Nexus - 0704 - New Times Magazine-pages

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deBriefings explicit about the connection to Echelon: "I don't know what's It is the same with remarks about further criticism from Daniel meant by the 'back door’. What we've been told is that not only —_ Brandt, penned by Riconosciuto, which have circulated among the software was sold, but computers with extra chips... What — conspiracy researchers. For example, Riconosciuto states: "As the chips do, we've been told—the extra chips—is to broadcast _ far as the requirement of special hardware to transmit data [is the data inside PROMIS to satellites owned by the NSA...but we concerned] ...the example that Mr Brandt uses, that software can don't know enough about it as they've never shared anything with —_ alone supply various combinations of ones and zeros to the CPU, us." This possibility addresses Daniel Brandt's objection that | only shows Mr Brandt's lack of knowledge of what Walsh func- physical access is required for a back door to work. tions are... Brandt's comments start out that computers radiate Writer J. Orlin Grabbe elaborated on the idea in a recent col- _ electromagnetic energy unless they are shielded. This is an umn: "Since intelligence computers are, for security reasons, insult. Anybody who has been around knows what Van Eyck usually not connected to external networks, the original back _ backing is (decoding from a distance what is displayed on a CRT door was a broadcast signal. The PROMIS software was often screen). An active phased array antenna is superfluous at the sold in connection with computer hardware (such as a Prime __ short distances he describes. A high-performance surveillance computer) using a specialised chip. The chip would broadcast _ receiver such as those made for Vatkins Johnson corporation, the contents of the existing database to monitoring vans or collec- _ Stoddarts/Singer or Fairchild, will do the job quite nicely with a tion satellites, using digital spread spectrum techniques whenever __ standard biconical antenna... Brandt will find that if an arbitrarily the software was run. Spread spectrum techniques offer a way to small section of a sine function is known, the function is known mask, or disguise, a signal by making it appear as 'noise' with everywhere. This feature of the sine wave is referenced to sinu- respect to another signal. For example, one may communicate _soidal waves that transmit information at a net rate of zero!... Mr covertly on the same spectrum as a local TV broadcast signal. | Brandt's statement that software can only provide combinations From the point of view of a TV receiver, the covert communica- _ of 1s and Os to the CPU totally misses the point that Walsh func- tion appears as noise and is filtered out. From the point of view tions are inherently suited to binary operations. This is one rea- of the covert channel, the TV signal appears as noise. In the case son why such tight, compact code can be written around opera- of the PROMIS broadcast channel, the signal was disguised as _ tions with Walsh functions. This is why it is so difficult to find ordinary computer noise..." Thereafter, unfortunately, Grabbe's _ these routines and differentiate them from routines normally used discussion—which includes correspondence with PROMIS archi- _at the RTL (register transfer logic) level. This is at a level of pro- tect Michael Riconosciuto—becomes more technical than is use- gramming that is one jump lower than machine language." ful to a non-technical person's understanding of how PROMIS Which, again, is several steps above the average person's ability works. to follow these technical possibilities. It seems almost inarguable that the PROMIS software has properties and applications compatible with the Echelon military-industrial spy satellite system. In addition to being a bell-ringer for the dangers PROMIS oses to the average person, Casolaro—and perhaps Jim Keith—died in part trying to uncover its other, more sinister capacities. Echelon has almost become the ultimate expression of the global conspiracy culture, and certainly the most obvi- ous example of the encroaching surveillance society. The developing interest in and protest over Echelon's exis- tence is the best legacy of those who made sacrifices in trying to understand the role of The Octopus and the possibilities of PROMIS. This part of the story is still unfolding. About the Author: Kenn Thomas is co-author of The Octopus: Secret Government and the Death of Danny Casolaro (Feral House) and author of the prequel, Maury Island UFO (IIlumiNet Press). He has edited two volumes of Cyberculture Counterconspiracy (Book Tree) (see review this issue), and produced five other books on conspiracy topics, including NASA, Nazis & JFK. He publishes the conspiracy magazine Steamshovel Press. (For a copy of the current issue, send USD$6 [USD$8 foreign]; for a four- issue subscription, send USD$23 [USD$28 foreign] to: POB 23715, St Louis, MO 63121, USA.) Steamshovel Press maintains a website, www.steamshovelpress.com. For further information, e-mail Kenn Thomas at kennthomas@umsl.edu. 14 = NEXUS JUNE — JULY 2000