and he
- indicated to the committee that if he went ahead and testified --as he
- did -- therefore, he would be subject to arrest within a short period
- of time. Within seven days he was arrested! But Ari Ben-Menashe is
- certainly not under any criminal arrest. He is a member of the Israeli
- Mossad [intelligence agency]. And the other people who have come
- forward and testified to these various things are not in jail. Michael
- Riconosciuto is a man who has signed an affidavit, and yes, he is in
- jail awaiting criminal charges of supposedly owning a methamphetamine
- lab in Pearce Conty, Washington. However, after he was arrested --
- while I was on a Seattle radio show, I was on hold and the news came
- on -- there were three methamphetamine labs broken up in Pearce
- County, Washington, not associated with him whatsoever. And it would
- lead to the suspicion that perhaps they were all connected to one
- thing and had nothing to do with Michael, but they decided to hang one
- on him right after his testimony.
-
- PAUL DeRIENZO:
- Why don't you give us some background on who Ari Ben-Menashe is,
- because his name has come up on a number of different issues.
-
- HARRY MARTIN:
- His name has turned up on the October Surprise and everything else.
- He is a member of the Mossad and he apparently indicates that he is a
- witness to the exchange of the PROMIS software to the Iraqis in
- Santiago, Chile. Now there was also a British Air Force officer who
- was a witness to that thing, supposedly, and he was hung. And they
- declared that to be suicide. That was in Chile. Ben-Menashe has come
- forward on a lot of things, but you have to understand that the
- Israelis, at the present time, are also very irritated with the Bush
- Administration. And you cannot be sure how much information and
- disinformation is being passed around.
-
- PAUL DeRIENZO:
- How about Mr. Riconosciuto? We discussed the legal problems he got
- himself in after he spoke out. But what is his history?
-
- HARRY MARTIN:
- He's a very brilliant computer scientist. He has worked inside the CIA
- for a long time. And nobody can deny this fact. Nobody is challenging
- that particular role. He was the man who had the access keys to almost
- any computer situation: monies, who's who and everything else. He's
- very dangerous in the aspect that he has all that knowledge of the key
- players in many, many things. And, of course, his affidavit stated
- that he converted the PROMIS software using the Cabazon Indian
- reservation, in Indio, California to do this. And Dr. Earl Brian was
- very much involved there. That place was also used for the manufacture
- of biological warfare and chemical warfare to be used by the Contras
- in Nicaragua. Testimony has come forward from many people that that
- whole Indian tribe and those people running it are shown by the
- California Department of Justice to have Mafia and CIA ties. This is
- a documented situation. But jurisdiction becomes a problem because it
- is an independent Indian nation.
-
- .....
-
- PAUL DeRIENZO:
- We have reports that have come out in COMPUTERWORLD and other sources
- based on these statements made by Mr. Ben-Menashe and Mr. Riconosciuto
- that Robert McFarlane, who was the former National Security Advisor,
- was involved in giving the Israeli Government copies of this software.
- Bill Hamilton says that he found out, quite by accident, that Canada
- was using it widely; that the Royal Canadian Mounted Police were using
- it in their intelligence facilities.
-
- .....
-
- Now, what was the role of the Indian reservation?
-
- HARRY MARTIN:
- Well, there are several Indian reservations that are being used by the
- Wackenhut Corporation and intelligence agencies to do things like
- manufacture equipment or ..... They can skip a lot of corners because
- these nations are technically independent. For instance, one
- reservation is in New Mexico, but it also goes across the Mexican
- border. Therefore, it becomes an open corridor where you don't use
- customs or anything because part of your properties are in one country
- and part is in another. And they have used these Indian tribes for
- everything from the manufacture of weapons to the software situation,
- opening up gambling casinos. And understand, a lot of the money
- involved in the savings and loan scandal came from the Bureau of
- Indian Affairs. The Bureau of Indian Affairs puts out money to be
- invested on short-term notices, and this is how a lot of the savings
- and loans that went down started up. And that's where a lot of their
- money came from.
-
- There could be a lot of inter-ties in there. It is so complex, and of
- course, Danny Casolaro referred to it as "the Octopus". You can
- understand why now, because it gets into .... You see, the trouble is,
- you can't isolate Inslaw by itself. Inslaw by itself is just a minor
- thing compared with the overall package. The total corruption that
- seems to have played around --Iran/Contra gets involved, and the
- October Surprise gets involved. There are just so many players that
- keep coming across each other, and it's a really massive story. I
- don't know anybody who is going to get the whole picture.
