News Release

:-/ "Good" point.

Facing that a blow job was enough for an impeachment proceeding and a illegal war is not, this is the best argument I heard until now :-((

So we all have to wait until you US citizens will do better next elections. Hopefully.

Yes.

Yours, VB.

What exactly are you referencing here?

Yours, VB.

Politicians want to be liked and elected. If all the streets would be full of demonstrations all the time, then I bet you'd be surprised how many politicians even of the Republican Party you could see enforcing Bush and his group to resign.

Democracy works, believe me. And there is a very good reason why there is a right to demonstrate.

Yours, VB.

You've read the last Cryptogram newsletter? The vote counter used to be an uint16_t!

Well, at least until about the 80's when their economy started to exploit poor countries in Africa and Middle East.

Hint: Usuma ibn Ladin has won and achieved much more than he could ever imagine. Just fly some planes into a building and the entire western hemisphere goes crazy.

The Ministery of Truth. Or how did they call their new recently-founded public relations department?

I don't fear him, he's even too stupid to eat a pretzel (which was, of course, a terrorist pretzel). Hopefully it will not end up like "No, Mr. President, you may not press the Red Button".

Of course not. If you can't read the speech on paper in front of you, you need to be told everything through your ear clip.

You've read the last Cryptogram newsletter? The vote counter used to be an uint16_t!

Well, at least until about the 80's when their economy started to exploit poor countries in Africa and Middle East.

Hint: Usuma ibn Ladin has won and achieved much more than he could ever imagine. Just fly some planes into a building and the entire western hemisphere goes crazy.

The Ministery of Truth. Or how did they call their new recently-founded public relations department?

I don't fear him, he's even too stupid to eat a pretzel (which was, of course, a terrorist pretzel). Hopefully it will not end up like "No, Mr. President, you may not press the Red Button".

Especially when he's recalling the weapons and oil lobby as "god".

Of course not. If you can't read the speech on paper in front of you, you need to be told everything through your ear clip.

In a democracy which is a form of representational government we elect people to speak for us and act on our behalf. If we do not like or think the people we have elected is doing a good job we elect someone else. Not everything is voted on by the people.

Many of the news accounts of Katrina were just flat out wrong. In a disaster the size of Katrina there are bound to be missteps and mistakes.

I may have missed your point....The reason that the agencies were combined (they have no real power, they just follow the laws) was that in Pre 9-11 we had a seperation of intelligence agencies, the CIA could not talk to the FBI etc. this was called "the wall". The wall was formed to protect US citizens from being spied on by the CIA, the CIA is strickly a foriegn intelligence agency. Now the CIA and the FBI can work together on domestic issues.

n visiting friends, doing business and taking

There is really no difference than getting a VISA which also requires fingerprints. If you are afraid of having your fingerprints taken I would imagine this would exclude you from any country that requires a VISA.

Well if you understand how election results are counted now maybe you would appreciate the automated process. Remember Florida and the 2001 US presidential election? In that case it was all in how the ballots were counted and who did the counting. I live in Washington State and our recent governors election was decide by 119 votes out of 3 million and the accusations and irregularities during the vote counting process were great due to the human involvement, dimpled chads so to speak. It tkk six months to finalize the election due to all of the challenges. With machine tallying and counting this would not be an issue.

And that is pretty much the way it works in the US.

The prisoners have no basic US rights as they are not US citizens. Most of them (not all) were caught during a war, on the fiels of battle not wearing a uniform. These people are called unlawful combatants. These are not US laws, these terms and conditions arise from the Geneva conventions and are hels in accordance with international law not US laws.

Most of the people that were involved with abuses at Abu Gharaib are now sitting in a federal penitentiary in Leavenworth Kansas as I type. They have been tried and convicted of their crimes. As for Rumsfeld resigning why should he? Do you have evidence that he was involved in the torture? Here in the US we do not convict people without evidence.

It is pretty much exactly like before, the only difference is they search your baggage and x-ray you before you board the plane. A minor inconvenience at most.

