[REPOST] The Net and Terrorism

[tcmay@got.net (Timothy C. May)]

[I sent this out on 29 June 1996. In light of recent events, the comments
about "soft targets" seem worth mentioning again. I doubt my comment, "A
few airliners will shot down by Soviet surface-to-air missiles. This is
unsurprising." will get me any visits from the FBI, as this is the
consensus of folks far more expert than I. Likewise, my closing coment,
"avoid crowded downtown areas," was just common sense, not a tip-off to the
Atlanta bombing.]


There have been many recent reports linking the Net and anonymous
remailers, pseudonyms, and (of course) strong crypto to various possible
and actual terrorist events, with an emphasis on the "possible." (If the
Net is linked to _actual_ terrorist incidents, little is being disclosed
publically as of yet.)

Recent comments by John Deutch, William Perry, and Louis Freeh make
reference to the growing danger of the Net. And the "Russian mafia" is
playing a major role in this debate; I won't recap the various articles in
major magazines about arms sales from the former Soviet Army, the reports
that an entire paramilitary unit of the KGB is now working for the Russian
mafia, and the obvious corruption of the entire former Soviet system (I'm
not saying it wasn't corrupt before, just that now the paymasters have
changed).

Can anything be done? To stop the likely effects of lots more
surface-to-air missiles, lots more nerve gas available on the black market,
and so on?

In a word, "no."

I've been thinking about this a lot, reading the various articles, and
pondering the implications. The plain fact is that the modern world is one
of great "liquidity," and the vast amount of arms built up by the U.S.S.R.
(thanks in large part to responding to a similar build-up in the U.S.,
without taking any sides...) are now "leaking out" in increasing numbers.

(The leakage is quite similar to that seen in the 1975-79 period, when
thousands of tons of armaments abandoned by the U.S. in Viet Nam were sold
around the world. Except, of course, that the the Soviet weapons include
some interesting new things.)

Not even a police state can stop armaments from being diverted in
situations such as faced in the former U.S.S.R. (For those not familiar
with the conditions, read up on it. The combination of former command
economy, secret police, selling off of industry to highest bidders, lack of
a conventional industrial base...all of this makes it nearly unavoidable
that much of the former state industry is now controlled by black
marketeers and former Party apparatchniks....after all, who else would have
the money to buy these former State industries?)

In fact, a former police state does not change its stripes. The names and
paymasters change a bit, but the organism lives on. (One need only look at
the police states of Central and South America and their platitudes about
the "Drug War" to understand the realities of such markets.)

Unbreakable crypto will of course be used. This is unsurprising.

A few airliners will shot down by Soviet surface-to-air missiles. This is
unsurprising.

I expect a city or two to get nuked in the next decade or so. (Haifa or Tel
Aviv would be my leading candidates.) To me, this is unsurprising.

My personal solution dovetails with other perceived threat responses: avoid
living in or near major cities and take reasonable measures to cope with
moderate economic or physical crises. (No, I am not a "survivalist," just
mentally and physically prepared to deal with a major earthquake, economic
dislocation, or terrorist incident in San Jose, which is 30 miles north of
me.)

FBI Director Louis Freeh and the TLA spooks are already sounding the alarm
about the "Four Horsemen." Sen. Sam Nunn is calling for measures to ensure
that cyberspace is "secured" and that the Net is not used to further
chemical and biological terrorism.

The point is that even a police state cannot stop the consequences of the
increased "degrees of freedom" the modern world (and the Net) provides. In
fact, police states tend to make the scale of the corruption even greater,
as the Soviet and Latin American examples show. (I could of course get into
the examples of arms dealings in Iran-Contra, the CIA's role in covert arms
supply, etc., but this should be self-evident to all.)

An Australian radio journalist asked me if the Net could make possible new
types of terrorism, and could allow terrorists to plot crimes in new ways.
He seemed surprised when I said "Of course" and then proceeded to give some
examples of how the Net can be used to undermine governments (what those
governments of course refer to as "terrorism," even when it is mostly not).

I'm not advocating such "terrorism," by the way, merely telling it like it is.

Arguing that the Net cannot and will not be used in such ways is naive and
ultimately counterproductive. It is more accurate and useful to point out
that the increased role of terrorism is due to many factors, including
prominently the vast amount of armaments in the world, the role of police
states which have benefitted from these build-ups in the
military-industrial complex, the expansion of "virtual communities" around
the world, and, crucially, the expanded number of degrees of freedom in
transportation, communication, banking, and other such Information Age
channels.

Keep your head down, avoid crowded downtown areas, prepare for moderate
disruptions, and reject arguments that an American Police State will do
anything to stop terrorism.

(Remember, terrorism is just warfare carried on by other means, with
apolgies to Von Clausewitz.)

--Tim May

Boycott "Big Brother Inside" software!
We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, we know that that ain't allowed.
---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
tcmay@got.net  408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA  | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
Licensed Ontologist         | black markets, collapse of governments.
"National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."