Marin Independent Journal By John Schwartz, New York Times

In the abstract, fighting a war is simple. The enemy and the targets are generally identifiable. But in the war against hackers and virus writers, the combatants are harder to know.

The attacker might be a 14-year-old in Canada, or a co-worker in the accounting department. "You'll have every type of person" practicing the dark arts of programming, said Sarah Gordon, a senior research fellow with the security technology developer Symantec.

As industry and government seek to repel the attacks for which the Internet is a launching pad, much of the effort involves understanding those who unleash malicious code and jiggle digital doorknobs. In the world that emerged after the Sept. 11 attacks, after all, understanding an elusive enemy has become a growing part of confronting a threat.

Security experts have warned for several years that cyberterrorism presents a great potential threat to the United States, with its increasing dependence on computer networks for everything from weapons systems to hydroelectric dams, not to mention the underpinnings of commerce. Richard A. Clarke, a former White House adviser on terrorism, warned even before Sept. 11 of a coming "digital Pearl Harbor."

And new vulnerabilities that could leave the way open to such an attack are being discovered all the time: according to Symantec, the number of software holes reported in the nation's computer networks grew by 80 percent in 2002.

Still, the company says it has yet to record a single cyberterrorist attack - by its definition, one originating in a country on the State Department's terror "watch list." That could be because those inclined to commit terrorist acts do not yet have the know-how to do significant damage, or perhaps because hackers and adept virus writers are not motivated to disrupt networks for a cause. But should the two groups find common ground, the result could be devastating, said Michael A. Vatis, head of the Institute for Security Technology Studies at Dartmouth College.

"There is still a big gap in our actual knowledge of our actual vulnerabilities to a serious attack," he said.

The government is working to close that gap. In the executive branch, cyberdefense is one of the concerns of the new Department of Homeland Security. Within the military, a task force with a $26 million annual budget is studying cyberwarfare for both its defensive and offensive potential, and President Bush has signed a directive, disclosed in February, calling for the military to develop policies to govern the waging of digital war. Regular exercises at the military service academies prepare students to defend military networks against hackers.

For now, though, the quarry in such exercises remains elusive. The most damaging attacks and intrusions, experts say, are typically carried out by disgruntled corporate insiders intent on embezzlement or sabotage, or by individuals - typically young and male - seeking thrills and notoriety.

There was, to be sure, the explicitly political Code Red, a self-reproducing program known as a worm that was unleashed in 2001 to take control of thousands of computers and force them to block access to the White House Web site by flooding government servers with data. Many security experts believe that the program was developed in China in retaliation for the loss of a Chinese jet and its pilot after a collision with an American spy plane. Once the worm was detected, a tweak to the numeric online address for the White House Web site prevented disruption.

Code Red drew attention to cyberattacks as a vehicle for political activism, said Roger Thompson, the director of malicious code research at TruSecure, a computer security company. "Instead of doing it to be jerks and show off to their buddies, they're doing it to make a statement," he said.

But exploits coinciding with the war in Iraq were tame at best. Days before the United States began its air attacks, for example, an American military computer was hacked through a security hole in Microsoft software, according to Russ Cooper, a security expert with TruSecure, but no apparent damage was done. And though a programmer identifying himself as a Malaysian Muslim and calling himself Melhacker warned late last year that he would release a potent new virus on the Internet if the United States invaded Iraq, there has been no sign of it.

"Individuals like Melhacker are considered more smoke than fire," said Ken Dunham, a senior intelligence analyst for iDefense, a computer security company. He said that developing profiles of such "malicious actors" - both general and individual - was helpful in defending against their activities and sometimes even curbing them. In Melhacker's case, he said, the company gained the virus writer's trust and obtained some of his code and tools last fall.

The threats and attacks witnessed recently are the sort of harassment that security experts dismiss as "weapons of mass annoyance." Experts who study the lives and motivations of virus writers and hackers, - and those who have wandered onto the wrong side of the law themselves - say that while some want to push a political view, many are interested in making a splash rather than a statement.

"Many of them probably think, 'Hey, hacking the Iraqi government would make me famous!"' said Seth Pack, a former virus writer who lives in Spartanburg, S.C., and works in the computer security field. Similarly, current viruses are likely to be carried in e-mail with subject lines related to Iraq or the SARS epidemic because they are topical, and virus writers, like all marketers, look for the largest possible audience.

