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Student Uncovers US Military Secrets
karthik_r085 writes "According to The Register, An Irish graduate student has uncovered words blacked-out of declassified US military documents using nothing more than a dictionary and text analysis software. Claire Whelan, a computer science student at Dublin City University was given the problems by her PhD supervisor as a diversion. David Naccache, a cryptographer with Gemplus, challenged her to discover the words missing from two documents: one was a memo to George Bush, and another concerned military modifications to civilian helicopters."
Pretty funny, but luckily she's from Ireland. If an American did this they'd probably receive a visit from some intelligence goons in short order.
Obviously, the next step the government will take is to require all documents be written in fixed-width fonts. Either that or they will require that all documents be converted into fixed-width before they are released for FFIA inquiries.
Don't see how this is a big threat.
The student didn't actually solve for any real US secrets, because the documents she was using were already declassified. However, as an academic exercise this demonstrates that there's still information being conveyed in the typical black-out way of "redacting" certain words from documents.
And, since the information was known, we're sure that she did come up with the correct solutions.
Damn, with our nation in the state it is today? She'd be goddamn lucky to get ONLY a visit. Sad but true :(
This is a classic example of security through obscurity.. And how it fails miserably.
This statement is false.
As if that would work, only 1 in 10 RTFA to begin with.
What if the blacked out word is not in the dictionary? Most of these blacked out things are very likely names or places, things that could not be so easily brainstormed or listed.
On the contrary, the Project for A New American Century group, a coupla dozen high ranking neocons, CLEARLY outlined what they were going to do once they got in power. It's all on their publically available website. Some of it is in PDF downloads, but it's there. They planned to invade basically the oil producing nations of the middle east, and some others. They got in power, in charge,and wow, they invaded. They also said they needed a "pearl harbor" like event in advance to justify the invasion, and get the US people all enthused around it, and golly gee mother of all coincidences, that event occurred..
I mean, it's real, it's there, you can see the names, the documents, it's written clearly, and the mass controlled media won't hardly ever mention it. I've seen very brief mentions at the best. I have yet to meet anyone in meatspace who has ever heard of them or their documents though. Wonder why that is? And I know it's been posted on slashdot several times, by various people, as well as on literally thousands of other forums and blogs. Radio talk show hosts all over have been clued in, but only a small handful even bother to acknowledge it, let alone come to the obvious conclusions looking at it. Journalists by the thousands have been clued in, yet there's a severe lack of coverage by most of the big names out there.
No I don't blame democrats, or republicans, I blame the US people in general for being so unbelievably stupid and naieve and un-caring for this disaster. We are a nation of sports and entertainment addicts more than anything else. No one gives a crap. They are taught from the time they are toddlers to NOT give a crap. They are taught to parrot one of two party lines that are always essentially complete lies, and to be happy with that, and to never go further than to keep corralled into one of those two parties and to swallow down the 6 o clock news pablum. So they do it, brainwashing since being able to understand human speech is quite effective apparently. They simply refuse to learn from history,and they refuse to acknowledge reality, and that's why we generation after generation keep getting hosed. You are force fed you are either a liberal-democrat, or a conservative-republican and that is SUCH A LOAD OF CRAP. I am so amazed people keep falling into that trap.
oh well...
Like the US 'harboured' Timothy McVeigh, or for that matter the September 11 terrorists? The fact that there are terrorists in the country does not mean that they are 'harboured'. I'd like to see *recent* complaints from the British authorities or any other source that the Irish government is actively 'harbouring' terrorists, or not doing all it can against them, thank you very much.
If your definition does not require government support or acquiescence, but you are just pointing out that there are terrorist suspects living openly in Ireland, well we have these things called evidence and due process which in this country at least are required before people can be locked up (less so in the US I believe since the Patriot Act, Guatanamo Bay, etc.) Unfortunately there is not always sufficient evidence to obtain convictions against such suspects.
Besides, by that definition there would be *far* more terrorists being 'harboured' in Northern Ireland, which is British terrority last time I looked. Ipso facto, the British government is harbouring terrorists that kill its very own citizens. Sheesh.
its full of terrorists!! oh, hold on...
If you pixelize the face of a person, he's not recognizeable. But unless he stands completely still, his movements will give enough info to calculate the originating pixels after a couple of minutes.
You have an example of this? something tells me you'll have a very hard time identifying changes in pixelation, like if you took a photograph and moved behind a pixelation mask, and changes in the image itself like lips moving, eyes blinking, turning (X-axis)/lowering & rising (Y-axis)/rolling (Z-axis) his head, facial expressions etc.
Kjella
Live today, because you never know what tomorrow brings
I dunno, I think redact is completely suitable. It means 'prepare for publication', and on most redacts I've seen, it has to be by law -obvious- where the preparation was made on originally 'unalterted material'.
... Be nice if we could use words like that in general speech.
'elide' is a pretty good word
; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
All you need to do is use a fixed-width font, and then all the decrypter would be able to find out is how many letters in the given word
"In January, the State Department required that its documents use a more modern font, Times New Roman, instead of Courier"
That my friends is what is know as "progress".
