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UNIX touch
- A good tool to help plant computer evidence
(A posting found on the San Diego Tribune forum, "The Trial of David Westerfield "
David Westerfield is presently on trial for the abduction and murder of Danielle van dam
Published by permission of the author "nointheknow"
In the 70s Bell Labs developed the UNIX Operating System. Outside of the PC world, UNIX is the most used Operating System in the world. There are many times more UNIX programmers than Windows programmers. Probably most work at Qualcomm is done under UNIX. I would bet Damon (Danielle's father) is a UNIX programmer.
I have posted in the past my "edited" DC Metropolitan Police ID, and I know for a fact (as of a couple years ago) the major computers at the MPDC are a large IBM mainframe and a large HP UNIX box. There were UNIX boxes in a number of departments of MPDC. Their "secured" intelligent network was based on another UNIX box. Any Police Department with computers and programmers will have UNIX boxes and programmers.
The first set of the UNIX commands (release in the 70s) included the touch command. From a UNIX manual page on
touch.
touch.
***
NAME
touch - update access and modification times of a file
SYNOPSIS
touch [ -amc ] [ mmddhhmm[yy] ] files
touch [ -amc ] [ -r ref_file | -t [[cc]yy]mmddhhmm[.ss] ] files
DESCRIPTION
touch causes the last access and modification times of each argument to be updated. (to the current system time OR the time in mmddhhmm[yy].)
***
EXAMPLE
Command to change the dates of file fred.doc to April 2, 1999 at 8:12AM
touch t 199904020812 fred.doc
***
There are many Window versions of this UNIX touch command. And many software companies have given out a version of
touch with their Windows programs, i.e. Borland C++ package. I have a couple copies on my development Windows machine. One from GNU (think Open Source/Linux), is my favorite.
touch with their Windows programs, i.e. Borland C++ package. I have a couple copies on my development Windows machine. One from GNU (think Open Source/Linux), is my favorite.
I know IBM and at one time Microsoft as the final step before a software package went to manufacturing, they touched all file so they had the same date.
With touch, a group of files could be copied to a zip disk and then touched to match the dates of other files on that zip disk. A directory could be created called "Lookie Lookie Heres Westerfield's Kiddie Porn" and then the directory touched and no one could tell the difference. Once a CD has been finalized, no more files can be added to it.
But a funny thing happened with the CD by the Donut Cops, They forgot to fingerprint it. And after the Donut Cops did not photograph the blood in the hallway of the RV, one could assume that they did not photograph the CD or Zip disks. I have to click my CD writer program to finalize a CD, so if DW had finalized his, then a copy of the CD would have to be made, and files added and touched, and then a new CD burnt. OK maybe two hours with a run to the computer store to match brands of CDs. If not finalize, 10 minutes.
I could add and touch any group of files to a Zip Disk in less than 5 minutes
IMHO Judge Mudd allowed in one of the easiest to plant items into a DP case.
And one of the hardest to prove was planted. Feldman's computer expert may get lucky. Enough said on that.
And after the reaction of the people seeing the rape scenes, that could push the on the fence jury members to the guilty side. Or risk a Hung jury, because of a jury member that is going to vote guilty ONLY because of that rape video.
IMHO I think for political reasons Mudd has helped Pfingst (Prosecution) out in this case when he could.
Judge Mudd Knew that Feldman (Defence) was calling a computer expert.
Judge Mudd Knew that once that rape movie got out, everybody in California would know about it. So no mistrial can be called over it. The damage is forever irreversible.
Judge Mudd Knows in California KP is a misdemeanor offence but it's effect on this DP case is MAJOR.
Judge Mudd's Court House has UNIX computers and UNIX admin/programmers working for it. If during the pre-trial motions, Judge Mudd asked about Feldman's computer expert and if that person was to question the date the files were put on the media, Judge Mudd could have asked his own UNIX people what they thought.
Judge Mudd Heard the SDPD own evidence and lab people say that they were ONLY looking for evidence that pointed to DW (David Westerfield). Judge Mudd heard the evidence techs talk of the orange fiber and checking DW as one source, but the ET also said they did not check the child's HOME for a source. (fyi Judge Mudd Damon is a Florida Gator and guess what the main Gator color is, Orange.) Judge Mudd Knows that Planting is then not out of the question.
Judge Mudd Knows that after the people of San Diego heard about the rape tape, this could have a MAJOR impact on the Defense ability to call its witnesses. Some of the Defense witnesses may now not want to be associated with DW and Feldman.
Judge Mudd Knows that Dumbsek has put on witnesses to miss directed the Jury. After Judge Mudd heard the Redden tape in the pre-trial motions, he would have had to known that Dumbsek was miss directing the jury over WHICH parking lot at the Cays area DW had said he was at. Judge Mudd knew that Dumbsek was using a Police Officer to do this.
Judge Mudd should know if Pfingst and Dumbsek (Prosecution) would use Police Officers to miss direct the jury, that they could also be using Police Officers to lie about evidence.
Judge Mudd Knows that not only is there any trace of DW in the van Dam home, the odor of 200+ male that sweats a lot could not be tracked from his house to the VD (van Dam) house. So Judge Mudd would know either the SAR dogs failed to do this OR the Donut Cops did not think to try this.
And then there is what I have always called the wiggle factor in planting evidence. Police never plant evidence that they can not wiggle out of. Judge Mudd should know this. There is not ONE piece of evidence that place DW in the van Dam house. This KP (child pornography) falls under the old wiggle factor. The Police could always say, maybe Neil put it there, or maybe he got it as an email attachment and did not know. IMHO, when I see evidence that is very damning but easily planted and can be "wiggled" out of, that triggers a RED LIGHT to me.
While the attorneys in the case, may think Date Created and Last Access Time mean something and they are caste in concrete, the Police Computer Specialist would have KNOWN they mean NOTHING. So when that Computer Specialist pretended these dates meant something, my first thought was WHAT IS HE HIDING?
Judge Mudd And his "Search for the Truth" is somewhat different than other Judges.
Maybe Judge Mudd should be thinking more on this DP case than on his Padres. IMHO.
While I cannot show a lot of my UNIX work, I can show one site of a satellite the size of a moving van, that I work on for 18 months and under Unix.
Yours,
Velocity
From: The Betrayal of America By Vincent Bugliosi
copyrighted April 2001 by Vincent Bugliosi
A word about Judges.
"The American people have an understandably negative view of politicians, public opinion polls show, and an equally negative view of lawyers. Conventional logic would seem to dictate that since a judge is normally both a politician and a lawyer, people would have an opinion of them lower than a grasshopper's belly. But on the contrary, the mere investiture of a twenty-five dollar black cotton robe elevates the denigrated lawyer-politician to a position of considerable honor and respect in our society, as if the garment itself miraculously imbues the person with qualities not previously possessed. As an example, judges have, for the most part, remained off-limits to the creators of popular entertainment, being depicted on screens large and small as learned men and women of stature and solemnity as impartial as sunlight. This depiction ignores reality."
reproduced as forum post.
posted on San Diego Tribune forum: 28th June 2002
published on this site: 29th June 2002
``There are two major products that come out of Berkeley: LSD and UNIX. We don't believe this to be a coincidence.''
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