Subject: Re: Advanced Technology Makes Potential Terrorists Harder to Stop

From: Fred Baker <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 12 Sep 2001 17:51:09 -0700

Great.

So now the FBI is saying "if only it were lawful to deploy Carnivore 
everywhere, and we could sift through everyone's communications without a 
warrant, we might have had a clue this was coming."

The scary part is that Congress just might go for it this time.

At 05:40 PM 9/12/2001, John Combs wrote:
>ABC News, Sept. 12 — Advanced technologies and more sophisticated methods 
>of organization have made would-be international terrorists more difficult 
>for the U.S. government to identify and stop, experts say.
>
>The increased use of fiber-optic cable for telecommunications and the 
>proliferation of advanced cryptography to conceal information have made it 
>harder for U.S. authorities to eavesdrop on terrorists to prevent attacks, 
>experts say.
>
>And for such reasons, they say, U.S. government agencies apparently failed 
>to detect and prevent Tuesday's terror attacks that killed thousands of 
>people and destroyed four airliners, the World Trade Center and part of 
>the Pentagon.
>
>...
>
>http://abcnews.go.com/sections/us/DailyNews/wtc_counterterrorism_010912.html

---

From: Franck Martin <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 13 Sep 2001 15:15:19 +1200

What about the missile defence system? Take a hammer to kill a fly and you
may miss the fly.

The word is "appropriate technologies". Eavesdropping on Internet
communication won't help, as this people usually use plain old technologies
and basic flaws in systems. They try to find a technological answer, where
the problem is human. Screen all passengers before taking a flight, ask them
their ID or passport, no fly zone over cities, and have the air controllers
give the alert when a plane go off course.

Do not cut expenses or put more moeny, work smarter and reliabily...

By the way, have you heard about the new scenario in the Arab version of MS
Flight Simulator?

This is a bad joke, but it shows the level of technology required to do
it...

Cheers.

Franck Martin
Network and Database Development Officer
SOPAC South Pacific Applied Geoscience Commission
Fiji
E-mail: [email-masked] <mailto:[email-masked]> 
Web site: http://www.sopac.org/
<http://www.sopac.org/> Support FMaps: http://fmaps.sourceforge.net/
<http://fmaps.sourceforge.net/> 

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-----Original Message-----
From: Fred Baker [mailto:[email-masked]]
Sent: Thursday, 13 September 2001 12:51 
To: [email-masked]
Subject: Re: Advanced Technology Makes Potential Terrorists Harder to
Stop

Great.

At 05:40 PM 9/12/2001, John Combs wrote:
>ABC News, Sept. 12 - Advanced technologies and more sophisticated methods

---

From: "Ian King" <[email-masked]>
Date: Wed, 12 Sep 2001 21:34:11 -0700

To quote the eminently quotable Benjamin Franklin:

"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."  

We who maintain this collaborative venture known as the Internet must
continue to educate our elected officials in matters such as the very
real threat Fred raises, a threat to the "essential libert[ies]" of
freedom of speech and from unreasonable search and seizure.  

-- Ian 

-----Original Message-----
From: Fred Baker [mailto:[email-masked]] 
Sent: Wednesday, September 12, 2001 5:51 PM
To: [email-masked]
Subject: Re: Advanced Technology Makes Potential Terrorists Harder to
Stop

Great.

So now the FBI is saying "if only it were lawful to deploy Carnivore 
everywhere, and we could sift through everyone's communications without
a 
warrant, we might have had a clue this was coming."

---

From: Melinda Shore <[email-masked]>
Date: Thu, 13 Sep 2001 08:39:07 -0400

>safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."  

And to quote Mark Eckenwiler, Esq., 

"Franklin's dictum is a sound sentiment, but practically 
everyone [ ... ] is a little confused about what 'essential 
liberties' means.

"Specifically, the Constitution does not enshrine privacy as
an absolute 'essential liberty.'  On the contrary, the Fourth
Amendment specifically authorizes reasonable searches of persons
& papers on the basis of probable cause, particularity, etc.  So
the Framers already embodied the notion of liberty trade-offs
in the Bill of Rights."

The point here is that while protection from unreasonable search
is to be guarded carefully, not all searches are unreasonable.

Melinda