YAA (yet another article)

[Phil Karn]

At 11:18 AM 6/16/93 -0500, Jason Zions wrote:

>Legalize drugs and prostitution and the Mafia will dry up and blow away.

Amen. It was a real eye-opener to see the statistics on legal wiretaps
(the ones they tell us about, anyway). The vast majority, and I do mean
vast, are related to drugs. A distant second was gambling, and I think
"racketeering" was in there somewhere (not sure what makes that distinct
from "drugs" these days).

>>Hellman has an ingenious idea that might appeal to those concerned
>>about civil liberties. He would require not one but three judges to
>>authorize a Clipper wiretap. A judge could answer the request with
>>"Yes," "No or "Oh, my God!" The latter means, "This looks like an
>>attempted abuse of power, as in Watergate."

I must admit I'm disappointed to hear Hellman say something like this.
Every time somebody comes up with a "new" or "improved" key escrow scheme,
they give implicit approval to the whole basic idea of key escrow. Which
is fundamentally unacceptable in *any* form.

Although his idea may appeal to some naive people, I wonder how many have
actually seen any search warrant affidavits. I read the one for Steve
Jackson Games, and you certainly wouldn't know from that that they weren't
all guilty as sin. Too bad it was completely defective.

Do I sound like I don't place much faith in the warrant requirement acting
as a meaningful safeguard? You bet!

Phil