From: jim bell <jimbell@pacifier.com>
Date: Wed, 5 Feb 1997 18:23:43 -0800 (PST)
To: "Robert Rothenburg 'Walking-Owl'" <cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: Letter Re: Kahn Supporting GAK
Message-ID: <199702060223.SAA08362@mail.pacifier.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


At 05:16 AM 2/5/97 +0000, Robert Rothenburg 'Walking-Owl' wrote:
>My letter to Long Island Newsday regarding David Kahn's pro-GAK
>editorial was published today. You can read it at
>
>    http://www.newsday.com/mainnews/rnmi052u.htm
>
>What's odd (?) is how they editied it. I directed my comments toward
>Mr. Kahn's views, which they changed to "Newsday" (odd, since I've
>never seen them print an editorial one way or another on GAK; does
>this mean they are taking a stand? -- Kahn is an editor at Newsday).
>
>I wrote "The greatest flaw in the argument is it's very reason,
>'criminals... are increasingly using encryption to conceal their plans
>and activities'" which they changed to "It reports...". I never
>considered an op-ed piece as "reporting", even if it states a fact.


But which "criminals," exactly, are "increasingly using encryption to 
conceal their plans and activities"?  Let's not concede this unless it's 
really true.

It would be far more accurate to say that it's likely that many people who 
are politically hostile to their government are using encryption in 
anticipation of persecution by the government, persecution that could easily 
come in the form of criminal charges.


Jim Bell
jimbell@pacifier.com