Das Buch Wer mitmacht, hat Recht!

After some confusion, because http://addons.miranda-im.org/ is down, I had a look at the forums for a ‘solution’. And accidently found an OTR plugin¹ for Miranda IM.

After several of years, the waiting has an end and something for message encryption finally appeared. ;-D

[1] OTR Plugin for Miranda IM

It’s becoming obvious that this is not a coincidence.

Reports of the FOURTH submarine cable that got cut just came in.
Who’s trying to make ANYONE believe this is just a mere coincidence or unlucky accidents?

DOHA (AFP) — An undersea telecoms cable linking Qatar to the United Arab Emirates was damaged, disrupting services, telecommunications provider Qtel said on Sunday, the latest such incident in less than a week.
The cause of the damage is not yet known.

Of cooouuurrrssseee, yes! just! another! coincidence!

Tell that to whoever you like.
But this is beyond conspiracy, this is just too statistically improbable to not be deliberate.

There have also been reports that there were NO ships present at the time the cables were cut.
And even better, no one’s gonna fix it any time soon, because of the bad weather.

I was just posting how Iran got conveniently (partly?) cut off the Net four hours ago.

But now there’s even more!

Here’s the stuff to fuel the conspiracy:
US plan to launch Cyber Storm 2 early March.

Just let me quote some of the nicer key points of Cyber Storm 2:

• Imagined villains include hackers, bloggers and even reporters.
• Multi target attacks:
  1. Hacker break-ins at an airline
  2. stolen commercial software blueprints
  3. problems with satellite navigation systems
  4. trouble with police radios in Montana
  5. school closures in Washington
  6. Miami and New York
  7. computer failures at border checkpoints

What has this to do with Iran?

I sincerely hope nothing at all.
But be aware of the fact that on 9/11 there were large terrorist attack drills² happening during the attacks that “confused” the officials.
Coincidence! You say.
Well, there also were mock attacks staged during the 7/7 London bombings³.

9/11, 7/7, 3/x ?

Now they’ve scheduled a large cyber war drill for early March this year, and conveniently, just in time, Iran is offline.
No chance of grass-roots reporting, blogging, direct and unfiltered news from Iran.

If there were something to happen that seems like terrorist attacks and the government later uses it to start something ‘funny’...
...Come back and read this post.

History repeating.

¹ Politblog.net – Das Internet unter Beschuss

² 9/11 drills

³ 7/7 drills

Update! There’s possibly more to this story, read the follow up article.

Update! According to a comment Iran isn’t offline.
The problem seems to be local, since the University in Tehran is indeed still reachable.

It’s not just one or two¹ submarine cables being cut affecting the browsing experience in Egypt, India, etc.
No.
It’s three².

And it’s not Egypt and India you should be worried about…
No.. Not at all.

It’s Iran³ (local copy).
Iran is as of now completely cut off the internet.

Weird coincidence, isn’t it?
Who would gain anything from kicking Iran off the Net?
Well… think for yourself…

¹ FLAG Europe-Asia Cable & FLAG FALCON Cable cut

² 3rd FLAG Cable cut

³ Internet Traffic Report Asia (local copy)

I’m posting this without any further comment, except for:
watch at your on discretion and keep an open mind.

zeitgeistmovie.com: website

zeitgeistmovie.com: statement
zeitgeistmovie.com: list of sources
zeitgeistmovie.com: clarifications

bigger version @ video.google.com

—>

German news website heise online reports:

Chancellor Angela Merkel (CDU) wants to see a timely end of the current discussion on the proposed tough anti-terror laws proposed by Minister of the Interior Wolfgang Schäuble (CDU).

The key points of the new law are

• Online search and seize of computers using the so-called “Federal Trojan Horse”
• Use of information gained from autobahn toll collecting for law enforcement
• Fingerprints as part of biometric passports and national ID cards
• Additional storage of biometric data at the local registration office (“Meldeamt”, where citizens have to be registred)
• Even more possibilities for computer-aided search / investigation

German magazine Focus Online reports how several leading figures of the CDU (Christian Democratic Union), one of the two biggest parliamentary groups of the current government, endorse Schäuble’s plans for stricter, more fascist, anti-terror legislation.

