From: "Perry E. Metzger" <perry@piermont.com>
Date: Fri, 26 Jan 1996 20:10:01 +0800
To: tcmay@got.net (Timothy C. May)
Subject: Re: This is not "DivineBeingPunks"
In-Reply-To: <ad2dae4f12021004983e@[205.199.118.202]>
Message-ID: <199601261152.GAA18691@jekyll.piermont.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



Timothy C. May writes:
> Since Perry has on several occasions said he does not want to hear about
> politics and other "off-topic" posts, and since he has written at least
> five of these posts just today (the "Gentleman do not" thread), I suggest
> he heed his own advice.

Well, the topic was initially quite cryptography related -- a
discussion of the question of whether government cryptanalysis efforts
are a "good idea". However, in my last message on the topic you
probably saw that I noted that the issue had certainly slipped
sufficiently from the local agenda that I personally noted that it was
no longer appropriate for me to post on the topic. I don't intend to
say anything more about it since it no longer was merely a discussion
of whether we need an NSA.

However, redirecting the topic, I will note that Phill's assertion
that U.S. cryptographic intelligence versus the Japanese at the start
of World War II was inadequate is just plain wrong. We had already
broken virtually every important Japanese diplomatic and military
code, including perhaps the greatest feat of cryptanalysis of all
time, the breaking of PURPLE. See "The Code Breakers" for details.

And yes, discussing historical cryptanalysis efforts is indeed part of
the charter.

Perry