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RandalFlagg
Stranger
Registered: 06/15/02
Posts: 15,608
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Homeland Security opening private mail
#5149457 - 01/07/06 12:10 AM (18 years, 2 months ago) |
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Homeland Security opening private mail: Retired professor confused, angered when letter from abroad is opened
By Brock N. Meeks Chief Washington correspondent
WASHINGTON - In the 50 years that Grant Goodman has known and corresponded with a colleague in the Philippines he never had any reason to suspect that their friendship was anything but spectacularly ordinary.
But now he believes that the relationship has somehow sparked the interest of the Department of Homeland Security and led the agency to place him under surveillance.
Last month Goodman, an 81-year-old retired University of Kansas history professor, received a letter from his friend in the Philippines that had been opened and resealed with a strip of dark green tape bearing the words ?by Border Protection? and carrying the official Homeland Security seal.
...rest of article is at the provided link...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10740935/
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Dragonaut
Registered: 06/24/04
Posts: 6,200
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Re: Homeland Security opening private mail [Re: RandalFlagg]
#5149518 - 01/07/06 12:34 AM (18 years, 2 months ago) |
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I see only one way to show them how they are wrong.
Go to their houses, rummage through their mail, and see how they like it.
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Los_Pepes
Stranger
Registered: 06/26/05
Posts: 731
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Re: Homeland Security opening private mail [Re: Dragonaut]
#5150602 - 01/07/06 12:43 PM (18 years, 2 months ago) |
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Thanks for posting this. I feel safer now.
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Los_Pepes
Stranger
Registered: 06/26/05
Posts: 731
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Re: Homeland Security opening private mail [Re: Los_Pepes]
#5150617 - 01/07/06 12:47 PM (18 years, 2 months ago) |
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If and when Islamic governments take over the entire world it will be much worse than this. You will be tortured and put to death for saying and doing things that are unIslamic.
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JonPathetic
Registered: 12/17/05
Posts: 235
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.
Edited by JonPathetic (03/10/06 07:27 PM)
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MisterMyco
Myco-fanatic
Registered: 12/08/05
Posts: 636
Last seen: 18 years, 23 days
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Re: Homeland Security opening private mail [Re: JonPathetic]
#5153109 - 01/08/06 02:31 AM (18 years, 2 months ago) |
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How exactly does our border protection equate to facism? facism is just another loaded word that people drop in political debates to conjure up specific emotions rather than to logically explain their point. Anything that comes into the US from another company can be opened and examined, thats just the way it is. I've seen Kohler brand toilets at Wal-Mart with the Dept of Homeland Security inspection tape on it. If it's from somewhere else and it comes into the US, we have a right to know what it is. I highly doubt that the US DoHS has the time or the inclination to read scholarly letters from one professor to a collegue about the weather in the Phillipenes.
-------------------- "I have never, in all my life, not for one moment, been tempted toward religion of any kind. The fact is that I feel no spiritual void. I have my philosophy of life, which does not include any aspect of the supernatural." Isaac Asimov
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Land_Crab
NeuroticPsychonaut
Registered: 08/29/04
Posts: 2,194
Loc: U.S.
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Re: Homeland Security opening private mail [Re: RandalFlagg]
#5153236 - 01/08/06 03:45 AM (18 years, 2 months ago) |
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I can see maybe doing random searches of packages and containers, but opening letters isn't just an invasion of privacy, it's a waste of resources. If you wanted to communicate a terrorism-related message, I think it would be a lot more efficient and safe just to use e-mail.
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Phred
Fred's son
Registered: 10/18/00
Posts: 12,949
Loc: Dominican Republic
Last seen: 9 years, 2 months
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Re: Homeland Security opening private mail [Re: Land_Crab]
#5153463 - 01/08/06 08:52 AM (18 years, 2 months ago) |
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Quote:
f you wanted to communicate a terrorism-related message, I think it would be a lot more efficient and safe just to use e-mail.
Given the recent revelations re electronic surveillance of communications do you really think that is the case?
Perhaps some terrorists mistakenly believe written mail entering the US is immune to searches and therefore the safest (though not the most rapid) way of communicating.
Phred
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Ekstaza
stranger than most
Registered: 04/10/03
Posts: 4,324
Loc: Around the corner
Last seen: 11 months, 11 days
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Re: Homeland Security opening private mail [Re: Phred]
#5153499 - 01/08/06 09:25 AM (18 years, 2 months ago) |
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A snail mailed letter could easily contain a code for deciphering an encrypted message which could be posted on a much larger scale on the Internet. Once that information is inside the US it could be spread rapidly through the mail system.
However, I do not condone the reading of private mail, no matter what the benefits may be. Security at the cost of freedom is nothing that I want any part of.
-------------------- YOUR EXPERIENCE WITH ANY GIVEN DRUG ISN'T THE DEFINITIVE MEASURE OF THE DRUGS EFFECTS.
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J4S0N
human
Registered: 07/29/04
Posts: 284
Last seen: 15 years, 8 months
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Re: Homeland Security opening private mail [Re: RandalFlagg]
#5153681 - 01/08/06 10:40 AM (18 years, 2 months ago) |
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SNAIL MAIL IS SUPER DANGERIOUS. AHHH ISLAM IS GOING TO TAKE OVER THE WORLD! TURN OVER YOUR PRIVACY NOW BEFORE ITS TOO LATE!!!
Who cares if some guy you don't know at fatherland security reads your mail? As long as I can read their mail of course.