Although some Web sites are chosen as hackers' targets for their political significance - an Iraqi government site was defaced during the war with the message, "Hacked, tracked, and now owned by the U.S.A." - most such vandalism is carried out by hackers using automated programs that simply search for any vulnerable machine, said Vincent Weafer, the senior director of a Symantec security response unit.

Aside from the increase in Web site defacement, he said, the level of virus writing and hacking has not risen sharply in recent weeks. "What we were seeing a month ago is what we're seeing today, and what we'll probably see next month," he said.

Businesses and individuals who take security seriously can protect themselves fairly well against the threat of viruses and hacking, said James Lewis, head of the technology program for the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. "It's going to be irritating," he said, "but it's not going to be the end of the world."

At the same time, the government is taking a less urgent view - at least in what little it says on the subject - than the specter of a "digital Pearl Harbor" might have indicated. The role of cybersecurity adviser has been moved out of the White House and into the new Department of Homeland Security, and Clarke's successor in that role, Howard Schmidt, announced his resignation on Monday. "Nobody is in charge of the issue," Harris N. Miller, president of the Information Technology Association of America, complained after Schmidt's resignation was announced. "Cybersecurity is unique, and does require somebody in charge."

A spokesman for the Homeland Security Department said the administration took cybersecurity seriously, but as part of the overall security puzzle. "Our approach to cyber is it is combined with the other critical infrastructures; it's not a stand-alone," said the spokesman, David Wray. Much of the work in understanding the threat and countering it is being carried out in private industry, think tanks and academia, he said, and the role of government is to "look at the body of work and at the body of evidence and find the ways to make the best use of it."

That puts the primary burden on researchers like Gordon, the security expert with Symantec, who has interviewed hundreds of digital mischief-makers. Experts note significant differences between those who unleash viruses, with potentially widespread but somewhat random effects, and hackers, whose targets are generally specific if arbitrary.

Many of the early virus writers were computer researchers testing the limits of machines in the days before the Internet allowed rogue programs to spread around the world in minutes. But as the information on virus coding moved from the elite to the merely adept, there emerged a generation of "script kiddies" who could cobble together malicious programs from online tips.

Gordon said she had interviewed virus writers as young as 10 and as old as 50. "For a young person starting out, she said, "it's a real challenge to write a program that will re-create itself."

Because the writers tend to be young, they lose interest in the activity at about the time they might be prosecuted as adults for their mischief, Gordon said. Those who write viruses, and those who continue to do so into adulthood, tend to hold an immature point of view, she said. "They don't realize the impact - they don't realize there are real people at the other end of the computers," she said. "They don't tend to recognize the consequences of their actions."

Computer intruders, on the other hand, tend to characterize themselves as explorers. "'Why hack?' That's like 'Why eat?"' said Rafael Nunez, an Internet security consultant in Venezuela who has crossed over from the dark side of computer intrusion, in an e-mail message responding to questions. He now tests companies' security by trying to defeat their network defenses. The allure of hacking, he said, is "the attraction of the unknown, to penetrate, to find out secret things."

Hackers and virus writers can work together, but many have a competitive and acrimonious relationship. "Virus coders are evil," Nunez said. "They want to cause destruction."

A recent virus detected by Sophos, a security firm, seems to embody the tension between hackers and virus coders: the virus, which originated in India, contains text with insults directed at Pakistani hackers. The conflict "took it away from the geopolitical stage and put it into a geek-to-geek stage," said Chris Wraight, a technology consultant with Sophos.

Some of those who pursue the craft say they are blending computer science and art. A Spanish programmer who goes by the online name Jtag said in an e-mail exchange that he found in viruses "some kind of 'artistic' beauty."

"It's like to give 'life' to one creation and this 'life-form' takes control of things, replicating, transforming and giving his own 'touch' to another programs (infecting them)," he wrote.

Wraight of Sophos said a more apt comparison is to a sprayer of graffiti. Virus writers have the potential to spread a message to millions of computers. He expects the trend toward political hacking to continue. "The whole notion of trying to use the world stage for political views is going to grow over time," he said.

And the attacks will grow more potent, said Vatis, who served as the first director of the National Infrastructure Protection Center within the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Referring to the work of the military cyberwar force, he said, "The fact that our own government has offensive information programs that it won't talk about except to acknowledge that they exist - that should tell us something."

