To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Global internet
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Fri, 10 Dec 1999 08:48:28 -0500

From: "Moza" <moza7@netzero.net>

Prodi unveils plan to get all its citizens on the internet

Weekend News Today
By Kelly Pagatpatan
Source: Reuters

Wed Dec 8,1999 -- Romano Prodi, President of the European
Commission, on Wednesday unveiled far-reaching plans to
transform Europe into a computer-savvy society where every
European would have access to the Internet. Prodi said the
initiative -- dubbed ``eEurope'' -- would focus on 10 priority areas
ranging from education to healthcare in an effort to modernize the
European economy and create a true ``Information Society.''
``Europe has already successfully accomplished historic projects
such as the Single Market and the euro. There is no reason not to
take the political step of producing a similar dynamic forward-
looking response to the Information Society,'' Prodi said in a
statement.

Prodi said he wanted every citizen, home, school, business and
administration to be hooked up to the Internet and said he hoped
his plan would create a ``digitally literate'' Europe where an
entrepreneurial culture took root. He listed the Commission's
priorities as adapting education to the digital age, lowering the cost
of Internet access, putting e-commerce rules in place, providing
fast Internet access for researchers and encouraging the use of
smart cards.

*** Clinton wants every American wired

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Clinton set a national goal
Thursday of connecting every American to the Internet to make
high-technology advantages as universally available as the
telephone. The aim is "finally to slam shut the digital divide"
between the computer "haves" and "have nots," the president said.
He was joined by leaders of the computer and telecommunications
industries, as well as educators and civil rights activists. A
Commerce Department report in July documented a wide digital
divide in America. It found that black and Hispanic households are
only two-fifths as likely to have Internet access as white
households. Households with incomes of $75,000 and above in
urban areas are more than 20 times as likely to have Internet
access as households at the lowest income levels. See
http://www.infobeat.com/stories/cgi/story.cgi?id=2562518200-ac6

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To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Global internet--Part 2
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Fri, 10 Dec 1999 08:54:43 -0500

From: "Moza" <moza7@netzero.net>

#12
Moscow Times
December 7, 1999
FSB Now Wired to Read Your E-Mail
By Jen Tracy
Staff Writer

Critics and fans of the security services agree: Internet service
providers across Russia are helping the main KGB successor
agencies to read private e-mails and other Internet traffic, as part of
an ambitious internal espionage program called SORM-2.

"SORM implementation is in full force and I suspect that all
[Internet service] providers have at least begun the process and
many have completed it", said Yury Vdovin, vice chairman of the
St. Petersburg- based Citizens' Watch human rights group.

"None of the providers will talk about it, though", Vdovin added.
"They are all afraid."

"All providers are gradually starting to implement SORM, because
their licenses will be revoked if they don't", agreed Yelena
Volchinskaya, a consultant for the State Duma Security Council
and author of the recent book "Internet and Glasnost". Unlike
Vdovin, she supports the SORM-2 project as a valuable crime-
fighting tool.

SORM -- which stands for Sistema Operativno-Rozysknykh
Meropriyatii, or System for Operational-Investigative Activities --
was first born in a 1995 government regulation that gave the
security services the right to monitor all telecommunications
transmissions, provided they first obtained a warrant.

SORM-2 was an additional regulation issued in July 1998 by the
Federal Security Service, or FSB, and by the State
Communications Committee. It mandated that Internet service
providers install, at their own expense, technology to link their
computers to those at FSB headquarters -- allowing the agency to
monitor select electronic transmissions, from private e-mails to e-
commerce purchases, in real time.

The costs to the Internet service provider are estimated from
$10,000 to $30,000, not including any future upgrades. That's
enough to shut down some smaller providers, and some SORM-
watchers argue that the big Internet players actually welcome
SORM as it helps them shore up their market-shares.

So far, only one Internet service provider, Bayard-Slavia of
Volgograd, has publicly refused to cooperate with the new
regulation. In March, Bayard-Slavia was shut down, officially
because of a problem with its government-issued license; company
director, Nail Murzakhanov says he was told he would be closed if
he did not accept SORM.

Murzakhanov argues the FSB will be able to use SORM-2 to do
everything from retrieving and altering e-mail communication to
selling commercial secrets and other stolen information. But
Murzakhanov says the FSB is still powerless in one key area -- it
has no technical experts who would allow it to understand the
system on its own. Murzakhanov insists the key to fighting SORM
is simply refusing to comply, no matter what the costs.

But of Russia's telecommunications companies, Bayard-Slavia was
virtually alone in its outspoken opposition to SORM-2.

Most others prefer not to talk about it at all. Moscow
telecommunications companies and Internet service providers were
hesitant to confirm or deny whether they have installed SORM-2
links to Lubyanka.

