Re: [FYI] FBI Training Eastern European Police

[Dave Del Torto <ddt@lsd.com>]

At 8:22 PM 12/6/95, anonymous-remailer@shell.portal.com wrote:
[elided]
>I'm certain that the FBI and other law-enforcement officials might
>also learn by living in a city where the East truly meets the West.
>
>Budapest is a beautiful old city of bridges, not just literally but
>figuratively.  It's where anyone in the world can find comfort.
[much elided]

Hey "Alice,"

This is a very persipicatious set of observations about Budapest, a city I
lived/worked in for a while (you sound like you know it rather well
yourself). The level of technical CS knowledge in Bp is comparable to, or
better than, many other cities (except maybe for Moscow and St. Petersburg)
in the former Bloc. Your comments also provide good insights into why it's
technically and geographically important to cypherpunks: it's the petri
disk for many of our cpunk brethren over there.

The fact that the FBI has chosen Bp as one of their entry-points into the
region impacts our policy discussions here, particularly since our LE types
are making contact with the former secret police in that region, and
especially so given the stationing of US Troops in Kaposvar as we type
(southern Hungary) for easy entry into Bosnia. Anyone who attended CFP 95
may also remember some of Esther Dyson's lunchtime comments about the
Russian mafia (which has a strong presence in Bp) and the growth of
crypto's use both by the gangsters and LE officers. Some of the most
powerful crypto may be emanating from these regions and it would be wise
for us to try and track TLA activities in that area.

I won't drag this topic out any further, but if anyone comes across similar
info about our various TLAs operations over there, I hope they'll at least
share it with me, if not the list.

   dave

PS: I hope Perry's paying attention. ;)