Story last updated at 8:40 a.m. Monday, May 5, 2003 BY WEVONNEDA MINIS Of The Post and Courier Staff

Tending to the physical needs of sick children is what Dr. Todd Vasko does best. Three days of most work weeks, the young pediatrician can be found doing just that in his West Ashley office.

However, in late May and early June, Vasko's location changes for a while. That's when he goes on a medical mission with students and professionals in the MUSC community. In the past he has gone to Venezuela, but this year he will be leading a 10-day medical mission to a South African orphanage. To Vasko, it's part of being a compassionate physician. Compassion also is a quality Vasko tries to instill in students at MUSC while working Tuesdays and Fridays as director of the university's Medical Campus Outreach -- an interdenominational Christian organization.

On May 22, Vasko will leave for South Africa with 131 others from MUSC, including Dr. Philip McGaha and Dr. John Traynham, two other doctors with whom Vasko shares a practice at Plantation Pediatrics.

YALONDA M. JAMES/STAFF Dr. Todd Vasko of Plantation Pediactrics in West Ashley, director of the Medical Campus Outreach, stands with donated items he an 131 others from MUSC will take to an orphanage in South Africa. It was McGaha who showed Vasko the meaning of being Christian when they were medical students in Georgia. He also spends time at MUSC helping to ensure it graduates professionals who are compassionate, as well as competent and who have good character.

Medical Campus Outreach's goal is to: "... build laborers on medical school campuses for the lost world to the glory of God."

A Georgia-based Christian organization called Evangelism Task Force is organizing the trip for the campus outreach group. Its missionaries scout out locations where medical school students and professionals are desperately needed. If a group on a medical college campus chooses one of its locations, the task force will perform the administrative tasks necessary to get the group there and back.

The MUSC group will be working in the town of Thohoyandou, located in northeast South Africa, helping the Venda people.

The Vendas used to live in Zimbabwe but moved down into South Africa in the early 1700s. The task force's missionaries who are assigned there say the Vendas worship their ancestors, are superstitious and consult witch doctors.

The children in the orphanage are trying to function despite missing limbs and other challenges, Vasko says.

Some also have sight or hearing losses or both. In some cases, their injuries have been caused by trauma.

In other cases, the children were born with them.

"Their parents were unable to care for them and left them there," says Vasko.

PROVIDED Vasko joins students in considering the medical needs of a young Venezuelan boy during a previous mission trip. "We will see a need there that is far beyond what we will be able to treat.

"Maybe we will assess their needs and go back and do corrective surgeries at Christmas or next summer.

"Hopefully every kid will get a physical."

The MUSC students and doctors will help the Venda children with health problems in such areas as orthopedics; ear, nose and throat; pediatric allergy; pediatric neurology; dentistry; physical therapy and occupational therapy.

Those in the group will take more than their skills and the box of medicines each will carry, Vasko says.

They will take the love of Jesus Christ, he says. They will take it to children such as one little boy with missing arms who only asks for plastic foam arms to fill out his shirt sleeves.

"If one child could see that somebody loves him enough to come halfway around the world to provide him with fake arms and tell him about Jesus, it will be worth (the journey)," Vasko says.

PROVIDED Children at an orphanage in Thohoyandou, South Africa, where MUSC's Medical Campus Outreach and Georgia-based Evangelism Task Force will conduct a 10-day medical mission. "It is very important to attend to the children's medical needs, but the walker or wheelchair (given to a child) could break the week after we leave, but Christ can change their lives forever," he says.

Michelle Sanders, a first-year physical therapy student, can't wait to work with the children at the orphanage and see life in another country for the first time. Yet, it took her two weeks to decide to join the medical mission.

She considers herself a Christian but had reservations about joining an evangelical mission. Once she met some of the people who are going, their kindness and sincerity about their purpose overcame her concerns.

"I think it's going to be one of those experiences of a lifetime," Sanders says. The group has been preparing for its mission by studying the Vendas' cultural values. One thing the women have learned is that their legs should be covered with pants or long skirts.

While the mission's main focus will be the orphanage, some of those in the group will go to the local hospital, where there is a shortage of specialists, to demonstrate techniques that can help hospital workers take better care of their patients.

Like most of the people going on the trip, Sanders had to solicit donations from others to cover the $2,350 cost of travel, housing, food and other expenses. So far, she's been able to get $1,830 just by requesting donations from everyone in her address book.

