From: "Perry E. Metzger" <perry@imsi.com>
Date: Thu, 13 Jul 95 12:25:11 PDT
To: "Robert A. Hayden" <hayden@krypton.mankato.msus.edu>
Subject: Re: Crisis Overload (re Electronic Racketeering)
In-Reply-To: <Pine.ULT.3.91.950713140141.8587C-100000@krypton.mankato.msus.edu>
Message-ID: <9507131924.AA12834@snark.imsi.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



"Robert A. Hayden" writes:
> We've seen the enemy, that the are the 535 senators and representatives 
> in D.C., and the staff in the White House.  It's time to shore up our 
> allies and enter the battle witht he best weapons we have; information 
> and popular use.

As unpleasant as the congress is, it isn't the enemy. The governmental
forces desiring control are not the same as the congress.

Congressmen are by and large harried and ignorant people. They have no
idea what any of this is about. We have the choice of letting Louis
Freeh do all the educating, or having a white shoe Washington PR firm
do some of the educating, too. I favor the latter approach.

This is not to say that we shouldn't be widely deploying crypto -- we
should. (Of course, offshore sites will always have crypto available,
but...) 

This is also not to say that Congress doesn't pass very bad laws.

However, I very, very strongly urge that we not assume that nothing
can be done. Just winning a couple years time could totally alter the
landscape.

Perry