
              Conspiracy Nation -- Vol. 6  Num. 41
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                    ("Quid coniuratio est?")
 
 
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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.
 
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Want to know more about Whitewater, Oklahoma City bombing, etc? 
(1) telnet prairienet.org (2) logon as "visitor" (3) go citcom
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Aperi os tuum muto, et causis omnium filiorum qui pertranseunt.
Aperi os tuum, decerne quod justum est, et judica inopem et 
  pauperem.                    -- Liber Proverbiorum  XXXI: 8-9 
 
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O what fine thought we had because we thought    | bigred@shout.net
That the worst rogues and rascals had died out.  | Illinois,
  -- W.B. Yeats, "Nineteen Hundred And Nineteen" | I'm your boy.
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