I hate to note this, but I very RARELY (as in never) see one of these suspected terrorists toting around an M-16 or an FN/FAL. UBL himself seems to be rather fond of the AK Shorty with the Krinkov flash supressor. Why doesn't he carry around a CAR-15? He's certainly seems enamored with US camouflage and Seiko watches and Motorola FRS radios. The CIA shipped in Stinger SAMs to support the Mujahadeen "freedom fighters" in their fight against Soviet aggression against a soverign state. The soviets (and their puppet states, as well as the Chinese. Let's be fair) exported thousands, if not millions of tons of weapons, explosives and ammunition to terrorist organizations around the world. Where do you think all that SEMTEX is coming from that gets strapped to a 16-year-old Palastinian girl and walked into a pizza parlor? The volumes just don't match.
You can argue all you want that a terrorist is a freedom fighter. Here's my stand. If you, as a civilian, wage an aggressive campaign against the military or police forces of the country that you call home, you are a freedom fighter. If you wage an aggressive battle against the fellow civilians of a country that you are a citizen of, you are a criminal. If you wage battle against the military of another country that is occupying your country, you are a partisan. If you attack the military forces of another country, you are a mercenary. If you attack the civilians of another country, you are a terrorist.
None of this implies "right or wrong". The US waged a terrorist campaign against the civilian populations of both Germany and Japan during the second world war. The indiscriminate bombing of civilian population centers was evil and corrupt, and quite frankly, did little to stop that war (well, with the notable exception of the vaporizing of two Japanese cities). As to whether or not it was right or wrong, who can say?
I'm not trying to defend the US. Hell, They've screwed over just as many people as the next government, but let me ask you this: Did the Russians institute a "Marshall Zhukov Plan" in Eastern Europe, Afghanistan or Vietnam after they were done "doing their thing?". Did they provide humanitarian aid to the oppressed of Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Serbia or Croatia? Did they play nice with the Don Cossacks, whose only fault was to have been occupied by those nasty Germans? Did they get fucked by the Somali's while trying to stave off starvation among the general population? Don't go saying that the CIA was the the group of folks that mucked up Afghanistan because they "shipped the weapons in there".
Furthermore, I don't know of a single instance where the Stinger was used against any other taget than a Soviet Hind-D attack helicopter. Usually the same helicopters that were delivering death and destruction from on high and Soviet Spetznaz forces to poison ground water sources and drop off booby trapped baby-dolls, and wontonly decimate whole afghan communities.
1. Is it not the responsibility of the credit card company (which is apparently unknown in this instance), not the credit card processing entity (ccnow.com) to verify that the billing address is the same as the shipping address? I have, on a number of occasions, specifically had to call my credit card company and authorize shipment to locations other than my billing address. This has even been bothersome at points, but I understand the reasons that the CC companies require this. I'd like to think that MasterCard would raise some flag when Bob, from Alabama, wants to send anything to the United Arab Emirates.
2. It is the responsibilty of the vendor (also unknown, but there are plenty of examples out there) to make sure that certain types of merchandise (e.g. cryptographic hardware and software to Lybia, Anthrax Spores to North Korea, >10 round magazines to California) do not violate state and federal regulations. AFAICT, the UAE and Saudi Arabia are not on the "technology proscribed list". Here is an excellent starting point for further investigation.
3. I suspect, but cannot prove, that if an Al Qaeda terrorist wished to procure a night vision scope for his Druganov sniper rifle, he could order up a crate-full from his local ex-KGB contact and have it air-dropped from a AN-22 on the "Go Away" mat in front of his cave entrance. Funny, I'm sure, but not without a grain of truth.
4. It's also important to know that, fundamentally, this "night vision scope" is neither a weapon (unto itself), nor particularly effective, as it is both surplus, and Russian made. Not to slight the proven fantastic ability of the manufacturing capacity of the former Soviet state (they did make millions of highly usable and portable AK-47s and their variants), but as surplus "electronics" equipment, their shelf life is probably somewhat suspect. Plus, the batteries are a bitch to get from Radio Shack.
All in all, I'm sure that something untoward is going on here. Someone got their CC# pilfered, probably the same way teenagers in the US lift card numbers from transactions at Applebees. Whether or not something more sinister is afoot, remains to be seen. I would, however, take a closer look at who was working at the Amman, Jordan IHOP that morning, and see what they were up to.
How long, do you think, until it is illegal to remember what you watched in a movie? It is after all, quite easy to tell a friend about a movie (to sing a song, or describe a book); in essense, to make a biological copy and then transfer it to an unauthorized receipient.
Interesting point about the difference between a GPS transmitter, and a GPS beacon.
I assume that tracking a GPS signal beacon is no different than getting a GPS feed and doing the triangulation (2 satts from the constellation needed to get a rough fix, 3 for accuracy, right?) on the fly.
So as a single emitter, the target couldn't be tracked unless the kill vehicle was doing some sort of triangulation... which is doubtful, given that the recievers for doing that would have to be pretty far apart.
