In message <Pine.SOL.3.91.960727112449.29476A-100000@condor.depaul.edu>, Nathan Syfrig writes:

This is very worrysome, as it truly is a "world stage" event that could really serve to galvanize various governments into uniting against strong non-escrowed crypto. Hey, it will look good for the international PR, never mind the fact that not everybody will be so 'diligent' in registering their keys and/or use the "approved" crypto.

Depends how quickly they track down the bombers, a quick arrest gives little incentive, but a drawn-out search may encourage a knee-jerk response. Seeing as this is an election year, Clinton may try to make himself look more decisive to avoid accusations of indecision, so he may introduce some harsh measures. Here's an aside about Irish politics: About a month ago, one of Ireland's top journalists was shot dead; the suspicion fell on one of Dublin's crime bosses. (Veronica Guerin investigated organised crime in the last few years.) Now there is a lot of legislation being rushed into place that I think is badly thought out (e.g. extending detention to seven days with a judge's permission, weakening the right to silence in drug cases) and I think it will lead to innocent people being jailed with little effect on the crime bosses. (I don't think there is a government cover-up in this case, just a panic.) The assasination was the catalyst for harsh measures, though the Irish government hasn't had the catalogue of events like the Oklahoma bombing to make it move towards the draconian end of things, though that is weakening. (True, there is the situation where the government response to IRA behaviour has been very strict, for instance censoring Sinn Fein and IRA, though that case of censorship was dropped a couple of years back. The patronising side of Irish political culture probably dates back to the '20s, when the state was founded, and the '30s or '40s when the latest draft of the constitution was drawn up.) (For what it's worth, the Irish Government seems to have little or no opinion on encryption, though one TD seems to be for censoring certain sites. TD = a member of the Irish parliament.)

And of course, this country just purchased another IBM computer for "nuclear simulation". Gee, I wonder what else that power might be used for? (but then again, it's from IBM, purveyor of the Olympics computer services)

There's an IBM ad running on British TV stations where Spinal Tap decide to get IBM to help them with their current tour. One reason is that IBM is doing this for the Atlanta Olympics. O, the irony!!! (Spinal Tap seem to have survived their trip to Springfield.) Derek - enough rambling for now