Re: Lobbying/Politics/etc.

[Ed Carp <ecarp@netcom.com>]

On Tue, 3 May 1994, Dave Otto wrote:

> To answer your original question; the reasons why NSA would monitor us will
> seem completely sane and reasonable TO THEM.  You MIGHT be engaged in
> activities harmful to "the rest of us."  Even Joe Public will find their
> arguments difficult to refute, particularly following a terrorist-type
> incident involving loss of life.

If doing activity 'A' will get the results you want, why not make 'A' 
happen?  Consider a successful terrorist attack against a significant 
group of innocents (the larger the number killed, the greater the horror 
and shock value).  The terrorists were using PGP-encrypted email to plan 
out the thing.

Now, how long do you think it would take before ALL crypto was outlawed?  
Who would benefit from such a thing?  Consider that it's child's play to 
finance, arm, and train a group of people to conduct a terrorist attack 
and (conveniently) they all get killed in their attack.  No one's going 
to complain too loudly - after all, they *are* terrorists, right?

One wonders just how many people who went out with their AK's and shot up 
schools and restaurants did it because they had been financed by someone 
with an axe to grind against the RKBAers.  One also wonders just how long 
it will take before someone does the same thing to crypto.