From: tcmay@got.net (Timothy C. May)
Date: Mon, 8 Jan 1996 05:45:00 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: "Re: NSA says strong crypto to china??
Message-ID: <ad15795313021004d62e@[205.199.118.202]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


At 7:32 PM 1/7/96, Alan Olsen wrote:

>I can also think of another good reason that no dissident in their right
>mind would want to use US escrowed GAK.  How many times have individuals
>been sold out for some "greater good".  I can just imagine some dissident
>getting sold out as the result of some mega-trade deal or the like.  (And I
>am sure that they can too...)

As when the Cossacks who fled the U.S.S.R. after the war and pledged to
help the West fight Communism were returned by the British to Stalin, where
they were executed. (I was reminded of this by the latest Bond movie, where
Bond avers, "Not exactly Britain's finest moment.")

Had they been using Brit-GAK, then even more of them could've been rounded
up by the Brits and send packing.

>Why does this news report sound more like someone trying to sell GAK to the
>US public and not "chinese dissidents?

Was Noriega our friend or our enemy, and when? If his followers were using
the U.S. as their friendly keyholder, how would this have played out when
the U.S. government decided to switch sides?

When governments change, the U.S. often switches sides as well. The U.S.
holding the keys of dissidents will not fly.

The notion that the U.S. will become the GAK-holder for the world's
dissidents is too absurd to waste  more time on.

--Tim May

We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, we know that that ain't allowed.
---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
tcmay@got.net  408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA  | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
Higher Power: 2^756839 - 1  | black markets, collapse of governments.
"National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."