Dropping out of the USA

[Ray Dillinger]

On Tue, 10 Jul 2001, Jim Choate wrote:

>Seems to me the only answer is to keep moving, don't settle in any one
>country (or store your possessions in any one jurisdiction) for a lengthy
>stay. A couple of years max.

Um, no.  A couple of years would have been fine a decade ago, but 
these days if you piss off The People Who Must Not Be Pissed Off, 
extradition - from anywhere you'd remotely want to be - happens 
really fast.  And getting faster, at least until the US sets off 
a backlash of sentiment among its current supporters. 

I guess it depends on what you're up to.  If you really want to 
avoid attracting their attention -- then you're not posting to this 
list ever again and you're *definitely* not doing anything like 
Phil Zimmerman and several others we could name did.  In short, 
you abandon cypherpunk ideas to all outward appearances and do 
not contribute anything to the freedom of our descendants. You 
just sit there like a nice little shitbag and quiver when they 
tell you to quiver, and they'll leave you alone.  For now.  At 
least until they run out of people who make them more nervous.

On the other If you *do* attract their attention, then international 
travel will make them even more nervous about you -- and we all know 
(from Bell's case) what happens when Those Who Must Not Be Pissed 
Off get nervous about a particular person.  A Kangaroo trial and 
a long sentence, natch.  Same as anywhere else in the world.

I think maybe the most effective path is a middle path; do things 
that help the situation of everybody, publish good subversive 
software if your talents run that way, and you'll definitely 
attract their attention.  But as far as you can avoid it, never 
*frighten* them....  

I guarantee that if Phil Zimmerman had had an impressive 
collection of guns or a stockpile of chemical reagents in his 
posession when he released PGP, he would be rotting in jail 
today and the rest of us wouldn't have PGP, nor its lineal 
descendants.   Basically, you're allowed to piss them off a 
little, and they still need some kind of excuse to arrest 
you.  But once you've pissed them off, any excuse will do, 
even (as Bell's case teaches us)  the legal exercise of a 
constitutionally protected right. 

I think a lot of international travel would be more likely to 
give them the excuse they need to arrest you, if they were 
looking for one, than it would do to keep them off your back. 
And when you go travelling internationally, the opportunities 
for setups of various types multiply exponentially.  What if 
somebody blackbags your luggage and a pound of dope shows up
in turkish customs?  Now add in a hefty bribe to the judge 
in the case and your innocent ass can be sitting in jail in 
Turkey for decades at no PR cost to the USA.

				Bear


"I used to feel like a flea on the back of a dinosaur -- 
 But lately, I've felt that that may have been a misassessment. 
 Maybe I'm more like a small, yapping poodle on the back of a 
 dinosaur...." 
		-- Philip Zimmerman 
           (paraphrased no doubt by my faulty memory)