Bombings, Surveillance, and Free Societies

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

The recent bombings and similar events in public places in Israel (Hamas),
England (IRA), Japan (subway gas attack), and the U.S. (Oklahoma City) are
triggering calls for increased communications surveillance. Often the first
bombing is insufficient to trigger increased steps...but later events push
states to take stronger steps.

(In the U.S., for example, the OKC bombing was headline news for more than
a week, but resulted in no lasting changes affecting most of us, despite
the hysteria about the need to outlaw "militias" and "white supremacist"
groups. A second or third such bombing would likely produce new legislation
of a serious sort. This is the thrust of my article.)

Revolutionary theory says of course that this increased clampdown is a
desired effect of terrorist bombings and attacks. Fear and doubt.
Revolutionary ends rarely happen by slow, incremental movement. Hundreds of
examples, from the original "bomb-throwing anarchists" to the modern mix of
terrorist bands. The Red Brigade in Italy sought a fascist crackdown, and
the "strategy of tension" is common. (And even revolutionists of crypto
anarchist persuasion often think laws like the CDA are good in the long
run, by undermining respect for authority and triggering more extreme
reactions....)

CNN is reporting that U.S. intelligence agencies will share technology for
communications intercepts with the Israelis (more so than they already have
been doing. Maybe the "U.S.S. Liberty" will be anchored off of Haifa on a
permanent basis.

The implications for cryptography?

-- expect increased support for a "New World Order" to restrict
non-governmental access to strong crypto (via key escrow measures)

-- expect the various laws about "talking about explosives on the Net" to
be used to clamp down on various fringe groups

-- expect "national security" to become a bigger part of the political debate

-- expect more and bigger bombings, as the groups thinking about bombings
see how productive they are in accomplishing policy goals (such as ending
peace talks, triggering police state actions, etc.)

The inescapable fact is that free societies have numerous "soft targets"
than cannot be defended against such bombing attacks. Various public places
are "Schelling points" for attacks: crowded streets in Bogota, Tel Aviv,
New York, London, Paris. Ditto for subways, buses, government buildings,
sports arenas, etc.

(The 99+% of us who are not in these areas at any given time are pretty
safe, actually.)

I predict that it will take about 5 more major bombings in European and
American cities to trigger substantive changes in laws. If we look at how
easily the Communiations Decency Act (and the Wiretap Act, and similar
laws) sailed through Congress, I foresee serious terrorist activity as
triggering far-reaching restrictions on communications privacy, on
non-governmental use of encryption, and on what may be talked about openly
on the Net.

(Yes, I'm aware that there's a thing called the "First Amendment," lest you
lawyers point out to me that such prior restraints will never fly. Well,
how has the First Amendment stopped the government from restricting what I
can say about medicine, what abortion advice I can give, the "dirty words"
I choose to use, the supposedly libelous and slanderous things I can say,
etc.? Granted, these are not cases of prior restraint, but of actions taken
after the fact, via criminal and civil actions. Not much difference so far
as I can see.)

Personally, while I feel sorry for the dead in Israel, I think anyone who
moves to a small desert state surrounded on all sides by Arabs who want
their land back is asking for trouble.


--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
W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA  | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
Higher Power: 2^756839 - 1  | black markets, collapse of governments.
"National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."