W.I.L. Offshore News Digest :: November 2009, Part 4

NICARAGUA: DISCOVERING THE UNDISCOVERED

We once heard a real estate developer offer profound advice saying, “Inexpensive beachfront property does not become a better value, rather it becomes more expensive. Pioneers who stake their claim make significant money for their children and are able to enjoy the beauty for themselves, at value prices.” And so began our personal quest to be pioneers and “discover the undiscovered.”

Our quest began in 2002, when my wife Carolyn and I acted upon that same advice and began our search for a beachfront property that would serve as a sound investment and provide for an occasional tropical getaway. We ventured into the latest “hotspot” of Costa Rica and were awed by the beauty of the Pacific coast and the availability of undeveloped property.

Indentifying a beautiful piece of property was the easiest part of the process. However, “pulling the trigger” and actually purchasing the property is where our small, conservative North American mentalities kept us from expanding our horizons and making a wise decision. We decided that we just could not get out of our “comfort zone” and commit to buying a piece of land overseas, no matter how beautiful and inexpensive.

Upon making our decision not to purchase, we returned to our daily routine in Atlanta. Time passed, the frantic pace of daily life continued to increase, traffic got worse, monthly expenses continued to climb, and after two years we decided to venture back into Costa Rica with a real commitment to take the plunge into international real estate ownership.

But, upon arrival in the quaint little community we had discovered two years past, our anticipatory spirit was quickly broken as we researched availability and prices. The exact same properties we could have purchased on our previous trip for $69,000.00 were now selling at an astounding $499,000. Our fears and our procrastination had cost us our opportunity to expand our horizons, enjoy the beauty of a tropical environment and benefit financially from the discovery of the undiscovered.

As any good pioneers would do, rather than accept defeat, we rallied and focused our determined and collaborated efforts on finding the next undiscovered paradise, having no idea how that one minor setback in Costa Rica would change our lives forever.

One month later, we and our daughter Claire traveled to Managua, Nicaragua on another Central America “scouting trip,” hoping to find a little piece of undiscovered paradise. From the moment we put our feet on the ground in Nicaragua, our hearts and our minds told us we had found “home.” And, just two short years after that first trip to Managua, we had packed up our Atlanta lives, said one last goodbye to the concrete jungle and began our journey down I-75 to Miami, where we would load our pets on an air-conditioned cargo plane and complete our greatly anticipated move to a new country.

But, as with every major step in life, there are always mountains to climb.

We never anticipated the need to stop on the interstate and break up a dog fight in the back seat.

We did not expect to arrive in Managua and find that our contractor had decided to tackle every stage of our home renovation all at once, rather than in staggered phases, demolishing all of our living space and placing our toilets in the backyard.

Imagine our surprise, as we learned our new life in paradise would begin by sharing one small bedroom with our 10-year-old daughter, three dogs, three cats and a bird, for six months!

With school starting for our daughter the Monday after our arrival, with dust and construction noise all around us, with roosters crowing at 5:00 a.m., with sporadic electricity and cold showers greeting us every morning, the reality of our new life was staring us square in our faces. Yet, we all agreed we had never been happier. Nicaragua was our new home, and we had no desire to look back. No second thoughts, no remorse.

Our new Nicaraguan home has provided us with a life, a lifestyle and a level of happiness that we would not trade for any amount of money.

To understand our new home, one must first know that as a country, Nicaragua is incredibly North Americanized. During the 1980s, many Nicaraguans left their homeland to live in the United States and Canada. Their children were educated in U.S. and Canadian universities. They became bilingual, and they experienced North American amenities, culture, sports and foods.

When the opportunity to return to their homeland was available, an overwhelming number of natives returned and began to open businesses and provide services never before seen in the country. Thus, for us, starting a new life in Nicaragua has come with relative ease, as we were able to transform our North American experiences into a lifestyle that includes much of what we love about our birth country, yet is seasoned by the fresh and simple qualities of Central America.