I never said I have blind trust in anything. I just stated that I have not or I know no one that has been affected by the patriot act.

We are not in control of the authorities except through the ballot box. The rules and laws still do not change.

May I suggest that you do not believe everything the news reports as true. The US is still about as free as you can get. I can travel anywhere in the US with no restrictions. I still carry a .45 colt auto everywhere I go. I even take it on the airlines. (packed in my luggage). I can quit my job tomorrow and find a new one. I can support any political candidate without fear. I can vote or not vote.

Oh I am not saying that there are not issues. The US has what 280 million people? The problems are few and far between. I am sure there were a few people that were arrested that shouldn't be but overall the percentage of people that have had problems is miniscule. You will always read the exceptions to the rule in the news but put that into perspective.

Fortunately we are a free country. Still a magnet for the weary and down troddens souls from all over the world.

I think about it often.

I will give you two words.....rhetoric and propaganda. The war we fight is not just a physical war it is also a war for hearts and minds. Here are those two words again....rhetoric and propaganda.

The election machines have just come into existance. Very few elections have been run with them.

Quite the experience, talk about security!

You have nothing to do with this. It is not to embarass you or to harass you it is just so that you can be identified nothng more.

How is it control? Identifying yourself before entering a country is control? After you identify yourself ther is no control. You can enter the US and go anywhere, do anything with no control as long as it is legal. There is no one watching your travels, watching what you spend or who you visit with.

There is no one observing or controlling me. I have a few friends that occasionally visit from overseas and they certainly seem to have no problem.

I am a little unsure of what "problems" you are talking of.

Did you miss those 18+ UN resolutions and 13 years of Saddams refusal to disarm and disclose? We in the US also expect laws to be followed. Maybe you should be addressing your concerns to the UN.

Have you read the recent documents from the Saddam regime? They are pretty enlightening:

of them are in Arabic, many of them have been translated and the translations are stunning.

Do not forget to go to the horses mouth, many of the documents and things the press talks about can be accessed directly. Do not take the presses word for anything.

I agree it is difficult. Ferreting out the rhetoric and propaganda from the truth is the hardest part.

I agree. I am not religious. Religion has no place in politics. That makes us no better than them.

I think you are mistaken. GWB is really a down to earth person. He may not be polished, he may not be a great speaker but he does have the support of many Americans. He made a decision and stuck with it and he is still sticking with it even though popular opinion is not on his side. That is what it takes to be a great leader. Make a decision and stick with it through thick and thin, if it was the right decision 3 years ago the principles remain the same.

Not being Christian I wouldn't have a clue........

We're talking about liberty and democrathy here. Did you already notice, that according to the Patriot Act:

... the government has the possibility to imprison every non US citizen they declare "suspicous" for an unlimited time?

... that a federal judge said, that parts of the Patriot Act are unconstitutional (do you appreciate the constitution of the United States of America)?

... two Germans were illegaly kidnapped by US officals, one of them is here from the region of Ulm where I live and he claims that he was tortured, while the other one is in Guantanamo Bay until today, waiting for years now for an accusation?

The full text of the Patriot Act you can read here yourself:

Now this is not true any more. I personally feel affected, when someone living here is kidnapped.

Yours, VB.

And nothing in the PA has been found to be Unconstitutional - While a Justice may have an opinion, it's already been put in place and has not been RULED unconstitutional.

In all my years I've not see anyone held for any unreasonable length of time without there being a valid reason.

Can you cite the relavent portion of the Patriot Act that you are referring to? I have read the patriot act several times and AFAIK it does not make mention of "suspicious" acts by "non-citizens". Are you sure you are not repeating what someone has told you of the Patriot Act instead of reading it for yourself?

Again, would you care to cite your sources? I don't follow this issue 100% but AFAIK no part of it has been ruled unconstitutional.

Well without anymore facts than you give I cannot comment. Again if you would care to cite your source...or at least offer the persons name...

