[iwar] [fc:Pentagon.Denies.GPS.to.Taliban]

From: Fred Cohen (fc@all.net)
Date: 2001-10-23 08:21:14


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Subject: [iwar] [fc:Pentagon.Denies.GPS.to.Taliban]
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Pentagon Denies GPS to Taliban  
By Declan McCullagh, Wired News, 10/23/2001
<a href="http://www.wired.com/news/print/0,1294,47739,00.html">http://www.wired.com/news/print/0,1294,47739,00.html> 

[FC - Were they heavily dependent on it?]

WASHINGTON -- The Pentagon said on Friday that it won't limit the
accuracy of positioning information that's beamed to civilian global
positioning system (GPS) receivers. 

In fact, the military says in its new standard that it's boosting
civilian GPS quality.  The government claims it "now provides civil
users a horizontal positioning accuracy of 36 meters, compared to
100-meter accuracy" in the 1995 standard. 

But as the military campaign against Afghanistan enters its third week,
the Defense Department could take steps to limit the usefulness of GPS
receivers in the hands of Taliban forces.  GPS units receive signals
from orbiting satellites and compute their location and what time it is. 
"We have demonstrated the ability to selectively deny GPS signals on a
regional basis, particularly ...  when our national security is
threatened," said Lt.  Jeremy Eggers, a spokesman at Schriever Air Force
Base in Colorado.  That's home to the 50th Space Wing, which oversees
GPS. 

That would mean only military GPS receivers -- in planes, ships and in
the hands of U.S.  special forces -- would work within the targeted
area.  Eggers wouldn't say if a selective denial would be precise enough
to hit just Afghanistan, or if neighboring nations like Pakistan and
Uzbekistan would be affected too.  He'd only say that the "region can be
very well defined."

Selective availability (SA), which globally degraded the quality of GPS
available to civilians, has been turned off since a May 2000 executive
order signed by President Clinton.  It's been replaced by selective
deniability, which allows the military to geographically pinpoint areas
should it choose to degrade GPS quality. 

Pete Brumbaugh, a spokesman for Garmin, a leading manufacturer of
civilian GPS devices, said he believed the signal in Afghanistan has
already been degraded. 

"There is probably a significant dithering of the signal over
Afghanistan and other areas where there are military operations,"
Brumbaugh said.  But he's found no effects in North America: "We have
been monitoring the situation closely to see if there's any fluctuation
in the signal and we haven't found any.  It shouldn't have any
repercussions on areas that aren't affected by the military operations
around the world."

Even if the United States would change its mind and globally limit the
quality of GPS signals, GPS experts say it would have little effect on
commercial airliners that use the technology in their navigation
systems. 

Nancy Glass, a spokeswoman for Rockwell Collins, which sells commercial
air navigation systems, said: "There would be no consequence if SA was
turned on.  The separations that are required between aircraft are
higher than the difference between SA on and SA off.  SA is only 100
meters.  The required separation between aircraft is much higher than
that -- it's miles."

Do not eavesdrop after 2005: Attorney General John Ashcroft has endorsed
a new version of anti-terrorism legislation crafted by Capitol Hill
negotiators. 

On Thursday, Ashcroft said: "I can state unequivocally that this
legislation, once passed and signed into law, will immediately increase
our capacity to detect, to disrupt and to prevent acts of terrorism."
The bill, a revised version of the USA Act (PDF), would ease limits on
police wiretapping and Internet monitoring. 

At first, the Senate version of the USA Act did not include an
expiration date and the House version expired in two years.  This week,
legislators said they reached a compromise: A four-year expiration date. 
FOI not so free: Journalists and researchers who rely on the Freedom of
Information Act to ferret documents out of government agencies soon will
be out of luck. 

The Justice Department has released new FOIA guidelines that tell
agencies to stay as mum as possible. 

According to the guidelines sent to agencies, the government should
withhold information whenever there is a "sound legal basis" for doing
so. 

You've been fired: UCLA has banned its library staff from forwarding
"patriotic" e-mail messages. 

No, it's no joke.  It's the university library's new policy following
the Sept.  11 attacks. 

Says the university in an e-mail memo to managers: "Please remind your
staff that sending unsolicited e-mails containing political, religious
or even patriotic messages to groups such as units, departments or other
library lists is an unacceptable use of library e-mail.  This is true
for messages which are original, forwarded and responses to other
messages." Bert is truly evil: Remember how the Sesame Street character
Bert appeared on a poster next to Osama bin Laden?

According to one fellow named Robert Koontz, who says he's a former
National Security Agency instructor, that was a coded message intended
to set off biochemical attacks on the United States. 

We don't know whether Koontz is a well-briefed military analyst or just
plain wacky, but you can read his investigation into this unusual topic
at bringmenews.com. 

Ben Polen contributed to this report. 


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