Having everything we need on a smaller scale is actually one of the most endearing qualities of life in Nicaragua.

When evaluating Central American countries, there are always subtle differences between nations that oftentimes appear indistinguishable. We love Central America as a whole, and find the challenges that it brings invigorating and entertaining on a daily basis, but there are absolutely particular qualities we have found in Nicaragua that enhance our experiences and make our daily life rich. We came from a city with skyscrapers and a fast-paced life, yet living in Nicaragua we are no longer burdened by the big city life. Panama City, Panama, Mexico City and even San José, Costa Rica, offer the “big city” lifestyle, but having everything we need on a smaller scale is actually one of the most endearing qualities of life in Nicaragua.

There are cultural distinctions in Nicaragua that are probably most attributable to wars, foreign government domination and even military rule. Nicaragua has experience in all of these areas, but has reacted with very little resentment or change. Nicaraguans remain open, friendly, jovial and light-hearted, never seeming to be suspicious and closed to foreigners. Nicaraguans are curious about others, and compelled to help them, without giving a thought to their place of birth or the color of their skin.

Our lives are filled with constant invitations to share dinner in the homes of our new Nicaraguan acquaintances, as well as attend their family weddings, funerals, christenings and birthday parties. We have been welcomed at every moment, even to the point of being showered with welcome gifts that included a rooster, hens, a calf, goats and even a pig. We never counted on having our own barnyard.

Nicaraguans are pleasantly courteous and extremely humble. In Nicaragua, you are often answered with the phrase, “a la orden.” Literally, it means “to the order,” expressing a person’s desire to please you and be at your service. Or, when you ask “how are you today”, the most common response is, “Bien, bien, gracias a Dios,” which means “good, good, thanks to God.”

That very person may have not eaten that day, they are potentially unemployed and more than likely one of their family members is sick. Given the opportunity, they will be happy to tell you about all of their problems, but in either case, their initial response will almost always be upbeat, hopeful, happy and with thanks to God.

Another beauty of the Nicaragua people is their attention to their own personal appearance and daily habits. We are constantly amazed at the ability of Nicaraguans to keep their white shirts so brilliantly white, to meticulously iron their clothing and overall, present themselves to the very best of their economic means. They truly have great pride in their appearance, and most would not be caught in any type of social setting or public location without being dressed to the best of their ability.

The people in Nicaragua are truly special, and in our opinion they are what set this country apart from all others in Central America. However, the quality of our life here is also enhanced by the “what,” as well as the “who.” To the average North American, infrastructure means mega shopping malls, glistening asphalt, and 20 fast food restaurants in every mile. In fact, this type of infrastructure is around every corner of North America.

But, as opposed to the North America of our parent’s and grand-parent’s generations, there is no longer novelty up north. The infrastructure of North America has robbed us of true identity and the joy of knowing truly special places and things. When you absolutely must purchase something special here, you might actually be required to get creative and search in unusual places for it, which often leads to even more enlightening and invigorating experiences.

The second safest country in the Western Hemisphere.

We feel incredibly safe and secure in our new home. Nicaragua has been statistically identified as the second safest country in the Western Hemisphere, and though we take the same normal precautions for our safety as we did in the U.S., we have never felt in danger or felt as if we needed to fear for our safety. We travel freely throughout the country and my wife and daughter ride horse-back for hours on the beaches and through open fields.

In Nicaragua, we have all the basics of a modified North American life, including clean drinking water, electricity, internet, direct VoIP phone lines to the U.S., international video conferencing, cell phone service and satellite television for watching U.S. television and sports. While living here is real world, it is a simplified existence. When we walk into the grocery store, our life is not complicated by over 100 choices of cereals. We have learned that only 20 choices work just fine for all of us.

Our daughter is no longer bombarded by obscene consumerism. She has everything she wants (and more, as an only child), but she is no longer faced with the pressure of her classmates questioning as to why she does not have the latest designer shoes or this week’s technological break-through product.