-------------------- "The Central Intelligence Agency owns everyone of any significance in the major media." ~ William Colby, Former Director, CIA
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nakors_junk_bag
Lobster Bisque
Registered: 11/23/04
Posts: 2,415
Loc: ethereality
Last seen: 15 years, 10 months
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Re: Homeland Security opening private mail [Re: J4S0N]
#5153697 - 01/08/06 10:45 AM (18 years, 2 months ago) |
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Quote:
J4S0N said: SNAIL MAIL IS SUPER DANGERIOUS. AHHH ISLAM IS GOING TO TAKE OVER THE WORLD! TURN OVER YOUR PRIVACY NOW BEFORE ITS TOO LATE!!!
Who cares if some guy you don't know at fatherland security reads your mail? As long as I can read their mail of course.
I wouldn't care, its just that...... Oh I don't know, eat mushrooms and do other things that well you know..... I like to fuck from behind, like to get my dick sucked and fick in public. In short I break the law and rahter have my privacy respected because the harmless things I do can get me into trouble. Just like the fuck offs who murder and kill people for no reason and use the mail to do these things.
-------------------- Asshole
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polyfractal
Stranger
Registered: 09/12/05
Posts: 7
Last seen: 15 years, 8 months
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Re: Homeland Security opening private mail [Re: Phred]
#5155724 - 01/08/06 06:54 PM (18 years, 2 months ago) |
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Quote:
Phred said: Given the recent revelations re electronic surveillance of communications do you really think that is the case?
Being a Computer Science major, I can completely say that if someone wants to communicate securely across the net, its entirely feasable.
First off, it would be incredibly difficult to locate a terrorist individual's communications. Trust me, there are many many places to hide on the net. The average internet user has absolutely no idea what lurks around the internet.
Even if the NSA/CIA/FBI did have inside information on suspected terrorists, they couldn't do jack to stop industry grade encryption.
Sure, the US has laws about exporting high grade encryption, but would terrorists really listen to that? No. They would be using 2048 bit asymetric AES encryption. There is no physical way anyone could crack that. Literally. If you combined the computing power of all the computers in the world, it would take millions of years to brute-force crack.
Furthermore, there is no chance of 'key interception', because asymetric encryption relies on public-private keys. Its beyond the scope of this discussion, but basically one of endpoints (sender or receiver) would have to be compromised before the encryption could be cracked. If you are just looking at it as a 'man in the middle', all you see is garbled junk.
And lastly, just wanted to throw in a disclaimer that all this 'terrorist' junk is just another way to control the population. Yes, I'm sure there really are terrorists out there trying to harm us. But I think there are more politicians using the 'terrorist' slogan to herd us into what they want.
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Madtowntripper
Sun-Beams out of Cucumbers
Registered: 03/06/03
Posts: 21,287
Loc: The Ocean of Notions
Last seen: 7 months, 11 days
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Re: Homeland Security opening private mail [Re: polyfractal]
#5156350 - 01/08/06 09:32 PM (18 years, 2 months ago) |
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Quote:
polyfractal said:
And lastly, just wanted to throw in a disclaimer that all this 'terrorist' junk is just another way to control the population. Yes, I'm sure there really are terrorists out there trying to harm us. But I think there are more politicians using the 'terrorist' slogan to herd us into what they want.
-------------------- After one comes, through contact with it's administrators, no longer to cherish greatly the law as a remedy in abuses, then the bottle becomes a sovereign means of direct action. If you cannot throw it at least you can always drink out of it. - Ernest Hemingway If it is life that you feel you are missing I can tell you where to find it. In the law courts, in business, in government. There is nothing occurring in the streets. Nothing but a dumbshow composed of the helpless and the impotent. -Cormac MacCarthy He who learns must suffer. And even in our sleep pain that cannot forget falls drop by drop upon the heart, and in our own despair, against our will, comes wisdom to us by the awful grace of God. - Aeschylus
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Diploid
Cuban
Registered: 01/09/03
Posts: 19,274
Loc: Rabbit Hole
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Re: Homeland Security opening private mail [Re: Phred]
#5157059 - 01/09/06 12:41 AM (18 years, 2 months ago) |
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Given the recent revelations re electronic surveillance of communications do you really think that is the case?
It's unlikely that even the NSA could read PGP-encrypted (RSA) email with a sufficiently long key length. This is why its export is banned under munitions regulations (not that banning software would do any good).
-------------------- Republican Values: 1) You can't get married to your spouse who is the same sex as you. 2) You can't have an abortion no matter how much you don't want a child. 3) You can't have a certain plant in your possession or you'll get locked up with a rapist and a murderer. 4) We need a smaller, less-intrusive government.
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Land_Crab
NeuroticPsychonaut
Registered: 08/29/04
Posts: 2,194
Loc: U.S.
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Re: Homeland Security opening private mail [Re: polyfractal]
#5157085 - 01/09/06 12:52 AM (18 years, 2 months ago) |
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Quote:
polyfractal said: And lastly, just wanted to throw in a disclaimer that all this 'terrorist' junk is just another way to control the population. Yes, I'm sure there really are terrorists out there trying to harm us. But I think there are more politicians using the 'terrorist' slogan to herd us into what they want.
I can't think of a more powerful tool than fear to control and manipulate people. Three words: "War on Terror." Just cut to the chase and call it the "War on Fear." Delicious propaganda.
-Also, I wonder how many e-mail messages get sent to and from America every day? The population of the United States is about 300,000,000 now. 75% of that population is over 18, which comes to 225,000,000. Let's estimate that 70% of our population has internet access; that's 157,500,000. Say 5% (I have no idea) of those people send 1 message out of the country each day; that's 7,875,000 messages just coming out of the country every 24 hours. Now how many people would it take to monitor all those messages effectively? Too many.
Edited by Land_Crab (01/09/06 01:18 AM)
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