bill.stewart@pleasantonca.ncr.com +1-510-484-6204 sez:
I objected to Anthony Ortenzi's article on Dorothy Denning. Much of the attacks seemed appropriate for a politician like Clinton (:-)), but aren't appropriate for an academic who's doing politics about technical areas, where there so much more *useful* ways to flame her ideas, rather than her character.
I could not agree more. I would rather see her ideas discussed though than flamed.
Number 1, if someone is an encryption expert [...], why would they endorse anyone but the recipient being able to decode the message?
You're confusing technical tactics with political/social goals. She's an expert in what you can do with encryption, she just has different values about who should be able to benefit from it and how.
I spoke with her at some length today and later with a man she recommended I also speak with that is an Assistant to the Director at the NSA. It *is* a question of who should be able to benefit from it but not because they are conerned about any of us here. More later.
as you say, it would be nice if she'd just come out and say the government should spy on all of us to keep us from doing Bad Things; it's an argument people can relate to and discuss (though it'll get a lot of negative reaction, which is not her objective.)
She won't come out and say that because that is not at all what she believes. She is not even looking at us much or giving much thought to the Bad Things we might do. Her scope is much larger than "us."
C) Was she dropped on her head a lot as a baby? Probably got scared by a Commie Terrorist Drug Dealer, and comforted by some friendly federal police officer... or else was educated in government-run schools. :-)
I wish I could get across to you all how this C) kind of attack affects even people of her stature and public standing. This is a very poor charactature of her as I found her in discussion or have found her writings. She is calm, reasonable, not in the least a hard liner and I haven't seen a trace of the personality traits you give a basis for. Yes, she is very frustrated, even depressed sounding, because she cannot seem to find a way to convey the reality of her concern without it being distorted or pulled into a ridiculous context and yes she is frustrated because she clearly sees the problems facing Clipper. What has not been discussed here very much and what I felt going into the conversations with these people is that they *can't* tell us what they are afraid of. It is not a matter of won't. The conversations bore this out. We have been concentrating on in our discussion here on how much they fear the loss of a power they have gotten used to and abused to where we find it offensive. That is not nearly so much what they fear. It is the *unknown*. It is pretty hard to make public statements like that. The real issue is that this is an *enabling* technology that allows any group of people distributed over the world to meet spontaneously in secret to plan anything. I don't think we can even conceive, nor have they yet, the ways the real Bad Guys (I hope we can agree that some do exist) might find to use this new ability. A very clear danger is sensed in Washington with little real benefit to the civilized and civil majority. In fact, the reason I began to have the qualms about this that I have been expressing lately (besides being in a position to open this Pandora's Box myself now) is that the reason I started looking at crypto a couple of years ago was that I was in an extremely agitated, nearly revolutionary state during the period slightly before the LA riots and for a while thereafter and I came to the conclusion that this system needed to be brought down, simple. I felt that this could be pulled off, in fact, if a method of secure voice communication could be established that would *enable* country wide planning and synchronization. Think about it. Well, my politics have changed considerably for several reasons but I well remember my initial motive for studying crypto and looking for a solution to the man in the middle that didn't require any passwords or prior agreement. I have not, however, lost the belief that dedicated revolutionaries could use it to create havoc not just here but world wide and that could just be the tip of the iceberg. I don't know what the solution is though and I don't think that Dr. Denning, President Clingon or the NSA really has one. The cat is out of the bag now and they seem to realize to their near depression that it won't go back in. I requested the phone meeting with her because I needed to discuss these moral issues with someone that I felt was looking a bit more deeply into it all. I am not sure what I am going to do. I no longer really want to be the one to open the box with something easy to use and foolproof but I know that it is just a matter of time before someone else meanders down the path I found so why act on my personal concerns only to lose the chance to be the first out of the gate. I asked these questions and ran into heavy sighs. I believe it is well understood that only voluntary means of controling this exist and that liklihood is very small. Persuasion is not working and the press has been whipped into a near hysterical state over this by we and our friends (yes, we on the internet are considered to be the force that has derailed their hopes and that was unforseen.) As is obvious I don't consider this government to be a monolithic antagonistic entity out to strip us of rights. Sure it has happened in areas but they are reasonably isolated areas. There are *many* people in this rather diverse government and in an advising capacity to it whose sole concern is our safety and these people are worried. I find it interesting that there are many people here who lack the imagination to understand that there probably are a goodly number of reasons for rightly feeling the need for a Clipper like solution and that it would not be appropriate for the government to be public about them. Why is that so difficult to understand in these times of international strife, terror and technology? Peace, Bob -- Bob Cain rcain@netcom.com 408-354-8021 "I used to be different. But now I'm the same." --------------PGP 1.0 or 2.0 public key available on request.------------------