lambda 7.05
Sept 28 2001
By J. Thorel
contents
+ UPDATE: Anti-terrorism laws and tech surveillance
+ CHINA: The
Great Internet Repression
Last info, open debate: wartimetiberty.com
Last week The Washington Post ran an article in which PGP inventor Zimmermann were described as "crying" for "feeling guilt" because he has created a software that may have been used by terrorists. He denies theis interpretatioon in an open letter sent Monday, September 24, 2001:
The Friday September 21st Washington Post carried an article by Ariana Cha that I feel misrepresents my views on the role of PGP encryption software in the September 11th terrorist attacks. She interviewed me on Monday September 17th, and we talked about how I felt about the possibility that the terrorists might have used PGP in planning their attack. The article states that as the inventor of PGP, I was "overwhelmed with feelings of guilt". I never implied that in the interview, and specifically went out of my way to emphasize to her that that was not the case, and made her repeat back to me this point so that she would not get it wrong in the article. This misrepresentation is serious, because it implies that under the duress of terrorism I have changed my principles on the importance of cryptography for protecting privacy and civil liberties in the information age.
Because of the political sensitivity of how my views were to be expressed, Ms. Cha read to me most of the article by phone before she submitted it to her editors, and the article had no such statement or implication when she read it to me. The article that appeared in the Post was significantly shorter than the original, and had the abovementioned crucial change in wording. I can only speculate that her editors must have taken some inappropriate liberties in abbreviating my feelings to such an inaccurate soundbite.
In the interview six days after the attack, we talked about the fact that I had cried over the heartbreaking tragedy, as everyone else did. But the tears were not because of guilt over the fact that I developed PGP, they were over the human tragedy of it all. I also told her about some hate mail I received that blamed me for developing a technology that could be used by terrorists. I told her that I felt bad about the possibility of terrorists using PGP, but that I also felt that this was outweighed by the fact that PGP was a tool for human rights around the world, which was my original intent in developing it ten years ago. It appears that this nuance of reasoning was lost on someone at the Washington Post. I imagine this may be caused by this newspaper's staff being stretched to their limits last week.
In these emotional times, we in the crypto community find ourselves having to defend our technology from well-intentioned but misguided efforts by politicians to impose new regulations on the use of strong cryptography. I do not want to give ammunition to these efforts by appearing to cave in on my principles. I think the article correctly showed that I'm not an ideologue when faced with a tragedy of this magnitude. Did I re-examine my principles in the wake of this tragedy? Of course I did. But the outcome of this re-examination was the same as it was during the years of public debate, that strong cryptography does more good for a democratic society than harm, even if it can be used by terrorists. Read my lips: I have no regrets about developing PGP.
The question of whether strong cryptography should be restricted by the government was debated all through the 1990's. This debate had the participation of the White House, the NSA, the FBI, the courts, the Congress, the computer industry, civilian academia, and the press. This debate fully took into account the question of terrorists using strong crypto, and in fact, that was one of the core issues of the debate. Nonetheless, society's collective decision (over the FBI's objections) was that on the whole, we would be better off with strong crypto, unencumbered with government back doors. The export controls were lifted and no domestic controls were imposed. I feel this was a good decision, because we took the time and had such broad expert participation. Under the present emotional pressure, if we make a rash decision to reverse such a careful decision, it will only lead to terrible mistakes that will not only hurt our democracy, but will also increase the vulnerability of our national information infrastructure.
PGP users should rest assured that I would still not acquiesce to any back doors in PGP.
The article in question appears at
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A1234-2001Sep20.htmlIt is noteworthy that I had only received a single piece of hate mail on this subject. Because of all the press interviews I was dealing with, I did not have time to quietly compose a carefully worded reply to the hate mail, so I did not send a reply at all. After the article appeared, I received hundreds of supportive emails, flooding in at two or three per minute on the day of the article.
I have always enjoyed good relations with the press over the past decade, especially with the Washington Post. I'm sure they will get it right next time.
