Fall: The story behind the Fall 2001 cover is even stranger.
It's a "view" of Manhattan as seen from the Manhattan Bridge.
An angelic glowing figure is seen in the foreground. That would be Dmitry Sklyarov, a speaker at the DEFCON hacker conference who had been arrested and charged with violating the DMCA. His case was looking to turn into the next major issue of hacker justice.
There are a number of other things going on in this cover.
The old New York Telephone (now Verizon building in Manhattan was given a black color and blown up in size, giving it the appearance of a huge monolith.
The writing down the side of the building was a very loose Japanese translation of a famous phrase making the rounds: "All your base are belong to us," which itself came from a bad translation of the Zero Wing video game.
There are birds of prey in the air, making for a very ominous mood.
A black flag flies over an American flag on top of the bridge while an image of 2600 editor Emmanuel Goldstein can also be seen on top of the bridge in the distance across from the flags.
This cover was designed right before the attacks of September 11th and the imagery was unintentionally disturbing when the issue was released.