That is actually a CGI query and the link is inop. Here is a link to the Patriot Act:

this is not true any more. I personally feel affected, when someone

And you know no more facts? Just that they were German?

Yes, so we are, too. But if you really understand why it is good to have democrathy, you know why you need to be in control.

Yes. And this is not a good idea at all. In every democrathy I know, foreign intelligence service and investigation is strictly divided. The reason is civil rights. And this is a very important point, I think.

This information they want from me if I want to visit the US:

PNR, date of reservation, planned departure, name, other names in PNR, address, type of payment, address of receipt, phone numbers, complete planning of journey for each PNR, flying diary (miles and addresses), travel agency, name of the clerk there, codehare information in PNR, status in journey, information about split booking, e-mail address, ticketing information, remarks, ticket number, number of seat, date of ticket delivery, history about all not taken flights, number of baggage ticket, names of all people with ticket but without reservation, OSI, SSI/SSR, the received-from, PNR history, number of people in PNR, state of the seat, if it is a one-way ticket, APIS information, ATFQ (tarifs).

And my fingerprints. And a biometrical passport. And a Visa. And a questionare. And...

Sorry, I abandon.

No I don't. At least not in such a ridiculous and limpid way.

Please have a look onto Diebold's machines yourself, before you're arguing here. Hint: this is a security newsgroup.

Not with the Patriot Act any more. Please read it.

Before Bush everybody had, because the US were a constitutional state, where law and order counts for everyone, and everyone can count on it.

And some of them, even Germans, were illegally kidnapped here in Germany.

You better should read the Geneva conventions before talking about them. Where is the forum according to Geneva III, Article 5, please?

The problem is, that Bush is breaking the Geneva conventions and ignoring international contracts the USA have signed and ratifyed.

His own words, when he played down these terrible crimes first.

I didn't ask you for convicting him. I'm just surprised, why he has no responsibility at all for what he is responsible for. This seems to be very strange, doesn't it?

Oops - why the ... do you do that? Is it so dangerous where you live? Aren't there police? I would feel very insecure, if I would know, that everybody is carrying along a weapon.

Do you think about why they're so wrong? Do you think about possibilities to change that?

Hm... what do you think a father of a kid feels, when his kid was shot say by accident by US teenagers in uniform, and he sees the officially censored film about the US teenager in uniform who listens to this special rock song with the text "Burn, motherf*cker, motherf*cker, burn!" and bangs with his vehicle-mounted machine gun onto everything which moves?

I'm talking about Iraq, you know. And I'm talking about a film, which was allowed by the US Army. And I don't want to accuse those US teenagers, who see a possibility in the Army because of having some education and money (and perhaps some adventure), and of course must protect themselves in a country with civil war.

Do you have children? Can you imagine, how this father feels, how the family feels?

Can you imagine the hate, the US Army there is breeding? Hate against the USA? Hate, comparable to the hate against Saddam?

What do you think, will this make the world more secure?

"Lawful" interception, for example. Arresting without accussation, for example.

No, I didn't.

Other people did already. Bush is not accepting the UN and the contracts the USA signed and ratifyed there. And he has the power to ignore all other people in the world, while you're supporting him.

Really, I'm not willing to compare the government of the United States of America to this vermin of a dictator. Sorry, this is no base we can discuss on.

That Saddam is the last person I want to see holding an office, we don't need to discuss. About the US we can, we must discuss. About Saddam, there is nothing to discuss, and never was. Why did Rumsfeld support Saddam at all? I really don't understand.

Yes. This is exactly what I'm talking about. Here we agree.

I don't think so. A great leader makes intelligent decisions, which lead into a situation, the people she/he leads are benefitting of.

I don't think that losing so much friends in the world and gaining so much enemies can lead into a situation where the US people bill benefit. This war will not end this way. It will only grow and get harder.

I'm not Christian, too. But please believe me, it is. And Bush claims to be Christian.

