At 8:23 AM -0800 5/20/97, Attila T. Hun wrote:
as to trivializing tim may as to wine and for his comment below on OKC, if the gubmit becomes a terrorist state (and who is to deny that it is not, and has not been this century), then the terrorist much expect retaliation.
The United States of America sits astride the world, holding the riding crop and ordering the other nations of the world around in various ways. It sends troops to distant parts of the world. It even takes on the main "peacekeeping" (meaning: choosing a faction and suppressing the other factions) role in Yugoslavia...surely a European problem, if a problem at all. (I say let the Bosnians, Serbs, Croatians, Albanians, Macedonians, etc. massacre each other. That my tax dollars, and American lives, are being spent in this "Balkanized nonsurprise" are criminal. If infowar and terrorism are needed to destabilize the U.S. Military-Industrial War Machine, then I guess that's what's needed. Period.) The USA is without any doubts the largest economic and political power. And it uses threat of military intervention to influence other terrorist states. It's military budget remains bloated far beyond any reasonable response to realistic threats. It is, of course, the world's policeman. Worse, the world's secret policeman. (Lest you doubt this, it trained, and continues to train, the torturers in Africa and South America. It issued the CIA manual on assassinations and torturings, and it taught several armies how to encourage prisoners to talk by throwing some of them out of helicopters. Now it is training the former KGB and related folks in how to wage a War on Drugs and Civil Rights in their countries. I wonder if the helicopter trick is still being taught?) Meanwhile, the alleged civil rights and cyber liberties groups are arguing "it's the best deal we can get" while dozens of new restrictions on speech and encryption are being promulgated. And so on. (I could give a dozen examples, from DiFi's "bomb-making instructions ban" to forcing the Playboy Channel off cable systems until 10 p.m. to restrictions on speech about what an acceptable employee applicant is (Hint: Don't say that Ebonics is unacceptable, else face fines). The only valid point of view is to reject all limits on basic rights. And since mere rejection of the points of view of the NSA, EPIC, CIA, CPSR, DIA, EFF, DEA, etc. is not enough, to sabotage companies which work with these stooges. (Many Cypherpunks are now working for these companies which have decided to "play ball" with David Aaron, George Tenet, Louis Freeh, and the others. I hope you are considering what options exist to undermine and sabotage such efforts. The Cypherpunks meeting in March generated some good ideas.) And one of our own is arrested on almost certainly trumped up charges designed to play well in the media (botulism in the water, Sarin in the air...they probably found some Loompanics and Paladin Press books on how to make nerve gases and other poisons...freely available, and I have some myself).
The US in this century, at one point or another in time, has destabilized 90%+ of the world governments, including the Labour Party in GB prior to Iron Maggie's rule (and if you want names of the phony US Dept of State consular employees involved, a pointer can be provided).
The United States of America is the world's leading terrorist state. From mining harbors in countries with democratically elected governments to financing the blowing up of airliners by dissident groups to assassinating dozens of leaders of countries the USA wished to shape in different directions, the USA is Terror State Numero Uno. Destabilizing a terror state is, I think, a moral thing to do.
as for the great fairweather liberal bigot Blanc's passing it off as tcm's drunken ramblings, I doubt it. war is hell, and "innocents" get wasted --but, a society at war has no innocents. blow 'em all away. scorched earth is inadequate; burnt earth is more effective. if there are no prisoners, there are no complainers.
As I said at the time, Blanc's cheap shot was an incoherent form of criticism. As I write much the same things morning, noon, and night (check the timings of my posts), either I'm drunk at all hours of the day, or these are my overall views. You folks can decide for yourselves. I noticed with interest this morning that Peter Trei had an interesting thought experiment for implementing a variant of assassination politics. Interesting because not much more than a week or two ago Peter was making the point that I seemed to have gone off the deep end, or at least was no longer writing "thoughtful" essays and/or was not focussing on what he wanted to read about (a hopeless task, of course, to tune one's writings to the interests of others). Peter has now thrown in with the "let's see how AP might work." His variant, "Who do we want to see hit with a bus?," is of course essentially identical to AP. "Has Peter lost it with these rantings?" And of course we have Declan McCullagh, a reasonable fellow, saying that we'd better restrain ourselves or the government will do it for us. (One wonders if the First Amendment is still being taught in journalism school.) Hey, maybe Swinestein will introduce a new law to stop discussions of freedom of speech. "It Takes a Village," after all. --Tim May There's something wrong when I'm a felon under an increasing number of laws. Only one response to the key grabbers is warranted: "Death to Tyrants!" ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- 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: 2^1398269 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."