anonymous-remailer@shell.portal.com writes:
THEY MUST BE STOPPED.
Yup, really evil folks. Lets go over some of the people on your list.
THE LIST OF SHAME: B. Schneier: bs208@newton.cam.ac.uk, schneier@counterpane.com
Bruce Schneier, cryptographic privacy advocate, cryptographer, publisher of "Applied Cryptography", the book that signaled the end of the NSA's ability to keep information on how to build cryptosystems out of the hands of most people. A smart 14 year old, armed with a C compiler and Applied Cryptography, cannot be prevented from writing good cryptographic software. Is this the NSA enemies list, by chance?
M. Blaze: mab@crypto.com, mab@research.att.com
Matt Blaze, cryptographer, privacy advocate, anti-authoritarian. The guy who showed that Tessera/Fortezza cards were flawed and embarassed the NSA in public with it. Regularly releases strong cryptographic tools to the public. Participated strongly with me and others in early efforts to build software only "voice crypto" systems. Tirelessly criticizes control on cryptographic software. Is your list of "enemies" supplied by the NSA?
J. Bizdos: jim@rsa.com
Well, I'm not going to defend Jim. Besides, he can take care of himself. However, although he isn't necessarily a friend of cypherpunks, he's no friend of control of cryptography by the government, which would put him out of business.
S. Safaddar: shabbir@vtw.org
Shabbir: creator of voters telecom watch; privacy advocate, tireless opponent of the CDA, free speech restrictions, network regulation, and any other attempt at stopping freedom on the net. Shabbir is not a guy you would call an advocate of authoritarianism.
B. Stewart: stewarts@ix.netcom.com
Bill Stewart: "Hippie Anarchist"; he and his wife, Laura, are about the most anti-government folks I think you are likely to find this side of Alpha Centauri. Bill is as libertarian as they come, and unconditionally opposes any attempts at restricting anyone's freedom to live peacefully. The idea that he'd advocate anything that increased the power of government is absurd. One of the nicest people I know.
P. Karn: karn@unix.ka9q.ampr.org
Phil Karn: Engineer's Engineer, crypto-hacker, privacy advocate. Phil is suing the government right now to get the right to export cryptographic software freely -- he has gone through a lot of trouble to try to prove you have a constitutional right to distribute cryptographic software and to prove that if you can ship it in print you can ship it on disk. Phil ceaselessly advocates the use of strong cryptography by everyone, and is one of the people who built the predecessor of the current IETF IPsec standard. Phil worked very hard on creating the Photuris key exchange protocol, which takes care to make sure that all parties remain anonymous to eavesdroppers. Phil has released large amounts of strong cryptographic code to the public, including the fastest implementation of DES ever seen in software. After an NSA flack spoke about his nightmare of every $80 digital phone on earth having unbreakable crypto in it, Phil quipped something like "well, folks, now we know our design goal." Phil tirelessly spreads the gospel of PGP. In short, he isn't on anyone's short list of "friends of the NSA".
D. McCullagh: declan@well.com Declan is a tireless advocate of free speech, going so far as to work hard to distribute speech he highly disagrees with if it is being censored. I don't know him personally, but he hardly fits the profile of "Friends of the NSA" or some such.
In short, Mr. Anonymous, you couldn't have picked a bigger bunch of "Enemies of the NSA" for your "Friends of the NSA" list if you had been explicitly instructed to pick the biggest opponents of controls on cryptographic software and write them down. My question to you is this: are you just stupid or ornery, or is the NSA paying you for this? Perry Who is disappointed that he didn't make the "LIST OF SHAME", but understands that perhaps he hasn't done enough to oppose controls on cryptography. I'll work harder, and hopefully you will denounce me soon.