-
- ........
-
- PAUL DeRIENZO:
- What I'm trying to get at are the connections that might lead to
- an investigation, or try to force an investigation into these
- things because it seems that when you have a reporter who is
- found dead under mysterious circumstances, by anybody's definition,
- it deserves being looked into further rather than a simple ruling
- that this was a suicide because .....
-
- HARRY MARTIN:
- You have to understand now, Inslaw was sort of on the back burner of
- the public limelight. In other words, I'm getting letters now from
- your program last week in which people say they haven't heard too
- much about this thing on the East Coast. Originally, Inslaw was
- carried by the Washington Times, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and
- ourselves. And we're the only three newspapers in the whole nation
- giving any credence or concentration to it.
-
- PAUL DeRIENZO:
- Actually, Barron's also.
-
- HARRY MARTIN:
- The Sam Nunn Committee got nowhere because the Justice Department
- refused to turn over any records whatsoever. And Jack Brooks's
- Committee, which is in our Congress, has already had some hearings
- and some of the testimony is from Judge Bason and so forth. But
- again, the Justice Department is stonewalling it in refusing to
- give documentation up. And, of course, my question is: Who's in
- control, the Congress or the Justice Department? The thing is
- that the death of Danny Casolaro has opened this to the fact that
- you're seeing more and more questions asking: What is this Inslaw
- case? And that in itself is going to open up more questions into
- other things. See, if they open up the Inslaw case, it's just
- going to be the tip of the iceberg, and they may find a lot of
- other things involved and interconnected. Perhaps Danny's death
- is going to give more impetus to the Brooks Committee. It's
- certainly beginning to wake up the national media which really
- slept on this thing. These things take time. Look how long it took
- Watergate. And Iran/Contra really never got anywhere.
-
- SAMORI MARKSMAN:
- We want to let our listeners know that we are speaking with
- Harry Martin who is the publisher of the Napa Sentinel, and as
- you've been hearing, we're focusing on a rather intriguing story --
- which involves some major players in the political affairs of
- this society -- but which isn't receiving the kind of attention
- that the issue deserves. We here at WBAI are attempting to do so
- today and we will continue to do so.
- .....
- Paul, I want to ask Harry to go back to a point which he alluded
- to earlier. We had been talking about the breadth of this issue,
- that it's not simply the disappearance of Danny, that there are
- many others who have been killed in similarly mysterious
- circumstances, although some perhaps less mysteriously than others.
- Could you discuss that again for us, Harry Martin, and show what
- was a common thread linking these various deaths?
-
- HARRY MARTIN:
- Well, much of the common thread is Danny Casolaro himself. We have
- Standorf, who worked for a secret [government] communications
- division outside of Washington [D.C.]. He was funneling documents
- to Danny at all times, and he was found beaten to death in his car
- at National Airport in Washington. And of course, Danny indicated
- that his sources had [since] dried up. Apparently, they had set up
- a thing in the Hilton Hotel, in room 900, in which they had
- high-speed equipment, and they were duplicating everything as
- quickly as possible to get them back in [returned to] the files.
-
- Then of course, we have Mr. Ng who was in Guatemala. He worked
- for the Financial Times of London. He was working on this case,
- but he was also working on the Wackenhut Corporation and following
- a key witness to the murders of some Cabazon Indians. And he was
- found shot to death in Guatemala.
-
- And then, of course, Michael Riconosciuto's attorney -- Eiselman,
- I think it is. I don't have my notes in front of me -- from
- Philadelphia, was en route to pick up material proving that
- Riconosciuto was, in fact, telling the truth. And he was found
- shot to death.
-
- All these things, with the exception of Standorf, were written off
- as suicides. And Michael May, who we wrote of as being tied into
- that, and who had had communications with Casolaro .... and also,
- he was the man who supposedly filtered the forty million dollars
- to the Iranians as the down payment on the "October Surprise" --
- we wrote about him on a Friday in June, and on a Wednesday in
- San Francisco he was found dead. They said it was a heart attack.
- Later on, the autopsy revealed that it was polypharmaceuticals
- that were in his system, and it was not a heart attack.
