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US Military Uses Spam, Internet Explorer
chundo writes "CNN reports that the United States government has been secretly encouraging the defection of senior Iraqi officials via email. Iraq is responding by shutting down some of their internet gateways to prevent these emails from getting through, forcing the US to find alternate means to deliver the message. Maybe they should have enlisted this guy - emails from him keep showing up in my inbox no matter what I do." This story about the growing military network bandwidth crunch shows the U.S. military trying hard to get every soldier online, all the time.
Not 72 virgins I hope.
RE: Pictures of Alah! Download now!
RE: Make money selling burkas from your home.
RE: Gain weight now!
To: saddam@iraq.com
Subj: Hot Iraqi Women in your Email!
You have credit problms? Is you penis to small? Well you hav win $1,000,00 million dollars! Click here to claim you prize mony and send a nuke your way.
I'm the Devil the Windows users warned you about.
So with all the spam, now the Iraqui leaders get a chance to help all those Nigerians get money out of the country. I bet they also have 12 inch penises, have overcome hairloss, and have lost 10 pounds just this past week. What are we trying to do...create a race of wealthy, well hung, rich guys to fight against?
"All you need is Internet Explorer," says Doug Barton, the director of technology for Lockheed Martin Mission Systems, based in Gaithersburg, Md.
The "bandwidth crunch link".
I don't know about your email servers, but don't you go under the assumption that your email is being read by your ISP, or your boss?
How does the US expect their defectors to reply to the offers? They can't very well send them by email for fear of being nabbed. Maybe they tell them to draw a big 'V' in the ground so the spy satellites can see that they want to vacate Iraq?
Saskboy's blog is good. 9 out of 10 dentists agree.
Mr. IRAQI PERSON,
You MAY be SURPRISED to receive this, but THE OFFICE GIRL said that you were a most TRUSTWORTHY PERSON. I beg you Forgive me for contacting you without prior contacting your office, but I am looking for a WORTHY business PARTNER to donate the sum of USD 124.5 million dollars. I am the son of the FORMER president of the U.S.A GEORGE BUSH who initiated a MILITARY CAMPAIGN in 1991. During this campaign, we discovered HUNDREDS of MILLIONS of DOLLARS stolen from THE REBELS. OUR economy is IN TROUBLE and we MUST get this MONEY overseas before the people DISCOVER it. We will gladly be willing to pay you the SUM of 26 MILLION DOLLARS for ASSISTING US. I pray to GOD that you will HELP US get this MONEY out of the country. ALL we need FROM you is your PASSPORT and SIGNATURE which you can fax to me or my colleauges to initiate the transfer of the MILLIONS of dollars. I remain your most humble SERVANT, and PRAY that you will be OUR SAVIOR.
SINCERELY,
MR. PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH
There is no sig, there is only Zuul.
Iraq has no diplomatic relations with Nigeria.
"shows the U.S. military trying hard to get every soldier online, all the time."
Do they really need to be playing CounterStrike in the gulf *war*?
Try sharing 256K over an encrypted up and down link through microwave radios to satellite throughout your 100+ user network. Don't forget the Marine Corps only uses NT 4.0 servers and Internet Explorer. Then watch some idiots who claim they NEED their LAN drops install AIM and Kazaa and forward a money making scheme from "Bill Gates" to your whole network and kick your Exchange server's ass in the process.
Then fantasize about your Linux boxes at home as you try to salvage some idiot officer's "important files" from his Outlook virus infested brand new Dell laptop that he didn't deserve and no one loaded Norton on since he took it home every night and "was too busy" to let some enlisted IT guy fix w/ our standard program load.
Can you tell I'm not looking forward to deploying?
This guy is way out there
rather near the border of cuba, america has radio brodcasts of pro-america (capitalism, democracy, etc) and anti-castro (cuba, communist, socialist, etc) propoganda including all sorts of subversive songs and talk, all illegal to broadcast in cuba. the stations are rather popular, too.
Use my userscript to add story images to Slashdot. There's no going back.
What I think really happened was a 12 year old kid hacked the Pentagon computers again and wanted to use all that technology to make some money, BUT at the same time, be patriotic. So what'd he do? Spam. He's getting 5 cents a click on the "Defect to USA" and "Fuck Saddam" pages AND he's dicking with Iraq.
(FwooshSpinSpinSpinGargle) -- the sound of my karma as I click the Submit button)
Sig & Below
Yuck Fou
--
"we live in a post-ideological world..." - Billy Bragg.
I get spam from the military all the time. Ever since they got a list of names in high school I receive emails and snail mail letters encouraging me to "Join the ROTC", "Get Money for College", etc. Now that I'm graduating I get "Become an Officer in the US Military" letters. I guess if marketing is aggressive enough they won't have to bring back the draft.
sig
what the hell else will keep out there in trenches? ask any ww2 vet, and he'll tell ya. spam was a major part of the lend/lease program, so you brits should know about that too.
(-1, Raw and Uncut is the only way to read)
But, if the US military is sending public key encryption to Iraqis, doesn't that violate the US Dept of Commerce's commercial encryption export laws?
