Cryptome.org (
http://www.cryptome.org ) says it wants to be "the most disreputable site on the web," and it pursues this goal by publishing declassified government memos and information about Government officials, including the names of FBI agents and pictures of officials' houses - the so-called "Eyeballing" series of photos. Here we have turned the tables on Cryptome operator John Young, "Eyeballing" his own abode.
Cryptome also publishes encryption software such as PGP for computer fans, today's equivalent of the Magic Encoder/Decoder Spy Rings that used to come in cereal boxes.
#file_1#
Shown is an aerial photo of the Admaston Apartments building, at 251 W. 89th St. (the northwest corner of 89th St. and Broadway in New York City), where Cryptome operates out of Apt. 6E. The floor layout, superimposed in red lines, shows the floorplan location of 6E. The apartment overlooks a recess, or alcove, in the building on Broadway. There are two windows above the Broadway sidewalk, four facing north in the alcove, and four facing east in the alcove. Young's flat has seven rooms.
The building has about 150 feet of frontage on 89th Street and about 100 feet on Broadway, extending halfway to 90th St.
Most of the 72 condominium apartments are occupied by the owners, like lawyer Greta Fertick on the seventh floor, but Young's is basically a rental apartment, rented from a Mr. Brettler.
The indentations, or alcoves, in the building lead to a lobby with a doorman/guard and an elevator (you can see the elevator shaft and some ventilation ducts on the roof). There is a rooftop garden as you can see to the left of center.
Broadway is divided, a boulevard, at this point, and you can see trees at the lower right of the photo as well as in front of the building.
#file_2#
The 12-story building of brown stone facing is seen in the ground-level photo taken from the opposite (southeast) corner of 89th and Broadway.
FBI VISITS CRYPTOME
Lately, Cryptome has shown a fascination with the FBI. This follows an alleged November 2003 visit from two counterterrrorism agents stationed in New York. In fact, Cryptome reports on the FBI almost daily now. Could it be that Cryptome is a wannabe agent?
A VISIT TO CRYPTOME (JOHN YOUNG)
#file_3#
Arriving at 251 89th St., you see an awning and arch leading to the alcove and the building entrance.
A full-time doorman serves as the keeper of the gate. Once you are admitted to the elevator, you proceed to the sixth floor, turn to the south, walk a short distance, and round a zigazg corner to the left, near the end of the hall. Once you are admitted into the foyer, you turn left across the hardwood floors (oak?) toward the living room. As you walk, you see the dining room on the right.
The place is light, owing partly to the windows on the north and east and partly to the mostly white walls and ceilings
The kitchen, and possibly the working area of Cryptome and Young's architectural practice, are beyond the living room as you walk towards it, behind a door in the corner of the living room. This area is in the alcove, facing Broadway. The office could also be in one of the bedrooms toward the Broadway frontage. There is room for three bedrooms.
Once in the living room, you will be offered a choice of overstuffed furniture, placed somewhat awkwardly for conversation in the large room (about 14 by 20 ft). You will notice a woodburning fireplace and 10- or 11-foot ceilings with exposed beams. The place is in an older apartment building, 90-some years old, but better maintained than most.
The condos in this Upper West Side building go for one to two million dollars, depending on the size. On the other side of Central Park, the Upper East Side, they would cost three or four times as much.
Since Young isn't likely to offer you anything, you might want to pick up some food and drink beforehand, at the Whole Foods Market, an organic grocery, deli, and cafe on the ground floor of Young's building, on the Broadway side, at 2421 Broadway. Ray's Pizza, down Broadway at 2413, offers decent pizza.
CRYPTOME: A PARAZITE WANNABE
Actually, Cryptome is a wannabe, a poor substitute for sites like
http://parazite.host.sk/ and
http://www.voxfux.com, which publish truly revolutionary documents such as the "Reclaim Guide," which sent Southern California webmaster Sherman Austin to federal prison, and commentary that has Harry "Vox" Stuckey on the run from the feds for real. (However, some of the things Parazite, etc., publish are more revolting than revolutionary.) Cryptome stands a better chance in the Most Boring category.
A better source for daily news is
http://www.whatreallyhappened.com. For commentary as well as news,
http://www.Indymedia.org is better than Cryptome.
Anyway, as Cryptome says, "Those who most want to spy on others fear most their own secrets will be bared."
Open note to John Young: How do you feel about your own secrets being bared?
