Mobile phones talk the talk, will soon walk the walk
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20051013/tc_afp/finlandtelecomsciencemobile Finnish researchers presented new technology designed to prevent thefts of mobile phones and laptops, using biometrics to recognize the gait of the device's owner. A sensor-based so-called gaitcode embedded in the device registers and memorizes the movements of the owner in three- dimensional form, and is reliable in 90 percent of cases, the researchers said Thursday. If it does not recognize the walk, it asks for a password. If given an incorrect password, the device automatically locks itself down. The gaitcode can also be used in a smartcard, attache case, weapon or USB device. We think that if it is no longer useful for a person to steal somebody else's mobile device, the number of crimes will decrease, professor Heikki Ailisto of the VTT Technical Research Centre of Finland told a press conference. More than 300,000 mobile phones are stolen each year in Britain and some 100,000 in both Germany and Sweden, according to statistics for recent years given by VTT. The technology can also be connected to a voice-recognition system. VTT spokesman Olli Ernvall said the invention was being patented on the most important markets, but refused to disclose which company or companies were interested in its production
How American Dream faded in downtown Mogadishu
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/0,,3-219490,00.html T WAS the stuff American dreams are made on. A few weeks ago, Yussuf Hussein, a Somali who came to the United States in his teens, was living in Boston with his wife and two children, earning $70,000 (#43,000) working for a computer software company. Now, he and more than 30 other American-Somali men are holed up in a squalid hotel costing $2 per night in downtown south Mogadishu, without either money or passport, determined to return home. In late January, officers of the Immigration Naturalisation Service arrived unannounced at the offices of Intel Corp and arrested Mr Hussein. They refused to tell him what he had been charged with, taking him instead to a cell without access to a lawyer or a telephone. He has not been able to contact his family since. 'It was three days after Black Hawk Down was released (on January 18),' he said of Ridley Scott's film depicting the ill-fated mission of the US Rangers on October 3, 1993, to bring peace to Somalia and destroy the grip of the warlords. His is the tale of about three dozen American-Somalis who have been sent back to Somalia by the US without charge or reason. All, except for one woman, are young men who emigrated with their families to America as young teenagers or babies to escape almost a decade of civil war. Not under arrest yet and without any means, many are heading north to escape across the Somalian border and make the long journey home to America. But even if they survive the journey, they have no money nor papers to prove their existence. Somalia, still on the verge of anarchy after a decade of civil war and vicious internecine clan fighting, has become a dumping ground for deportees from America and the Middle East. These American-Somali refugees arrived last week in Mogadishu without any means of support. All had been taken from their homes or offices across America, brought by air marshal to Buffalo, New York, and then transported by a hired Dutch crew first to Amsterdam, later Djibouti and finally Somalia. They claim to have been denied their basic civil rights, beaten and threatened with injected sedatives 'if we caused any problems'. 'We were not allowed to make any telephone calls,' Abdulrazak Allen, 23, from Atlanta, said. 'I was taken from my classroom and met with an immigration officer. The next thing I know I was here. I don't even speak the language.' En route, the men were shackled. Several say that they were drugged during the flight. Medication, including insulin for one of the deportees, a diabetic, as well as anti- depressants, were taken away. Their cash was frozen and they were issued with cheques that they are unable to cash. When the group arrived in Djibouti last Sunday they met the local press who announced to the public, 'come and meet the Somali terrorists'. 'They kept asking if we knew any al-ittihad,' said Jama Jama Jaffar, referring to an Islamic group in Somalia that has links to al-Qaeda. 'They kept asking if we knew people who killed people in Somalia. I kept telling them that I left Somalia in 1978! I don't know anybody.' His first phone call on arrival was to his mother in America to send him some cash. 'I am not a stand up guy,' says another. 'I have a misdemeanour for car theft. But I am not a terrorist, and I know no one connected with any terrorist organisation.' The men, aged between 19 and 34, are afraid to walk the streets of Mogadishu as any foreigner here is met with hostility. As one Somali put it, 'these men are not Somalis. You can tell a mile off they are from America, and people here do not like Americans.' They are unarmed and cannot hire militias to protect them as the few other foreigners who arrive here are obliged to do. Amnesty International said it was not aware of the plight of the Somali-Americans, but a spokesman in London said that there had been several other cases of Pakistanis being deported from America in dubious circumstances. The Immigration and Naturalisation Service said last night it would look into the claims. A spokesman could not confirm that the deportations had taken place but pointed out that under US law any individual who commits certain crimes and is not a naturalised citizen is liable to be deported. The families of most of the men are taking legal action, though this is hampered by their lack of means. The key to their case, they say, is that under international law it is illegal to deport people to a country without a central government. There is no central command in Somalia. The Transitional Government is recognised by some Arab countries and grudgingly by the United Nations, but not by Europe or America. It controls only part of Mogadishu and a small coastal strip while the rest of the country consists of two breakaway regions and a land littered with
Carnivore To Get Magic Lantern
http://www.msnbc.com/news/660096.asp?0si=-cp1=1 ... MAGIC LANTERN installs so-called keylogging software on a suspect's machine that is capable of capturing keystrokes typed on a computer. By tracking exactly what a suspect types, critical encryption key information can be gathered, and then transmitted back to the FBI, according to the source, who requested anonymity. The virus can be sent to the suspect via e-mail perhaps sent for the FBI by a trusted friend or relative. The FBI can also use common vulnerabilities to break into a suspect's computer and insert Magic Lantern, the source said. Magic Lantern is one of a series of enhancements currently being developed for the FBI's Carnivore project, the source said, under the umbrella project name of Cyber Knight. ...
