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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."
Oh OH, i can see it coming already, text analysis and dictionary software declared as Weapons of Mass Destruction! That, and Ireland is going to become the next member of the "axis of evil"
...said
"Please please please let the army attack Iraq"
Apparently the word that was blacked out was please.
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.
Perhaps the US government should start using text message lingo in their memos.
"An Egyptian Islamic Jihad (EIJ) operative told an Egyptian srvic @ d sAm tym dat bn l@n wz plnin 2 exploit d operatives acces 2 d us 2 mount a terrorist strike"*
Could make decoding sensitive documents much more difficult and at the same time provide jobs for teenage cryptologists.
*lingo courtesy of transl8it.com
Nuculer.
Dictionary-based approaches seem to miss this one for some reason.
This is why I don't work for an intelligence agency
... the average consumer.
...
how righteous of you. in fact, if you look and know a little about intelligence analysis techniques, i think you'll find that the NSA already know about this approach for 'interpreting' typewritten redacts, even as far back as the 50's.
what this story really seems to point out is the naivete of a lot of people about computers, and the powerful simplicity to seemingly difficult problems that they offer
it wasn't so long ago that the idea of having massive dictionaries in ram and font and calculations on this order to make a practical approach was considered relatively 'resource difficult'.
but moores laws and fry's electronics has certainly changed that.
for the price of a nice night out, i could buy an extra computer for brute-force hacks against any target, stick it in my closet and forget about it. used to be, not so long ago you had to have a halon system and power room to do things like that
; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
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...
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?
It sems 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|.
Sounds quite like the Nixon transcrpits released during the Watergate investigation, but instead of "classified" there was "expletive deleted" back then.
"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."
i ne .html
Keep telling yourself that. Its simply not true. Chat with the average person in Iran, Guatemala, Argentina, Chile, Haiti, Dominican Republic, the Phillipines.
The Phillipines endured a brutal, genocidal occupation by the U.S. from the end of the Spanish American war up to World War II. After World War II the U.S. backs the massively corrupt rule of the Marcos regime. I'll post this same link I post everytime an American says how good they've been to the world:
http://www.isp.nwu.edu/~fprefect/politics/timel
Some parts of it are overdone and a stretch but it has all the names and dates for all the misery the U.S. has inflicted on the world in the last century which you can corroborate easily if you choose to not believe this source.
In 1953 Iranian Nationalists gained power at a time when the British were looting 88% of Iran's oil revenues. The Iranians demanded a more equitable deal and offered the British 25%. Blockeds and boycotts ensued. The British ran crying to the U.S. and Truman. Truman ignored them. When Eisenhower took power it happened the Dulles brothers, head of the CIA and Secretary of State were lawyers form Anglo-American oil. The Dulles brothers used the CIA to topple the Iranian government and installed the Shah of Iran, who was every bit as despotic as Saddam was as far as the secret police, torture and disappearing people went. Rather than giving the British their oil contracts back they were given to, you guessed it, American oil companies. The reason the U.S. Embassy in Tehran was seized was revenge for all the misery the U.S. inflicted on Iran under the Shah.
This also points out that the U.S. has in fact been using its military and intelligence power to win control of oil fields for American companies since World War II at least. The Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor because the U.S. was embargoing Japan's access to U.S. controlled oil fields in Indonesia.
To date control of oil fields has been primarily for the economic benefit of the seven sisters(the big oil companies formed from the break up of Standard Oil though there are a lot less than seven now thanks to mergers). They have immense influence in U.S. politics, especially on the Republican's. George H.W. Bush's main career before politics was at Zapata Oil which built off shore oil rigs and ships to do contract drilling for the big oil companies and many foreign governments. Its widely suspected Zapata was also a CIA front, since there ships tended to be parked just offshore of every hotspot in the world. Zapata is also a key factor in the closeness of the Bush family to the royal families in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. Halliburton's oil operations closely resemble those of Zapata.
In the future as oil reserves start to run out strategic control of the oil fields will determine the economic winners and losers of this century at least until somebody comes to their senses and starts investing billions in developing alternative energy sources instead of fighting over the current fossil fuel sources.
