Fun_People Archive
19 Dec
Conspiracy Nation Vol. 6 No. 41

Date: Tue, 19 Dec 95 02:32:16 -0800
From: Peter Langston <psl>
To: Fun_People
Subject: Conspiracy Nation Vol. 6 No. 41

From: normans@escape.com (normans@escape.com)

INFO BLACKOUT
============
By Clark Matthews
[Spotlight, 11/06/95]

Powerful national security insiders have established effective control
over the entrance gateways to Internet. Disturbing signs are now emerging
that the "information superhighway" has been targeted for systematic
surveillance and political dossier building on Americans' opinions.

This ominous news came in the first of a series of articles by
investigative journalist Steven Pizzo in *Web Review*, an online magazine
of cyberculture and politics (http://gnn.com/wr/) published by Songline
Studios of San Francisco. Pizzo is the author of *Inside Job*, a
groundbreaking expose' on the massive fraud and theft of insured deposits
in 1980s savings and loan debacle.

According to Pizzo, control of Internet "domain name registration" has
passed into private hands -- with the potential for serious mischief or
worse. "Domain names" are the odd-looking identifying names that are
assigned to individual computer systems that compose the Internet
(logoplex.com, for example).

Through a complex chain of licensing arrangements and corporate
acquisitions detailed in Pizzo's article, this crucial control over
Internet domain names has passed from the non-profit National Science
Foundation to Network Solutions, Inc. (NSI) of Herndon, Virginia. Last
May, amid growing public disbelief of Establishment media reports about
the Oklahoma City bombing provocation, NSI was purchased by Scientific
Applications International Corporation (SAIC) of San Diego.

SAIC is a $2 billion defense and FBI contractor with a board of directors
that reads like a Who's Who of the intelligence community. Board members
include Admiral Bobby Ray Inman, the former director of the National
Security Agency (NSA) and deputy director of the CIA; Melvin Laird,
defense secretary under Richard Nixon; Donald Hicks, former head of
research & development for the Pentagon; Donald Kerr, former head of the
Los Alamos National Laboratory; and Gen. Maxwell Thurman (ret.), the
commander of the U.S. invasion of Panama.

Former members of SAIC's board include Robert Gates, the former CIA
director under George Bush; current CIA director John Deutch; Anita Jones,
Deutch's former Pentagon procurement officer; and William Perry, the
present secretary of defense.

The corporation also has a legion of computer network specialists and an
entire division of computer consultants. SAIC currently holds contracts
for re-engineering the Pentagon's information systems, automating the
FBI's computerized fingerprint identification system, and building a
national criminal history information system.

The Internet is a marvel of computer software technology. It was designed
to survive a nuclear attack on the United States -- like the Post Office,
it's literally smart enough to find a way to get the mail through, even if
most of the network is missing.

But control of Internet domain name registration means the ability to
remove troublesome -- or outspoken -- computer systems from the network.
Potentially, this control also confers the power to insinuate "phantom"
domains into the network -- for surveillance purposes, for example -- or
for real-time, automatic censorship.

Furthermore, anecdotal evidence gathered by this author suggests that
actual "truth control" is taking place on the 'net now. E-mail messages
with controversial contents -- including the details of the SAIC takeover
of domain names -- have consistently disappeared as they travel across the
network. News items concerning the Vincent Foster "suicide" investigation
and allegations of NSA bank spying through compromised Inslaw software are
being quickly and automatically cancelled {1}. And the cancellations are
not by their authors.

                       -+- Crackdown -+-

With domain names under the control of secret government insiders, it is
even theoretically possible that large parts of the Internet could be
*shut* *down* *and* *silenced* at critical times. This could be
accomplished by suddenly altering domain name registrations or interposing
compromised "domains" at crucial points. These compromised systems could
serve as "black holes" at critical times, stopping e-mail and important
news from reaching the world -- or the rest of the country.

Exercises in "turning the Internet off" have already taken place in Taiwan
and Hong Kong. In Taiwan, the 'net was successfully shut down. All network
traffic -- including news, opinions and e-mail sent by computer users --
was successfully "bottled up" on the island and prevented from reaching
the world.

In Hong Kong, the Internet wasn't quite strangled, but the British
authorities who control that colony managed to throttle free electronic
speech with the rest of the world until everything was bottlenecked into a
few little-known satellite links.

These are alarming precedents and sure signs that powerful, shadowy forces
are preparing to chop at the very roots of America's new Liberty Tree. The
secretive people on the board of directors of SAIC are intelligence
professionals skilled at manufacturing events -- and then manufacturing
public opinion and consent by controlling the truth. Will Internet
disinformation, censorship or "shutdowns" signal the next American crisis?

+  +  +  +  +  +  +  +  +  +  +  +  +  +  +  +  +  +  +  +  +  +
You may be unable to find The Spotlight at your local library or news
dealer. To subscribe, phone 1-800-522-6292 (Maryland 1-301-951-6292). Note
that I have no personal connection to The Spotlight nor am I compensated
by them. I also neither necessarily agree nor disagree with either all or
parts of the views expressed in The Spotlight.

---------------------------<< Notes >>---------------------------
{1} Some of this information, regarding Foster and allegations of NSA bank
spying, etc., is still available via anonymous ftp to ftp.shout.net
pub/users/bigred  -- see files beginning "og" as, for example "og003",
"og021", etc.

NOTE:
This article was published on the Internet as "Conspiracy Nation Vol. 6
No. 41". As a subscriber to the CN mail-list, I receive every issue
regularly via e-mail. Oddly enough, 6.41 was skipped, and never arrived at
my e-mail account. Noticing the missing number, I retrieved it from the
ftp site mentioned in Note {1} above. Coincidence? Or confirmation of the
content of the article?
-RML

© 1995 Peter Langston