Phil

PS. Does anybody consider it odd that someone from the NSA would actually identify themselves as such?

They've been doing this for years. There's even a nice sign outside the Fort Meade facility saying "National Security Agency." (It also said "No photography allowed," but I snapped some anyway when I was visiting the area in April, 1992. The NSA sign apparently went up only months earlier.) Such "outings" of spy agency names follow a similar progression: ignorance, denial, revelation, overexposure, nonchalance. I can recall when I was attending Langley High School, in Northern Virginia of course, that the CIA headquarters next to Langley H.S. only had a sign saying "Department of Transportation Testing Track," or somesuch. This was circa 1967. (Of course, keeping "secret" the location of the CIA headquarters was a joke....we all knew it, and so did the Russians, etc.) -- in the early 1970s, the CIA became widely known (hated on campus, etc.). -- in the early 1980s, the NSA become widely known (well, widely known to a certain class of activists and folks like us) (Prior to the 1980s, mention of NSA was rarely made. Employees of NSA didn't mention it, and "Fort George Meade" was the only thing mentioned. Prior to the mid-70s, the NSA name never even appeared in Congressional budgets or reports. Its existence was very widely known, though.) -- in the late 1980s, the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) became known to the public (e.g., the book "Deep Black," about spy satellites...also the works of Richelson and others). Makes you wonder what TLAs are still largely unknown to the public. Paraphrasing "She," "The Agency Whose Name May Not be Spoken." My bet is that FinCEN is just the tip of the iceberg. I have reason to believe an economic espionage unit has been in existence for many years, deriving from the Economic Warfare Unit in World War II. --Tim May -- .......................................................................... Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay@netcom.com | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero 408-688-5409 | knowledge, reputations, information markets, W.A.S.T.E.: Aptos, CA | black markets, collapse of governments. Higher Power: 2^859433 | Public Key: PGP and MailSafe available. "National borders are just speed bumps on the information superhighway."