Re: Urgent News Flash

"RSH" <RSH_Oracle_at_worldnet.att.net> wrote in message news:dMdL8.23947$UT.1644131_at_bgtnsc05-news.ops.worldnet.att.net...
> But get real everyone.
>
> There's been all sorts of direct and circumstantial evidence indicating
that
> terrorists and the like have been making use of the Internet for quite
some
> time in coordinating their plans, and there's even web sites with Martha
> Stewart [No aspersion or offense meant to Ms. Stewart] "How to Build A
> Horrible And Devastating, Yet Decorative Bomb" recipes. After September
11,
> someone had to unleash the bloodhounds.
>
> I honestly do not know what to think or say, as an American, or as an IT /
> Database / Telecomm / Defense person. I know numerous freedoms are being
> infringed in unprecedented ways (for Americans; the Official Secrets Acts
> and such give some of our friends a bit more muscle). And all of our
militia
> groups are up in arms about it all (not in the literal sense, hopefully.)

I do think it is right to agitate against unreasonable infringement of individual liberty which many of the laws now being passed by liberal western govts around the world are currently doing. Technology should (in my idealistic dream) bring freedom and empowerment to the individual not the powers of a tyranny to the state. Never the less it is daft for me to protest about the US acts since they do not apply to me.

>
> Any random idiot knows all telephone calls placed or received within the
> greater Washington DC area have been on intercept for years (widely
rumored,
> I haven't seen the actual process, and therefore could not attest to it
> factually).

Same applies here. In fact it is illegal in the UK for phone companies to carry communications which cannot be decrypted by GCHQ within a reasonable timeframe. It is also not beyond the powers of the security services to tap whomsoevers phone they like - though they cannot rely on such evidence in a court unless preceded by an injunction to obtain the tap. <snip>

> But not all bets are off.
>
> The people like us that have been entrusted with the ultimate
responsibility
> for personal information, medical data, and other records that could be
> abused in the wrong hands, have a duty to "Question Authority", ask all
> these people who the hell they are, get clearance [in written form, if
> you're smart] from Corporate Legal, Medicolegal Records Retention, the
> office of the Judge Advocate General (or whatever you non-Colonists call
the
> base lawyers/investigators) that stipulates specifically, in detail, what
> information is wanted, in what form, the reason for the demand, and the
time
> frame in which it is wanted, and stipulates and instructs you, in detail,
> how you are to provide it.

Hmm Might try that one next time I'm presented with an unreasonable demand. Most times people don't actually know what info they want *in detail*

>
> It was always AT&T/Bell policy to tell any government geek with any kind
of
> legal paperwork to go to Hell, and after they got done with that, go see
> Corporate Legal to have them write out orders, and nothing without a
> signature from a Bell/AT&T lawyer, on proper forms, would be acceptable.
>
> (After which they were thankful for the brief sojourn in Hell, where the
> coffee is at least hot, they have better donuts, and at least the Sports
> Illustrateds and People and Time are less than 20 years old.)
>
> Even with this dreadful threat (or series of threats) hanging over us, we
> still have a duty to the people that entrust us to protect their data and
> communications against improper intrusion, examination, duplication, or
> worst of all, alteration.
>
> I don't think that's any kind of oath they make you swear in Oracle
School,
> but perhaps, it ought to be.

Well said. Received on Wed Jun 05 2002 - 10:42:07 CDT