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14 May 2000
Source: Louis I. Szondy

[Excerpts of message.]

On 16 April 2000 I found a British intelligence document ["Libyan Intelligence Service Activity in the UK"] on www.cryptome.com and seeing the importance of this document, which was mentioned in the British newspaper of the same day, the Sunday Observer, I also copied it to British webspace server at http://homepage.dtn.ntl.com/atlas/mathaba/ where the forwarding of the DNS Mathaba.Net took place from NameSecure.Com (California).

Some hours later NameSecure pulled the plug on the web-forwarding service. I already had email suspension since earlier in the month which the technicians were at a loss to understand, so I phoned the technicians at NameSeucre the following day, 17th April.

The man I spoke to, "Chuck," payroll number cc009, looked into the computer and told me that the password had been changed. Thinking that hackers had used the online web-forwarding Update Center, perhaps cracking the password which had never been changed and was therefore vulnerable, he reset the password and I was able to direct the refreshed URL to the British server at NTL once again.

However, within the hour, the service was once again suspended and the password changed. As this occured after closing time of NameSecure I waited to the following day to telephone again, many times, to no avail. I was always forwarded to an answering machine. Finally some days later I got through to the Business Director and Attorney of NameSecure.Com, Mr Robert "Bob" Hyde, on his mobile phone.

I asked Mr Hyde why the service had been suspended. He told me at that stage he was still trying to find out himself and as far as he could establish "someone" in Exodus Communications, the provider for NameSecure, told "someone" in NameSecure to suspend the service immediately. One of these "someones" first name was "John" but I can't remember which - the person at Exodus or NameSecure.

Mr Hyde assured me he would call me back within the hour even if he had no further information. He did call me back to inform me that he was still unable to find the exact cause and reasons but that the decision was taken up high.

He agreed with me that it was not acceptable that NameSecure pulled the plug without informing me as to why and also that he was not being informed of the details.

Finally after many days of telephone calls between myself and Mr Hyde, he was able to tell me what he had been able to find out, namely that Exodus Communications had told NameSecure if they don't pull the DNS redirection service on Mathaba.Net immediately they would pull the plug on ALL NameSecure services!

He said Kathleen Patterson at Exodus (their attorney I believe) promised to fax him a written request to cover the ass of NameSecure. Again days later he had not received the fax, although he blamed the possibility that they couldn't get through as he was changing office and the phone lines were down and/or changed.

In further telephone calls with him, he was able to tell me that some "lawyers representing the British Government" had shown up in Washington and together with American lawyers drafted something to show that the content on Mathaba.Net was illegal under British and American law.

Recently, Mr Hyde was able to confirm he had received the fax finally from Kathleen Patterson for Exodus Communications, which basically said something about violating the British Official Secrets act, though he thought it improper to forward the fax to me since it was from Exodus Communications to NameSecure.Com.

Mr Hyde agreed with me that the whole affair was rather absurd. I am a British citizen in London, the same city which is the headquarters of Her Majesty's Government and also the Security Service (formerly known as Military Intelligence department 5) and the Secret Intelligence Service (formerly known as Military Intelligence department 6). That they should not contact me and ask me to remove content, if it is indeed in violation of any law, and that they should coerce, threaten or cajole American ISPs two levels down, and at state expense to fly lawyers to Washington, when they could spend 5 cents to telephone me, is beyond belief. . . .

On 26th April, I received an Email from NTL, one of the British ISPs where the Mathaba.Net content resides. Mr Martyn Kelly of the Acceptable Use Policy administation requested "as per previous e-mail" that the "offending content" be removed or service would be permanently suspended, as they had received a "complaint."

I immediately sent back an E-mail stating that I had not received the "previous e-mail" and could he please fax it to me, as well as to tell me which of the 900+ documents was the "offending" one, and which of the Articles in the Terms of Service Agreement had been contravened. I also forwarded NTL packet data of a hacker using their IP to attack my computer. Needless to say, no communication has been received since, that is, until today [May 2] when I took it upon myself to persist on the telephone to try and get more information.