Following in the footsteps of Schäuble

Chief Minister Roland Koch (CDU) (Official homepage) of Hessen is being quoted saying that “Germany can’t be allowed to be not as good as other countries when it comes to investigating terrorist suspects.”
Furthermore, “The Big Coalition (CDU/SPD) has to give the idea some serious thought.”

If needed the constitution has to be enhanced to allow us to fight terrorism better.

Günther Oettinger (CDU) (Official homepage), Chief Minister of Baden-Württemberg, is said to claim “Schäuble’s advances are totally OK. If needed the constitution has to be enhanced to allow us to fight terrorism better. SPD Chief Kurt Beck (Official homepage) should be more open for compromises regarding this issue.”

German newspaper WELT ONLINE reports (German language source) on the latest development of German Minister of the Interior Wolfgang Schäuble.

He’s raising the question whether Germany is able to defend itself against the growing terrorist threat using the current tools available to law enforcement. He’s especially worried about “sympathizers of the criminal networks” and “jeopardizers” (He keeps making up fuzzy fake words like that in German, too.)

He’s thinking about implementing similar anti-terror laws as the United States.
For instance he wants to establish the punishable act of “conspiracy” in the same way.
Or maybe one could treat those “jeopardizers” like enemy combatants” (He used the lean-word “Kombatanten” instead of “Kämpfer” (combatants) in his German statement, which is not in general use in Germany and thus sounds like “nothing” to the broad public.)
As if this wouldn’t be enough already, he also suggest to deny “extremists” (no clear definition of the term) the use of mobile phones and internet to communicate. (I’m wondering what ridiculous new laws, taking away our civil liberties, he would have to get passed to make this possible.)

as mentioned in roadtrip KN FFM S KN – pt1 i’m now writing about my, well, pretty interesting, visit at the US consulate in frankfurt.

first of all, if you think germans are the uber bureaucrats, you haven’t visitied the US consulate yet. so please dont get bored while i list the paperwork stuff first, you really need to know what work i had to do to appreciate the final outcome.

here we go!

to be able (well, allowed) to work in the US in means of an internship isn’t exactly and easy task, and it’s quite expensive, too.

first of all,

the obvious paperwork

(in my case, a healthy, male german)

a new biometric passport (~26EUR)
DS-156 (got money?, nazi?, criminal?, terrorist?)
DS-157 (do you have experience with explosives or weaponry? are you educated?)
DS-158 (strip naked, we want to know what and where you’ve been working before)
DS-2019 (yes, i have insurance, and yes i paid 800EUR for a rough 7 months)
I-whatever (aka yes, i paid the $100 SEVIS fee so you can track me online, kthx)
a digitally signed printout that certifies i paid the visa fee (85EUR)

sums up to almost 1000EUR

FYI #1: at this time you do not know whether or not your visa will be granted!
FYI #2: even if you have a visa, the friendly customs officer at the US airport can send you back home.
FYI #3: add another 900EUR for the roundtrip flight.

the stuff that’s not so obvious

DS-156

5×5cm picture of your pretty face is required.
interesting…. let’s find a photographer that does these in germany (lucky me, i found one who did 2 US and 2 DE shots for 10 EUR, thanks!)

DS-2019

this has to be issued by a state-certified US entitiy (in my case CIEE)
it’s quite a pain, since you have to do a shitload of writing for that – proof of english ability (yes, i can speak and write english) – proof that i am allowed to take a break from my studies – proof that i earn more than $750/month or get money from somewhere else – a CV – something that states why i want to do this and what my gains would be – complete work history – a host company training proposal (HCTP), basically a traning plan with several steps and each step includes stuff like: what are you going to work, how is it evaluated, who is supervising you, which skills are needed, and which are trained, etc – other stuff

bonus #1: the HCTP has to be written by the host company in the states, you and the HR person or whoever is in charge at the US company has to sign the paper like 200 times on different pages. (yes, my boss forgot 1 signature (lucky me, he’s in germany 95% of the year))

bonus #2: everything is proxied thru a german company (in my case: travelworks)
you send them the huge pile of DS-2019 related forms, they forward it.
you pay them the ~900 EUR and they pay insurance and SEVIS.
nice: you can also send them the other 3 DS-forms and they’ll check if they are ok.