For our basic food needs, we buy fresh fish and seafood. Or, we enjoy the exceptional taste of free-range chicken and beef without steroids and growth additives. We grow or buy fresh vegetables and fruits. We patronize the local bakery. Simply stated, we eat healthier and enjoy the benefits. Restaurant options are abundant here, and the food is excellent.

Health and hygiene are extremely important in Nicaragua and is ever-present in the food service industry. Though Nicaragua is one of the poorest nations in the hemisphere, people eat healthier in restaurants here, with a wider variety of slightly less-fried street food and whole food options. The habit of eating a drive-thru meal while hurriedly driving down the expressway is a distant memory for us.

Living expenses are now four to five times less than what we left behind, and that includes a maid, a gardener and our daughter’s private school education.

Simply put, we have been fortunate enough to acquire many of the creature comforts we crave without too much effort, and at the same time, we have embraced the cultural differences and obstacles here that lead to surmountable challenges and humorous experiences. And, we have it all for a fraction of the cost of living that we faced in the United States. Our living expenses are now four to five times less than what we left behind, and that includes a maid, a gardener and our daughter’s private school education.

Further, we have been able to cultivate our love of horse ownership, something we could never have afforded in Atlanta. We now have more free time and we spend those new-found, precious hours relaxing and enjoying each other, rather than constantly chasing the next gold ring. We spend time with our horses, play golf, learn to surf or simply sit and read at the beach. And, we do it all while spending 70-80% less than the cost of the life we decided to forego.

Innovation in communications has made it possible for us, and for many of our expatriate friends here, to make a conscious decision to change our lives. We enjoy beautiful weather, a simplified lifestyle, incredible freedom, and the experience has enriched us forever. Long before we reached a point where we believed the best days of our lives were behind us, we are enjoying the splendor of a extraordinarily special place – Nicaragua. We truly have discovered the undiscovered.

Life could not be any better for our family.

UK JAILS SCHIZOPHRENIC FOR REFUSAL TO DECRYPT FILES

Science hobbyist with no previous criminal record.

The U.K. overtly overrode the time-honored rights to remain silent or not incriminate oneself in a criminal proceding with the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA), which became effective about two years ago. RIPA imposed penalties for not providing the keys to encrypted files if authorities demanded that the keys be disclosed.

Now the first person has been jailed under these laws: A possibly schizophrenic, definitely eccentric, self-described “amateur scientist” who authorities involved admit is in no way a terrorist threat. In other words he is being jailed purely because he is resisting arbitrary government demands. Yup, that sure enough sounds like the government we all know and love.

Why is the jailed man not providing the encryption keys demanded? On principle. One must admire his attitude. His defense of the right to remain silent appears to be unrelated to his mental issues.

The first person jailed under draconian UK police powers that Ministers said were vital to battle terrorism and serious crime has been identified by The Register as a schizophrenic science hobbyist with no previous criminal record.

His crime was a persistent refusal to give counter-terrorism police the keys to decrypt his computer files. The 33-year-old man, originally from London, is currently held at a secure mental health unit after being sectioned while serving his sentence at Winchester Prison.

In June the man, JFL, who spoke on condition we do not publish his full name, was sentenced to nine months imprisonment under Part III of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act (RIPA). The powers came into force at the beginning of October 2007.

JFL told The Register he had scrambled the data on several devices as part of security measures for his business, a small software company.

He was arrested on 15 September 2008 by officers from the Metropolitan Police’s elite Counter-Terrorism Command (CTC), when entering the UK from France. Sniffer dogs at Gare du Nord in Paris detected his Estes model rocket, which was still in its packaging and did not have an engine.

On arrival at St. Pancras, JFL was detained under the Terrorism Act and taken to Paddington Green police station, a highly secure facility where UK police hold their most dangerous suspects.

He was returning to the UK for an appointment with customs officials, to surrender after a missed bail appearance. This separate customs investigation – since dropped without charges – surrounded a failed attempt to enter Canada, and JFL missed bail following a move to the Netherlands. This contact with British authorities was apparently part of CTC’s decision to arrest JFL.

