Defeatist Compromising Commentary From Reason Magazine

[Tim May]

On Wednesday, September 26, 2001, at 06:15 PM, Nilsphone at aol.com wrote:

> In a message dated 2001-09-26 17:21 Pacific Daylight Time,
> freematt at coil.com writes:
>
>
> "Between Cato arguing for victim disarmament
> and Reason arguing that "right to liberty is preceded by the right to
> life," I say we just kill them all and let Rand sort them out."  If
> you find Ms. Young's comments against encryption disturbing please
> write to Nick Gillespie <gillespie at reason.com> Editor-in-Chief of
> Reason Magazine and David Nott <davidn at reason.org> President, Reason
> Foundation.]
>
>
>
> I think Reason got it wrong. Crypto technology might simplify a
> terrorist's life a little, that is all. If there are no secure channels,
> terrorists can meet in person. The "GO" order can be done in the clear,
> "lets go" needs no encryption. Alternatively, low volume comm
> between people who know each other, and can meet beforehand,
> can easily be done using one time pad, which are drop dead easy to
> use, foolproof (as long as you dont lose or re-use them) etc, but not
> suitable for mass communication. I can write a one-time-pad program
> in minutes that does it all for you. You need a source for the pads,
> GM-tubes
> are best, rooms full of lava lamps and a digital camera have been used.
> Not very hard, can be set up at a central location, once, and then the
> pads
> distributed by hand. (This latter is a must and the catch in mass
> communications.)
>
> Nils Andersson
> (long time Reason subscriber, from the beginning in the 70-s)
>

They fucking DID meet in person! There is not one iota, not one shred,
of evidence that Atta and and his 20 or so co-conspirators used "crypto"
in any form! (Including image file steganography, the form I invented in
1989-90 and which Kevin Kelly profiled in his book "Out of Control,"
based on interviews in 1992. I mention this because several journalists
have been writing b.s stories aoubt Osama using "steganography, files
hidden in images.' B.S.)

And even had Atta and Company used crypto, which there is no evidence
whatsoever of, this would be no more justification for "key escrow" or
"backdoors" than the use of curtains by Al Capone to hide his activities
was grounds for "transparency escrow" modes in curtains or for banning
sealed envelopes. Most crime takes place out of sight of law
enforcement. So?

Atta and his co-conspirators met in apartments, motel rooms, and sent
overnight letters. Unless the bozos at Reason are arguing for opening of
all mail, for microphones in motel rooms, for "1984" levels of apartment
surveillance, there is nothing that could have been done to stop the
planning.

This is all just very basic stuff, written about by some of us in the
mid-80s. That so many journalists are just now "discovering" the crypto
issue is symptomatic of our times.

That bimbo at "Reason" is why "Reason" is just another enemy of liberty.

--Tim May

(P.S. I used to read "Reason" back when it was published out of my
college town, Santa Barbara. Circa 1971-2 or so, maybe '73. A friend of
mine knew Rob Poole pretty well. And I voted for John Hospers in '72.
And my roommate at UCSB later worked for "Reason." And so on. But it got
so repetitive and boring that I stopped reading it around 1980. They
have missed out on the important trends.)