-
- Michael Riconosciuto's arrest, of course .... It would take me
- forever to explain them all, but that gives you a synopsis of
- some of the things that have happened to people associated with
- that particular case.
-
- PAUL DeRIENZO:
- Let's concentrate on one of the more outrageous of these murders.
- And that, besides Casolaro's death (many people, including
- Bill Hamilton call that a murder) ....
-
- HARRY MARTIN:
- We refer to them as deaths. We're not taking the total line yet
- that they were murders.
-
- +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
-
- PAUL DeRIENZO:
- There is conflict on these [deaths], but they are very suspicious.
- One actual murder that nobody will deny was that of Mr. Alvarez,
- the crusading member of the Cabazon Indians who opposed the ....
-
- HARRY MARTIN:
- Absolutely! And he was shot with two other people, execution style.
- Jimmy Hughes was a man who worked for Wackenhut and who was the
- bag-man to bring the money over [to pay for the contract murders
- of Fred Alvarez and company]. And he has testified to the
- Riverside County [California] District Attorney's office. He is
- now in hiding in Guatemala, of course. That's where Mr. Ng
- was down to see him. He also carried a lot of other information
- which was extremely damaging. We were able to talk to people who
- helped him escape, because he came up this way at first, and now
- he's down in Guatemala. The Indian situation itself is its own
- scandal. Then there's the Wackenhut Corporation, and you get
- into Inslaw .... Like I say, its just so wide you would need a
- massive computer just to do a chart.
-
- PAUL DeRIENZO:
- Can we focus now on Alvarez? Can you tell us that story?
-
- HARRY MARTIN:
- Alvarez was basically the head of the Cabazon Indians, and when
- Wackenhut and Dr. Brian and people came in to take over and create
- the gambling parlors and to convert the Inslaw software and to
- manufacture chemical warfare weapons and so forth, he protested.
- He wanted control of the Indian tribe back. And he was summarily
- executed. The money came from the people who were running that,
- according to the testimony of Jimmy Hughes, which is on file with
- the State of California in the Riverside County D.A.'s office.
- Incidentally now, after all these years they have finally reopened
- that case in Riverside because of the publicity associated with
- the Inslaw case.
-
- PAUL DeRIENZO:
- At first, there was a grand jury investigation and there were no
- indictments or suspects mentioned in that first investigation.
-
- HARRY MARTIN:
- And yet, Hughes testified to names, places, events, everything.
-
- PAUL DeRIENZO:
- Mr. John P. Nichols, who was at that time the head of the tribe
- and who now is an advisor to the Cabazon Indians, said that the
- death of Mr. Alvarez and two non-Indian companions, who were found
- shot to death with him, had nothing to do with what's going on in
- the Cabazon reservation.
-
- HARRY MARTIN:
- Yet, Jimmy Hughes has testified to the Riverside people that
- John Nichols is the one who gave him the money to deliver to the
- hit-man in Palm Springs. Also, Mr. John Nichols was later on
- convicted for murder-for-hire and his sons are now technically
- running the tribe.
-
- PAUL DeRIENZO:
- He was actually convicted rather than charged? I heard he was
- brought up on charges. But he was actually convicted of that?
-
- HARRY MARTIN:
- Absolutely.
-
- PAUL DeRIENZO:
- But Mr. Nichols seems to have a tremendous amount of support.
- >From what I understand, he's getting a lot of support from
- liberal figures such as James Aboureszk, the former senator from
- South Dakota.
-
- HARRY MARTIN:
- You have to understand, Mr. Nichols, by his own boasting and
- through other publications, indicates that he was involved in
- the assassination of [democratically elected President of Chile,
- Salvador] Allende, and he was involved in the attempted
- assassination of [Cuban Premier Fidel] Castro. His links as a
- C.I.A. contractor -- his links with the Mafia are well documented
- with the State of California. Therefore, obviously he's going to
- get some support from groups that are probably within that channel.
-
- .....
-
- SAMORI MARKSMAN:
- Harry Martin, we'd like to thank you very much for joining us
- again here on WBAI. Any closing points that you would like to make?
-
- HARRY MARTIN:
- Well, just that Danny's concept of an "Octopus" .... you can see
- exactly what he was talking about. The tentacles went everywhere,
- and he seemed to be on the verge of breaking a lot of that
- information. And then all of his records, everything disappeared.
