CASE FIVE
TERROR IN ELB!
In recent months, the Elb Government has cracked down
on dissidents and human rights monitors following a mass demonstration
by peasants demanding land reform. Dozens, perhaps hundreds of peasants
were killed when the Elb Army opened fire on the demonstration. Army
officials claim that some of the peasants were armed revolutionaries
of the Elb People’s Liberation Army, a leftist guerrilla group. Approximately
sixty human rights activists, democracy activists, journalists, and
academics who criticized the massacre have been arrested and reportedly
tortured. Several political science professors at the University of
Lower Elb are said to have been arrested in their offices. Police officials
deny that the professors are in custody; family members claim that the
professors have been detained at a clandestine prison and are likely
to be killed.
The Human Rights Commission (HRC) of Elb is a non-profit,
non-governmental organization that monitors violations of internationally-recognized
human rights, and it has been actively reporting on the worsening situation.
However, the Elb Government has declared that the HRC is an arm of the
Elb People’s Liberation Army. In a recent Army communiqué, the
Defense Minister said that "the slanderous lies of the so-called
‘human rights’ movement have no place in Elb. The subversives of the
HRC are terroristic threats to our national security; they are a cancer
in our society, and we will cut them out." Government decrees have
made "repeating to foreigners rumors detrimental to the state"
a crime punishable by ten years in prison.
HRC activists continue to collect information which they
store on laptops. Their databases are protected by strong encryption.
They have always used encrypted e-mail to send their messages to Amnesty
International and Human Rights Watch, but now they are concerned that
people who might have access to their e-mail logs would see the return
addresses on the e-mail and use that as evidence that they are breaking
the new decree. They decide to use an anonymous remailer to send messages
to international groups.
Discussion Questions
- If the HRC sends its messages without anonymous remailers, it
will be obvious to Elb Army intelligence analysts (who review the
email logs of all Elb citizens) that the HRC is communicating with
international human rights groups (and thereby breaking the law).
However, if it uses remailers, it will be obvious that it is hiding
something. Which is the bigger risk? To use or not to use?
- Amnesty International has been getting encrypted but unsigned
messages through an anonymous remailer about atrocities committed
by the Elb People’s Liberation Army in rural areas. How should they
evaluate these messages? How does the anonymity of the message affect
its credibility?
- Since a war some years ago with their traditional enemies to the
east in Great Bolonga, the Elb Army has received extensive training
from the United States. Several officials in the Elb Army intelligence
units are pleading with their counterparts in the United States
to help them to break the cryptographic systems of the terrorists
in the human rights movement. Other officials in the Elb Army insist
that the anonymous messages flowing into and out of their country
are actually intelligence reports and logistical arrangements for
arms traffic to support the Elb People’s Liberation Army. How should
the United States intelligence community evaluate this claim? Should
the US provide technical assistance to the Elb Army to help counter
this grave threat to Elb national security? What issues should US
officials take into account as they make their decision?
This case was prepared by staff at the American
Association for the Advancement of Science as part of a project on "Anonymous
Communications on the Internet: Uses And Abuses" (see http://www.aaas.org/spp/anon),
funded by a grant from the National Science Foundation. This case may
be downloaded and used for educational purposes.
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