Re: Know Your Net.Enemies Project

[tcmay@got.net (Timothy C. May)]

At 5:31 PM 4/11/96, Declan B. McCullagh wrote:
>Excerpts from cypherpunks: 11-Apr-96 Re: Know Your Net.Enemies P.. by
>Timothy C. May@got.net
>> Sort of like Nixon's Enemies List?
>>
>> Have we become the enemy?
>
>Tim, I thought that the "Enemies List" name would be seen as a
>deliberate takeoff of Nixon's Enemies List, and what I thought would be
>a humorous working title for the project until a permanent one was
>found. You may remember, BTW, that I don't have the power of the FBI to
>command.
>
>But since I was unclear and since the joke was ill-taken, I apologize.

No apology needed. I just think it's a destructive, negative idea, one that
I think could cast the Cypherpunks as a bunch of small-minded people. Maybe
it comes from living in sunny California, with its fruits, nuts, and odd
people, but I would really prefer to concentrate on positive ideas (which I
view crypto anarchy as being, by the way) than on compiling lists of
enemies.

It also seems odd that you recently characterized Dorothy Denning as a
"sweet old lady" but now propose a special page for her on the Enemies
List. I have no brief for her positions, and have opposed her positions
over the years, but I have no interest in formally demonizing her. (I
confess to _once_ having characterized her as "the Wicked Witch of the
East," but this was during the furor over the Clipper Chip, and I have
since scrupulously avoided personalizing the attack. And it was meant at
that time as a joke, obviously. I even got on well at last year's CFP with
Stewart Baker, former chief counsel of the NSA and still heavily-linked to
spooks, but I disagree _strongly_ with his views about encryption policy.
Still, I would not dream for an instant of helping to compile an Enemies
List with Stewart Baker on it!)

>To be clear: I envision this as opposition research. In the context of
>the CDA, it was very useful to know what the family values groups were
>saying -- their arguments and their strategies. A central collection
>point for such research is a useful thing.
>
>Suggestions for a working title, anyone?

I think David Friedman had a pretty good point a while back on the Cyberia
list: that compilation of such viewpoints could help opposition lawyers
prepare their cases.

Speaking for myself, I have seen Kathy Cleaver _several_ times on various
interview shows, so I know her positions on most CDA-related things. You
undoubtedly know her likely positions even better. I submit that only a
handful of Cypherpunks know more than the two of us about Cleaver's
position, for example (I include myself because I have CNN on during
ordinary working hours, or NPR, and so I get a chance most people don't
have to see her, Arianna Huffington, Ralph Reed, and suchlike, being
interviewed or giving their views.)

A research page having detailed links to their positions _might_ be useful
to those who will be facing them in court or in debates. You might ask
Godwin, Barlow, etc. if this would be useful.

But this is quite a different thing from an "Enemies List," which I rather
doubt would be useful per se to Barlow, Godwin, and other civil liberties
activists.

Maybe my viewpoint comes from just wanting to wash my hands of "those
easterners" in the Beltway-New York corridor.

--Tim May

Boycott "Big Brother Inside" software!
We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, we know that that ain't allowed.
---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
tcmay@got.net  408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
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