At 10:42 AM -0800 5/5/97, Ernest Hua wrote:
weeks. Had the World Trade Center bombs succeeded (in bringing down one of the towers), this would have done it. When freedom fighters ultimately succeed in, say, killing 5000 Londoners in a Sarin or Ricin attack in the Tube, expect dramatic moves in all Western nations to sharply curtail civil liberties.
I think we violently agree here, except for one-sided terminologies like "freedom fighters" or "terrorists".
I've been trying consciously to use "freedom fighter" in nearly all cases where the Administration would use "terrorist." It causes people to sometimes do a double take, and think more closely about the underlying issues. In fact, many of the world's so-called "terrorists" are in fact fighting for some form of liberation from colonialists, corporations who bought up land from corrupt dictators, and so on. We could argue whether the IRA is a "freedom fighting" group, given that Protestants are in a majority in Northern Ireland, but then we'd have to also consider the British policies which encourgaged migration of Protestants to Ireland, etc. (Are American Indians who fight for basic rights, and for enforcement of treaties, terrorists or freedom fighters? Or something else? Or do labels matter?) And what about the "freedom fighters" in the jungles of Burma (Myanmar) Phil Zimmermann likes to cite as critical users of PGP? By the standards of the official government of Burma, these folks are terrorists. (They blow up bridges, derail trains, etc.) I usually cite these rebels as obvious examples of terrorists using strong crypto. And by the fact that Phil Z. advertises the use of PGP by these terrorists, I submit that SAFE could be invoked so as to halt international exports of PGP by using the clause which says: " The Secretary shall authorize the export or reexport of software with encryption capabilities for nonmilitary end-uses ...unless there is substantial evidence that such software will be...diverted to a military end-use or an end-use supporting international terrorism...[or]...modified for military or terrorist end-use..." Slam dunk! "PGP being used by terrorists in Burma...license for export denied." (And there's no way to bring in such sophistry as "legitimate governments." The government of Burma is not substantially less legitimate than are hundreds of other governments.) "Terrorism" is just another mode of warfare. (If the argument is that terrorism involves attacks on civilians, what were the firebombings of Dresden (300,000 German civilians killed) and Tokyo (200,000 killed), not to mention Hiroshima. And so on. Most arguments purporting to prove that various "terrorist" groups are not legitimate freedom fighters will turn up such inconsistencies.) The State of Israel got a big boost from terrorism, with the Stern Gang bombing British barracks, bridges, etc. Begin was even a member. And so it goes. --Tim May, referred to as an "info-terrorist" by one government guy There's something wrong when I'm a felon under an increasing number of laws. ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- 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."