- And he died. To say that a journalist would commit suicide when
- he's on the verge of breaking a big story is ludicrous because
- anybody knowing a journalist knows that once they are on a drive,
- neither food nor anything else matters but to get that story
- across. He was very close to it, and you don't cash in the chips
- on the verge of winning the jackpot.
-
- SAMORI MARKSMAN:
- So true. Harry Martin, publisher of the Napa [California] Sentinel,
- thank you very much for joining us here on WBAI, non-commercial,
- listener-sponsored Pacifica Radio at 99.5 FM in New York.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Sun, 26 Jan 1992 11:44:21 CST
- From: Cayman Zahn <CZA@CAMP1.SYSONE.COM>
- Subject: File 4--PRA and Owens Bill
-
- ((Your readers might be interested in the following that came
- across the nets))
-
- ++++ Original Message ++++
-
- >Date: Thu, 23 Jan 1992 16:23:42 EST
- >From: James P Love<LOVE@PUCC.BITNET>
- >Subject: PRA and Owens Bill
-
- A number of persons have asked me how the Owens Bill (HR 3459) and the
- Paperwork Reduction Act (PRA) relate to each other. From our point of
- view, they represent competing approaches to federal information
- policy. Not only do these bills accomplish different things, but it
- is highly unlikely that both bills will be acted on by Congress.
-
- THE PRA
-
- The sections of the PRA that deal with the dissemination of government
- information largely reflect IIA's vision of federal information
- policy.
-
- 1. Agency mandates to disseminate information are qualified by the
- existence of private sector "equivalent" products and services.
-
- 2. The law limits agency prices for information "products," which
- vendors buy, but not "services," which would include such things
- as online access to government information systems.
-
- 3. While the PRA would benefit data users and vendors by prohibiting
- royalties on government information, it may also prohibit
- agencies from limiting the prices vendors charge for access to
- services such as CENDATA or the FEC database.
-
- 4. The PRA only requires public notice when agencies start or
- terminate "significant" new information products and services.
- These are when privatization issues are important. There are no
- provisions for public notice to review an existing policy to see
- if it is adequate in light of changing technologies, or to raise
- hundreds of user concerns over things like standards for file
- formats, query command structures, user interfaces, indexes or
- other important features of information dissemination programs.
-
- 5. The PRA strengthens OMB's role in setting federal information
- policy. OMB has a long record of promoting the privatization of
- federal information resources.
-
- THE OWENS BILL
-
- The Owens bill was drafted from the point of view of data users.
-
- 1. Agency have an unambiguous mandate to disseminate information
- using modern technologies. Not only is the intent as expressed
- in the findings quite good, but the bill specifically mentions
- such things as the use of national computer networks.
-
- 2. Agency prices are limited for goods _and_ services.
-
- 3. The Owens bill bans agency royalties or fees for the
- redissemination of information, but it doesn't place other
- restrictions on federal agencies.
-
- 4. The public notice sections of the Owens bill are extensive, and
- they address, on an annual basis, issues such as standards for
- file formats, query command structures, user interfaces, and
- indexes, as well as agency product lines, prices, outlets, and a
- number of other things.
-
- 5. OMB will be constrained by the Owens bill, since the bill
- carefully sets out agency mandates to disseminate information,
- but OMB isn't given powers to make federal information policy.
- NIST and NARA are asked to become more involved in federal
- information policy.
-
- POLITICS OF THE TWO BILLS
-
- 1. IIA wants a bill that addresses the pricing of government
- information. Vendors are disturbed by the recent attempts to
- place royalties on the redisseminate of ocean tariff information.
- Both bills would address this issue.
-
- 2. The IIA has told its membership that the Owens bill is consistent
- with IIA principles.
-
- 3. The PRA probably can't pass without the support of the library
- community.
-
- 4. IIA is asking the library community to cut a deal on the PRA.
-
- 5. The PRA is a political tar baby, because it gets into many
- unrelated subjects, such as OMB's authority to review agency
- regulations before they are published, or the authority of
- agencies to require firms to disclose health warnings to third
- parties. The heavy hitters in those disputes don't care about
- the information dissemination parts of the bill, and federal
- information policy ends up being lost in the public debates.
