Flight 007 and our Civil Liberties

[Tim May <tcmay@got.net>]

The FBI has just completed a long press conference in which it reported its
"no terrorist activity suspected" conclusions. Having watched most of it,
and having seen the CIA animation shown at the press conference, I agree
with their conclusions.

(Cypherpunks arch-enemy James Kallstrom, Assistant Director of the FBI,
nevertheless did a fine job,  both in the investigation and in the
reporting. Credit where credit is due.)

However, now that the Flight 007 explosion has been ruled a non-terrorist
event, will we get our freedoms back?

The other big "terrorist event" of that summer of 1996 was the bomb in a
crowd at the Summer Olympic Games in Atlanta. The "fits the profile" perp,
Richard Jewell, was finally cleared of all charges.

So, these were the two big events which stimulated the FAA, under higher
orders, to require mandatory ID of all travelling passengers. And more
multimillion dollar sniffers to be installed in airports.

It seems that each such event ratchets down certain civil liberties, and
even the later repudiation of terrorists and other Horsemen in these events
never results in the liberties coming back....

--Tim May

The Feds have shown their hand: they want a ban on domestic cryptography
---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
ComSec 3DES:   408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA  | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
Higher Power: 2^2,976,221   | black markets, collapse of governments.
"National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."