Osama Says
Full text (translated into English) of his latest communication: http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/monitoring/media_reports/newsid_1636000/ 1636782.stm
Re: what kind of bomb?
On Wednesday, October 31, 2001, at 09:11 AM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: cpaul [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote : Witnesses also said they saw a U.S. plane drop a bomb Tuesday at the Bagram front lines, about 25 miles north of Kabul, creating a mushroom cloud that billowed at least 1,000 feet into the air. http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20011030/ts/attacks_afghanistan_549.html A really big one. Still conventional. Besides, a standard-sized one might have hit a munitions or fuel bunker. Hell, a 10 acre tire fire in central California made a mushroom shaped cloud several thousand feet high. During Vietnam there were boxcar-sized bombs used to clear an LZ in the jungle. How many tons? I don't know but they made ~100 yard circle. BLU-82 15,000 lb. http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/dumb/blu-82.htm
Re: what kind of bomb?
On Wednesday, October 31, 2001, at 08:39 PM, FogStorm wrote: On Wednesday, October 31, 2001, at 09:11 AM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: cpaul [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote : Witnesses also said they saw a U.S. plane drop a bomb Tuesday at the Bagram front lines, about 25 miles north of Kabul, creating a mushroom cloud that billowed at least 1,000 feet into the air. http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/ap/20011030/ts/attacks_afghanistan_549.html A really big one. Still conventional. Besides, a standard-sized one might have hit a munitions or fuel bunker. Hell, a 10 acre tire fire in central California made a mushroom shaped cloud several thousand feet high. During Vietnam there were boxcar-sized bombs used to clear an LZ in the jungle. How many tons? I don't know but they made ~100 yard circle. BLU-82 15,000 lb. http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/dumb/blu-82.htm It also could have been a fuel-air explosive. The BLU-95 is 500 pounds the BLU-96 is 2000. They use propylene oxide gas. Slide show of weapon in action with brief description: http://www.nawcwpns.navy.mil/~bronkhor/clmf/faeseq.html
Re: The end of the Fourth Amendment
On Friday, October 26, 2001, at 10:24 AM, Tim May wrote: On Friday, October 26, 2001, at 05:38 AM, Declan McCullagh wrote: Too many totalitarian surveillance state measures to comment on, but the sneak and peek provision is such a slam dunk violation of the Fourth Amendment that it bears special comment. Other sections of the USA Act, which the House approved by a 357 to 66 vote on Wednesday, that do not expire include the following: * Police can sneak into someone's house or office, search the contents, and leave without ever telling the owner. This would be supervised by a court, and the notification of the surreptitious search may be delayed indefinitely. (Section 213) Anyone caught inside a house or office should be dealt with in the most expeditiious manner possible. Most people who detect an intruder in their homes going through their stuff aren't going to think This must be a government agent performing an appropriately authorized black bag job. They're going to think Holy shit! There's a criminal in my house. and do whatever they feel is necessary to defend their loved ones. So lets say a hypothetical woman named Sue ventilates Agent Smith (who she perceives as a burglar possibly a rapist) with her twelve gauge. Will she be charged with a crime? Will she be detained until such time as the Feds have finished determining her involvement with terrorism? If she asserts her fifth amendment right to not answer questions will the FBI torture her until she admits she is a terrorist?
Anthrax Letters
Pictures of the Daschle, Brokaw, and NY Post anthrax letters + their envelopes. http://www.fbi.gov/pressrel/pressrel01/102301.htm
Re: AG on spotting terrorists in our midst
On Friday, October 19, 2001, at 12:03 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: http://www.cnn.com/2001/HEALTH/conditions/10/18/ashcroft.tips/index.html 4. Someone who appears to be concealing something or attempting to put something over on somebody Does this mean that witholding your zipcode from the overinquisitive sales clerk will get you on a list? Any attempts at opacity will be punished! Sounds pretty fucking stupid, but then, what do you expect from the guy? I used to live in a neighborhood where at least 20% of males between 15 30 of people would meet most of these conditions. Left unstated is: 8. Watch for people meeting any of the above conditions and who appear to be from the Middle East or who may be a Muslim.