Yours, VB.

I'm referring to the US government, who let CIA kidnap a German here, for example, and they're invoking the Patriot Act to do so, breaking German law (and I cannot see that they're following US law here with kidnapping - AFAIK, kidnapping is not allowed in US law, too, but of course, with bending clauses of the Patriot Act, this may be something like legal in the US).

This is not my idea, too; please read:

or ask Judge Audrey Collins himself, if you're thinking, that NBC is lying here.

Both cases are officially approved by German government here; I'm talking about German citizen Mr. Kahled el-Masri (who has roots in Libanon) and was kidnapped in Germany by the CIA, because his name is very similar to the name of a terrorist.

And I'm talking about German guest worker Mr. Murat Kurnaz (who has Turkish roots), who was kidnapped in Pakistan:

Thanx! It's easier to read here (while the link I pasted worked for me).

Yours, VB.

Well with rose colored glasses and a perfect world maybe. But in reality democracies do not work that way. Democracies are a representational government. You vote for people, those people that you have voted in office vote for you unlessthe vote is in the form of a referendum.

I disagree, the US would have had a good chance of catching the 9-11 terrorists if they would have coordinated intelligence.

I disagree, there is no reason to not have your foreign intelligence share information with domestic intelligence. It is foolish to not do so. This does not mean that the CIA can spy domestically it just means that the information can be shared with domestic intelligence agencies.

Civil rights and the sharing of foreign intelligence are two seperate issues.

I am glad to see that they are asking questions. Sorry that you feel that the questions are unneccesary. They seem like pretty simple questions to me.....you should try gaining entry to Kuwait sometime.........it took an act of congress last time I went...

Simply put.....the US has 300 million people. It would be stupid not to automate the process...

I have read a lot about the diebold machines but have yet to see any current convincing evidence that tampering is an issue. Maybe you can change my mind?

Ummm....I have read it....in detail. Nothing has changed contrary to what you read in the press. Read it yourself if you don't believe me...

The US constitution is for US citizens not for illegal combatants in a time of war.

Do you mean: Article 5 applies all combatants; should any doubt arise as to whether persons is a lawful combatant they will be treated as such until their status has been determined by a competent tribunal. Who says they are not treated as lawful combatants? They will be held as lawful combatants until a tribunal is held.

I disagree. Your interpretation is faulty.

So that automatically makes him guilty? I hardly think so...

Not really, He is not a ground commander he is the Defense Secretary.

Because I can.

No I live in a very safe place.

Sure there are. Police come after your dead, not before.

Why? Here it is perfectly normal but then again I don't live in a city.

Sorry, I didn't see that propaganda film.

Yes I do.

I have talked to a lot of soldiers that have served in Iraq. That is not their perception. I would suggest again talking to the horses mouth not what the news media says.

That is not what UN resolutioon1441 says. Maybe you should read it and the previous 18 resolutions, it will put things in perspective for you.

It has nothing to do with comparisons, it has to do with facts, historical facts now.

An enemy of my enemy is my friend. Doesn't mean we were right.....I'm just stating the facts.

Great leaders make decisions not based on popularity, some of these decisions are tough decisions.

We have been at war for quite some time just no one has recognized it. Militant Islam against the world. I would think that someone would appreciate us fighting your battles also. Somebody has to stand up against Muslim extremists and Sharia law. It certainly sounds like you or your leaders don't have the gumption to.

A U.S. District Judge does not have the power to decide if something is constututional or not. That is the supreme courts bailiwick. One thing you should know about US law. District court judges are very frequently overturned which I am sure that this will be.

was tortured, while the other one is in Guantanamo Bay until today,

Yes a very unfortunate set of circumstances for Mr. Kurnaz and Mr. Masri.

There aren't streets filled with demonstrators, so the politicians aren't going to be behaving like you suggest. Personally, I don't believe Bush has the leadership skills those who voted for him think he has. On the contrary, he's easily lead and stubbornly defends positions he can't even express coherently. But, hey, there ain't the votes in Congress to get him impeached.