-
- We have opposed the passage of the PRA and we have supported the
- passage of the Owens bill. We don't think OMB has much to recommend
- it as a maker of federal information policy. If you disagree, ask
- yourself this questions: Who else in the federal government would
- want OMB to set policy? Do education groups want OMB to set education
- policy? Do scientists want OMB to set science policy? OMB is
- primarily staffed by accounting and management types who have little
- background or commitment to the development and use information
- resources or technologies. Why put them in the drivers seat?
- +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
- James Love, Director VOICE: 609-683-0534
- Taxpayer Assets Project FAX: 202-234-5176
- 7-Z Magie, Faculty Road bitnet: Love@pucc.bitnet
- Princeton, NJ 08540 internet: Love@pucc.princeton.edu
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Sat, 25 Jan 1992 15:29:46 EST
- From: Bennett Crook <BCROOK@WAYNEST1.BITNET>
- Subject: File 5--EFF on PRA/Owen bills
-
- ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++Original message++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
- The Electronic Frontier Foundation strongly disagrees with the Jamie
- Love/Taxpayer Assets project interpretation of the Paperwork Reduction
- Act Information Dissemination Sections. We support PRA. It is not
- perfect legislation but it embodies postive obligation of goverment
- agencies to disseminate public information in all formats and supports
- a diversity of information sources.
-
- Make no mistake. The TAP/Love Approach sometimes appears to envision
- the government as the sole producer of government information.This is
- inconsistent with free flow of information, diversity of sources for
- government originated information.We dont want goverment to monopolize
- info as we do not want private sector to do the same.
-
- EFF, ACLU, OMB Watch, support PRA.
-
- But we also support OWENS BILL!!!! Problem is that owens does little
- except require agencies to report on dissemination activities. Good.
- But also amends FOIA (Freedom of Info Act) which is fine but not easy
- and cannot be considered independent of S 1939, Leahy (DVT, SEn) bill
- to create Electronic Freedom of Information Act. PRA is in public
- interest. Owens is in public interest. Electronic Foia in public
- interest. Lets support them all.
-
- J. Berman, EFF Wash Office Director.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Tue, 28 Jan 1992 14:20:09 EST
- From: James P Love <LOVE@PUCC.BITNET>
- Subject: File 6--PRA/Owens Bill (response to EFF response)
-
- ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++Original message++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
-
- January 27, 1992
-
- Jerry Berman
- Director, Washington Office,
- EFF
- 666 Pennsylvania Avenue, SE
- Suite 303
- Washington, DC 20003
-
- RE: PRA/Owens Bill
-
- Dear Jerry:
-
- Here are my suggestions regarding the principles that should
- prevail in a PRA (and/or) Owens bill.
-
- 1. Agencies should have an unambiguous mandate to provide
- access to federal information in a variety of formats and
- modes. The agencies should make reasonable efforts to
- respond to requests for access to data stored in electronic
- formats. This should include requests that data be
- disseminated in ways that make it convenient to receive and
- use (i.e. floppy disks, CD-ROMs, standardized record
- structures).
-
- 2. Agencies should have a clear mandate to provide online
- access to government information, and to use computer
- networks, such as the Internet, for dissemination.
-
- 3. Agencies should provide information products and services to
- the federal depository library program.
-
- 4. The agency should provide access to underlying records of
- databases, as well as to value added services, including
- those that are developed for use by government employees.
-
- 5. The agency's mandate to disseminate information should not
- evaporate simply because there are private sector
- alternatives. (i.e. the PRA "check list").
-
- 6. The government should charge no more than the incremental
- cost of dissemination for information products _and_
- services.
-
- 7. Agencies should be encouraged to embrace standards for such
- things as record formats and query commands.
-
- 8. The public should have frequent and regular opportunities to
- review agency policies and practices and offer criticisms.
- Agencies should be required to say what they have done about
- those criticisms.
-
- 9. The legislation should not enhance OMB's role in setting
- federal information policy. 11 years of ORIA work in this
- area should be enough to convince anyone that OMB is a
- terrible choice for this role.
-
- 10. The legislation should not become embroiled with battles
- over OMB's powers to review federal regulations or the
- federal government's authority to require firms to post
- health and safety notices. These are important issues, but
- when the legislation embraces these issues no one pays any
- attention to the information dissemination issues. Federal
- information policy is too important to be decided in an
- environment where every move is determined by players who do
- not care or know about information policy issues.