Currently, the group is collecting many of the items patients will need, such as braces, canes, walkers and wheelchairs.

They are asking vendors in the Lowcountry to give them new supplies or old ones that can be repaired.

They also are writing brochures for those who visit the clinic to take home, so they can continue their treatments once the group leaves.

PROVIDED Vasko examines a child at a mission clinic set up by the Medical Campus Outreach in Venezuela last summer. The group’s mission is aimed at saving souls as well as lives. Jim Mathews, project director for Evangelism Task Force, says no one in South Africa will be charged to see a doctor or other health care worker.

"We use the medicine to bring people into the clinic so we can share the gospel with them," says Mathews.

"We charge them nothing to be seen by the doctor, all that we ask is that they give us 15 minutes to share the gospel."

Usually a separate part of the clinic is set up just for that purpose, Mathews says.

He estimates the MUSC group will treat about 1,400 people while in South Africa. The number they treat will depend on how many show up.

"The need is always great. We could go and spend six months in an area, and there would still be people who needed to be treated -- that's true in any Third World country."

This year ETF offered MUSC a choice of missions to Ecuador, Peru and South Africa, Mathews says.

It had offered Venezuela for the past four years, but political unrest there has made it unsafe to offer it as a destination this year.

At 132, the MUSC group is the largest ETF mission this year. The average group has from 12 to 20 people and the largest ever is 170. Dr. John Powell, a pediatrician and the organization's founder, plans to travel with the group.

One of the student leaders on the South Africa mission will be Angie Mullins. This will be her third mission.

"Every year, it's just changed my life. It's given me an appreciation for using the gifts the Lord has blessed me with."

Mullins says that while in Venezuela, she saw the prayers of those all around her being answered.

She also felt a sense of increased strength and boundless energy while working. Medical professionals in the country were on strike, and the need was larger than she and the others had anticipated.

At times when she should have found it impossible to do anything but sleep, she was able to focus on others' needs and continue working.

That ability to carry on could only have been a gift from God, she says.

Whether at the hospital or the orphanage, the group will make the best of whatever situation it finds and will remember that treating the people and ministering to them are equally important.

"If we can train those doctors and children, we can change that community," Vasko says.

Knight Ridder - Monday, May 05, 2003 <a href=www.menafn.com>MENAFN.com-Chicago Tribune By Stephen Franklin

RIYADH, Saudi Arabia _ Faced with Iraq's return as a major oil producer, Saudi Arabian officials fear more pressure on prices _ and on their already struggling economy.

To some observers, such as Said al Sheik, chief economist in Jeddah for National Commercial Bank, Saudi Arabia cannot afford to sit back and wait to see how oil prices will play out.

"The war has been positive for the economy," said al Sheik, referring to the run-up in oil prices, and increased oil output by Saudi Arabia. "But down the road, there are huge challenges," he said.

Their worst fear is that Iraq will not only return to its pre-invasion production, but will go far beyond _ to levels even higher than those reached before the first Gulf War more than a decade ago.

Before the American-led invasion, the Iraqis were pumping out about 2.5 million barrels daily. But if cash-hungry Iraq wants to rebuild its economy in a hurry, it could press for a return to the 1990 level of 3.5 million barrels per day, oil industry experts say.

It has the capacity to do so: Iraq's oil reserves are second only to Saudi Arabia.

"If they want to prices to stay steady, (OPEC) will have to cut back on production, or on the other hand, they could pump up volume and accept lower prices," said Leonidas Drollas, chief economist for the Centre for Global Energy Studies in London.

He agrees with other experts who predict the stiff competition for petroleum dollars in the coming years could lead "to the unraveling" of the 43-year-old oil cartel, which has managed to keep prices steady for the last few years.

But that is not the official Saudi line.

Saudi officials such as Foreign Minister Prince Saud bin Feisel have calmly put down such a dire possibility, saying OPEC has endured many crises over the years and survived intact.

Still, Saudi officials do not discount the coming challenges their oil industry is likely to face.

Saying it is almost impossible to accurately predict oil prices, Hamad Saud al Sayari, governor of the Saudi Monetary Authority, the Saudi equivalent to the Federal Reserve, conceded that he was "cautiously pessimistic" about the fate of oil prices in coming years.

"Yes, the chances of some pressure on oil prices are high," added the U.S.-educated economist.