China's oil consumption in particular is exploding at double digit annual percentage growth and its a contibutor to the current tight oil market. The Neocons are in fact looking ahead to when the day there isn't enough oil to meet demand. When that day comes they will look pretty smart when they have the U.S. military sitting in the middle of all the old oil fields in the Middle East and all the new ones in Central Asia. When that day comes some people will get the oil their economies need and some nations will go dark.
@de_machina
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.
Also, considering the political state of Northern Ireland (which is part of Great Britain, etc.) last year, most of these terrorist groups have just become glorified drug gangs, since a major way they go their money was through the drug cartel, now with a cease fire, there is more infighting and killing between the protestant militant groups over drug issues, than between the catholic and protestant groups.
"Let's see, the U.S. freed the Phillipines from a Spanish tyranny and rather than subsuming the islands, the U.S. eventually set them off on their own."
The U.S. did subsume the Phillipines for about 90 years. It wasn't until 1986 when Marcos was toppled and 1992 when the U.S. removed its huge military bases that it achieved something resembling real sovereignty.
Apparently you've never read the history of the initial American occupation of the Phillipines. The U.S.replaced Spanish tyranny with American tyranny.
U.S. Brig. Gen. Jacob H. Smith: "I want no prisoners. I wish you to kill and burn, the more you kill and burn the better you will please me. I want all persons killed who are capable of bearing arms in actual hostilities against the United States."
Major Littleton W. T. Waller: How young?
Smith: Ten years and up.
--Exchange on October 1901, quote from the testimony at Smith's court martial by the New York Evening Journal (May 5, 1902). General Smith, a veteran of the Wounded Knee massacre, was popularly known as "Hell Roaring Jake" or "Howling Wilderness".
The civilian causalties as the U.S. fought the Phillipine insurgency was most probably in the hundreds of thousands.
"Most of the mideast prior to the actions of western oil companies were vaste wastelands traversed by ignorant nomads. The western oil companies discovered the oil, gave it value, and it then was stolen by the disgusting murderers that call themselves governments in the mideast."
Are you American, British or Israeli. Thank you for once again proving what an arrogant, imperialistic, bunch Westerners are. Some of the "murders that call themselves governments" are close friends of the Bush family and the best of allies of the U.S., the Saudi royal family, the Emir of Kuwait, etc. Either your respect the sovereignty of nations or you don't. If you think a western company can enter a country and take all its resources with little or no compensation to the country which owns the resources you are a blatant imperialist.
Mossadegh. The head of Iran the U.S. overthrew was Time "Man of the Year", fairly progressive, anti-communist and Truman wouldn't even consider overthrowing him, the Dulles brothers on the other hand could care less when there was a chance to seize control of Iran's oil for U.S. oil companies.
Not sure how well you are versed in history but Iraq sits on top of the cradle of civilization. There were great civilizations there when your Western ancestors were living in caves or sod huts and running around in animal skins.
The number system you use today, though possibly Indian in origin, was introduced to the West by Arabs. They have had rich civilizations, great empires, and some of the world's best scholars. There have been periods when Arab culture was far more advanced than Europe's.
Many of the misfortune's of the Arab world can be traced to military interventions from the West, including the Romans, the Crusades, British imperialism and now U.S. imperialism.
@de_machina
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.
When G W Bush was a candidate, his way of speaking used to set my teet on edge: kind of a rote, up and down sing-sing reading of the teleprompter. He doesn't do that since 9/11: he speaks with the true conviction of a man who is convinced he has a personal mission.
I liked the old way better. The new Bush is frightening.
I would love it if the US were a force for good in the world. But I dont' believe that as a nation we know enough about the rest of the world to decide what is good for them. Freedom; yes. Democracy: yes. I strongly beleive these are good for any people of any culture. However, we don't really understand people in a place like Iraq to effectively promote these ideas. We don't even have national memory of the way these ideas were used in the past as self righteous fig leaf for ruthless exercises in the application of power. Rhetoric that is inspiring to us only reminds them of bitter disappointments in the West going back to Sykes-Picot. The more stirring a project sounds to us, the more it will incite fear and revulsion on the people we plan to impose it upon.
So, I'm very disturbed by any kind of messianic program to drag the unenlightened into accepting our values. What is even worse than telling seductive lies is being seduced by them yourself. In the first case you discredit yourself. In the latter case you discredit yourself and your ideals.
I'd much prefer a policy which frankly pursued our national interests, but tried to do it in a modestly ethical way.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.