Matthew Gaylor wrote:

Date: Fri, 21 Sep 2001 12:57:18 -0400 (EDT) From: Craig Phillips To: Matthew Gaylor Subject: PGP author under fire for terrorist use of crypto

Matt:

Don't know if this is of interest or not. It appears that Phil Zimmermann is taking heat directly over the whole crypto - terrorist thing.

Details at:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A1234-2001Sep20.html

Phill couldn't write a reply to that moron? Well, as a fan of free speech, I hereby offer my services gratis to Mr. Zimmermann, providing him with a useful boilerplate letter to use the next time someone claims he is responsible for terrorist acts. ============================================================================ Dear (Fuckwit/Moron/Shit-For-Brains/Fundementalist) You are accusing me of somehow helping terrorists, claiming that if PGP did not exist, there would still be a World Trade Center. Put simply -- you're an imbecile. Let us consider. For your accusation to be true, the FBI/CIA/NSA/AAA/AARP/etc would have had to have been spying on a terrorist cell, intercepting their communications, knowing they were planning something, but unsure what due to encryption. However, the fact is, the terrorists involved were not being monitored. Encrypted or unencrypted, their communications never reached the various alphabet soup agencies whose responsibility it is to harass innoc^h^h^h^h protect democracy. As it is, these agencies are drowining in excess data, far more than they can read or process in any reasonable span of time. Encrypted data is lost in the bitstream. 'Backdoors' are useful only when you already know who to listen to -- and this is more likely to be a political opponent of the current administration than a criminal. The spirit of J. Edgar Hoover haunts every agency in the government. What is needed is a lot more humint and a lot less sigint. Sigint is only useful if you know who to look at and when to watch them -- and encryption software doesn't have anything to do with that. If you wish to be useful, stop writing hatemail proving your ignorance, and, instead, donate blood. ALL of it. Stand over a bucket, and slit your wrists -- up, not across. You are clearly too stupid to live. (Call the Red Cross first so they can get it before it spoils.)

on Fri, Sep 21, 2001 at 01:12:27PM -0400, Matthew Gaylor (freematt@coil.com) wrote:

Date: Fri, 21 Sep 2001 12:57:18 -0400 (EDT) From: Craig Phillips To: Matthew Gaylor Subject: PGP author under fire for terrorist use of crypto

Matt:

Don't know if this is of interest or not. It appears that Phil Zimmermann is taking heat directly over the whole crypto - terrorist thing.

Details at:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A1234-2001Sep20.html

Terrorism is the art of what's now known as "asymmetric warfare". It uses the enemy's own strengths against itself. With the very barest of resources: a few score operatives, basic training, minimal communications. It can achieve impressive amounts of damage, particularly against soft targets, taken unawares. My own assessment of 9/11 is that the attacks were likely only 1/3 to 1/4 effective. Three of four known aircraft reached their targets. A fourth was disabled by an unarmed, unprepared, civilian force. Appearances are that another two to four aircraft were originally planned to be involveed in the attacks, as well as other possible incidents based on other modalities. The truth is that within an hour of the initial incidents, the country was on a war footing. Stories now indicate that Air Force fighter intercepts were scrambled against the two planes targeted for the WTC and were 12 minutes from intercept at the time of the attacks. Shoot-to-kill appears to have been ordered against Flight 93. Warnings are now circulating for possible incidents on Saturday. Our resources were used against us: aircraft, freedoms, communications networks, cars, highways. Crypto is yet another tool. It may be used for good or evil, and in balance I suspect it does far more good than otherwise. Phil has no more cause than any of the rest of us to feel regret. Peace. -- Karsten M. Self http://kmself.home.netcom.com/ What part of "Gestalt" don't you understand? Home of the brave http://gestalt-system.sourceforge.net/ Land of the free Free Dmitry! Boycott Adobe! Repeal the DMCA! http://www.freesklyarov.org Geek for Hire http://kmself.home.netcom.com/resume.html [demime 0.97c removed an attachment of type application/pgp-signature]