The way HARM works is that it follows the signal of a directed energy source (the RADAR radio waves), but a beacon is broadcast...
I doubt very seriously that a missile, homing in on a beacon, passively, could connect for a kill at those relative speeds.
I suspect that the target missile actually had a GPS reciever on it to track itself in case of mishap.
Even if the target were transmitting telemetry that included it's GPSd location, that signal would have to be interpreted either on the ground and beamed back to the kill vehicle, or by the kill vehicle itself, and then compared to it own postion. This isn't gonna offer the accuracy that you'd get from a fast scanning and processing radar/IR seeker.
I think that the GPS oversite was either unintentional, or engineered to not give ammunition to critics (even though I suspect that they would be blanks).
Can we sic the DMCA on them for reverse engineering the human voice for preemptive copyright violations of famous dead peoples intellectual properties?
How do we know that PGP works? How do we know that SSL protects our online transactions? Does SSH actually keep people from sniffing remote root logins?
Because they are open standards that have been independently reviewed and confirmed. Because people took the time to check the validity of the claims that were made.
I we were to blindly believe that which corporations shovel out and call the truth, we would have to believe that it's safe to drive 65 miles an hour with your children on those Firestone tires.
People like Skylarov are exposing these faults in commercially available software and are doing the public a great service.
Unfortunately, he sold his product, which makes companies mad, as they can't abide by someone profiting from their mistakes.
But the truth of it is that he didn't even have to sell the product to be in violation. All he had to do was talk about it to the public, explain how it could be done. And the DMCA is the boot that Adobe stepped on his crank with.
Here's a question:
If the courts post documentation detailing Dimitri's software, are they not violating his DMCA-protected rights?
Let's try to think of ways to use this flawed process against itself.
Agreed. The media does have to cater to the least common denominator. Quite frankly, most major American media outlets cater to Americans who are, in the vast majority, dumber than a sack of hammers.
It an outrage that Americans are so concerned with avoiding responsibility for their actions, that the only actions that they really commit to are giving those freedoms away for the sake of convenience.
We are going to get what we deserve.
We are cattle, paving our own path to the slaughterhouse.
Has anyone seen any foreign media coverage of this issue?
I'm interested in the parallels here between Dymitri and the Chinese/American scientists that were recently "tried and/or deported" to throw the U.S. a bone in regards to Olympic Venue selection.
Is there anyone out there (read Russian) that is concerend that this poor guy is getting t-boned by a bad US law? Is there any force that can be brought to bear to "put the shoe on the other foot"?
Making it difficult is quite different than making it impossible. The beauty of digital is that it never degrades in copying (theoretically). All it takes is one person smart enough to "crack" the encrypted data, then the whole world can get it through the magic of file distribution.
There was a famous phrase in the 80's copy-protection defeating community: "If it can be loaded into memory; it can be cracked".
- Jim
Slashdot Mirror
Ghod hates chimps, too...
Pfagh...
- Jim
getting it to land on the right continent...
You choose, I'm not that brave...
- Jim
You can argue all you want that a terrorist is a freedom fighter. Here's my stand. If you, as a civilian, wage an aggressive campaign against the military or police forces of the country that you call home, you are a freedom fighter. If you wage an aggressive battle against the fellow civilians of a country that you are a citizen of, you are a criminal. If you wage battle against the military of another country that is occupying your country, you are a partisan. If you attack the military forces of another country, you are a mercenary. If you attack the civilians of another country, you are a terrorist.
None of this implies "right or wrong". The US waged a terrorist campaign against the civilian populations of both Germany and Japan during the second world war. The indiscriminate bombing of civilian population centers was evil and corrupt, and quite frankly, did little to stop that war (well, with the notable exception of the vaporizing of two Japanese cities). As to whether or not it was right or wrong, who can say?
I'm not trying to defend the US. Hell, They've screwed over just as many people as the next government, but let me ask you this: Did the Russians institute a "Marshall Zhukov Plan" in Eastern Europe, Afghanistan or Vietnam after they were done "doing their thing?". Did they provide humanitarian aid to the oppressed of Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Serbia or Croatia? Did they play nice with the Don Cossacks, whose only fault was to have been occupied by those nasty Germans? Did they get fucked by the Somali's while trying to stave off starvation among the general population? Don't go saying that the CIA was the the group of folks that mucked up Afghanistan because they "shipped the weapons in there".
Furthermore, I don't know of a single instance where the Stinger was used against any other taget than a Soviet Hind-D attack helicopter. Usually the same helicopters that were delivering death and destruction from on high and Soviet Spetznaz forces to poison ground water sources and drop off booby trapped baby-dolls, and wontonly decimate whole afghan communities.
1. Is it not the responsibility of the credit card company (which is apparently unknown in this instance), not the credit card processing entity (ccnow.com) to verify that the billing address is the same as the shipping address? I have, on a number of occasions, specifically had to call my credit card company and authorize shipment to locations other than my billing address. This has even been bothersome at points, but I understand the reasons that the CC companies require this. I'd like to think that MasterCard would raise some flag when Bob, from Alabama, wants to send anything to the United Arab Emirates.