Tuus crepidae innexilis sunt.
Err ... no. Bush I. chose to retreat from Iraq to have a justification for U.S. troops to remain stationed all over the Middle East. They went there during the Gulf war and never left. As for the press, it was heavily (and voluntarily) censored during that time, virtually all the footage was Army-approved, and in fact provided by the Army.
Anyway, it was expected that Saddam would comply with U.S. interests after his defeat, without having to occupy Iraq and thus remove the need for U.S. 'protection' in the area. After this had proven wrong, the sanctions were put in place. Saddam remained defiant, and that's why the U.S. is heading there again.
Did you know you can fertilize your lawn with used motor oil?
To: centralcommand@us.mil
From: WhiskeyBravo49@iraq.us.mil
Subject: Request Instructions
Priority: High^H^H^H^HCritic^H^H^H^H^HANSWER ME NOW DAMNIT!
We're being shot at. Please advise. Thanks.
Lt. James Parker, USAF
555-555-5555 x555 (M-F 8a-5pm)
Of course, Central Command probably just has an autoreply set up.
Thank you for contacting Central Command. We are experiencing a higher than normal email volume due to the war in Iraq. Please be patient while we get to your email in the order that it was received. Your comments and questions are important to use, and thank you for risking your life for the USA.
I do not know your education level, but I would guess you are either young, or have not gone beyond basic primary education. You will eventually learn not to beleive everything you see.
#1 The media does not have access to Allied intelligence. Without access to the solid information that Iraq is a problem, they will publish many stories that are questioning the US position on Iraq simply because it's the only thing they have that is interresting to read.
#2 I live in Japan and my friends here as well as some friends I have in China would all disagree with you. Granted, they all have at least college degrees and have spent enough time studying governement and political science to realize that the situation in Iraq is more than just a personal problem with GW Bush....Iraq's actions have negatively affected the whole region and pose a real threat to the stability of trade in the region. This eventually effects us all as it could provide a chain reaction of rising inflation should those trade routes be disrupted. Inflation that outpaces income growth will widen the gap between the "haves" and the "have nots" which could potentially unbalance countries with existing unrest.
It's all about being a responsible citizen of the planet. Iraq has taken the attitude that it should be free to do whatever it wants. Unfortunately, personal freedom can only go so far before it begins to conflict with the freedoms of others. The UN is involved in this for a reason. And lacking all the info myself, I will trust that these educated men and women who represent their countries in the UN have expressed an interrest because they have credible evidence that the problem is real.
I've dirtied my hands writing poetry, for the sake of seduction; that is, for the sake of a useful cause. --Dostoevsky
Now Iraq is going to strike back with suicide email bombers.
One line blog. I hear that they're called Twitters now.
I personally would love to see this guy's response to a message from the US government.
(Someone has waaaaay too much time on their hands)
www.clarke.ca
I assume that the hardware/software necessary would fall under UN sanctions, which I assume have been in effect since the end of the first
Persian Gulf War. This is pretty curious to me... where does Iraq hook up to the net -- what countries does it peer up with? What's their total bandwidth?
Can private citizens even get on the Internet at all there?
There's 10 types of people in this world, those who understand binary and those who don't.
Whilst the technology changes, using propaganda to sap the enemy's will to fight is as old as warfare itself. A famous (though largely unsuccessful, apparently) attempt at such was Tokyo Rose, one of many female broadcasters on radio Tokyo during World War II who mixed American music with propaganda.
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo
--Andy Finkel (J. Klass?)
They watch a lot of "Nick at Nite".
mstyne: real name, no gimmicks
Oh come on, there are no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. The USA has had a massive surveillance operation running for years, they have spy sattelites and planes, and they bugged the phone lines, and they gave their info to the UN inspectors, and the inspectors conducted 250 unannounced surprise raids on those places and still found nothing!
How much more proof do you need that Iraq does not have weapons of mass destruction?
Spamming them may be a good plan to waste enough of their time to delay their progress, but it sure isn't stopping them from using the ones they have now -- because they don't have any!
By the way: read this poll result in Portugal; more than 70% of the population think that the USA is the biggest threat to world peace today. 3% say it's Iraq, 1% say it's China. 12% say it's Israel.
All this warmongering will only make things worse. First of all, it gave North Korea a legitimate excuse to leave the nuclear proliferation treaty. After all, Bush said he will to preventive strikes against his enemies, and he said North Korea is part of the Axis of Evil, so he actually gave North Korea the only good excuse to build more weapons.
Bush should focus on rebuilding the economy he ruined so thoroughly, not on bombing Iraq and alienating Europe. Do you have any idea how frightened the South Koreans must be now, and all of that just because of a few dumb remarks from Mr. Bush?
CNN learned about the operation Friday afternoon, and was initially asked not to report on it by senior Bush administration officials. Those officials later decided the information could be released.