-
- In my mind, the Owens bill addresses these issues better than the
- PRA. Perhaps it is possible to incorporate features of the Owens
- Bill in the PRA legislation, while avoiding the negative baggage
- that the Paperwork Reduction Act carries with it. I'm not
- convinced, but I have an open mind.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: 18 Jan 92 11:55:48 GMT
- From: nick@KRALIZEC.ZETA.ORG.AU(Nick Andrew)
- Subject: File 7--Re: Cud 402--Law Enforcement, the Government & You
-
- Jon Pugh <jpugh@APPLE.COM> writes:
-
- > If you were assigned to track down computer criminals and you
- >didn't know a bit from a scuzzy disk controller, where would you start
- >looking? On bulletin boards and at computer club meetings, of course.
-
- The above statement presupposes that "where there are bulletin boards
- and computer club meetings, there is computer crime". That may be true
- in certain places, however for the general case it is certainly
- incorrect.
-
- If I might make an analogy, it is akin to the logic of saying "People
- sometimes smoke Grass. Most people who smoke Grass drive cars.
- Grass-smoking drivers often carry Grass in their cars. So therefore we
- should search a lot of cars at random, in the hope of finding Grass
- smokers."
-
- The analogy leads to an undesirable situation - that of law officials
- interfering with people going about their business and searching their
- personal property without any suspicion of wrongdoing. They _hope_ to
- find grass, and they know if they stop 1 car in X, they will find
- some.
-
- The situation with computer hobbyists is as undesirable. Nobody wants
- law officials peeping into computer clubs trying to find a hint of
- wrongdoing. The logic is backwards. Firstly find the wrongdoing - the
- crack, or phreaking, then work towards the perpetrator. Not the other
- way around.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- Date: Sat, 25 Jan 1992 11:27:32 -0500
- From: Craig Neidorf <kl@STORMKING.COM>
- Subject: File 8--The Harsh Reality of Life
-
- THE HARSH REALITY OF LIFE
-
- by Craig Neidorf kl@stormking.com
-
- January 18-19, 1992 marked the two-year anniversary of my visit from
- and subsequent raid by the United States Secret Service, Southwestern
- Bell Security, and the University of Missouri Police Department.
-
- The publicity and attention that once surrounded United States v.
- Craig Neidorf has long been over, and; for most people involved life
- has returned to normal and those events are history.
-
- Unfortunately things are not quite as simple for me.
-
- After my trial concluded, I went back to school at the University of
- Missouri, and hit the books hard. I earned a 4.0 (straight A average)
- that semester, focusing on political science and pre-law courses. I
- did almost as well the following spring and summer semesters. I
- graduated on August 2, 1991.
-
- However, my legal bills remained very high. In fact, my parents and I
- still owe close to $50,000.
-
- I have always been uncomfortable with the idea of actually making a
- direct appeal to people to send donations in to my defense fund, but
- over the last year and a half, my idealism about the future has faded
- and been replaced with reality.
-
- At the end of my trial, my legal fees totaled about $108,000 and this
- figure does not include travel expenses in going back and forth to
- Chicago from St. Louis and Columbia or any other related expenditures
- that I had to make during that 7 month period.
-
- - This figure does not include the money I lost by having to drop most
- of my classes at the University of Missouri that semester because I
- could not consistently attend class during my ordeal.
-
- - This figure does not reflect the pain and suffering that my family
- and I were put through by a malicious and ignorant prosecutor and
- other similarly unpleasant people at Bellsouth, Illinois Bell,
- Bellcore, and AT&T.
-
- - This figure does not include the traumatic incidents of my
- suspension from the Zeta Beta Tau fraternity or the threats of
- expulsion I received from the Chancellor's office of the University
- of Missouri.
-
- - And finally this figure does not include the additional $900 I had
- to spend to finally get my arrest records expunged. That fee could
- and should have been avoided altogether except as with the trial,
- William Cook (the assistant U.S. attorney) opposed my motion for
- expungement and so several more motions and court appearances were
- necessary for me to achieve victory.
