Cypherpunks and terrorism

[Len Sassaman]

On Tue, 11 Sep 2001, Nomen Nescio wrote:

> Today, remailer operators are shutting down their services.  Why?
> Do they feel shame and guilt at providing a service which could foster
> destruction?  Maybe they should have thought of that before deciding
> to run a remailer.  Or are they merely fearful of being blamed for the
> attacks or their aftermath?  That would be a rather cowardly action,
> to run a service which can cause harm but to run and hide as soon as
> the heat is on.  (Thankfully, a number of remailer operators continue
> to courageously offer their services.)

I don't want to get roped into a pissing contest about this, so this will
probably be my only comment to this list on the matter.

First, a few facts.

Only two remailers have shut down: orange and cracker. And cracker's
reasons didn't have to do with current events. Another two remailers, hell
and randseed, have altered their mode of operation.

At present, I count 32 remailers in operation. This is up from 13 when I
opened my randseed last year. I expect to see at least two more remailers
going online in the next few days.

As for the morality of running a remailer: I highly doubt that mixmaster
remailers were used, are being used, or will be used in the planning and
execution of these physical terrorist attacks. Remailer operators should
feel no more "shame and guilt at providing a service which could foster
destruction" than those who build airplanes. (Particularly since
airplanes, unlike remailers, were clearly used in this attack.)

What I do fear is that a large load of bogus tips and impotent threats
will be made. Past experience has shown me that, while the Secret Service
understands how remailers function and what information their operators
can and cannot provide, the FBI (at least in the Silicon Valley) lacks an
understanding of this technology, and treats remailer operators themselves
as suspects.

I'm not in a position at present to risk imprisonment because I cannot
provide the identities of people using my system. I do not think that
Happy Fun Fed would be amused if I said "I don't keep logs, therefore I
can't tell you who A. Melon is. Yes, I understand that he confessed to the
attack -- I simply can't help you."

I rely on the equipment that runs the randseed remailer for multiple
uses. It hosts several other websites, provides my personal mail, and
hosts my website and resume -- particularly important to me, as I have
been unemployed since July. I can't afford to have this server seized.

I'll inevitably be accused of being cowardly or selfish for switching my
system over to middleman mode. To the cypherpunks making those
accusations, I ask: Do you run a remailer?

The remailer network has been around a lot longer than randseed. Even if
15 remailers ceased operation because of yesterday's events, there would
still be more remailers in operation than there were when I started.

There really is nothing news-worthy here.