Re: Soldier of Fortune magazine.

[Sandy Sandfort <sandfort@crl.com>]

C'punks,

On Wed, 13 Apr 1994, Gary Jeffers wrote:

> . . .
>    I would like to suggest that some of our more knowledgeable &
> eloquent Ccypherpunks such as May, Hughes, Frissell or others consider
> approaching Soldier of Fortune magazine about a series of articles
> or a regular column on encryption & privacy. 

I've written for SOF and know one of the contributing editors very well.
The trouble is, I'm not sure the threat to strong crypto is close enough
the the SOF mission objective.

                                               SOF may seem to be a
> childish publication to some of us but it has a readership many times
> that of Ccypherpunks & we would not be preaching to the converted
> (I know there are other purposes to cypherpunks as well).

I'm not sure I would agree with the characterization given of SOF.  Many
people still hold the mistaken belief that SOF is a magazine about mercs.
In actuality, SOF is an intelligence publication, very similar to "Aviation
Week and Space Technology."  They have ass-in-the-grass correspondents
wherever there is military confrontation or the threat thereof.

>    I've read some of their writing on the Waco affair & was impressed
> by their anti-government stance & the heavy detail (much better than
> the high production value/low content stuff from the mass media).
> I'm not a regular reader of SOF but they seem to be old fashioned
> patriots & might be warm to the Cypherpunk cause.

This is certainly true.

>    We might have a series or a regular column titled CRYPTO -
> THE COMING GREAT WAR or COMMUNICATIONS - THE NEXT GREAT BATTLEFIELD.
> We already have a library of articles & copy. Our views would be a bit
> novel & just might fit right in with SOF. We could make a deal with
> them so that we could reprint the articles on the Internet. A number
> of Cypherpunks regularly write good articles. We should make better
> use of them.

I'll talk to my SOF friend and see if we can come up with an angle.  As
of right now, I think we might be able to get one article.  If so, I
think the best approach would be to tie it to strong crypto like PGP as
a tool for mercs and wannabees.


 S a n d y