Because he's done nothing to impeach him.

Just because your government violated the UN Sanctions and supplied Iraq with weapons during the 10+ years of sanctions doesn't mean you have to take your own countries betrayal out on the US.

No. But the knowledge.

Yes.

Yours, VB.

Right. But this is not the end of what citizens can do, should do. They should have a look on onto what's going on, and if it's going wrong, they should interfere.

This is why you're carrying your weapon, right? You want to be the one in control, not letting officials do what they want.

I think, the main error was not this, because the terrorists were not US citizens.

Here in Germany we all know exactly what this reason is, and why the US had such a strictily division, too. The name of the organisation I'm talking about is "GeStaPo".

The problems with offices like the FBI is, that they're starting all the time with good roots, good people and the will to help and support. Then, when they're established, they're just a source of power. And then people have the idea to use this power. All people, not only the well meaning ones.

Offices and states are nothing which can be implemented without strict control. They're powerful, and for exactly the same reasons they're useful, they're endangered for being abused, they're dangerous.

As a beginning.

Civil rights and the integrating of investigation and intelligence are a big problem. Combining intelligence services and giving them too much power is a very big problem.

Intelligence services and armies are a problem per se in a democrathy. They partly cannot follow democrathic ideas, for obvious reasons. And therefore, they have to be handled with care.

;-)

Hey, I'm European. I'm used to visit friends in Spain by entering an Airplane, and that's it. I'm used to enter Switzerland by having people at the border who want to see my passport.

And now I want to go to the US - and then _this_. Sorry, they're getting mad here. The NSA and the CIA maybe better should infiltrate the Islamistic circles instead of installing sattelites, then they would know what's going on. But what should this be? "Don't come to the US, we don't want contact with you" to me?

It's pretty characteristic that you compare the US to dictatorships all the time, like with Kuwait. Or did I miss something, and this state now is a democracy? And, really, it's a little bit sad to see the US compared to dictatorships all the time. This is exactly what I'm critizising, you'll perhaps remember.

Ah, this is a misunderstanding. I'm not critizising the idea of automating this process. I'm critizising the way these machines are build. I can see only two possibilities: either the people at Diebold are incredibly dumb (and having a look onto their wealth, I cannot believe that) or it is intentionally, that these machines are perfect for falsifying the results of an election.

Yes. Just read the actual Crypto-Gram. I think, you can trust in Bruce for such purposes:

Yes. It's very hard to read for a non lawyer. This is, why I'm referencing the results we all can see.

The results, that people are arrested without being accused for years now.

And not for people who were illegaly kidnapped in Germany. And not for people, who were illegally kidnapped in Pakistan by accident. Yes, now you're right. This was completely different before Bush, BTW.

How should "bringing democrathy to the world" ever work with such an attitude? And if this is not the planning, what is the planning? Getting the oil?

Yes.

I'm missing this tribunal. This goes for years now.

BTW: "war" is a mode states can be in. It is nothing what you can have with criminals.

I don't think so. For years now we're waiting for this clearing tribinal. Usually, this could last some days or weeks but not years.

If ever the sight that this is a war in the meaning of this treaty would be valid at all. I doubt that.

The "war against terrorism" is a thing, which was not meant by these treaties at all. "War against terrorism" means fighting extremely dangerous criminals. And you have to treat them as criminals.

[Rumsfeld]

No. And I'm not expecting him to be punished, I'm expecting him to resign, because he totally failed with his responsibility.

I'm excepting the US citizens to fire him, because he is responsible for the people who did such things in the name of the US, if he is not resigning.

This is the meaning of "responsibility" I know. I really don't understand, what else could be meant with this word.

Remeber: we're talking about Abu Garaib, which has deep political consequences. Here he is responsible without any doubt, isn't he?

;-)

Crazy. This divides Europeans and US people, and will ever do. But: don't care, this is a completely different discussion.

