"What affirmations must be made regarding my ongoing and daily work with computers and the internet? Why are these affirmations necessary?"

The point of the investigation against me is primarily to demonstrate my involvement with supposed computer crime. I have known this, as mentioned elsewhere, since the days of Howl BBS.

Due to this fact and especially due to my knowing that the investigators absolutely desire to bring charges against me and subsequently limit or remove my legal right to use computers, it is necessary that I make several personal affirmations regarding the use of computers, software and the internet.

Computers in General

I do not take part in any criminal activity involving computers or the internet; this includes usage of pirated or illegal software, hacking web sites, virii creation or distribution, electronic voyeurism or the viewing or production of illegal digital pornographic content of any type.

Furthermore, it should be stated that I am a daily user of computers and the internet; computers are, in fact, central to not only my full time, current work , but as well, represent my ongoing and primary set of marketable and professional skill sets.

In the past, I have worked in a variety of specialized roles that involve computers, from digital design, to software interface development, corporate project management and all manner of hardware and software support roles.

Computers and My Current Work

As discussed loosely throughout the site, I currently do political work for a national, democratic campaign.

The nature of my work is, for the most part, limited to daily interaction with the public, however, I do retain a somewhat loosely defined role as co-administrator and manager of office computers and especially all aspects of our LAN and internet security.

Regarding my current employer:

1 - My immediate supervisor is well aware of my ongoing efforts to obtain information from the FBI, as well as the general nature of that agencies basis for the investigation (computer crime, etc.); this is something I discussed openly at the time of beginning my employment.

2 - I do occupy a role as co-administrator of the office machines and network security.

Due to recurring instances of inappropriate use of office machines (porn, etc.), I was asked to set up a hardware and software based security system whereby the office administration can track detailed usage data of all machines on our local network.

This system includes packet based tracking as outputted from our offices hardware based firewall as well as detailed and specific URL tracking obtained via other software and hardware client/server configurations. Thus far, the monitoring system has been highly effective.

A few things about the unique nature of my offices network and computer set up:

Our office is somewhat public; associated with our political efforts are weekly meetings wherein we invite members of the community to regularly discuss with us our ever changing political directives and goals. These visitors are given the lay of the office, so to speak, including use of any and all computers and the internet.

It is a situation that is ripe for abuse of the internet and indeed, we have seen such occasional usage of our machines, including some usage that would be deemed questionably legal; all such instances have been officially documented by myself and my immediate supervisors and this is in large part why we had to implement a monitoring/tracking system.

Since the implementation of the monitoring system, the occasional inappropriate usage of the office machines has not stopped, but has simply become a bit more visible.

The point made here is that I do retain a daily responsibility insofar as professional work and computers/the internet are concerned and that this work (as with all) is done with the highest regards for my employers and my own integrity.

Documented Wierdness on Office Network

As mentioned above, my work environment is especially critical to make note of as I am responsible for certain key facets of the upkeep and security of our local network; furthermore, the office network is, basically, public and various of our machines are used on a daily basis by not only our regular staff but many visitors and guests as well

That duly stated, I will list here, as they are discovered by myself and others in a security role at work, those instances of questionable or notable use that could, theoretically impact or intersect with any of my own circumstances.

My Personal Computer(s)

Following, find a list of all personal computer equipment, both that which I own and that which I occasionally borrow, that should be made public on a weekly basis.

Equipment that I own:

Personal Computer:Custom built intel PC; DVD burner; full set of video capture and output devices for video compositing; full set of audio input and output devices for audio editing.
Peripherals: HP Scanjet 6300c scanner, 1gig voyager portable USB drive, Turtle Beach video capture card

Borrowed equipment:

Sony DVDirect DVD burner (family member owned)
Sony DV Camcorder (family member owned)
Canon Powershot S80 (family member owned)

Furthermore, I have a dedicated, high speed connection to the internet from a shared access point central to my household in general.

No illegal digital media of any kind resides on my personal computer, be it on a hard drive, a CD-ROM, a DVD-ROM, a digital video disk or otherwise, that contains illegal pornographic, or otherwise questionable content associated with any type of intellectual property laws or computer crime in general.

Furthermore, the above listed computers and peripherals/devices have never been employed in any endeavor of an illegal or questionably legal nature, up to and including uses central to the acquisition/retention of illegal pornographic materials or any activity that would be in violation of any intellectual property laws of the United States of America.

For a more current and complete list, you can view a recently published article discussing all of my equipment associated with digital media creation HERE.

Ongoing Updates Regarding Computer Usage

Occasionally, I will list chronologically here, any and all exceptions to the above cited, daily uses of computers. An example would be my helping an immediate family member or friend with the repair of a computer or the set up of some new computer related device, such as a router or wireless network, all of which happen on a somewhat regular basis.

First off, since constantly updating the below list could be quite bothersome regarding those external computer systems I use every week, I will list briefly here such regular work-associated occurrences so as to not have to repeat the same entry every week:

Harris Tire: My father's business where I generally work 2 days per week as a means of secondary income. Twice a week, I am a regular user of his office computers, internet connection and interoffice network. I maintain, troubleshoot and assist with *any* and all computer related issues which are associated with the two machine network he owns. Furthermore, the business has full time DSL high speed internet connectivity and I as well assist with all related upkeep and maintenance of that connection as well.

This list could get long and so I will archive to disk as necessary.

The items marked in RED are items which exceptional note should be given to.