Security

The German New Year’s Eve Terror Alerts

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On the one hand we have RT telling us credible predictions of threats to safety were based on a tip from foreign intelligence services

“We received names,” [Munich police chief Hubertus] Andrae said. “We can’t say if they are in Munich or in fact in Germany.”

“At this point, we don’t know if these names are correct, if these people even exist, or where they might be. If we knew this, we would be a clear step further,” he added.

According to the Turkish security agency, the wider European strategy by the five individuals included churches and the sites of mass gatherings.

This led to travel warnings for people to avoid train stations, such as this one:

munichNYE2016

On the other hand, did the predicted events happen? Consider a BBC story reflecting back on New Year’s Eve in Germany, which does not seem to be put in context of any advance warnings.

The scale of the attacks on women at the city’s central railway station has shocked Germany. About 1,000 drunk and aggressive young men were involved.

City police chief Wolfgang Albers called it “a completely new dimension of crime”. The men were of Arab or North African appearance, he said.

Women were also targeted in Hamburg.

But the Cologne assaults – near the city’s iconic cathedral – were the most serious, German media report. At least one woman was raped, and many were groped.

Most of the crimes reported to police were robberies. A volunteer policewoman was among those sexually molested.

[…]

What is particularly disturbing is that the attacks appear to have been organised. Around 1,000 young men arrived in large groups, seemingly with the specific intention of carrying out attacks on women.

The problem with these stories side-by-side is twofold. First, increased police vigilance at train stations across Germany was the defensive plan against people experiencing terror, yet we’re being told now these attacks happened without notice. Violence against women at scale deserve real-time detection and response. Are authorities capable?

Second, is there clarity on what constitutes “organized” attacks? As we learn more, puzzle pieces of conspiracy are being placed on the table: “there had been reports of similar attacks on New Year’s Eve in other cities such as Hamburg and Stuttgart, although not on as massive a scale”.

I have not yet seen anyone report events in this light. The BBC report holds out the train station as a scene of terror without any mention of prior warnings, and without the police warning locations were still unknown: “We can’t say if they are in Munich or in fact in Germany”.

The looming dilemma is whether we now can say planned terror attacks happened in Germany on New Year’s Eve. As time goes on the number of women coming forward has been increasing to report assault. Why would or we say this was not a terror attack, especially as women soon after said they now fear being in public places? If we call it terror, some will complain of a slide towards loss of rights. If we don’t call it terror, some will complain of ignoring rights.

History, Security

US Restitution for Wartime Internment of Japanese-American Civilians

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The mayor of Roanoke, Virginia on November 18 made the following argument to block refugees:

I’m reminded that President Franklin D. Roosevelt felt compelled to sequester Japanese foreign nationals after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and it appears that the threat of harm to America from Isis now is just as real and serious as that from our enemies then.

There’s no good way to say what this really means. This mayor is motivated by prejudice, hysteria and poor leadership. He is so ignorant of history he is unfit for his job; an embarrassment to America he should voluntarily resign his post.

It is a tragedy on two fronts:

  1. Syrian refugees are just looking for a better future. They have nothing to do with ISIL attacks. From a risk perspective they not only are safe, actually they could become a valuable asset in the fight against ISIL.
  2. Xenophobia has a long dark history in America usually linked to groups such as the KKK who practice terrorism, torture, murder. Virginia local news recently has reported “biggest resurgence of the Klan since 1915”. The Roanoke Mayor should be investigated for his ties to these groups.

We must put any call for return to internment camps in proper historic context. Here is President Ronald Reagan’s speech on August 10th, 1988 saying America made a mistake, would apologize and make amends for internment camps. It is abundantly clear no American ever again, let alone an elected official, should try to frame the camps as positive in any way.

Speech by Ronald Reagan, as documented in the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library

Remarks on Signing the Bill Providing Restitution for the Wartime Internment of Japanese-American Civilians

August 10, 1988

The Members of Congress and distinguished guests, my fellow Americans, we gather here today to right a grave wrong. More than 40 years ago, shortly after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, 120,000 persons of Japanese ancestry living in the United States were forcibly removed from their homes and placed in makeshift internment camps. This action was taken without trial, without jury. It was based solely on race, for these 120,000 were Americans of Japanese descent.

