MG: you will find most people here will disagree with you. cyberspace is very, very weak without crypto. when you think about it, 98% of cyberspace is the "stuff between the wires". the other 2% are the people on each end. now, crypto protects the 98%, but agreed, the 2% is still vulnerable.
Certainly, good crypto would plug up some holes but general internet technology is full of cracks. All the crypto in the universe won't stop a buffer overflow in your mail program, or 1000's of nested tags from crashing your browser in a DoS.
this is nothing anyone cares about in the cyberspatial world. these are thing that happen outside of cyberspace. the bigtime issue is internet commerce, security of your mail. how about if someone reads your mail to steal your money?
I don't support export restrictions any more than anyone else who is likely to be on cypherpunks .. but laying all the evils in the universe at NSA's door is a wee bit irresponsible.
no, I'd say it's downright patriotic <g> p.s.-- can you quote to me how many billions go to the nsa every year? and would you care to calculate how much of your own salary from your paycheck is sent to them? and you think you are getting your money's worth? rather than paying someone to hold you down?