oook

that’s it?

no.

one is encouraged to bring proof of a strong relation to one’s home country.
eg a rental agreement for your flat, some nice letters that say you are member in local clubs or societies, and by no means book the flight!, just reserve it, etc.
of course you have to bring a written agreement that you
1) will have enough funding for your stay
2) will return to your home country after you finish the program

make an appointment for the visa interview

can only be done using the live phone service.
ever heard of 0900-1… ? it’s 1.86EUR/min.
to make it even more fun, you’ll get a nice female voice (a recording) telling you what forms and stuff you have to bring to your interview.
you can even decide whether you want the service in german or english. niiice.
after a while a (actually very kind) person picks up the phone and tells you the same stuff once more.
as a little added thingy you’ll get an appointment, too.
9:30am, be there 15mins early but not earlier! (frankfurt is a 400km drive X_x)

the conversation lasted a rough 15 minutes. do the math (strange, it’s pretty much in the area of 23EUR, i love that number)

the day has come! visiting the consulate

waiting outside…

well, i was more than 15 minutes early. it was like 1h.
so i stood there, on the sidewalk in front of the consulate, the sun got up, and it got warm (poor bastards who had to wait there around noon). there’s no way to get cover from the sun, the only roof they have is glass.

when the time finally came i queued myself on the far left, a guy went around checking if i had the DS-156 and the thingy saying i paid the visa fee.
he gave me a nice little card with the letter “T” on it.

i had to give my passport and said card to a person behind a glass window.
i guess he checked if i had an appointment and after he did that he gave me a little paper with a number on it and returned my passport. he kept the card :(

get searched

i then was allowed to get actually inside. where i had to empty my pockets and step thru a metal detector.
makes you kinda feel at home in an instant. (the folks there’ve been pretty friendly, maybe cause it was still early in the morning).

waiting inside – pt1

i then left the building where they did the scanning and entered another one.
this was basically a huge hall (a sign on the wall told me that 299 people are allowed inside at max) with chairs and a number of glass windows at the wall with people behind them, sitting in front of computers, doing.. work, i guess.

i had to wait for a approximatly an hour till my number was called.
i went to the window with my number above it. gave all the paperwork to the man behind the window and all he wanted was the DS-* forms and the passport.
ok.
i got told i’ll be called again to a different window for my interview.

he was a little quick to make that assumption, since it was him calling me again.
he noticed that my passport is 6 months and 4 days old, and the picture i stapled to the DS-156 is the same. 6 month picture age is max.
damn.
lucky me they had a photo booth there where you can take a new picture.
unlucky me, it set me back 5EUR.
funny fact: it was a german sized picture, which seemed to be OK.
i could have gotten my pictures taken at a booth to begin with, not having to spend 10EUR on em (which was actually pretty cheap anyways).

waiting inside – pt2

i waited for another hour till i got called to the second window.
the guy was kind of.. very happy, must have been the cereals he had for breakfast.
anyways, i left my left and right index finger print there, he asked me a few questions about where i was going, what i was doing, if i was a student, some nice chatter, took around a minute.

got visa?

he told me: “we’ll issue your visa, have a nice day”

yay!

final conclusion

err wait.
he didn’t want to see the letter i wrote, the letters from my clubs, my rental agreement, nothing.
great :/

so i spent over 2 hours inside the consulate, for an actual 3 minutes of interaction.

funny fact: those windows in the wall.., it was 23 of em (ha!)
not so funny fact: the passport including your visa is sent to you by snail mail (not insured!)
mood booster: leaving the consulate at 11:45am, seeing a ton of people waiting in the, now hot, sun and telling them how long they have to wait :D