Yes, the Nation was then at war, struggling for its survival and it’s not for us today to pass judgment upon those who may have made mistakes while engaged in that great struggle. Yet we must recognize that the internment of Japanese-Americans was just that: a mistake. For throughout the war, Japanese-Americans in the tens of thousands remained utterly loyal to the United States. Indeed, scores of Japanese-Americans volunteered for our Armed Forces, many stepping forward in the internment camps themselves. The 442d Regimental Combat Team, made up entirely of Japanese-Americans, served with immense distinction to defend this nation, their nation. Yet back at home, the soldier’s families were being denied the very freedom for which so many of the soldiers themselves were laying down their lives.

Congressman Norman Mineta, with us today, was 10 years old when his family was interned. In the Congressman’s words: ”My own family was sent first to Santa Anita Racetrack. We showered in the horse paddocks. Some families lived in converted stables, others in hastily thrown together barracks. We were then moved to Heart Mountain, Wyoming, where our entire family lived in one small room of a rude tar paper barrack.” Like so many tens of thousands of others, the members of the Mineta family lived in those conditions not for a matter of weeks or months but for 3 long years.

The legislation that I am about to sign provides for a restitution payment to each of the 60,000 surviving Japanese-Americans of the 120,000 who were relocated or detained. Yet no payment can make up for those lost years. So, what is most important in this bill has less to do with property than with honor. For here we admit a wrong; here we reaffirm our commitment as a nation to equal justice under the law.

I’d like to note that the bill I’m about to sign also provides funds for members of the Aleut community who were evacuated from the Aleutian and Pribilof Islands after a Japanese attack in 1942. This action was taken for the Aleuts’ own protection, but property was lost or damaged that has never been replaced.

And now in closing, I wonder whether you’d permit me one personal reminiscence, one prompted by an old newspaper report sent to me by Rose Ochi, a former internee. The clipping comes from the Pacific Citizen and is dated December 1945.

“Arriving by plane from Washington,” the article begins, “General Joseph W. Stilwell pinned the Distinguished Service Cross on Mary Masuda in a simple ceremony on the porch of her small frame shack near Talbert, Orange County. She was one of the first Americans of Japanese ancestry to return from relocation centers to California’s farmlands.” “Vinegar Joe” Stilwell was there that day to honor Kazuo Masuda, Mary’s brother. You see, while Mary and her parents were in an internment camp, Kazuo served as staff sergeant to the 442d Regimental Combat Team. In one action, Kazuo ordered his men back and advanced through heavy fire, hauling a mortar. For 12 hours, he engaged in a singlehanded barrage of Nazi positions. Several weeks later at Cassino, Kazuo staged another lone advance. This time it cost him his life.

The newspaper clipping notes that her two surviving brothers were with Mary and her parents on the little porch that morning. These two brothers, like the heroic Kazuo, had served in the United States Army. After General Stilwell made the award, the motion picture actress Louise Allbritton, a Texas girl, told how a Texas battalion had been saved by the 442d. Other show business personalities paid tribute–Robert Young, Will Rogers, Jr. And one young actor said: “Blood that has soaked into the sands of a beach is all of one color. America stands unique in the world: the only country not founded on race but on a way, an ideal. Not in spite of but because of our polyglot background, we have had all the strength in the world. That is the American way.” The name of that young actor–I hope I pronounce this right–was Ronald Reagan. And, yes, the ideal of liberty and justice for all–that is still the American way.

Thank you, and God bless you. And now let me sign H.R. 442, so fittingly named in honor of the 442d.

Thank you all again, and God bless you all. I think this is a fine day.

Note: The President spoke at 2:33 p.m. in Room 450 of the Old Executive Office Building. H.R. 442, approved August 10, was assigned Public Law No. 100-383.

Security

Why Do We Hack?

