A semiparanoid thought struck me: Maybe the NSA doesn't these extra 20K people, they just don't want them to go out into the industry and build crypto for the outside world. So they continue to pay them salaries and have them do nothing useful. This would be kind of analogous to how when Russia no longer needed so many nuclear scientists, the U.S. helped create "make work" jobs for them, just so they wouldn't go to work for the likes of Iraq. --- Dr. Dimitri Vulis Brighton Beach Boardwalk BBS, Forest Hills, N.Y.: +1-718-261-2013, 14.4Kbps