While interviewing him, CTC, the unit that in 2006 replaced Special Branch as the UK’s national counter-terror police, also seized more luggage. JFL had sent packages separately via Fedex to the Camden Lock Holiday Inn, where he had booked a room.

Throughout several hours of questioning, JFL maintained silence. With a deep-seated wariness of authorities, he did not trust his interviewers. He also claims a belief in the right to silence – a belief which would later allow him to be prosecuted under RIPA Part III.

A full forensic examination found 9 nanograms of the high explosive RDX on his left hand, but JFL was given police bail. His passport was seized, however.

JFL says he does not know how the RDX, which has has military and civil applications, came to be on his hand. A result of 5 nanograms or less is routinely discounted by forensics and no charges were ever brought over his result of 9 nanograms.

He returned to Paddington Green station as appointed on 2 December, and was re-arrested for carrying a pocket knife. During the interview CTC officers told JFL they wanted to examine the encrypted contents of the several hard drives and USB thumb drives they had seized from his Fedex packages.

Again he maintained silence. Police then warned him they would seek a section 49 notice under RIPA Part III, which gives a suspect a time limit to supply encryption keys or make target data intelligible. Failure to comply is an offence under section 53 of the same Part of the Act and carries a sentence of up to two years imprisonment, and up to five years imprisonment in an investigation concerning national security.

Following the warning he was bailed again, to reappear on 4 February. JFL did not attend the bail date. Instead he moved to Southampton, living in a series of temporary homes. He says he felt harassed by authority and helpless against police he believed were determined to pin a crime on him.

His disappearance led to a raid on 7 March this year. Officers bearing sub-machine guns broke down the door of JFL’s flat. He rang local police before realizing CTC had come for him.

At the local Fareham police station he was served with the section 49 notice. Signed by CTC’s Superintendent Bell, it said: “I hereby require you to disclose a key or any supporting evidence to make the information intelligible.”

JFL maintained his silence throughout the one hour time limit imposed by the notice. He was charged with 10 offences under section 53 of RIPA Part III, reflecting the multiple passphrases needed to decrypt his various implementations of PGP Whole Disk Encryption and PGP containers.

The list had been compiled by the National Technical Assistance Center (NTAC), part of the intelligence agency GCHQ, which attempts to decipher encrypted files for intelligence and law enforcement agencies.

In his final police interview, CTC officers suggested JFL’s refusal to decrypt the files or give them his keys would lead to suspicion he was a terrorist or paedophile.

“There could be child pornography, there could be bomb-making recipes,” said one detective. “Unless you tell us we are never gonna know. ... What is anybody gonna think?”

JFL says he maintained his silence because of “the principle – as simple as that.”

He was also charged for his February missed bail appearance and for two attempts to get a new passport falsely claiming his was lost. He says CTC told him he would not get the one they had seized back, so he applied for a new one.

After three months on remand JFL faced trial on 2 June. He pleaded guilty to all the charges, wrongly believing he would be released that day with an electronic tag thanks to time served. Instead, taking into account the passport offences and missed bail, he received a total of 13 months.

Before finishing what would have been a 6 1/2-month prison term during September, JFL was sectioned under the Mental Health Act. He now does not know when he will be released from hospital.

In his judgment, Judge Hetherington accepted JFL was no threat to national security and noted his outsider lifestyle. “You ... wished to involve yourself in a world which was largely based upon the access to the internet and using computers and not really interacting with other people in the ordinary outside world to any great extent,” he said.

“It is said on your behalf that you lead an existence rather akin to that of a monk, and that there is nothing sinister in any of this but it is essentially private matters and you do not see why you should have to disclose anything to the authorities.”

The judgment also took note of JFL’s unusual hobbies and interests. He describes himself as an “amateur scientist” and his Fedex packages contained lab equipment, putty, devil bangers (which explode with a snap when thrown to the ground and are sold in joke shops), a metal detector and body armour. He also had a book on gun manufacture, a book on methamphetamine production and an encryption textbook. All are available from Amazon.