YOUNG AND NATSIOS
John Lee Young, age 68, operates an architectural service with his wife, Deborah Natsios, out of their home at 251 West 89th Street in New York City. He operates Cryptome and she operates a similar site at
http://www.cartome.org -- sort of his and hers "spy" sites. Cartome (translation: map books) is less focused on "secrets" and more wide ranging than Cryptome (translation: hidden books).
The business operated by Young and Natsios, apparently in their spare time away from the spy sites, include: John Young Architects (call 212-787-6102 if you need his help), Natsios & Associates (call 212-431-6331 if you need her help), and Urban Deadline Architects (212-873-8700).
There is a 2001 photo of John Young in nearby Central Park at
http://www.mccullagh.org/image/12/john-young-cryptome.html , and you can purchase a copy if you wish. Young once recommended the park -- his neighborhood -- as the best place for terrorists to place a nuclear weapon in New York!
"For maximum effect on people -- for blast and for toxic
plumes -- the weapon should be located in Central Park, or
best, several of them placed at its east, south and west
periphery. The park is in the heartland of Manhattan
-- cultural, political and economic -- and thousands of the
nation's vainglorious personages live adjacent to it.
(Why the Atta bunch wasted their efforts on laborers
in WTC rather than creme-de-la-creme Park and 5th
is a mysterious conspiracy.) "
http://archives.abditum.com/cypherpunks/C-punks20020304/0049.html (Harry "Vox" Stuckey wrote an article that claimed that it was the U.S. Government that might detonate a dirty bomb in NYC and another blaming the Government for 9/11. These articles could be the cause of the Government chasing him underground. Cryptome is still above ground.)
SOME HISTORY
John Young has been an architect since about 1970. He claims to have taught at Columbia University in New York. At the 1968 Columbia University student strike, he supposedly met students who later became his partners in the "public interest" architectural firm Urban Deadline.
In 1989 Young made news by appearing for an interview on NYC's Channel 13 wearing a welder's mask! He didn't say a thing in the interview and asked not to be named or interviewed, leaving the talking up to his colleagues.
The Internet provided an new outlet for Young's libertarianism when he began posting to the Cypherpunks mailing list in 1995. This is a forum for privacy concerns, with an emphasis on encryption, computer security, and imagined Government intrusions on citizens. Young's Cryptome can be considered a splinter off of Cypherpunks. He started Cryptome in 1996.
Much of the material on Cryptome is unclassified, and you can find it yourself on the web. In fact, it is easier to use Google or another search engine than the Cryptome site or the $25 CD of its contents that Young sells, both of which are not indexed. In other words, there may be some interesting material there, but it is hard to access. Much of the information is outdated, heavily redacted, or otherwise impaired.
Cryptome offers this fillip to hawk the CDs: "Information on the CDs could be used to harm the United States." This line supposedly comes from an FBI agent who visited Young. Actually, no one in their right mind would expect the U.S. Government to allow this for any length of time. When a country does not suppress activities that would seriously harm its citizens, the country does not have a government.
Of the 16,000 documents Young has published on the web, only 2 have gotten any action from the FBI, his current focus. The FBI merely called him about these documents.
Cryptome says that documents have been removed only by court order. It admits that no such court order has ever been received. The reason is that there is nothing new or threatening there.
ACTIVIST WORKS FOR ROCKEFELLER! (NUKE YOUR CUSTOMER)
One of his past works that Young trumpets is a design for none other than Laurence Rockefeller. Admittedly, it was just a supporting role (Young designed an elevator for Rockefeller's home), but the Rockefeller family is the archetype of the U.S. Establishment and the nemesis of every radical in the U.S.
http://jya.com/jya/rockel.pdf In all fairness, Young has to make a living. There's only so much you can do with dumpsters compressed onto CDs. And he did get his digs in on Rockefeller's ilk in the above quote about nuking "the nation's most vainglorious personages...."
CRYPTOME AND THE FBI
Young has been involved in three controversies with the FBI. Either the society is very permissive or Cryptome is innocuous -- it has published 16,000 documents over the past 8 years and been challenged by law enforcement only 2 times.
The most recent visit was in November 2003 when two agents allegedly pulled a "just a routine checkup" visit. This is remeniscent of a Hal March scene in the Ma and Pa Kettle movie "Ma and Pa Kettle Go to Town" (New York City). Young has never let them hear the end of it. He has published the names of the agents and information on about everyone with the same name and near the same age in the whole New York area! He has made numerous requests under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) for information about the visit. The FBI apparently has no record of the alleged visit and Young has no proof.
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