Re: The Terrorists are coming!

In message <Pine.3.87.9408011942.A12890-0100000@raven.csrv.uidaho.edu> CatAshleigh writes:

>   first of all the only "muslim" (NOT ARAB, NO ARABS HAVE NUKES, the only

How do you know?

> country with nukes in the middle east is Israel) country
> with a nuclear program is pakistan, and they're years away from anything
> that could be stolen.

Ahem.  Uzbekistan is Muslim, and is also the third or fourth largest
nuclear power, and also is in a part of the world where there is a
long tradition of ... how do I say it gently ... greasing the palm.
I spent quite a while next door in Afghanistan and am familiar with
the culture.

A large part of the former USSR was Muslim and there were strategic and
tactical nuclear weapons scattered all over the place (tactical weapons
are used as mines, fired from artillery pieces, carried by short range
missiles, and dropped from fighter bombers).  If none of these is
unaccounted for, it is a genuine miracle.

Also, there has been quite a lot of press coverage here in the UK of
the defector from Saudi Arabia who claims that (a) the Saudis backed both
the Iraqi and the Pakistani nuclear programs and (b) the Saudis at
least have some nuclear materials.

> second of all there are more deaths caused by lighting on golf courses,
> ask any insurance agency.

Also not true.	The total number killed directly and indirectly in
Japan alone by atomic bombs is certainly over 100,000.	I can't believe
that that many people have been killed by lightning on golf courses!

Then again, we are talking about elementary arithmetic.  Yes, the
probability of someone being killed by lightning on a golf course
tomorrow is much much higher than that of the detonation of a nuclear
weapon in a populated area.  But when that nuclear weapon goes off,
it's not going to be just one golfer that gets scorched.

> some call it pork barrel, I call it consperasy theory to protray muslims 
> as terroists.

Pork barrel?
--
Jim Dixon

On Aug 1, 10:07pm, Jim Dixon wrote:
> A large part of the former USSR was Muslim and there were strategic and
> tactical nuclear weapons scattered all over the place (tactical weapons
> are used as mines, fired from artillery pieces, carried by short range
> missiles, and dropped from fighter bombers).  If none of these is
> unaccounted for, it is a genuine miracle.

Out of curiousity, is anyone aware of whether the USSR employed PAL's
(Permissive Activation Links) in their strategic nuclear weaponary?  If so,
is anyone aware of how secure the PAL's the Soviets actually used were?
There was a rumor on USENET some time back that the Soviets were using RSA
in their PAL's, but it sounded too much like an urban myth to me.

							Ian.

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> Out of curiousity, is anyone aware of whether the USSR employed PAL's
> (Permissive Activation Links) in their strategic nuclear weaponary?  If so,
> is anyone aware of how secure the PAL's the Soviets actually used were?
> There was a rumor on USENET some time back that the Soviets were using RSA
> in their PAL's, but it sounded too much like an urban myth to me.

I suspect they must have had a PAL-like mechanism, although at least
some of their weapons rely on interlocks which can only be triggered
by a KGB-controlled activator.

I remember the USENET rumor as being that the _US_ was using RSA as a
component of the comm systems used to transmit Emergency War Orders
(EWOs) to US forces. No one has confirmed that, but it certainly seems
plausible. 

Come to think of it, the PALs on US weapons are primarily
electromechanical in nature. You get the EWO, you punch in the
supplied code into the PAL, and off you go. I'm not sure that RSA
would a whole lot of use as part of the PAL mechanism itself (except
for signature verification, which is certainly important.)

- -Paul
- -- 
Paul Robichaux, KD4JZG      | "Information is the currency of democracy."
perobich@ingr.com           |     - some old guy named Thomas Jefferson
	       Of course I don't speak for Intergraph.
	       

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