The operator at NTL, who has access to the correspondence, both internal and external, informed me that she could not find any "previous" email, thus adding to my suspicions that there never was one. However, allowing for the improbability that such an important email "went missing" it still does not explain why I have not had an answer to my questions to NTL. She gave me the mobile number of Mr Martyn Kelly who I telephoned.

We are now waiting for another promised communication also detailing contact details for further correspondence. . . .

Latest development [May 14]. NTL have sent a registered letter to the owner of the account which is one of the mirrors of Mathaba.Net. They enclosed a "copy" of the "first" e-mail sent, which looks, due to its layout, like a retyped version 'pretending' to be an original e-mail. Further, they state a number of inaccuracies, alleging that warnings have already been given when they have not. Moreover they use the opportunity to say the account has therefore been closed (what a loss! we do have 10 volunteer mirrors worldwide anyhow!) and they DO finally in the letter clearly state what was offending them. To quote from the "original" apparently forged "e-mail" that was never sent, but arrived by registered letter posted May 5th (by which time, since May 4th the top level domain name www.mathaba.net has been hosted no longer by NameSecure.Com USA, but by GreenNet www.gn.apc.org in London, UK (put that in your pipe and smoke it):

QUOTE

.... access to the link 'TOP SECRET DELICATE SOURCE UK EYES A' located in the http://homepage.dtn.ntl.com/atlas/mathaba/ section of your website has been suspended.

NTL has received a request from the Treasury Solicitor to remove the document and has been served with a copy of an Order prohibiting unauthorised disclosure of information obtained by David Michael Shayler in the course of his employment as a member of the Security Service.

Under the terms of our agreement with you, NTL is entitled to suspend the Services and/or remove material from your website where it is required to do so to comply with an order, instruction or request of Government, a competent administration or regulatory authority and/or where you do or allow anything to be done which is in breach of the User Policy. Our User Policy states that:

"Nobody may use the Services, either directly or indirectly:

(b) in a way that will be a breach of any person's rights, including a breach of confidence.... [sic] or any other rights;

(d) in a way that is associated with a criminal offence"

... UNQUOTE

Well this is a very serious allegation: associated with a criminal offence. It is something we will have to look to see if there are implications. Certainly it seems strange that at no point has the owner of the site been contacted before to state what is mentioned about a Government Order and "unauthorised disclosure of information obtained by David Michael Shayler" and it would be interesting to see a copy of these behind the scenes communications between HMG and ISPs, so that we can paste them on the internet.

Why? Because this appears to be very much in the public interest. Big Brother seems not only to be trampling like a wild elephant all over the ants, but also seems to be missing the whole point - or is he?

Namely: This is NOT a doccument from David Michael Shayler. This is a document from an Intelligence Officer in the British Secret Service, which surfaced on an AMERICAN website www.cryptome.org and which yours truly, upon reading it, and being stuck in England unemployed thanks to the FCO and thus with nothing better to do, thought was so interesting and serious, particularly as the next day it made the front page headlines of the Sunday Observer in England, that it should at least be covered on Mathaba.Net.

Mathaba.Net and Louis I. Szondy and Associates are Not Subject or Signatories to any Official Secrets Act, and our only relation with HMG is that, although we did not vote for it, and although I am not here by choice, and although the FCO is both unnaccountable and opaque as well as being institutionally racist, we are its Subjects. However the law is the law, and no lawyer, government, person or body has informed me that I have broken it in any way.  If I had been alerted on day one that I am breaking any law, quoting chapter and verse, I would have been happy, would be happy, and will in the future remain happy, to remove any illegal document from any website under my control.

The proof that it has been most definitely a document of massive importance to the public, and the national security of British citizens, and therefore should have been published on ITN evening news as first news item, is that Scotland Yard and other COMPETENT authorities who are on the ground, fighting terrorism, preventing terrorism, and working for peaceful law and order in Britain, have been most grateful that an American website and consequently a British newspaper and finally, after it was already all over the world, a British website has, is and will continue to publish it, and they duly summoned the cloak-and-dagger men in dark suits to a meeting to look into Skewergate. Personally, I think this has nothing to do with Shaylergate.

Louis I. Szondy
Webmaster
www.mathaba.net