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I’ve seen recently some weird speculations on motive of a hacker. Personally I prefer to focus on consequence because that defines our control options best. I learned to make this switch while studying the history of Vietnam War and seeking motives.(1) What motivated American leaders to kill so many people? Try reading “Advice for Soldiers in Vietnam: The Fish is Good”

…young, uneducated soldiers…had to be told why they were going to Vietnam, from which, after all, they might not return. “It is interesting, that the [US Department of Defense guide for soldiers] accurately and briefly describes the history of the Vietnamese resisting outsiders—the Chinese and others—while assuming that we could never be cast in this light.” To do this required telling some of the same lies that the government was telling the public and, for the most part, telling itself.

It’s basically impossible to clarify motive in this sort of context, whereas understanding the consequences is comparatively easy and can greatly affect motives in future: outsiders faced resistance. So time spent studying history really was learning to distill accurate consequences from action to help inform future paths; avoid predictable mistakes.

But still I understand that discussion of motive is attractive to many and there’s some merit to getting lost in speculation so here’s mine:

As I’ve said before I believe everyone is a hacker. In brief it seems to me to be a condition of economics and politics, laced with philosophy. If you find an obstacle in your path then hacking is a way to work around or even through resistance instead of using more direct methods. The asymmetry, disobedience to routine or expectation, is what I find at the foundation of hacking.

Theories of hacker motive that settle on addiction or male sexual fantasy as foundations have mistaken a small tree for the entire forest; symptoms such as these are woefully lacking in perspective.

Let us take as assumption that given a choice humans tend to go a path of lesser resistance. The more privilege or authority one has the more choices of low resistance, and less cause for a hack to get around resistance spots. Having total control therefore means the least hack incentives. Got root? Whereas, having the least control options for a desired changes brings highest incentive to start hacking.

Why would the an intelligence agency hack? They calculate a path to greater control for less cost (including blowback) than other options. Why would the activist hack? They calculate a path to greater justice for less cost than other options.

Perhaps I can explain using a counter-example. Addiction makes no logical sense to me as THE hacker motive. It is just one shade or flavor. The word addict comes from latin addictus, which means a person enslaved as a consequence of debt or crime.

Imagine a child abandoned by parents, or bullied by older schoolmates, and you have someone with potential incentive to see asymmetry as a best option against the obstacles in the way of their personal success. Tempting as it might be to describe them as addicts; it is false to assume use of asymmetric methods to overcome would lead to a form of slavery. They are not addicts if a control level they seek through resource-constrained methods is reasonable and achievable.

The addiction theory says hackers want more control because they are addicted to more control. This sounds like an administrator, not a hacker. You want more control? You get a job that gives you more control, and a promotion to more control, and another one. Hacking not required. Should we call a promoted system administrator an addict because increased authority achieved and desired? If they can choose to exit of free will, no. Addiction is a way to describe those with a high exit barrier/cost.

Moreover a tautology such as “want more power because power is wanted” should have been shot-down in the very first presentation review-cycle. Addiction to growth of power is separate from and does not pre-suppose any need for hacking because not-hacking (following procedures) also can end in the same place of more power. Obviously if one wanted to amass power and be enslaved by it (e.g. run a debt and be unable to pay) hacking still is not necessary, so it is hard to see it as THE logical justification to hack.

An asymmetry theory even explains away the (incredibly vapid) accusation that “penetration testing” could be a manifestation of man’s desire to stick their penis into everything. Hopefully I don’t have to explain why a male-only theory of motivation fails at first blush. Let it suffice to say people without a penis also see penetration opportunity to gain entry where they aren’t authorized. The risks of unauthorized entry is a much broader subject (i.e. women stealing) than just men being dicks.

Let’s face it, hacking is really about power, which brings me to think of it in terms of economics, politics and philosophy. Psychology may help study why a child abandoned by a parent feels transfer power and needs to react in a non-standard way. I don’t think that will really explain when and how authority, or let’s just call it privilege, will have to deal with those who learn and engage with asymmetry rather than sit bored because symmetry is a pipe dream. And hacking therefore also is not always bad. Asymmetric approaches can be known by their more common labels of innovation or creativity.

The question people really should be answering is when is it ethical to innovate or use creativity instead of following routines.

(1) John Stuart Mill, Utilitarianism (London: Parker, Son and Bourn, 1863), page 26-27, argued good behavior comes from questionable intentions so best to ignore and focus on outcome.