No wonder Loompanics went out of business. You can get all the books they used to sell on Amazon!

JFL also had a copy of Steal This Book, Abbie Hoffman’s 1970s counter-culture bestseller. Judge Hetherington described it as “a book that detailed how to make a pipe bomb.”

Images of the evidence haul were sent to the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL), an MoD agency that carries out assessments in explosives cases. A scientist wrote: “Some of the contents of the luggage could [DSTL’s emphasis] be used for the manufacture of explosives or explosive devices but none of the items (as far as I could tell from the images) were obviously for this purpose and, with the exception of the throwdowns [devil bangers] and model rocket they all appeared to have other non-explosive uses.”

Judge Hetherington backed CTC’s initial suspicions. Added to the encrypted files, he said, the luggage made it “understandable in those circumstances that the various authorities were highly concerned initially as to whether there was some link to terrorism and a threat to national security.”

During sentencing, the judge seemingly confirmed that NTAC staff had been unsuccessful in their attempts to crack the encrypted files – or had not bothered trying. “To this day no one really has any idea as to what is contained in that equipment,” he said. One file encrypted using software from the German firm Steganos was cracked, but investigators found only another PGP container.

The suspicion of terrorism was dropped long before trial and JFL was sentenced under RIPA Part III as a general criminal rather than a threat to national security. Although he admitted guilt, JFL argues he did nobody any harm and the offences were all related to not cooperating fully with police.

Despite referencing his solitary existence, Judge Hetherington appeared not to know about JFL’s mental health problems and criticized him for not speaking to authorities.

Abandoning normal court procedures, he said: “It was because I was satisfied you would not tell the Probation Service anything significant further that I saw no purpose in obtaining a pre-sentence report which is normally a prerequisite for someone of no previous convictions who has not previously received a prison sentence.”

Sticking to normal procedure might have helped explain much of JFL’s behavior in interviews and while on bail. Pre-sentence reports include mental health records and JFL himself sought psychiatric treatment once before, while a computer science student.

His given reason for not cooperating with CTC – the fact that a section 49 notice overrides the right to silence – echoes the original debate over RIPA and encryption. When the law was drafted at the end of the last decade it sparked protests from civil liberties groups and security experts.

In September 2001, shortly after his stint as Home Secretary, when he had introduced RIPA, Jack Straw took to the airwaves to defend the powers.

“It was government trying to put in place increased powers so that we could preserve and sustain our democracy against this new kind of threat,” he said in a Radio 4 interview. “We needed to take powers so that we could de-encrypt commercially encrypted e-mails and other communications. Why? Because we knew that terrorists were going to use this.”

News that the first person jailed for the offence of not talking in a police interview has been judged no threat to national security and suffers from a mental condition associated with paranoia and a fear of authorities is unlikely to win RIPA Part III new supporters.

It will also be news to at least the part of government that administers the justice system. On 3 November, Claire Ward, a junior Minister in the Ministry of Justice told Parliament: “Up to the end of 2007 (latest available) there have been no persons reported to the Ministry of Justice as being cautioned, prosecuted or convicted under section 53 of the Act in England and Wales.

“The government are satisfied that offences set in RIPA are appropriate and that the legislation is being used effectively.”

The Tragic Consequences of Anti-crypto Law

Comment The first conviction of a man under the draconian powers of RIPA Part III tragically bears out a prediction I made at the time: That these powers would do little or nothing to tackle serious crime or terror, but would create a power the police could use to harass people and undermine their right to remain silent.

After all, a hardened criminal can use deniable encryption, or claim to have forgotten the password; the likely victims would be the less organized and the vulnerable.

And so it has turned out. The first person convicted under this law was a vulnerable eccentric who refused to decrypt the files on his laptop when the Met’s terror squad told him to. He was convicted and jailed despite prosecutors accepting that he was not involved in terrorism at all. He is now in a mental hospital.