-
- The number one MYTH about my legal fees is that they were paid by the
- Electronic Frontier Foundation. This is complete fiction. Although I
- appeared to have been somewhat of a spokesperson and "poster-child"
- for the EFF throughout 1990 and 1991, and despite what you may have
- read anywhere else, there were no monetary contributions granted to me
- by that organization. NONE. There was a private and very generous
- donation made by Mitch Kapor personally, but this is separate from the
- EFF.
-
- EFF did pay for some legal motions to be filed in my case regarding
- the First Amendment, but since these motions were denied, they
- impacted only slightly on the outcome of my trial. The most
- beneficial outcome of the EFF's involvement with my case was the
- general increase in awareness in the community at large to the issues
- my case presented.
-
- +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
-
- Well more than a year has passed since the day my trial ended...
-
- My entire life savings that I had stored for college and law school
- was needed as a downpayment on my legal fees and my parents of course
- had to give up most of their savings as well. A payment plan was
- arranged over what looks to be a 10 year period. We had no choice,
- but to accept that these were the cards life had dealt us and after
- all things could be much worse. I have my health and my freedom (such
- as it is) and such things are worth more than money.
-
- However, I am a young person starting out in life. I have applied to
- several law schools across the country, both public and private.
- Unfortunately, after reviewing my financial options, I have discovered
- that the expense of a legal education may now place it very far beyond
- my means.
-
- Like a very large number of Americans, the recession has hit home,
- putting my father out of work and keeping my mother in a job beneath
- her talents.
-
- It seriously pains me to have to do this, but trust me when I tell you
- that I've thought about this for a long time. I need YOUR HELP to get
- my legal bills paid. I need to be able to live my life without this
- debt hanging over my head. There are at least 343 people on the
- Phrack emailing list alone: If each person only contributed $30 it
- would save me over $10,000. You see helping me out is not beyond the
- reach of our community if we all work together. Consider it an
- investment in your future, because what happened to me can happen to
- anyone and with a legal education I'll be back to return the favor.
-
- If you find that you can afford to help me, you have my most sincere
- thanks and appreciation. I know a lot of you are in tight financial
- situations like me and can sympathize with what I am going through.
- If you are unable to help me because you are having problems of your
- own then you have my sympathy as well.
-
- Please make checks or money orders payable to: Katten, Muchin, &
- Zavis
-
- Send them to: Sheldon Zenner
- Katten, Muchin, & Zavis
- 525 West Monroe Street
- Suite 1600
- Chicago, Illinois 60606-3693
-
- And do not forget to write my name in the memo section or enclose a
- letter explaining what the check is for. If you neglect to do that,
- KMZ will not credit my account for the amount of the check.
-
-
- PS - I'd also appreciate any tips or leads on potential sources of
- financial aid, grants, and scholarships available for an aspiring law
- student.
-
- ------------------------------
-
- From: anonymous@name.deleted
- Subject: File 9--Len Rose seeks Unix work upon release
- Date: 23 Jan 92 06:03:13 GMT
-
- ((Readers might be interested in the following posted on the nets
- by Mark Hittinger--a.a.))
-
- >From time to time I've corresponded with Len Rose, mostly trying to
- get him through his bad times and to get him thinking about the future
- in the right way.
-
- Time does fly when you are having fun, even the time you make a plea
- bargain for. It is time for Len to start thinking about employment so
- I'm posting an "ad" that Len wrote. Len does not know where in the
- "food chain" he may find himself, so the chance to obtain heavy Unix
- time at a discount exists! Len will very much appreciate any leads or
- offers. He's got two little ones at
- home.
-
- Unix work desired.
- Systems administration or general consulting.
- Will be released from Federal prison soon.
- (See Computer Underground Digest Archives or the Electronic Frontier
- Foundation Archives for more details).
-
- Extensive experience: System V, AIX (RS/6000), SCO
- Communications: TCP/IP, UUCP, ect.
- 'C' programming language.
- Security auditing, general system administration.
- Extensive 'anti-hacker' experience.
- Extensive MS-DOS background.
- Heavy hardware experience including installations from the ground up.
- Willing to travel widely, relocation at your desire, including international.
-
- Please send inquiries to:
-
- Len Rose/27154-037
- FPC Seymour Johnson AFB
- Caller Box 8004, PMB 187
- Goldsboro, NC 27531-8004
-
- ------------------------------
-
- End of Computer Underground Digest #4.04
- ************************************
-