The following excerpts come from Monday's Hotline, a daily political newsletter read by just about everyone in DC. This message should be read in a non-proportional typeface like Courier. If your mail reader can't do that, go to the politechbot.com archives and read it there. Unfortunately for the clarity of debate here, the ban-crypto-without-backdoors question is poorly worded ("Should Encryption Laws Be Reduced To Aid CIA/FBI Surveillance?"), but then again I suspect most people figured it out. This poll is noteworthy not only for what it found, but that the pollsters included the crypto question in the first place. It shows that, all of a sudden, this has become a serious debate in Washington. Also note that 72 percent of those surveyed said anti-encryption laws would be "somewhat" or "very" helpful in preventing similar terrorist attacks. -Declan ********* Conducted 9/13-14/01 by Princeton Survey Research Associates; surveyed 1,001 adults aged 18 and over; margin of error +/- 3% (release, 9/15). Favor Or Oppose The Following? Favor Oppose Attack suspected terrorists like bin Laden even if we're not sure they're responsible for last week's attack 54% 40% Attack terrorist bases and countries that support them even if there is a high likelihood for civilian casualties 71 21 Fav/Unfav Ratings ----Fav---- ---Unfav--- Very Mostly Mostly Very Military 58% 36% 2% 2% FBI 37 48 9 3 CIA 28 44 9 6 How Confident That National And Local Law Enforcement Can Stop Terrorist Plots In The U.S. Very Somewhat Not Too Confident Not At All 32% 42% 17% 7% How Much Would The Following Prevent Similar Terrorist Attacks? Very Somewhat Not Too Much Not At All Reduce encryption to aid CIA/FBI 35 37 12 9 Should Encryption Laws Be Reduced To Aid CIA/FBI Surveillance? Yes No 54% 39% U.S. Put Arabs and Arab-Americans Under Special Surveillance? Agree Disagree 32% 62% ********* http://www0.mercurycenter.com/premium/business/docs/bizletters16.htm Headline inflammatory 2001-09-17 05:45:23 I hope, in light of this terrible tragedy, that Dan Gillmor will cease his whining about personal privacy and recognize that our national security and the safety of our citizens override his concern about privacy, ``We have been tested before and survived: Don't let criminals shut down our freedoms'' (Aug. 12). The government absolutely must have the ability to monitor all encrypted messages, and anyone sending or receiving encrypted messages on our soil that cannot be decoded by the appropriate federal agency must be subject to arrest and seizure of the encryption equipment. We are at war, and we all, including Gillmor, need to recognize that. Al Colby Corralitos ********* ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice. Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/ To subscribe to Politech: http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----- End forwarded message -----