spooks on cypherpunks

[Russell Nelson]

   Cc: cypherpunks at toad.com
   Reply-To: perry at imsi.com
   X-Reposting-Policy: redistribute only with permission
   Date: Thu, 28 Apr 1994 13:32:10 -0400
   From: "Perry E. Metzger" <perry at snark.imsi.com>

   Russell Nelson says:
   > Sorry, but this is no help.  It's impossible to distinguish Agents
   > Provocateur from merely incompetent people.  You need to deal with the
   > latter, and so the former fall out in the wash.
   > 
   > If the cypherpunk movement is to be an effective non-violent force, it
   > must realize that secrecy is no help.  The best designed action will
   > work even if your enemy helps you plan it and carry it out.  Karn's CJR
   > is an example of this.

   Frankly, I agree.

<gasp!>  That's a [my] change from a few years ago, eh?

   The NSA will either adapt or die -- it seems to be trying to die right
   now rather than adapt, but thats not our problem.

Cautionary note here, Perry.  People who feel that have no choices
often don't care if the only choice they see is a bad one.  Hitler
[yeah, yeah, I know] convinced the German people that all their
choices were bad, but his was best.  They killed a few people -- it
was in all the papers at the time.

What can crypto do to counteract fascism?  Especially given that
crypto will be used as an excuse for said fascism.  You could argue
that it is already, but if you'll notice, the public reasoning for
Clipper never includes "Clipper exists to displace ubiquitious public
key crypto".

-russ <nelson at crynwr.com>      ftp.msen.com:pub/vendor/crynwr/crynwr.wav
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