Re: Zimmermann's Senate testimony

[jim bell <jimbell@pacifier.com>]

At 09:39 AM 6/25/96 -0700, Philip Zimmermann wrote:
>Testimony of Philip R. Zimmermann to
>the Subcommittee on Science, Technology, and Space
>of the US Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and 
>Transportation  26 June 1996

>The government has a track record that does not inspire confidence 
>that they will never abuse our civil liberties.  The FBI's 
>COINTELPRO program targeted groups that opposed government 
>policies.  They spied on the anti-war movement and the civil 
>rights movement.  They wiretapped Martin Luther King's phone.  
>Nixon had his enemies list.  And then there was the Watergate 
>mess.  The War on Drugs has given America the world's largest per-
>capita incarceration rate in the world, a distinction formerly 
>held by South Africa, before we surpassed them during the eighties 
>even when apartheid was in full swing.  Recently, we've seen the 
>images and sounds of the Rodney King beatings, Detective Mark 
>Fuhrman's tapes boasting of police abuses, and the disturbing 
>events of the Ruby Ridge case.  And now Congress and the Clinton 
>administration seem intent on passing laws curtailing our civil 
>liberties on the Internet.  At no time in the past century has 
>public distrust of the government been so broadly distributed 
>across the political spectrum, as it is today.
>
>The Clinton Administration seems to be attempting to deploy and 
>entrench a communications infrastructure that would deny the 
>citizenry the ability to protect its privacy.  This is unsettling 
>because in a democracy, it is possible for bad people to 
>occasionally get elected-- sometimes very bad people.  Normally, a 
>well-functioning democracy has ways to remove these people from 
>power.  But the wrong technology infrastructure could allow such a 
>future government to watch every move anyone makes to oppose it.  
>It could very well be the last government we ever elect.

Yes, the situation is bad, very bad.  And yes, I agree that a political 
system has to have ways to remove bad people.  The odd thing is, some of the people 
who say that are the same ones who get squeamish when a solution is suggested.

<sigh>


Jim Bell
jimbell@pacifier.com