posted to talk.politics.crypto in response to Tim's article... -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- I think the issue, at this point, is not so much whether the NSA goons actually threatened his life, but that they have consistently attempted to suppress crypto anyway they can. That the NSA has tried to intimidate Bidzos is no secret. That the NSA considers PGP a threat to their domain is also well known. Given that the purpose of the ITAR restrictions appear to be to prevent an international standard from forming, I think we need to refocus on the issue of presenting strong crypto as "a right", inevitable, and ubiquitous. CPSR and EFF are doing an admirable job of taking the fight to the beltway; but outside the net, the grass roots support just isn't there. As has been pointed out by PRZ et al., the primary reason to avoided hacks to PGP is that doing so fragments what standards we have now. The release of the MIT PGP was the first step in legitimizing cryptography. The next step is to install interoperable crypto on EVERY box out there. While I don't advocate bypassing your local sysadmin, try to get PGP installed on each machine you touch. Use 2.6 (MIT in U.S., _ui_ elsewhere). Publish your key. Tell your friends. Annoy your family. Irrate your boss ;-). My wife suggested that my activities would have gotten me "black-listed" 40 years ago. I suggest that the NSA would like to do exactly that to individuals like Bidzos and PRZ, but it is too late (and the net would make it virtually impossible anyway). Besides, some things are worth fighting for. Dave Otto -- dave@marvin.jta.edd.ca.gov -- daveotto@acm.org "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!" [the Great Oz] finger DaveOtto@ACM.org for PGP 2.6 key <0x3300e841> fingerprint = 78 71 3A 5B FD 8A 9A F1 8F BC E8 6A C7 BD A4 DD -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6 iQCVAgUBLhA9qCuceIAzAOhBAQHxjwP/eNcmflW3Pwve/ag8D7G0b5l39QKlNUSF nEcm3DJp0Mhnwd5SIvlOgwPb9K4nH9ASMyjl7NtKCbAEQK9T0XN5nTazg+EsyT2q qfm99I6ozFBQBe1XWMnCyNd6fr3fHoyqY8zIMMR7k29SByUaM9/lxK2ZawMoPgj1 6AS7r4xXFkw= =OISd -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----