Actually, I think that writing letters is somewhat useful; especially those of us who aren't very good at writing real code. I plug cypherpunks a bit in a Phrack article I just finished concerning my bust by the police a few years back; maybe you'd like to check it out, since it may be YOU if this damn Clipper thing goes through. This makes me glad I voted Marrou/Lord, and that I resisted the temptation to be suckered by that sellout bastard Clinton. I was worried that he would turn out to be a Jimmy Carter, but it's far worse than that. Carter, at least, had some human decency. Clinton has turned into the nightmare resurrection of Lyndon B. Johnson, and is probably stupid enough to get us into a war. Damn all politicians. If any of you read the Phrack article (I will not forward my article to the cypherpunks list, as it is well over 100K; those who wish to check it out can see it when and if it comes out; in all likelihood, Phrack 43, which is due to be out in a week or so), and believe that there is another publication which might be interested in it (I am willing to re-write for lay-persons); send me the info. Anyone who just absolutely can't WAIT to read it can request a copy from me, and I'll send it in three parts. While my article touches only tangentially on the issue of encryption (and my experience with weak encryption and with NOT having encryption), it may be of interest. Simply for your interest in cryptography, it is apparent that we are about to face a McCarthyesque witch-hunt. The government has already defined the terms of this conflict, and has declared war on basic human liberty. We must act accordingly. I advocate that the Clipper algorithm be discovered, if at all possible, by the comparison of the unlimited plaintext/ciphertext pairs which will be available to anyone with a Clipper phone and a computer, and the skills for differential cryptanalysis and/or IC Reverse Engineering. If the algorithm is made public, anonymously, within a year, and in so many copies that it is impossible to stop its distribution in electronic or samizdat form, Clipper is doomed. And it must be doomed. It's them or us. ---- Robert W. Clark Just Say No! to the rclark@nyx.cs.du.edu Big Brother Chip