Philip Zimmermann, 24 September 2001
(This letter may be widely circulated)
Text of President Bush's Anti-Terrorism Bill Now Online (Wednesday September 19)
For the last week, Washington has been buzzing about what may -- or may not -- be in the "Mobilization Against Terrorism Act."
The Bush administration sent a draft of MATA to Congress late Wednesday, with the House Judiciary committee pledging "a legislative hearing followed by a full committee markup as soon as possible" once they receive the final version. We'll let you look through the bill yourself, but note how this would expand the utility of the Net's two favorite surveillance systems: Carnivore and Echelon. If you want to crib from a summary, see the outline we posted on Tuesday.
Text of the "Mobilization Against Terrorism Act"
http://cryptome.org/mata.htm
Senator Judd Gregg Prepares Anti-Encryption Bill (Friday September 21)
Sen. Judd Gregg (R-New Hampshire), who called for global backdoors in encryption products in a floor speech last week, is readying legislation.
More on encryption debate:
http://www.wartimeliberty.com/search.pl?topic=encryption
Tuesday September 18
Ashcroft: FBI Probes if Other Planes Were Targeted By James Vicini
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The FBI is investigating whether other airplanes may have been targeted for hijacking as it seeks to question more than 190 people about last week's deadly airline attacks, U.S. Attorney General John Ashcroft said on Tuesday.
Ashcroft also said 75 people who may have helpful information about the attacks are in custody for immigration violations, and new steps were adopted allowing even longer detention of such individuals before charges must be brought.
... "We have a responsibility to use every legal means at our disposal to prevent further terrorist activity by taking people into custody who have violated the law and who may pose a threat to America,'' he said.
... In Washington, D.C., an FBI official told reporters the hijackers and their known associates used public computers, such as those in libraries, as well as their own personal computers to communicate.
"They did use it (the Internet) and they used it well,'' the official said of the e-mails of the hijackers and their associates. The FBI has been able to get e-mails that date back as far as 30 to 45 days, the official said.
The official said the e-mails were in English and Arabic, that there were hundreds of communications, and the e-mails were not just limited to the United States.
The hijackers did not use encryption techniques, the official said.
The official said the FBI had received good cooperation in the investigation from Internet service providers, along with banks in tracing the money trail and the airline industry.
European privacy and civil liberties organisations urge European leaders
to defend citizens' freedoms
21 September 2001
Open letter to the European Council
The terrorist attacks on the U.S. did not only target human lives and property but also the essential values of freedom in open societies. Political leaders in Europe will now wish to enhance the security of their countries and protect the public from further wrongdoing. We urge them to take this opportunity to defend the freedom and the rights of Europe's citizens. .../...
http://www.digitalrights.dk/DR_file54.htm
COE Ministers Approve Cyber-crime Treaty. The Deputy Minsters of the COE approved the Cybercrime Convention on September 19. COE press release.
http://www.privacyinternational.org/issues/cybercrime/coe/cybercrime-final.html
Privacy International comments:
http://www.privacyinternational.org/issues/cybercrime/index.html#coe
UPDATE Oct. 7 2001
Zhu Ruixiang, a lawyer and former producer of a local radio station, became the 19th individual in China charged for subversion using the internet, according to the list maintained by the human-rights group Digital Freedom Network. Other dissidents journalists recently charged, that were using computers and e-mail for their political activity, are not listed, however. Here's a complete list of recent events related to the "great internet repression in China". The Paris-based press freedom group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) says that "repression has increased since the Chinese were awarded the Olympics", on July 13 (RSF launched a campaign to boycott the 2008 Olympics).
September 28, 2001 -- Four Chinese intellectuals went on trial in Beiling Friday on subversion charges, accused of criticizing the government on the Internet and setting up a group to debate political reform, the Hong Kong-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy said. Prosecutors finished presenting their case but no verdict was announced. It said three lawyers represented the men and family members were allowed to attend. The four, all in their mid- to late twenties, were arrested March 13.
