No Subject

makes you wonder what hell they were using for encryption?  DES?


------------------------------

September 17, 1998 Web posted at: 11:16 AM EDT (1516 GMT)

MIAMI (AP) -- The shadowy world of a low-budget Cuban spy ring came to
light in a courtroom, where an FBI agent testified that a suspect's
apartment yielded computer diskettes containing coded references to Fidel
Castro and plans to sabotage an aircraft hangar.

Sounding more and more like a spy novel, details of the group's workings
were revealed in a hearing at which Luis Medina and Manuel Viramontez were
ordered held without bail Wednesday.

Thousands of pages of encrypted computer documents were seized from the
men's apartments.

The men were among 10 rounded up over the weekend and charged Monday with
trying to penetrate U.S. military bases, infiltrate anti-Castro exile
groups and manipulate U.S. media and political organizations. Prosecutors
said it was the biggest Cuban spy ring uncovered in the United States since
Castro took power in 1959.

However, the Pentagon said none of the alleged spies obtained U.S. secrets.

Evidence seized from Viramontez "analyzes the ability to sabotage or cause
damage to airplanes" or a Florida hangar itself," FBI agent Mark de Almeida
testified.

But the network was a low-budget affair, with a Cuban military captain who
lived under the alias Viramontez falling behind on his rent.

The Cuban government "indicated they were supposed to suffer like the rest
of the Cuban people," de Almeida testified in explaining their spartan
lifestyle.

He said diskettes seized from Viramontez' apartment were sprinkled with the
word "comrade" and coded references to "commandante," taken by
investigators to refer to Castro.

Before Viramontez was caught, he had three sets of false identities and
plans to escape to Mexico, Nicaragua or Canada, prosecutors allege. Medina,
said to be a Cuban intelligence major, was ready to flee with a briefcase
containing Puerto Rican identities, a fake birth certificate and $5,000 in
cash.

Eight defendants postponed their bail hearings Wednesday. All 10 were in
solitary confinement at a federal jail.

Viramontez's attorney Paul McKenna said the court, not public opinion, must
decide the case.

"You can't have a lynch mob mentality about this case," said McKenna. "We
have to let our system of justice, our courts, deal with this."

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
 james 'keith' thomson <jkthomson@bigfoot.com>  www.bigfoot.com/~ceildh
 jkthomson:C181 991A 405C EAFB 2C46 79B5 B1DC DB78 8196 122D [06.07.98]
 ceildh   :1D79 59AF ED75 5945 6003 8240 DA34 ACCA 9DE4 6BC9 [05.14.98]
 ICQ:746241 <keys> at pgp.mit.edu     ...and former sysop of tnbnog BBS
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
Murphy's Military Laws:
3. Friendly fire ain't.
=======================================================================

On Thu, 17 Sep 1998, jkthomson wrote:

> makes you wonder what hell they were using for encryption?  DES?


> MIAMI (AP) -- The shadowy world of a low-budget Cuban spy ring came to
> light in a courtroom, where an FBI agent testified that a suspect's
> apartment yielded computer diskettes containing coded references to Fidel
> Castro and plans to sabotage an aircraft hangar.

Note the word coded.

> Thousands of pages of encrypted computer documents were seized from the
> men's apartments.

> He said diskettes seized from Viramontez' apartment were sprinkled with the
> word "comrade" and coded references to "commandante," taken by
> investigators to refer to Castro.

I don't think that the documents were encrypted; I think that, perhaps,
they were just done in a code language.

If they were actually using a cipher system, you do have to wonder what it
was. 

Damn.. are cypherpunks the only people in the universe smart enough to use
PGP?!?

Michael J. Graffam (mgraffam@mhv.net)
http://www.mhv.net/~mgraffam -- Philosophy, Religion, Computers, Crypto, etc
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary 
 safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." -- Ben Franklin, ~1784

At 05:28 PM 9/17/98 -0400, mgraffam@mhv.net wrote:

>Damn.. are cypherpunks the only people in the universe smart enough to use
>PGP?!?

And a lot of good it's done the two who've been busted so far .. doesn't
look like encryption is a serious obstacle to legitimate law enforcement to
me.


--
Greg Broiles        |History teaches that 'Trust us'
gbroiles@netbox.com |is no guarantee of due process.
                    |_Kasler v. Lundgren_, 98 CDOS 1581
                    |(March 4, 1998)