The problem is, when the Iraqis rejoin the oil market in full production in a few years, a gush of oil is also expected from the Russians as well as from the Caspian region, possibly producing a price-reducing glut on the world oil market, industry experts say.

"A lot of it depends on how the Iraqis view the market," said a Saudi oil company official. "If they want to see high oil prices, they will think twice before embarking on any actions that will bring down the house."

"They'll be rational folks, and live like the rest of us," he added.

Newly found oil money, largely because of Iraq's decreased oil output over the years, has been salvation for Saudi Arabia's troubled economy, which barely limped along in the 1990s.

Since last November the Saudis have boosted their daily production from about 7 million barrels a day to more than 9 million barrels daily to make up for Iraq's production cutbacks as well as production problems in Venezuela and Nigeria, oil experts say.

The higher oil prices and production hike have reportedly brought in million of dollars weekly.

Likewise, after the first Gulf War in the early 1990s, the Saudis stepped up their production to make up for the cutbacks in the Iraqis' oil output. In both cases, the money has helped the Saudis deal with growing deficits and government expenditures.

Saudi Arabia's economic problems, as he and other Saudi experts explain, are many.

The country has not used its wealth to diversify, especially building a stronger industrial base, they say.

Industries account for only six percent of Saudi Arabia's gross domestic product. The country has been slow to privatize businesses. And it has not updated its educational system to churn out workers needed for a competitive economy.

In the meantime, it has one of the highest rates of income dependency. For every wage earner there are six who depend on the salary, according to a National Commercial Bank study. The global average is about two persons per wage earner, bank officials said.

They also estimate the nation's unemployment rate at between 15 to 18 percent. Regularly updated figures are not available from the government.

Debt, too, is increasing. Until now, Saudi Arabia has mostly borrowed locally to pay for its debt, according to al Sheik. The government's domestic debt is about $170 billion, according to news accounts.

But al Sheik fears that Saudi Arabia will soon have to look outside for loans, forcing it to face the same kind of international pressures as Argentina and other countries that have ran into problems paying off their bills.

Without major economic reforms, the future scenario is quite troublesome to economist Nahed Taher, also with the National Commercial Bank in Jeddah. Reduced oil prices combined with Saudi Arabia's internal economic woes could eventually drive Saudi Arabia's per capita further downward, she said.

From a per capita income of $18,000 over 20 years ago, the number has dropped to about $7,500 today, she explained. And if a number of things go wrong for the Saudi economy, such as decline oil prices, the figure could plummet to about $3,000 by 2010, she predicted.

That, incidentally, was the same amount for pre-war Iraq.

"If we don't diversify our economy, this is likely. If we depend on oil revenues, and Iraq reaches 5 million barrels (per day) in five years, and the Russians and Caspians increase, then we are really in a dilemma," she said.

(c) 2003, Chicago Tribune. Visit the Chicago Tribune on the Internet at www.chicago.tribune.com Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Information Services.

<a href=www.vheadline.com>Venezuela's Electronic News Posted: Monday, May 05, 2003 By: David Coleman

President Hugo Chavez Frias says that May Day violence which resulted in the shooting death of 46-year-old building laborer Ricardo Herrera is the latest attempt by radical elements in the opposition to destabilize Venezuela and undermine his government ... he says that the shooting had the same hallmarks as other high-profile killings since the failed coup d'etat in April 2002 aimed at removing him permanently from democratic power.

"It's the same format ... the same script ... the same characters," Chavez said during his regular weekly 'Alo Presidente' radio/TV broadcast.  "The opposition immediately jumps on the bandwagon to blame deaths on government supporters ... there's now such a climate of impunity that it prevents those responsible from being convicted."

Herrera was shot and killed at Thursday's May 1 rally by an unknown gunman who witnesses say escaped on a motorcycle ... police have made several arrests but no one has yet been charged with the murder.

Venezuelan human rights group, Cofavic says that political violence is rising and blamed the problem on a justice system where 57 people have died and more than 300 have been injured in politically-motivated violence since April 2002 ... the vast majority of killings remain unsolved and there has been no links established to either the government or the opposition although both sides of the Venezuelan political divide immediately rush to blame the other when given the opportunity.

theregister.co.uk By Andrew Orlowski in San Francisco Posted: 05/05/2003 at 08:32 GMT

The President's favorite database company, Choicepoint Inc., has acquired personal data on hundreds of millions of citizens in ten Latin American countries without their knowledge or consent. Data includes Mexico's Federal Electoral Register, details of drivers in Mexico City and Colombia.

