We Swore to Remember

Another declassified NSA Cryptanalysis doc

This one is from 1965 (i.e. it was classified for 60 years!) [PDF warning].

It's the output from a computer program (from 1965!) that takes an encrypted cypher stream and performs tricks of the trade like frequency analysis of each character and other statistical analysis.  The test was for the cryptanalyst to use this to identify which language was being enciphered.  Essentially, it was a training class for Secret Squirrels. 

Pretty cool in a very crypto geeky way.  It took me back to some training I had as a larval engineer as the class of new hires waited for their clearances to be approved.  I wasn't great at it (I was an electrical engineer, not a linguist).  The Queen Of The World eats this sort (cryptograms in the newspaper) of stuff for breakfast.

(via) 

War Department bans Chinese nationals from Cloud environments

This is an area that has needed reform for years:

The Pentagon will no longer allow Chinese nationals to support Department of Defense (DOD) cloud environments, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in a video posted to X on Aug. 27.

Hegseth said the arrangement – part of a Microsoft program known as “Digital Escorts” – allowed coders from China, remotely supervised by U.S. contractors, to assist with sensitive DOD cloud systems. He called the setup an “unacceptable risk” to national security.

Well, yeah. 

Here's how the rules have been bent for years.  Initially what was mandated was that only U.S. Citizens could work in these environments.  After lots of complaints from tech companies (*cough* Jobs Americans won't do *cough*) this was changed to "US Persons".  This added both Green Card holders and H1-B Visa holders to the list of acceptable people allowed into the environments.

Fast forward a decade and Silicon Valley has so gamed the H1-B system that the US imports a huge number of foreign workers while laying off US citizens.  So the question is how much loyalty to the USA do these people have?

Green Card holders?  Probably a lot.

H1-B holders?  Dunno.

Chinese H1-B holders?  Per the SECDEF, they represent an overwhelming security risk. 

Like I said, this area has been ripe for reform for years.  We will see if this policy gets extended from the War Department for Fed.Gov in general. 

Dad Joke CCCLX

You've heard of Pop Tarts.  Why aren't there Mom Tarts?

Because of the Pastry-archy. 

How the USA won the Cold War

We did it by treated German POWs held in the USA well.  Not just the US Government, but the American people treated them well.  They had been told by the Nazis that America was weak, divided, and a mongrel race.  The POWs saw the American people and society with their own eyes and then went home after the war.

And then built modern Germany.

We came to America as enemies, as Nazis, as believers in a lie.  We left as friends, as democrats, as men who had seen the truth.   

Many of the POWs who were employed on Kansas farms corresponded for decades with the families who showed them friendship as POW workers.

Playback has been disabled for this video (from which I got the quote above), but I encourage every reader to go watch it.  If you don't - like I did - end up with watery eyes then we just cant be friends anymore.  And to those who think this video is a one-off, there are more.  So many more.  You can watch them at the link (from Youtube suggestions) or you can watch this: 

And a note to the Usual Suspects who fancy themselves as "Anti Nazi": this is what anti-Nazi is really about.  This is how you turn actual, you know - Nazis - into anti-Nazis.  It must really bust your chops to have Primary Sources telling you that your philosophy of life is full of shiest.  You Commie Bastards.

Oh, this will too (note the substitution of the word freiheit - freedom - for freunde -  I could translate for you but I wouldn't want to insult you; me, I think that Schiller would have approved of Bernstein's substitution at the fall of the Berlin Wall).

Things I don't understand, vol. MCCXVI

So an Irish chap (Graham Lineham) who is a resident of Arizona posted some stuff to Twitter.  And so the British authorities arrested him at Heathrow airport essentially for exercising his First Amendment rights in America.

So how is it possible that the Administration has not summoned His Magesty's Ambassador and given them 24 hours to free him and drop all charges?  Or. Else.

I really don't understand the political optics here.  Sure, sure - "all politics is local" and all that.  I understand why His Magesty's Government would be happy to stick a thumb in Trump's eye, but what's up with Trump?

I mean there's no domestic downside to bringing the hammer down - nobody here cares about Europe, everyone here loves free speech, everyone here hates the woke censors, and Trump has been going after the DEI (woke censor) brigade here on these shores.

How on earth is it possible that they are letting this golden opportunity slide?  I mean, it's not like the UK has made themselves our greatest ally over the last decade.  And it's not like Kier Starmer wouldn't fold like a house of cards over this. 

Dad Joke CCCLVIIII

Why aren't any boys born on Labor Day?

There's no male delivery.