Bidzos and RSA

[John Young <jya@pipeline.com>]

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Dave Otto posted today:

<  I think the issue, at this point, is not so much whether the 
NSA goons
<actually threatened his life, but that they have consistently 
attempted to
<suppress crypto anyway they can.  That the NSA has tried to 
intimidate
<Bidzos is no secret.  That the NSA considers PGP a threat to 
their domain
<is also well known.

<  Given that the purpose of the ITAR restrictions appear to be 
to prevent
<an international standard from forming, I think we need to 
refocus on the
<issue of presenting strong crypto as "a right", inevitable, 
and ubiquitous.

<  CPSR and EFF are doing an admirable job of taking the fight 
to the beltway;
<but outside the net, the grass roots support just isn't there. 
 As has been
<pointed out by PRZ et al., the primary reason to avoided hacks 
to PGP is
<that doing so fragments what standards we have now.  The 
release of the
<MIT PGP was the first step in legitimizing cryptography.  The 
next step is
<to install interoperable crypto on EVERY box out there.  While 
I don't
<advocate bypassing your local sysadmin, try to get PGP 
installed on each
<machine you touch.  Use 2.6 (MIT in U.S., _ui_ elsewhere).  
Publish your
<key.  Tell your friends.  Annoy your family.  Irrate your boss 
;-).

<  My wife suggested that my activities would have gotten me 
"black-listed"
<40 years ago.  I suggest that the NSA would like to do exactly 
that to
<individuals like Bidzos and PRZ, but it is too late (and the 
net would make 
<it virtually impossible anyway).  Besides, some things are 
worth fighting for.


Dave rightly suggests that black-listing and other such 
stigmatizing and
threatening offenses inhibit the rights of citizens.  These 
attacks also
intimidate others who learn of the aggression on organizations 
and persons
and who fear they may become targets themselves.

To oppose these offenses it seems also right that any attack we 
learn about
should be posted in this forum, at the least.

Please post who else NSA -- and its like -- has threatened 
besides Bidzos
and PRZ.


John
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