NSA Agents Threaten to Kill Bidzos of RSA?

[tcmay@netcom.com (Timothy C. May)]

Cypherpunk Criminals, 

I'm surprised that I got home today and didn't find any mention of
this distrurbing and important news article anyplace I looked. So I
wrote up this article and posted in several newsgroups.

It is not a spoof on my part, and I assume Bidzos was speaking the
truth as he knew it. Maybe the NSA agents were half-joking, but it
doesn't look like that.

I avoided speculating and commenting in the article I posted,
expecting to do so in the discussion that I hope will follow. I urge
you to make your most cogent responses in public, in the newsgroups
listed. (If posting under your name bothers you, use one of the
Remailer-to-Usenet gateways mentioned on this list so often...if you
have no info on this, send me a note and bounce you back some
instructions.) 

I think things are really heating up. In the aftermath of Waco, Randy
Weaver, drug raids, and the government losing the Clipper war, it
looks like they're playing hardball. 

--Tim May


Newsgroups: talk.politics.crypto,alt.politics.org.nsa,comp.org.eff.talk
Path: netcom.com!tcmay
From: tcmay@netcom.com (Timothy C. May)
Subject: NSA Agents Threaten to Kill Bidzos of RSA?
Message-ID: <tcmayCs2vI2.6EC@netcom.com>
Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest)
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Date: Mon, 27 Jun 1994 22:51:37 GMT
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I know it sounds strange, but I have the article in front of me. I'll
excerpt it without further comment:

"The Keys to the Kingdom," David Bank, San Jose Mercury News, June 27,
1994, page D-1.

Blurb: "The government wants to be able to see private computer
communications. A Silicon Valley entrepreneur is leading the fight to
keep secret messags secret."

[stuff elided, to avoid copyright violations and because I don't feel
like typing in the whole article.]

"Take a meeting in April, for example, when three NSA agents dropped
in on Bidzos, president of RSA Data Security, Inc. For two hours,
Bidzos said, the agents were civil and pleasant as he drew diagrams,
told jokes and tried to convince them that the agency's attempts to
promote an alternative encryption scheme would fail.

"He must have said something wrong. One of the agents threatened to
run him over in the parking lot, Bidzos said.

"'He looked at me and very coldly said he would do me,' Bidzos said.
'He clearly threatened me.'

"To Bidzos the incident--which could not be confirmed
independently--was another indication that tensions are increasing as
his eight-year struggle with the government moves into its final
stages."

[discussion of privacy, NSA, Clipper, civil rights, etc., elided]

The article closes with this quote from Jim:

"'If we are ever in danger of undermining the NSA, they will either
buy us or shoot us.'

"'We'll know when we screw up. We'll either be rich--or dead.'"


Something to contemplate. I'll make comments in followups.

--Tim May



-- 
..........................................................................
Timothy C. May         | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,  
tcmay@netcom.com       | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
408-688-5409           | knowledge, reputations, information markets, 
W.A.S.T.E.: Aptos, CA  | black markets, collapse of governments.
Higher Power: 2^859433 | Public Key: PGP and MailSafe available.
"National borders are just speed bumps on the information superhighway."
--
..........................................................................
Timothy C. May         | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,  
tcmay@netcom.com       | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
408-688-5409           | knowledge, reputations, information markets, 
W.A.S.T.E.: Aptos, CA  | black markets, collapse of governments.
Higher Power: 2^859433 | Public Key: PGP and MailSafe available.
"National borders are just speed bumps on the information superhighway."


-- 
..........................................................................
Timothy C. May         | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,  
tcmay@netcom.com       | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
408-688-5409           | knowledge, reputations, information markets, 
W.A.S.T.E.: Aptos, CA  | black markets, collapse of governments.
Higher Power: 2^859433 | Public Key: PGP and MailSafe available.
"National borders are just speed bumps on the information superhighway."