Well, there are two solutions to this method of cracking. The first is never release classified documents. However, this does not work well in a free and open society.
Nowdays, most, if not all, classified documents are created electronically. Perhaps the source document should be kept in an archive. When it is declassified, they just delete the text needed to lower the classification, or maybe replace the text with a few '#' to show were text was missing (but never a one-for-one character replacement). Then the released document is a little harder to crack.
What those who want activist courts fear is rule by the people.
Why do they have to release the original documents with original sections blocked out?
Why not just release retyped docs with placeholders for blocked out sections.
For instance:
Original:
It seems that the president wishes us to bomb the hell out of iraq. He's pissed off that saddam wanted to kill his daddy. also there's the issues of controlling the oil flow, and protecting israel. god forbid anyone thinks that the israilies are the biggest part of the problem out there.
Released with blocks:
It seems that XXXXXXXXXXXXX wishes us to bomb the hell out of iraq. He's XXXXXXXXXX that saddam wanted to XXXXXXXXXXXXXX. also there's the XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX the XXXXXXXX, and XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX. god forbid XXXXXX thinks that XXXXXXXXXXXXX are the XXXXXXXXXXXX XX XXX XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX.
My proposal:
It seems that |CLASSIFIED| wishes us to bomb the hell out of iraq. He's |CLASSIFIED| that saddam wanted to |CLASSIFIED|. also there's the |CLASSIFIED| the |CLASSIFIED|, and |CLASSIFIED|. god forbid |CLASSIFIED| thinks that |CLASSIFIED| are the |CLASSIFIED| |CLASSIFIED| |CLASSIFIED| |CLASSIFIED|.
I think this simple step would go a long way towards soving the problem. The process could probably even be automated somewhat by using some type of OCR software on the original blocked out documents.
Is there some law against this? Like that TPTB have to release the original doc?
wbs.
Huh?
You are missing the way these are done. A memo is sent to someone to have the info taken out. It's a hard copy to start with, just blacked out before being released to archives. Since it is paper to start with, you would have to reinput the doc which brings up a host of other issues. Good idea - not reality though.
Stay tuned for new sig...
but I've been looking at that site, and haven't found too much alarming stuff, speaking as a life-long, well-traveled american. Their principles are clearly stated... do you think other nations don't have groups strategically plotting their future course? The difference in America is that you can go on a website, see the players, and read what they have to say. My cursory perusal didn't turn up much objectionable material. Can you point me to some specific papers and/or citations? I'm genuinely curious.
I also never found a position paper advocating a conquest of the middle east and theft of their oil. For pity sake, americans want to buy the mideast's oil, not seize it (if the US military seriously wanted to take it, there'd be little to stop them... but that's not how americans see themselves on the world stage).
One can attempt to argue whether American prominence is good for the world... but I would challenge you to put forth a better choice (China? Russia? Iran?). It's the nature of world affairs for the dominant powers to emerge... I would also submit to you that "the United Nations" is not an appropriate alternative... the UN's lack of action has resulted in much pain and suffering around the world, and their ludicrous committee appointments (Sudan and Cuba in the human rights group, for example) bring the credibility of that body into serious doubt.
The US is the "big boy" on the block, and an easy target for derision... but on the whole I'd consider the US a force for good in the world... our track record in confronting various evils, and settling/winning various wars and conflicts speaks for itself.
Granted, whether we have the political will to make Iraq work out remains to be seen. We certainly have the physical ability, but unfortunately that's not america's achilles heel... it's politics.
Even if a man chops off your hand with a sword, you still have two nice, sharp bones to stick in his eyes.
Its ok we can solve this by arresting the student and banning any software that does this. Just like we solved the Iraqi abuse problem by taking their cameras away, and how we solved the Berg murder by making sure no news outlet would publish or link to the video, and how we solved the terrorists hi-jacking planes and crashing them problem with iris and finger scanning, (so now they can still get on the plane, but when they've crashed it we will know who did it and not to let them on next time). Or maybe its more like how the CD copy-protection system being defeated by the shift-key problem was defeated by threatening the student under the DMCA! or could it be how the drug problem was totally solved by throwing half the population in jail? [insert something about DRM solving everything and letting governments send sensitive documents in full without having to worry about someone reading the bad words] great, so i guess we can bomb for peace and fuck for virginity after all :)
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I suggest the people who modded this comment funny go and look at what the Irish did to London in 1993.
This bomb was intended to topple London's (then) tallest skyscraper.
A pizza of radius z and thickness a has a volume of pi z z a
Oh, boo hoo. Just because a couple of idiots from South Armagh decide to drive a truck filled with fertiliser into Canary Wharf doesn't mean that they had *any* support from people in the Republic. Northern Irish terrorism is a particularly insular phenomenon which by and large has no greater connection with people in the Republic than it does with those in the mainland UK.
Take a representative sample of Irish people and ask them whether they want stronger economic and social ties with the United Kingdom or a reunited Ireland, and I can guarantee that over two-thirds will say they want better ties to the UK.
The idiots in the North are no more representative of Irish culture or political identity than those in the UK's BNP.
"I suggest the people who modded this comment funny go and look at what the Irish did to London in 1993."