OK, you got me - I'm missing the point then ;-)

Ah, then the police in Germany is much better, I see ;-)

Because of the possibilities of accidents. Because of the possibilities of people who will not handle with care. Because of the possibilities of drunk people with a weapon. Because of the possibilitis of mad or crazy people with a weapon. I would not feel more secure with an own weapon, because if he hits me and I'm hitting him, we both have a big problem...

Yes, I know that many people in the US feel like you. I just cannot understand why. But: forget that topic.

It was not a propaganda film, but a reportage which officially was allowed by the US army. You have censorship now for such pictures. One thing, which interferes with democracy, too, BTW.

I'm not talking about the perception of US soldiers. And I don't want to accuse someone here.

I'm just trying to make you think about the way the perception of the people in Iraq is with such provisions like this war in Iraq. It would be very important for you to think about this topic, I guess, because this decides if you can live in peace in the US, or if these criminals of Islamistics will get more and more support from more and more (millions) of people, who otherwise would support you.

And, for the topic about the perception of the US soldiers you talked to:

There are very different cultures in the Arabic countries compared to the US.

Many people from the US I know are very open and straight. You usually know what your dialog partner really feels (with exceptions, of course, but this is common).

With Arabic people, the culture is very different. Usually, you'll get a smile, even if they feel very angry about you. So it is with people in Iran, too.

Arabic or Persian people are not more perfidious than other people, they just have a completely different culture you first have to learn to deal with to understand.

I fear that the US soldiers you know did not got the point at all. Or: please talk to them and ask them, if they know that.

I'm not talking about Saddam, you know.

I tested. But the document I downloaded was Arabic. Sorry, I cannot read this. Could you explain, please, what you want to tell me?

Yes, this is the ever repeating error of US foreign policy. And this everytime failed and leads into desaster.

When will the US government learn, that this should not continue any more?

An enemy of your enemy could be your friend. But he also can trick you and be the enemy of the both of you.

Your political friends you can recognize in a very easy way: they share your basic ideas with you. Saddam never did.

Yes.

Yes. But: intelligent decisions, please. Not dumb decisions, which lead into a situation, people are suffering from.

I'm appreciating your efforts to fight for the ideas of freedom and democrathy, even if I'm thinking that you're spending too much energy into the completely wrong places.

Look, we're fighting both at the same side. We're using very different provisions, though.

What we need is to win the hearts of the Arabic people, if we want to bring democrathy and freedom to them. We need their hearts, not the Islamistic criminals.

To win the heart of man, you first need to try to undertstand him. Then you have to show him, that you don't want to cheat him, but really help. You have to show him, that you're caring about him, that you're not ignoring his situation and his problems.

After winning his confidence, you can try to take him by the hand and to teach him by showing him possible positive results.

Gaining enough confidence, you have to ask him for helping, because he must improve himself. And you can support him and argue the people who want to inhibit his change. And, at last, you ask him to help to spread your ideas, which are now his own ideas. Not because you forced him, but you convinced him.

This can work, I think.

With a weapon, you cannot win the heart of a man. You can hit it, but not win.

Please think about the fact, that we're not fighting a war in the meaning of a war between states. We're fighting a war to win the minds and the hearts of people, for inhibiting them from being abused by Islamistic criminals, and for convincing them that the ideas of freedom and democracy will really change their life for their own benefit.

This is only an error based on misunderstanding.

Yours, VB.

And this is even wrong, as due to modern developments like the intarweb we have tools to establish a direct democracy instead of a representative one.

Well, only the actors were not. Careful and pretty detailed analysis of the US government involvement can be found f.e. at .

And you know our reaction? Well, if they want to be threaten specially, then we're making two versions of a passport: A new expensive biometric one for U.S. and keep on running the classical cheap one for the rest of the world.

Wherease I'm critizing the automation with unreliable machines. Ballot counting is an established and time-proven working system, and especially because of its importance a replacement should be done carefully and reliably.