From: nobody@REPLAY.COM (Anonymous)
Date: Fri, 26 Sep 1997 03:55:22 +0800
To: cypherpunks@cyberpass.net
Subject: Re: Crypto-victory in Commerce; Oxley talks about nuking Congress
Message-ID: <199709251939.VAA15400@basement.replay.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



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Tim May wrote:
>At 6:37 PM -0700 9/24/97, Declan McCullagh wrote:
>>least if you've heard it 17 times in the past few weeks. So
>>today Rep. Oxley whipped out his trump card: if you don't
>>vote for my amendment, you'll get blown up! "How about some
>>terrorist orgainztion acting with impunity because they
>>have the ability to communicate with impunity gets a hold
>>of a Russian nuclear device and threatens to blow up the
>>Capitol of the United States?"
>
>Sounds to me like Oxley is presaging the Reichstag Fire.

Or another Lusitania.  The German government during World War I had a
policy of sinking any ship carrying armaments to Britain.  While the
Lusitania was a civilian ship, the allies were secretly loading it
with ammunition.  This was known to the German government which
announced that it would attempt to sink the ship.  This was advertised
in New York newspapers by the German embassy in the weeks before the
Lusitania's departure.

The German torpedo appears to have set off the munitions in the hold
which caused the ship to sink more quickly, magnifying the loss of
life.  Ironically, while the allies were responsible for using the
civilians on board as shields, the Germans were held responsible for
the deaths.  This was used as a propaganda tool to persuade the
American people that the country should enter World War I.

By an odd coincidence, Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill worked
together on the Lusitania project, foreshadowing their later work
together.

Many U.S. wars have started with similar incidents.  The
Spanish-American War started when a U.S. naval ship (The Maine) blew
up in Havana harbor.  Curiously, no officers were on board at the time.

Some suspect Pearl Harbor was managed to maximize the shock of the
American people.  There was also an incident in the North Atlantic
with a German ship which was used to justify U.S. involvement in the
European war.

And let's not forget the Gulf of Tonkin incident which prompted the
Congress to grant the President sweeping powers.

The only real question is whether the stakes are high enough at this
time to justify some sort of provocative incident.  It seems
reasonable that the bureacracies of Russia and the United States would
recognize their common interest against the people of both countries
and the whole world.

Monty Cantsin
Editor in Chief
Smile Magazine
http://www.neoism.org/squares/smile_index.html
http://www.neoism.org/squares/cantsin_10.html

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