Re: Escrowing Viewing and Reading Habits with the Governmen

[Rich Graves <llurch@networking.stanford.edu>]

On Mon, 29 Jan 1996, Alan Horowitz wrote:

> > > Do you really think that the FBI foreign counter-intelligence squad has 
> > > nothing better to do than keep a database of who is reading Che Guevara 
> > > memoirs?
> > 
> > Yes.
> > 
> > Heck, I remember this was a big issue about 15 years ago. Try asking
> > someone who was active in library science in the late 70's, early 80's.
> 
>     I did. They said you're wrong. Shall we start a CP flame-war of
> unattributed allegations from librarians who will recall what *they
> thought* the FBI is interested in?   

I think it was mid-late 80's, actually. I remember reading about it in the
LA Times and Newsweek. I'm sure I could dig up a dozen references in Nexis
if you want. 

The proposal was not to monitor all or political literature, which was
more obviously protected by the First Amendment, but rather technical
literature on certain subjects, such as supercomputers, nuclear physics,
toxicology, and of course (relevance) cryptography. The FBI specifically
wanted to know who was reading Applied Cryptography. 

-rich