RIP, Carl Gorman, Code Talker

[Gary Harland <foggy@gilligan.netisle.net>]

Mr. Carl Gorman, one of the few remaining Navajo 'Code-Talkers' of 
WWII fame, died yesterday of cancer at the age of 90. Along with
his fellow Navajo, he encrypted military voice communication by 
using his native language over the radio in the Great American 
Imperialist Struggle against the Great Japanese Imperialist
Initative.

Just a few thoughts:

- when asked why he helped America after all the abuse he took 
growing up as a Navajo, he basically said (my interpretation
here) he was fighting to protect the Navajo, not particularily
America, from the Japanese. A geographical dilemma.

- aside from the NSA sucking up everything in sight relating to
languages, doesn't Chomsky's theoretical 'Universal Syntax' (all
human languages have an identical fundamental syntax) negate the 
effectiveness of the Code-Talker approach in the long run? 

- on the other hand, the lovely ambiguities of natural language
would seem to be capable of effectively obscuring the meaning of
the message even if the plaintext were revealed. For example,
President Clinton's reference to 'blowjobs' not actually being
a sexual act. While the President is innocently asking a normal
person to provide him with a urgently needed act of personal 
hygiene, that person mistakingly would be thinking he wants oral 
sex. An effective obscuration of the Prez's message.

- now-a-days of course, if the shoe were on the other foot, the
Navy's NOSS satellite constellations would trianglate on the
radio signal and feed the coordinates to one of the TDRS sat-
ellites to target the crusie missles we just launched, effectively
ending the conversation prematurely without regard to syntax. 
[Sexy Hi-Tech Option]. Using radio for passing encrypted comm
seems to require a few non-traditional approaches. For example,
using a repeater system that would present the NOSS satellites
and any RDF equipment in the neighborhood with 'a thousand
points of...' RF energy - the 'needle-in-the-haystack' 
approach. The source would be difficult to find amongst its
many (presumedly cheap) clones.

Oh well. Good bye Carl. Thanks for the help. Sorry we were such
jerks. On the bright side - we're such third-rate fuckups it's
a sure thing the Navajo will out-live us if they just hang in
there a little bit longer. Your living to 90 was a fine 
example. Survival is always the best revenge.

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