Remember, way back in the 70s, this person called Deep Throat that blew the lid off of the Watergate scandal? Whatever happened to hearing information from a reliable source, then actually REPORTING that information without first consulting the government? How about the press being an independant journalistic adventure, instead of some guy pulling stuff off a news wire that's all pre-approved by the government? What about jounalists who actually investigate stories instead spewing back the same BS they heard 10 minutes before? The press here today is no better then that of the so called "restrictive nations" like many Mid East nations, where all news comes from the government approved facilities. If this is how the entire world is going to turn to, then bring on WW3 so we can start rebuilding a better society.
Here, our country is on the brink of war with another nation. The press served the people by ensuring that they were not releasing information that compromised a military operation. They were free to print what they knew, but chose not to do so of their own volition. There was no oppression here.
Both situations involve responsible behavior on the part of the press.
I can just imagine how that will turn out...
Private: Sarge! We're pinned down by Jerry's on all sides. We're almost out of ammo. We have no medical kits and Private Wilkins is bleeding to death. What do we do!?!
Sarge: We're pulling out. Private Booths, send an instant message to HQ asking for a chopper liftout.
Private: Uhhh, I can't do that Sarge. The PDA is jammed up with these messages for enlarging your penis.
Sarge: Enlarged penis, you say? Must be a new battle technique. Right, men! Everybody flop out your penis and enlarge them. That'll get the Jerry's running scared.
Your shell script will give me twenty.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
Here are a number of things that had at first confused me.
1) Ranking senators in the intelligence committees saying they had not been shown any further evidence that made them conclude that Iraq had WMD.
2) The Administration's insistance that the group it shares the information with from the UN be *larger* than the current group of inspectors. Larger? WTF? If you want something to be secret you tell as few people as possible. Even the IAEA has mentioned that it would be helpful to them if the US has such informatin that they turn it over to the UN.
3) Ok, so assuming that the Administration knows that their allegations are false, then what? Why pick on Saddam now? His army is far weaker, though better entrenched, than it was in 1991, and the real threats to US forces would likely be post-Saddam ethnic violence.
So why Iraq and why now?
15 of the 9-11 hijackers came from Saudi Arabia, and I believe that the Administration feels that probing too closely into any aspect of the Saudi nation or government fundamentally undermines US capability in the Middle East. First we have the fact that they are THE MAJOR source of foreign oil (not a big deal, we could always get it from Russia, or Iraq...), but the bigger issue is not about oil.
We are immensely dependent on two nations in the Middle East for basing rights-- Saudi Arabia and Turkey.
I suspect that the idea is that we can position US bases in a Post Saddam Iraq because, just as we are doing in Afghanistan today, we will continue to create a divisive system which needs some oversight by US troups.
But I think the focus on Iraq is that a
"liberated" (occupied) Iraq would make Saudi Arabia dispensible, and that we would no longer have to pull our punches regarding that regime-- expect it to replace Iraq in Bush's Axis of evil.
In the end, I grudgingly supported operations in Afghanistan because I felt that Al Qaeda was a direct result of US aid to and recruitment for the rebels against the Soviets. But I am deeply concerned that if the US continues to sponsor the various warlords, that the rule of law will not return to Afghanistan, and it will be a place that will end up being the further breeding ground of terrorism. If we turn the middle east into our playground for witch-hunts, we will be encouraging the very thing we claim to be fighting, just as we did in Vietnam.
I will disagree with you though-- the North Korea situation is complicated--
1) North Korea we think was probably restarting their nuclear program in 2000, but only admitted to it more recently. On the other hand, the 1994 framework was supposed to give North Korea fully normalized relations with the US and membership in the world bank. These parts were never implimented, so one could argue that we broke it first (what the hawks think in North Korea, I would bet).
2) The reactor was restarted when we suspended fuel shipment-- this gave them the excuse to restart the reactor because they do need the electricity. When the IAEA complained that the refusal to allow inspectors was a violation of the Nonproliveration Treaty, North Korea withdrew from the treaty.
The unfortunate likely result is that North Korea will go nuclear-- we cannot negotiate with then for fear of encouraging nations, maybe including Iran, Egypt, or Saudi Arabia from starting nuclear programs. And failure to respond diplomatically, will result in North Korea going nuclear. Does this scare me? No-- North Korea has been a very repressive regime, but their policy towards the US has been one of deterrence.
LedgerSMB: Open source Accounting/ERP
You sir, are showing your ignorance of the inspection process.
;)
Saying inspectors are unlikely to find anything driving arround is like saying that the FBI is unlikely to find bank robbers by driving arround, visiting banks and looking for them. Sure the statement is correct on the surface, but that is not how the inspectors operate.
The inspectors are detectives-- nuclear, biological, chemical. They are experts at putting information together and checking it out. this is easy with regard to a nuclear weapons program which requires extensive infrastructure components (U236 enrichment plants, breeder reactors, etc.), and much more difficult with chemical or biological (area denial similar in function to land mines rather than massively destructive weapons like nuclear ones). These agents don't require the massive infrastructure, but they lost their combat effectivenenss comparitively quickly. If the gas decomposes, it doesn't make a very good area denial agent.
If I were Saddam, I would have a lot of greenish-colred smoke bombs ready.
LedgerSMB: Open source Accounting/ERP