"This is a corporation that works hand in glove with, and is politically connected to the administration, and does things that the US dare not do," Greg Palast, who uncovered Choicepoint's role in the 2000 election, told The Register last week. Choicepoint had been given a $67 million contract for data gathering on September 25, 2001. The contract lasts until 2005.

"It's doing this everywhere," said Palast, "but in Mexico it was caught out."

The scandal broke three weeks ago after an investigation by Mexican newspaper Milenio, although it received scant attention Stateside. But a report in today's Guardian should give it fresh impetus.

From the Guadalajara Times we learn that the company has been active in Brazil, Colombia, Venezuela, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Honduras, El Salvador and Nicaragua. However, the Times reports that Choicepoint has discontinued its role in Argentina, "due to lack of demand and a strict new law relating to privacy".

But ChoicePoint isn't shy about boasting of its Latino assets.

"You know the value of ChoicePoint's domestic data," begins a 2001sales brochure for its 'AutoTrack XP' product uncovered by privacy group EPIC under the Freedom of Information Act. "Now you can locate and identify business assets in foreign countries with ChoicePoint's new International searches".

"ChoicePoint gives you the most comprehensive online International data available, with individual and business information from Mexico, Colombia, Argentina [oops? - ed.] Brazil and Costa Rica."

"ChoicePoint is the only vendor capable of providing online access to the following data sets and/or functionality: a) complete listings of all Mexican, Colombian and Argentine citizens b) inclusion of unlisted numbers in telephone files in Mexico, Brazil and Argentina c) inclusion of Mexican vehicle and driver license data d) complete listing of Columbian company data e) inclusion of personal identification information for Brazilian business people f) full usability in English language

(Go here [200kb PDF] and here [292kb PDF] for the documents.)

The second document records that the US Department of Justice paid $11m for "access to ChoicePoint databases."

Now, you might ask, doesn't the US have official agencies that are supposed to undertake a much more focused version of this intelligence gathering? Indeed, it does, and being conscientious government agencies, the staff (in our experience) take information integrity pretty seriously. The value that ChoicePoint's places on data integrity is quite germane, as we shall see.

Who is Choicepoint Inc.? In a letter to SEC last year, ChoicePoint described itself as "a leading information company with a long history of developing products and services for federal and state government agencies to locate individuals, businesses, and assets and to authenticate individuals' identities."

That long history goes back less than six years to August 1997, when Choicepoint was spun off from Equifax, where it was Equifax's Insurance Services Group.

An early earning statement described how "in business and government markets" it provided services including "pre-employment and drug testing, public records information, UCC search and filing."

A more recent statement is both fuzzier and warmer:

"ChoicePoint (NYSE :CPS) is the leading provider of identification and credential verification services for making smarter decisions in today's fast-paced world, serving the information needs of business, government and individuals."

"ChoicePoint is committed to protecting personal privacy and promoting the responsible use of information to help create a safer world."

But ChoicePoint's credentials as a responsible user of information were tested in its role in Florida, in the 2000 Election - a story that's probably more familiar to readers outside the United States than in.

ChoicePoint was given a contract to maintain Florida's electoral rolls and conveniently managed to scrub as many as 91,000 voters most of whom were poor or black. A complex and determined effort to disenfranchise a small number of people.

Standards body But ChoicePoint has another role to play in a quite unexpected way. It's the guardian of our commercial data integrity. The "Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism" (PATRIOT) Act 2001 blessed the company as a kind of standards setter. Banks have been instructed to issue data in a format ChoicePoint likes, which will come as a surprise to the IETF, or the W3C, or OASIS, next time a web standard has to be set. But there you go. And ChoicePoint was singled out by name.

The commercial potential of this new PATRIOT-compatible standard was illustrated here by Sybase which is suddenly falling over itself to help the Homeland. Over at Choicepoint there's a handy compliance brochure you can read advising you how to comply with the PATRIOT Act. And not to complicate the picture too much, Marv Bush, one of the aforementioned Bush family, channeled money to Sybase via his job as a VC at Winston Partners. So you can see how they gamble, these Bushes.

With an essential part of US intelligence gathering now privatized, which we didn't know before - what else does this tell us? Palast reminds us that the state can now demand and control information flows without a warrant. Which is one of those nice 'Thank You's' that we expect, and would appreciate.®