Old-timers will remember the crypto wars of the 1990s. The U.S. government tried to force everyone to use the Clipper chip, an encryption device for which they had a back-door key. When cryptographers broke the Clipper chip, Washington tried to make cryptography illegal unless the keys were deposited with a “trusted third party” from whom the police could obtain keys secretly using a warrant.

Cryptographers and computer companies fought back, complaining of the threat to privacy, the chilling effect on e-commerce and the cost. Eventually the chief crypto warrior, Al Gore, dropped the issue during his presidential campaign in an attempt to curry favor with the industry.

As sometimes happens, U.S. policy had toxic effects here. In 1996, trade minister Ian Taylor laid a trap for the opposition by talking of government control of cryptography. His shadow Chris Smith was not to be outdone at the “tough on crime” game, and promised that New Labour would require people to hand over keys so that paedophiles could not escape surveillance.

This raised a storm of protest from geeks and from the IT industry, which had been cosying up to New Labour in the belief they would win the 1997 election. Anne Campbell, the MP for Cambridge, ended up in charge of the issue as back then she was the only Labour MP with a publicly visible email address that she actually answered.

The compromise that appeared among New Labour’s election promises was a power to compel decryption of seized material. Taylor then calmly said that he had changed his mind; crypto control was not necessary.

This nifty piece of political footwork was not enough to save John Major, though, and Labour’s election promise duly arrived as Part III of the Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act 2000.

Blair initially tried for even more macho controls on crypto, but these were undermined by UK crypto campaigners, by the Gore U-turn, and by an EU ruling that keys would only be good for digital signatures if only the signer had a copy. So the bill’s passage through Parliament was turbulent. There was much talk of serious crime and of terror. But even despite the events of 2001, Part III was not actually brought into force until 2007.

The whole business brings to mind a comment attributed to Bismarck: “Laws are like sausages – it’s best not to watch them being made.”

SHORT TAKES

U.S. Military Cyber Forces on the Defensive in Network Battle

The U.S. 24th Air Force – the first dedicated American military cyber force to go operational – is “not yet a warfighting organisation” and needs to “create an awareness of the battlespace,” according to its commander.

Major-General Richard Webber, a former nuclear-missile and satellite-jamming officer, took over the 24th in August. Speaking at a recent symposium in Los Angeles, the cyber general indicated that America’s uniformed netwar forces have some way to go before they are ready to put digital boot to network ass.

“We need to know how to set up and defend the enterprise. It is going to be a crawl/walk/run process,” said Webber, quoted by Aerospace Daily and Defense Report. “We’re under attack literally every day.”

The 24th’s main base at Lackland in Texas, which will cover 50,000 square feet, is still being built and equipped with its panoply of fearful cyber weaponry. It is set to be complete and manned up by some thousands of netwar specialists late next year.

Under Webber’s command are two main units, the mainly defensive 688th Information Operations Wing (formerly known as the Air Force Information Operations Center) and the doing-unto-others outfit, the 67th Network Warfare Wing. The 67th has a subsidiary role in doing tiger-team mock attacks against US networks to test their defences, but its main purpose is “computer network exploitation and attack.”

For now though, Webber’s main focus seems to be on holding back the constant raids and meddling directed at U.S. military networks, rather than taking the fight to the enemy – whoever that may prove to be.

Webber’s boss, General Kevin Chilton, spoke of a “massive” cyber attack against the Pentagon nets last year, which was apparently a major reason for the formation of the 24th. “One year ago this month we had a wake-up call in cyberspace,” said the general. “We had a severe intrusion into the Defense networks. It changed the way people are thinking about cyberspace. This time it is everybody’s problem – every soldier, sailor, airman and Marine.”

It seems that at present, U.S. military sysadmins are often forced to respond to cyberstrikes by simply disconnecting from the wider net – but this could have severe consequences on real-world operations if the timing were bad, and senior officers are keen to do better.

“We must learn to fight through an attack,” says Webber.

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