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| Iraq-Jordan |
| Google 'saved' Australian hostage |
| 2004-10-20 |
| An Australian journalist kidnapped in Iraq was freed after his captors checked the popular internet search engine Google to confirm his identity. John Martinkus was seized in Baghdad on Saturday, the first Australian held hostage in Iraq since the US-led invasion. But his captors agreed to release him after they were convinced he was not working for the CIA or a US contractor. He was reported to be making his way home to Australia on Tuesday. His executive producer at Australia's SBS network, Mike Carey, said Google probably saved freelance journalist Martinkus. "They Googled him and then went onto a web site - either his own or his book publisher's web site, I don't know which one - and saw that he was who he was, and that was instrumental in letting him go, I think, or swinging their decision," he told AP news agency. Martinkus told the Australian Broadcasting Corporation that he was snatched at gunpoint from outside a hotel close to Australia's embassy in Baghdad by Sunni Muslims, and that they had threatened to kill him. "I told them what I was doing (and that) I wasn't armed," he said. Asked how he coped, he said: "I just kept talking." |
| Posted by:.com |
| #12 Kalle, It's funny that you mention, Earthlink. They are not going to give up a damn thing. Now, getting back to your point. Yes, when you dialup to Earthlink they know that "someone with your username & pass" has dialed in which results in the PC receiving an DHCP address. Again, Earthlink does NOT know whether its you or someone else that spoofed your username & pwd. Also, Earthlink or any ISP would have to be looking (logging) for a specific username&pwd, in order to start tracing it. EARTHLINK DOES NOT KNOW whether its you or a terrorist that has spoofed your username & pwd, when the PC dialed in. This goes for DSL or Cablemodem. If its is a DSL or Cablemodem the terrorist can use split tunneling via VPN and use terminal server or private connection "hairpinning" from, for example, a legitimate private ip network. This can make source and destinaion packet identification, difficult to determine. Without knowing the time (dialin) and location or whether the user is a terrorist or a law abiding citizen, it is next to impossible to track the person down via IP. Tracking certain ip's will lead to legitimate heads of state and that is a diplomatic NO NO. The NSA & FBI have been installing tracking software at ISP's such as "Magic Lantern" & "Carnivore" for a while now, but to no avail. Tracking terrorists in a "ip world" would require the cooperation from EVERY ISP around the world. The truth is, 98% of the foreign countries will NOT help us. Hell, some U.S. ISP's will not help. |
| Posted by: Poison Reverse 2004-10-20 5:35:52 PM |
| #11 Who should I talk to if I have specific ideas to help Homeland Security and the WOT in relation to my professional expertise? |
| Posted by: Kalle (kafir forever) 2004-10-20 4:08:26 PM |
| #10 Monitoring all Google queries coming out of Iraq would probably be a good idea too. |
| Posted by: Kalle (kafir forever) 2004-10-20 4:07:23 PM |
| #9 Poison Reverse, actually the first link to the Internet, from the computer to the ISP should be easy to track down -- once an IP number has been identified we know which ISP they use. If I dial up to Earthlink, they know who dialled up, at what time, and which IP number I got. Would they record where the dial up call came from? maybe. If I use a broadband connection such as DSL (not sure they have such in Iraq yet), then I have a more or less permanent IP number which my ISP can easily trace and reveal. My point is that connecting to the Internet always leaves certain tracks. I hope someone is working on it in Iraq, e.g. looking at connections to the Islamofascist websites. |
| Posted by: Kalle (kafir forever) 2004-10-20 4:06:22 PM |
| #8 Yeah these guys are really smart, if the CIA can forge identification documents how hard is it gonna be to forge a fake website or two. Create a dozen blogs to link to it to ensure it gets to the top of the google listings. Put the guys face on it and some insane anti_american rantings. It could be done in a day or less. Yeah they're really smart. |
| Posted by: rjschwarz 2004-10-20 1:45:53 PM |
| #7 Kalle, Unfortunately, you cannot trace it back to the PC in question. The public ip address on the PC in question could be dynamically allocated by ANY ISP in the world. So tracing the ip address can ONLY result in which ISP has the public ip address pool. The ISP is usually an innocent bystander. The only way it can be traced to the PC, is to use a internet mapping software while the terrorist is online e.g. tracing a phone call. Ascertaining the exact or triangulating the ip address on a PC on the internet, at a particular given time, is next to impossible. I can get into more details about tracing, brute force attacks, or DoS, but it will be boring. Hopefully, you have a better understanding, now. |
| Posted by: Poison Reverse 2004-10-20 11:35:27 AM |
| #6 Could Google trace back the query to an IP number? someone's got to be able to track Internet traffic and the exact location of network access points in Iraq. |
| Posted by: Kalle (kafir forever) 2004-10-20 9:57:11 AM |
| #5 That's probably why they let him go. |
| Posted by: Bryan 2004-10-20 9:35:25 AM |
| #4 The SBS Dateline program that he works for is a very left wing program on the most left wing Australian network, the 'multicultural broadcaster'. |
| Posted by: Paul Moloney 2004-10-20 9:26:43 AM |
| #3 Stupid asshole. Always get the money first before you're "freed". Talk to the Italian broads. |
| Posted by: tu3031 2004-10-20 9:20:09 AM |
| #2 Asked if he thought Iraq was on the road to recovery, Mr Martinkus said, "No, it's on the road to s---." That's interesting. It's almost like his real feelings about his captors came out in that sentence and everything he said about them before was just PC. Unless he himself is PC. One would have to check his site to find that one out. |
| Posted by: Bryan 2004-10-20 8:38:08 AM |
| #1 Now the asshole is praising his kidnappers: "Mr Martinkus said his captors had threatened to kill him, but treated him with respect once they established he was independent. "These guys ... (are) not stupid," he told reporters. "They're fighting a war but they're not savages. "They're not actually just killing people willy-nilly. "They talk to you, they think about things. "(From their perspective) there was a reason to kill (British hostage Ken) Bigley, there was a reason to kill the Americans; there was not a reason to kill me (and) luckily I managed to convince them of that." Asked if he thought Iraq was on the road to recovery, Mr Martinkus said, "No, it's on the road to s---." But the 35-year-old Melbourne man plans to return to the stricken country." http://www.thecouriermail.news.com.au/common/story_page/0,5936,11125242%255E421,00.html |
| Posted by: Anonymous4724 2004-10-20 8:25:26 AM |