FBI (5)

Source: The International PGP

It's personal. It's private. And it's no one's business but yours. You may be planning a political campaign, discussing your taxes, or something even more sensitive. Or you may be doing something that you feel shouldn't be illegal, but is. Whatever it is, you don't want your private electronic mail (E-mail) or confidential documents read by anyone else. There's nothing wrong with asserting your privacy. Privacy is as apple-pie as the Constitution.

Perhaps you think your E-mail is legitimate enough that encryption is unwarranted. If you really are a law-abiding citizen with nothing to hide, then why don't you always send your paper mail on postcards? Why not submit to drug testing on demand? Why require a warrant for police searches of your house? Are you trying to hide something? You must be a subversive or a drug dealer if you hide your mail inside envelopes. Or maybe a paranoid nut. Do law-abiding citizens have any need to encrypt their E-mail?

What if everyone believed that law-abiding citizens should use postcards for their mail? If some brave soul tried to assert his privacy by using an envelope for his mail, it would draw suspicion. Perhaps the authorities would open his mail to see what he's hiding. Fortunately, we don't live in that kind of world, because everyone protects most of their mail with envelopes. So no one draws suspicion by asserting their privacy with an envelope. There's safety in numbers. Analogously, it would be nice if everyone routinely used encryption for all their E-mail, innocent or not, so that no one drew suspicion by asserting their E-mail privacy with encryption. Think of it as a form of solidarity.

Today, if the Government wants to violate the privacy of ordinary citizens, it has to expend a certain amount of expense and labor to intercept and steam open and read paper mail, and listen to and possibly transcribe spoken telephone conversation. This kind of labor-intensive monitoring is not practical on a large scale. This is only done in important cases when it seems worthwhile.

More and more of our private communications are being routed through electronic channels. Electronic mail is gradually replacing conventional paper mail. E-mail messages are just too easy to intercept and scan for interesting keywords. This can be done easily, routinely, automatically, and undetectably on a grand scale. International cablegrams are already scanned this way on a large scale by the NSA.

Source: Lauren Weinstein's Blog

Source: Reuters

People using CIA and FBI computers have edited entries in the online encyclopedia Wikipedia on topics including the Iraq war and the Guantanamo prison, according to a new tracing program.

The changes may violate Wikipedia's conflict-of-interest guidelines, a spokeswoman for the site said on Thursday.

The program, WikiScanner, was developed by Virgil Griffith of the Santa Fe Institute in New Mexico and posted this month on a Web site that was quickly overwhelmed with searches.

The program allows users to track the source of computers used to make changes to the popular Internet encyclopedia where anyone can submit and edit entries.

WikiScanner revealed that CIA computers were used to edit an entry on the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. A graphic on casualties was edited to add that many figures were estimated and were not broken down by class.

Another entry on former CIA chief William Colby was edited by CIA computers to expand his career history and discuss the merits of a Vietnam War rural pacification program that he headed.

Aerial and satellite images of the U.S. prison for terrorism suspects at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, were removed using a computer traced to the FBI, WikiScanner showed.

When average folk think of Disney, they envision cute animated and live-action films as well as the theme parks which have become modern-day meccas for the middle-class. For nearly a century, Disney has produced tantalizing eye candy to fulfill peoples' deepest and in some cases darkest desires, and Disneyphiles have eaten it up in droves.

From "Steamboat Willie" to "Bambi" to Disney World to their "On Ice" tie-ins to all the "Herbie the Love Bug" sequels, Disney's popularity has not only lifted them to the status of American icon, but a symbol recognized around the world. Even war-ravaged children in impoverished nations can be seen wearing so-called Disneyana.

What can be more enticing than the hypnotic "Yo Ho Ho" or "It's a Small World" while floating along the picturesque attractions that have made Disney this planet's most-frequented family vacation destination? The Mouse represents the ideal way of life, a fantasy world devoid of the hardships that the rat race has forced upon us. From the Plasticine facades of "Main Street, USA," to the eager "cast members" immediately scooping up that wayward piece of trash, what can be more ideal than escaping to the "Happiest Place on Earth?"

To die-hard fans, Disney is the paramount of perfection. Anything to the contrary is blasphemous in the eyes of the Disneyphile. They stake their investments on those colorful stock certificates hung over the infant's bed; on the abundance of clothes, toys, and accessories that burst forth from every nook and cranny; on their extensive video collections that line the shelves. To own even a small piece of the Mouse represents a life's dream for many. And no one is going to tell them otherwise.