Technology specialists at Combellga, one of Moscow's largest
telecommunications companies, claimed not to know if the
technology had been installed. One systems operator said that "in
my opinion, we haven't started it -- yet".

Technology specialists at Glasnet, a major Internet service
provider, refused to comment and referred all calls to the public
relations director, who was unavailable for comment at the time.

A Global One representative said no one was available to discuss
SORM, while the FSB and the Communications Committee failed
to respond to faxed questions.

Citizens' Watch says St. Petersburg's Web Plus -- an Internet
service provider owned by Telekominvest -- has installed SORM-2
equipment, making it possible for the local FSB to receive
transmissions of their choice in real time. No one was available to
comment at Web Plus.

On Nov. 12, the State Communications Committee -- co-author of
SORM-2 -- was renamed the Communications Ministry. Five days
later, newly appointed Communications Minister Leonid Reiman hit
the podium with a call for stricter Internet controls. He did not
specifically mention SORM.

But despite the elevation of Goskomsvyaz to the Cabinet, Vdovin
says it's still the FSB calling the shots.

"[The ministry] does what the FSB tells them to do", Vdovin said.

Volchinskaya agreed that the FSB is the real player in the SORM
game and that the Goskomsvyaz promotion would have very little
effect.

The FSB says SORM will help law enforcement track and capture
criminals ranging from tax evaders to pedophiles because such
people may conduct or discuss their business electronically.

"SORM is a normal system for locating criminals and tax evaders.
The United States has such a system - every country does",
Volchinskaya said. "The question is how the FSB will use this
system. But, according to the law, they can only monitor
transmissions with a court order."

Human rights groups counter that the Russian security services --
which have never renounced their KGB traditions -- cannot be
trusted with such power. They argue that agents will abuse SORM
to assemble political dossiers for blackmail purposes and to steal
and sell commercial secrets. And they worry that the FSB will not
bother getting a court order when they can see private citizens'
personal information with the click of a mouse.

The U.S. government does indeed have an e-mail monitoring
program - and one that also circumvents the courts. The U.S.
National Security Agency's Echelon project, though still highly
secretive, is used to monitor and store e-mail and other electronic
communications around the world.

Some U.S. Internet and privacy experts nevertheless find SORM-2
more disquieting than Echelon.

"With SORM-2, Russia is going farther than any other democratic
country in controlling the design of private-sector communications
systems for surveillance purposes", said Jim Dempsey, director of
the Center for Democracy and Technology in Washington.

"The proposal is particularly troubling given the lack of clear legal
standards and effective judicial oversight for FSB activation of
SORM capabilities.

"Echelon and its counterparts in the U.K., Canada, Australia and
New Zealand take the technology as it finds it -- that is, Echelon is
not coercive. It does not rely upon government-mandated
surveillance features being built into telecom systems."

The Duma's Volchinskaya argues that it is not a question of
coercion, but of finances. "The FSB doesn't have the money [for
SORM]", she said, "and the government won't pass this in the
budget".

via: transhumantech@onelist.com

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To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Golf ball size meteorite holed in Australian dam
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Fri, 10 Dec 1999 09:53:57 -0500

From: <owner-bpr@philologos.org>

12/10/1999 00:47:00 ET

Fore! Golf ball meteorite holed in Australian dam

SYDNEY(Reuters) - Even for an alien it was a poor shot -- an
intergalactic out of bounds in the water, irretrievably embedded in the
earth, for a one stroke penalty. The mysterious object which slammed into
an Australian dam, leaving a large crater and attracting nationwide
attention, has turned out to be a meteorite -- but only the size of a golf
 ball.

Police divers on Friday recovered sediment and fragments from the dam at
Guyra, 400 km (250 miles) north of Sydney, which geologists believe came
from a "golf-ball" size meteorite which landed sometime between Monday
and Wednesday.

Despite its small size, the force of the impact left a 15-metre (50 ft)
long and six metre (20 ft) wide crater in the dam and the meteorite
penetrated the bottom of the dam.

"The meteorite has penetrated the mud at the bottom of the dam and is
now embedded in about four metres (13 ft) into granite and unable to be
removed," said a police spokeswoman.

via: hblondel@tampabay.rr.com

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To: bpr-list@philologos.org (BPR Mailing List)
Subject: [BPR] - Dec 11, 1999 TV Program
From: bpr-list@philologos.org(BPR)
Date: Fri, 10 Dec 1999 20:25:33 -0500

From: "Moza" <moza7@netzero.net>

8:00 PM Eastern

 TLC - THE SECRET WORLD OF NEW YORK - New York City
          may be the financial and cultural center of the
          world.(CC)(TVPG)

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