Among the defendants is Yang Zili, an Internet engineer, linked with a reknown dissident condemned last May to 3 years in a labour camp, Liu Haofeng (read below). The four men are accused of setting up the New Youth Society in May 2000, according to an undated copy of their indictments released by the center. It says they are charged with plotting to ``overturn the leadership of the Communist Party and the socialist system.'' According to the indictment, the group held secret meetings at Beijing universities and posted essays on the Web ... Police track down people who post documents considered subversive on the Internet.
+ Main source: Hong Kong Information Center on Human Rights and Democracy (ICHRD), AP (09/28)
September 10. -- Zhu Ruixiang is sentenced to 3 years in prison for having forwarded by e-mail news bulletins to 12 friends inside China, reports the Hong Kong ICHRD. The messages, deemed "reactionary" by a court in Shaoyang (southern province of Hunan), contained copies of V.I.P. Reference (Dacankao), a daily e-mail publication based in the U.S. Former online manager Lin Hai, sentenced in January 1999 to 2 years of jail in Shanghai for the same reason (he was the first then), was arrested because he furnished a list of Chinese e-mail for Dacankao (read interview of Dacankao's publisher Richar Long, lambda 5.01).
Zhu was arrested on May 8, 2001, and Public Security Bureau officials confiscated his computer, according to the U.S.-based Free China Movement. Initially, the court wanted to sentence him to nine months in prison, but the local Communist Party Committee overruled the decision and ordered the lengthier prison term for Zhu. Zhu's wife, Liu Fuping, said that their telephone was tapped every year around June 4, the anniversary of the government's brutal 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrations in Beijing's Tiananmen Square. Zhu participated in the 1989 demonstrations.
According to the Free China Movement, Zhu's case is also related to the case of Li Zanmin, a member of the outlawed China Democracy Party. Shortly before Zhu's arrest, Li was detained after authorities found copies of V.I.P. Reference in Li's home.
+ UPDATE DFN
publishes the ruling of Zhu's trial
http://dfn.org/voices/china/ruixiang_ruling.htm
+ Main source: ICHRC (AP newswire)
+ DFN,
Sept. 17
August 31. -- Closure of the outspoken Internet forum Baiyun Huanghe after students posted messages about the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. DFN and other NGOs reported about the closure on September 6. The Baiyun Huanghe bulletin board service (BBS - formerly hosted at http://bbs.whnet.edu.cn) belonged to the Huazhong University of Science and Technology (Wuhan, Hubei province).
University officials announced that they were temporarily shutting down the BBS, which had 30,000 registered users, "due to technical problems." A school official told Reuters that the university's party committee would manage the BBS after the shutdown. Users would be required to register with their real names and identification numbers. DFN said "online discussion of the closure continues on other sites". "For example, an Internet forum for Huazhong University alumni (http://www.neurophys.wisc.edu/~cai/hust/) has been active since Baiyun Huanghe was shut down. The alumni forum is run by a nonprofit alumni organization based in the U.S."
Last March, DFN added, the Sina.com Web site "erased hundreds of messages from its chat rooms which expressed outrage about an explosion that destroyed an elementary school ... killing 38 children. Government officials had claimed that the explosion was the result of a mad bomber, but parents said cash-strapped teachers forced children to assemble fireworks inside the school." "And last June, authorities closed online forums at the Southern Weekend weekly newspaper and the Xici Hutong Web site's Democracy and Human Rights Forum after people expressed concern about recent newspaper closures and firings."
+ Main source: DFN,
Sept. 6
+ An
updated list of online forums closed in China (DFN)
August 14. -- That day Huang Qi, arrested in June 2000 after Tiananmen-related material appeared on a BBS of a Web site that he ran (http://www.6-4tianwang.com), has been secretly tried on charges of subversion, NY-based Committee to Protect Journalists was reporting two days later. No one knows yet what was the verdict. The material included a letter from the mother of a young student killed during the Tiananmen demonstrations. Huang claimed that he did not control the site by the time the material was posted.
Huang's trial was postponed twice, supposedly because it would have been a bad publicity for the Chinese government waiting to win the 2008 Olympics.
+ Main source: CPJ,
Aug. 16
+ DFN, Aug.
