From: "Perry E. Metzger" <perry@imsi.com>
Date: Tue, 28 Jun 94 05:09:40 PDT
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: NSA and competence
In-Reply-To: <199406272109.OAA21819@jobe.shell.portal.com>
Message-ID: <9406281215.AA10235@snark.imsi.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



nobody@shell.portal.com says:
> OTOH, one need not assume that everyone at NSA is a rocket scientist and
> that they are miles ahead of us in this game.

Well, the concrete evidence thus far is that they are ahead of us.

> The long undistinguished history of federal agencies shows them to
> be full of incompetence, waste and usually gross fraud as
> well.

Sure. However, ten billion dollars spent at only 25% efficiency is
still 2.5 billion dollars. They have plenty of money, and EXTREMELY
smart people. Bob Morris isn't a weenie. Neither are any of the other
NSAoids I know of. That, and the concrete evidence that they are
probably twenty years ahead of us, leads me to believe that it is
stupid to underestimate them.

Perry