I am not sure that the IRA == the Irish, any more than Al Qaeda == the Muslims.
...switch to random-width fonts! Fonts where the letterforms are randomly assigned width-offsets. I'd love to see an "i" stretched out to a hundred pixels.
And maybe they should look at what the English have done to the Irish for hundreds of years.
History cannot be examined in isolation.
Next stop for her: Guantanemo Bay...
The government has already proven it will detain people just for what they know, without criminal charge, without provocation, without family access, without legal representation, without regard for international criticism, without regard for international laws and norms, without safeguards for personal safety, without justification or oversight by the courts.
I doubt the G goons will be sweeping up this particular researcher, but what small and subtle distinction really lies between this case and others? What shred of humanity protects her from the inhumanity of the Bush/Rumsfeld/Ashcroft three-ring circus? Oh, she has red hair and freckles? Alrighty then.
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The title of this article sounds impressive, but the results are wishy-washy. It can only narrow down one missing word to maybe half a dozen possibilities. Who is to say the word is not North Korea instead of South Korea? And since most blackouts are several words long, it is not useful at all.
One can enumerate the reasons for Iraq's invasion as follows:
Establishing a precedence for preepmtive war. Now America has bybassed the UN, and global opposition to this unilateral action. If the will to build an empire arises, then it will be done without any regard to what the rest of the world think or say. You can read the following articles too:
The True Rationale? It's a Decade Old by James Mann, March 7, 2004
PBS had a good program before Iraq was invaded called the War Behind Closed Doors. You can watch the entire program in 30-60 minutes intervals:
Specially interesting is this page in the Project for the New American Century Statement of Principles where you can see who signed this document. Interesting to note that all of them are either now in the Pentagon (Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Feith, ...etc.), or are
aids to Cheney (Libby, Abrams, ...etc.)
An overview of who is who in the neocons circle of power.
Securing cheap oil. That is obvious. Bush's family history in oil makes that an easy one to figure.
Complete Dad's job. The personal desire of G.W. Bush to continue where his father has left, to finish the job, and do better.
The Israel Factor. Read the Israel connection, and how Zionism influences US foreign policy. If you take a look at the players in the PNAC above, and you will find them all staunch Zionists, whether Jews or Christians.
Construction Contracts. The Infrastructure contracts for US corporations to rebuild Iraq is a lucrative business. Of course the Halliburton link has been reported several times (Cheney used to be its manager or director). The defence spending, plus the contracts should fuel the US economy for a while, or that is what they thought would happen.
The planning to invade Iraq was done before September 11, 2001 attacks, as ex-secretary Paul O'Neill has revealed
As many would notice, Bush is not running the show. Bush is the ideal front for such an operation. He thinks he is doing the right thing, and that God has to do something with it. You can see this PBS program The Jesus Factor.
There are two factions grappling for Bush's attention. The moderate pragmatics (Powell, Armitage), and the extremist ideologue (Cheney, his subordinates, Rumsfeld, his subordinates). Powell's position is almost identical to Shimon Peres when he was the Foreign Minister in the Sharon government, a rational pragmatic dove amid the ideologue extremist hawks.
What is funny and sad at the same time, is that the US Foreign policy is now crafted by the Pentagon and the Vice President in accordance with neocon think tanks like the PNAC. No role whatsover is given to the Department of State (where it should really belong), and Powell is merely a messenger (go tell the UN we are doing so and so, try to sell it diplomatically, ...etc.). No wonder Powell has said that he will not seek a second term even if Bush gets reelected (and repeated it a few weeks ago). Not nice thing being in his shoes I guess.
I would not go as far as to say that they intentionally planned and executed the September 11 thing. But the neocons sure did exp
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Fairly easy.
Guys at CIA were having some fun around Christmas time. When it came time to release the documents, they decided they'd rather not look like they were assing around on government time, so redacted it.
That Jesus Christ guy is getting some terrible lag... it took him 3 days to respawn! -NJ CoolBreeze
... especially the famous 19-minute expletive.
Good thing Ned Flanders wasn't around.
I'll explain the difference for you.
One is a sick and disgusting act by a few individuals who lack the ability to turn their anger into something constructive. The other is a violation of international law and generally recognized human rights condoned by a government who doesn't want to talk about what those terrorists and their supporters are so damn angry about.
You are comparing an act by a radical wing of an already radical fundamentalist group to a government policy supported act of the most powerful country in the world.
The U.S. government did research on the Muslim culture, and found out how to break down their people, as was done in the Iraqi prisons. The acts forced on these people are, to some Muslim people, worse than death. Try to understand that, and then put yourself in their shoes.
First point, they are detaining people who may have had knowledge of terrorist attacks, not people who certainly had knowledge. So now they're detaining people because they might know something, not just those who actually do know something. You then claim they are treated humanely as enemy combatants, but then you go back and claim that the rules of law do not apply because they're not enemy combatants but terrorists. If they're terrorist then normal criminal procedings must take place. if they are enemy combatants then the geneva convention applies. Lastly, your statement about provocation. How is a bombing considered to be provocation for a massive invasion with no ties to the actual bombinb. If we are using 911 as justification saudi seems like a better target.