Cypherpunks and terrorism

[Greg Broiles]

At 09:10 PM 9/13/2001 +0200, Nomen Nescio wrote:
>The fact is, crypto as we know it is a luxury.  It didn't even exist ten
>years ago.  None of the crypto tools we use did.  We can hardly make a
>case that banning or restricting access to them will send us back into
>the stone age.
>
>Please, let's end these spurious arguments that providers of crypto tools
>are no different than the people who make the metal in the airplane wings.
>There's a big difference, which anyone with an ounce of sense can see.
>Banning airplanes is not an option.  Banning crypto is.

I get the impression that our anonymous correspondent Nomen Nescio (n.b., 
"nomen nescio" is Latin for "I do not know the the name") is suffering from 
overexposure to academic discussion, which leads (in some cases) to the 
impression that the world is full of important policy questions patiently 
awaiting discussion and analysis ad infinitum (and ad nauseum) by anyone 
who cares to play Socrates today - and that, pending resolution of 
irresolvable questions, no action shall be taken, and ongoing activities 
frozen, until perfect consensus can be reached or a widely-acclaimed policy 
can be drafted.

I propose that this sort of discussion - about whether or not, in the face 
of violence and tragedy, some aspect of human freedom and expression can be 
suitably "justified" to satisfy every self-appointed devil's advocate - is 
absolutely unproductive and serves only to suck energy and concentration 
from more interesting projects.

I don't know (and don't care) if Nomen is an authentic participant in 
cypherpunks, a nom-de-plume of another subscriber used to advance unpopular 
arguments (perhaps in hopes of eliciting stronger arguments in favor of 
that person's real beliefs), an agent provocateur, or something else .. 
Nomen's internal state is unimportant. The effect of his/her messages is to 
create a swamp of self-referential argument and discussion which advances 
nothing; and I suggest that we'd all do well to learn to ignore Nomen as 
many of us do Choate (and Vulis and Detweiler in times past.)

Accordingly, I will not answer Nomen's arguments or questions, but report 
that I have succeeded in compiling Mixmaster 2.9beta23 on the FreeBSD 4.4 
release candidate, and in concert with other cpunks, am putting together a 
2.9beta24 package which includes a number of patches recently circulated. 
We have assembled and are testing an installation of that new release on a 
well-connected machine in a favorable jurisdiction, with more "hardened" 
remailer installations on the way. I haven't had any luck yet with OpenBSD 
(despite helpful messages from two correspondents regarding IDEA and 
OpenSSL integration) but work on that subject continues.

The remailers will not be shut down without a fight - on the net and in the 
courtrooms.


--
Greg Broiles
gbroiles at well.com
"We have found and closed the thing you watch us with." -- New Delhi street kids