2. It is the responsibilty of the vendor (also unknown, but there are plenty of examples out there) to make sure that certain types of merchandise (e.g. cryptographic hardware and software to Lybia, Anthrax Spores to North Korea, >10 round magazines to California) do not violate state and federal regulations. AFAICT, the UAE and Saudi Arabia are not on the "technology proscribed list". Here is an excellent starting point for further investigation.
3. I suspect, but cannot prove, that if an Al Qaeda terrorist wished to procure a night vision scope for his Druganov sniper rifle, he could order up a crate-full from his local ex-KGB contact and have it air-dropped from a AN-22 on the "Go Away" mat in front of his cave entrance. Funny, I'm sure, but not without a grain of truth.
4. It's also important to know that, fundamentally, this "night vision scope" is neither a weapon (unto itself), nor particularly effective, as it is both surplus, and Russian made. Not to slight the proven fantastic ability of the manufacturing capacity of the former Soviet state (they did make millions of highly usable and portable AK-47s and their variants), but as surplus "electronics" equipment, their shelf life is probably somewhat suspect. Plus, the batteries are a bitch to get from Radio Shack.
All in all, I'm sure that something untoward is going on here. Someone got their CC# pilfered, probably the same way teenagers in the US lift card numbers from transactions at Applebees. Whether or not something more sinister is afoot, remains to be seen. I would, however, take a closer look at who was working at the Amman, Jordan IHOP that morning, and see what they were up to.
How long, do you think, until it is illegal to remember what you watched in a movie? It is after all, quite easy to tell a friend about a movie (to sing a song, or describe a book); in essense, to make a biological copy and then transfer it to an unauthorized receipient.
- Jim
Interesting point about the difference between a GPS transmitter, and a GPS beacon.
I assume that tracking a GPS signal beacon is no different than getting a GPS feed and doing the triangulation (2 satts from the constellation needed to get a rough fix, 3 for accuracy, right?) on the fly.
So as a single emitter, the target couldn't be tracked unless the kill vehicle was doing some sort of triangulation... which is doubtful, given that the recievers for doing that would have to be pretty far apart.
The way HARM works is that it follows the signal of a directed energy source (the RADAR radio waves), but a beacon is broadcast...
I doubt very seriously that a missile, homing in on a beacon, passively, could connect for a kill at those relative speeds.
I suspect that the target missile actually had a GPS reciever on it to track itself in case of mishap.
Even if the target were transmitting telemetry that included it's GPSd location, that signal would have to be interpreted either on the ground and beamed back to the kill vehicle, or by the kill vehicle itself, and then compared to it own postion. This isn't gonna offer the accuracy that you'd get from a fast scanning and processing radar/IR seeker.
I think that the GPS oversite was either unintentional, or engineered to not give ammunition to critics (even though I suspect that they would be blanks).
Can we sic the DMCA on them for reverse engineering the human voice for preemptive copyright violations of famous dead peoples intellectual properties?
How do we know that PGP works? How do we know that SSL protects our online transactions? Does SSH actually keep people from sniffing remote root logins?
Because they are open standards that have been independently reviewed and confirmed. Because people took the time to check the validity of the claims that were made.
I we were to blindly believe that which corporations shovel out and call the truth, we would have to believe that it's safe to drive 65 miles an hour with your children on those Firestone tires.
People like Skylarov are exposing these faults in commercially available software and are doing the public a great service.
Unfortunately, he sold his product, which makes companies mad, as they can't abide by someone profiting from their mistakes.
But the truth of it is that he didn't even have to sell the product to be in violation. All he had to do was talk about it to the public, explain how it could be done. And the DMCA is the boot that Adobe stepped on his crank with.
Here's a question:
If the courts post documentation detailing Dimitri's software, are they not violating his DMCA-protected rights?
Let's try to think of ways to use this flawed process against itself.
Agreed. The media does have to cater to the least common denominator. Quite frankly, most major American media outlets cater to Americans who are, in the vast majority, dumber than a sack of hammers.
It an outrage that Americans are so concerned with avoiding responsibility for their actions, that the only actions that they really commit to are giving those freedoms away for the sake of convenience.
We are going to get what we deserve.
We are cattle, paving our own path to the slaughterhouse.
Has anyone seen any foreign media coverage of this issue?
I'm interested in the parallels here between Dymitri and the Chinese/American scientists that were recently "tried and/or deported" to throw the U.S. a bone in regards to Olympic Venue selection.
Is there anyone out there (read Russian) that is concerend that this poor guy is getting t-boned by a bad US law? Is there any force that can be brought to bear to "put the shoe on the other foot"?
Making it difficult is quite different than making it impossible. The beauty of digital is that it never degrades in copying (theoretically). All it takes is one person smart enough to "crack" the encrypted data, then the whole world can get it through the magic of file distribution. There was a famous phrase in the 80's copy-protection defeating community: "If it can be loaded into memory; it can be cracked". - Jim