16
+ Huang
Qi letter he wrote in jail
+ Huang's wife statement
Aug. 13. -- The GILC - Global Internet Liberty Campaign mentioned that Chinese officials have imposed further regulations on news coverage: it is illegal to publish materials that negate "the guiding role of Marxism, Leninism, Mao Zedong and Deng Xiaoping's theories, [g]oes against the guiding principles, official line or policies of the Communist Party," or "violates party propaganda discipline."
+ Main source : GILC Alert, Aug. 27
+ China Online article
11 July 2001. -- Yan Pen, a 38-year old dissident and computer salesman, is arrested that day in the province of Guagxi (southern China), according to the HK-based Information Center for Human Rights and Democracy. The news came on July 16, the day after the vote awarding the 2008 Summer Olympics to Beijing. RSF says he's accused of suspicion of illegal emigration. Police of Qingdao Shandong province, south-west of the country), where Yan Pen was born, informed his wife that he had been arrested. His computer had also been confiscated. On 16 July, three Qingdao dissidents tried to intervene in favour of Yan Pen's release, but the police refused.
Yan Pen is known for being one of the first dissidents to use the Internet in the struggle against the Chinese Communist Party dictatorship. He has been detained repeatedly since 1989. RSF adds taht the seaside city of Qingdao plans to hold yachting competitions during the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
+ Main Source ICHRD (DPA newswire, July 17)
June 15. -- Xinjiang Daily reports that small business owner Liu Weifang was convicted in northwestern China of inciting "subversion against state power", for an unknown period. He was sentenced for posting articles on Internet chatrooms that criticized the Communist Party, the official daily Xinjiang Daily wrote. According to the article, Liu had posted several articles in 1999 and 2000 that criticized both the Party and China's top leaders. Although he used the Internet name "Lgwf," Chinese officials determined that he posted the articles.
+ Main source: DFN, June 19
Mid-June. -- Paris-based RSF learned on July 2 that Li Hongmin was arrested in the middle of June in Guangzhou (South of China) for having distributed, by e-mail, the 2001 Chinese version of "The Tiananmen Papers". The text reveals the responsibilities of certain high Chinese officials in the Tiananmen Square massacre of June 1989.
May 16. -- On August 24 the dissident organisation Free China Movement (based in the USA) reported that the journalist and dissident Liu Haofeng was sentenced secretly in May to three years in a labour camp in Shanghai (capital of East China).
According to an RSF transcript, Liu, a reporter at the China Market Economy Newspaper, (published in Beijing), disappeared in March 2001 while he was doing research for the banned Chinese Democrat Party. According to Free China Movement, which kept documents attesting to Lui's sentence, the journalist was judged for having published articles in favour of democracy notably on web sites. He also tried to build Chinese Democrat Party groups. Aged 28, Liu also participated in the Univillage project created in December 1999 to promote local democracy and rural development in China. On the Chinese association web site, we can see that Liu Haofeng was member of the Univillage team. Yang Zili, cyber dissident held since 13 March 2001, also participated. Solicited by international press agencies, the authorities refused to make any comments about Liu's sentence.
+ Main source FCM
+ RSF, Aug. 25
April. -- China authorities said they would impose a three-month ban on the opening of new cyber-cafes as part of a major offensive against unchecked use of the Internet. As part of the new legislation, all registered cafes were required to renew their licenses. On July 2, Chinese police statistics show that at least 8,014 cybercafés were closed in the last two months. 56,800 cybercafés were also inspected during this period.
The GILC Alert newsletter (Aug. 27) also mentioned, according to the official Xinhua newswire (Aug. 7), that "Internet Police" software has already been installed on computers in the northwestern city of Xi'an. The device deters users from accessing web sites with controversial content in a variety of ways. Among other things, it issues warnings to individuals if they attempt to visit such web pages, then denies access if users keep on trying. In addition, the program captures screen shots and sends them a central facility, making it easier for government censors to detect and track critics online.
+ Main source: GILC Alert, Aug. 27
+ Police software: Xinhua, Aug. 7