227 lines
12 KiB
Plaintext
227 lines
12 KiB
Plaintext
.PL
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From : Steve Sherwick
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: Network Coordinator, Twin Cities Metronet
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: 1:282/0
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TO : All Concerned SysOps and BBS Users
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Sub. : 1:282/1
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: AKA P.C. Info Exchange
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: AKA Midwest Echo Star
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And : John Richard
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: AKA John Aleshe
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: AKA John Richards
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: AKA John Paul Aleshe
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As Network Coordinator for the International FIDONET in the
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Minneapolis/St. Paul area (The Twin Cities Metronet) it falls to
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me to disclose the direct information concerning the John
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Aleshe/Richard affair as it relates to the FIDONET and the BBS
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community.
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I first made acquaintance with John under the name of John
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Richard in the fall of 1987, he had moved into the area and set
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up a BBS system called P.C. Info Exchange as a node in Region 14.
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At that time the Twin Cities was not a net but was preparing to
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create one.
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John entered the area claiming he had moved in from the
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Portland area. He stated he was a officer in the U.S. Air Force
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and was assigned to Honeywell (A large defense contractor in this
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area) as an inspector in the avionics division. He had said that
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his assignment was for at least three years and that he was
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pretty well here for good.
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John apparently had good contacts in the Portland area in
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the FIDO community as within two weeks he was importing more
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echomail for his system than all T.C. Metronet systems combined.
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John then basically made a broad offer to us here, that as
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long as he was importing echomail he'd be happy to scan any mail
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he was importing for anyone in the net. Well this is like the
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goose that lays the golden eggs, SysOps were lining up to have
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him scan for them.
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Around November of 1987 the SysOps here held a meeting to
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confirm that we would form a net in the area. At that time I was
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appointed Network Coordinator and John accepted the post of
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Network Echomail Coordinator. We applied for a Net number and it
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was approved. P.C. Information Exchange was assigned the
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node/number of 1:282/1. John at this time started experimenting
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with multiple lines and brought his system up to eight lines all
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told. He was selling subscriptions at $20.00 a year to help
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offset costs. At the time P.C. Info Exchange went down on May 1,
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1988 there were in excess of 300 subscribers.
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Through the first part of 1988 John established
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communications with other major echomail hubs in the FIDONET and
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became part of the backbone. The backbone is a massive mail
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moving effort on the part of the network. Through this
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association he was assigned the position of The Midwest Echomail
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Star and started scanning mail on a more massive basis. I found
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later he was not only scanning mail in massive amounts he was
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actually delivering the mail by the use of a series of 800 lines
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he had negotiated from the phone company. All told we discovered
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after the fact he was maintaining a phone bill in excess of
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$1000.00 a month. We also found that John did not pay his last
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months phone bill upon departing.
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Basically speaking, John had made a good presentation in the
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area as a concerned SysOp and a friend of the BBS community.
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The first real hints of the difficulties we were to
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experience came at the end of April and the beginning of May
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1988. On April 30, 1988 Both Don Seiford (1:282/3) and I received
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phone calls from John indicating he was being called away to
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Boston on the possible closing of a home he had there. He had in
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the past made mention of a house in the east so his leaving
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seemed plausible.
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That evening for the first time in four months P.C. Info
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Exchange was down. The line were busy and there was simply no
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getting on the BBS. Voice calls placed to John were answered by
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an answering machine. It might be informative that John
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religiously answered the phone "This is John". It was a strong
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personality quirk.
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The next morning (May 1,1988) David Garner of Cascade
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Electronics (a local supplier of computer products) called me at
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my place of employment in quite a panic. He stated that John had
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been scheduled to speak at a users group meeting that morning and
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had not arrived. He also mentioned that he and John had quoted a
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bid for the Minneapolis Public Library System and that as part of
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the terms all the hardware had to be installed by that day. He
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said that John had been impossible to reach for better than 24
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hours. I told David that John had mentioned going to Boston and
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should return that day.
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David then called the Library System to confirm the hardware
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had been delivered and was informed the the bid had not been let
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at that point in time. Since David had provided hardware for that
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bid to the tune of $48,000 he was deeply concerned.
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This really caused us to be suspicious!!! We then called all
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known possible places of employment he had mentioned and
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confirmed that he had never been employed by any of the firms at
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any time. We then made multiple sight inspections of his place of
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residence over that day to confirm there was no traffic at his
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home. We also interviewed some of Johns near neighbors and
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confirmed he had been seen moving large amounts of computer
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hardware from his residence.
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We at this time were pretty well convinced John had skipped
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town. David Garner agreed that he would file a report with the
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sheriff in his area and I agreed to send a series of notes to the
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FIDONET Region 14 Coordinator (At the time Ken Kaplan) explaining
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the situation as well as to Johns major echomail ties requesting
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information.
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The next day I received a voice phone call from Ken
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promising the full support of Region 14 and the net in cleaning
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up this matter. We then agreed to let the law take it's course
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but if any information became available we would share what we
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found.
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That night the deluge began, in one night I as Net
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Coordinator received 85 messages requesting information on the
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status of P.C. Info Exchange, other boards here were subjected to
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bombing runs by nodes wondering where their echomail flow had
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gone. In less than two days, the largest disruption of echomail
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flow in the history of the FIDONET took place.
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The next evening we received calls from many major FIDONET
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nodes but the one most useful came in from Portland Oregon. The
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SysOp informed us that the methods of operation of our John
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Richard were quite a lot like a person who had done the same type
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of thing in Portland. That persons name was John Aleshe.
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We also received calls from the Denver area reporting that
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John had been in that area working the Gray Market for computer
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parts.
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Well, the timing was perfect. The local police had John
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checked in Colorado for driving offenses, that coordinated with a
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file at the FBI and we had him.
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Wednesday May 11,1988, I was invited along with David Garner
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to appear at the Federal Building in Minneapolis to identify a
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series of photographs. When we arrived we were introduced to Fred
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A. Tremper an F.B.I Special Agent, Ron Anderson an Eden Prairie,
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Minnesota Detective and Robert Dissel of the Goodhue County
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Sheriffs office and asked separately to identify the
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photographs. We agreed completely that the person pictured was
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the person we knew as John Richard. These same photographs,
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provided by the courtesy of the F.B.I are included in the
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complete distribution package. They were scanned into VGA quality
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images in GIF format.
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We were then informed by Agent Tremper that John was wanted
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in Texas for Attempted Capital Murder of a Police Officer as well
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as scams too numerous to mention.
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We were asked by the F.B.I. to try to keep the affair quiet
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as they hoped John would resurface and they did not want to scare
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him off. We agreed to hold this information for a period of three
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months, the period has expired and we are releasing full
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disclosure with this packet.
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We would like to thank the many people who have contributed
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to this effort but to be blunt many have requested to be left out
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of any public display of gratitude. We can appreciate the
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viewpoint and want to make one thing perfectly clear.
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THIS IS A DANGEROUS PERSON!!!!!
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He was known to be armed in this area, carry large amounts
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of cash and has a Federal Warrant for Interstate Flight to Avoid
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Prosecution for Attempted Murder of a Police Officer issued
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against him. He has charges filed against him in the Minneapolis
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area alone totaling $125,000 in losses generated by his
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fraudulent behavior. He alienated BBS users and SysOps all over
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the country. John has been a repeater, he seems to use the same
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methods where he turns up so please feel free to post this data
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where it seems appropriate.
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PLEASE IF YOU SEE THIS PERSON, CALL YOUR LOCAL POLICE!!!
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DO NOT ATTEMPT ANYTHING THAT MIGHT BE LIFE ENDANGERING!!!
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If you have information on this individual please feel free
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to send a confidential message to me at 1:282/0. You can also
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call my BBS at (612)-938-4799 and leave a message to the SysOp.
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If you see this individual please call the local police and
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mention the NCIC Code is I.O. 5061 4-488.
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The agent in charge of the case in the Minneapolis area is:
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Fred A. Tremper
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110 South Fourth Street
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Minneapolis, Minnesota 55401
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(612)-339-7861
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Please call your local FBI office or your local police
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however. You will receive the fastest attention in that manner.
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This document is being provided in two forms, one is a
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FIDONEWS release version that is this document and a trascription
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of the FBI wanted poster. There is a distribution file named
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FRAUD.ARC that is file requestable from any Net 282 bulletin
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board system. It includes this file, offense reports, a
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transcription of the wanted poster and four VGA compatible
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scanned images in color and black and white. It will also be made
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available to the coordinator level in the FIDONET. We will
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distribute it as fast as is possible.
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