From: Lou Poppler <lwp@mail.msen.com>
Date: Mon, 15 Sep 1997 23:40:45 +0800
To: cypherpunks@cyberpass.net
Subject: Some anti-GAK reverse-FUD ?
Message-ID: <Pine.BSI.3.92.970915110748.18183A-100000@conch.msen.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
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Today's NY Times has a long article about how easily personal information
can be extracted from various kinds of computers and networks. (URL below)
This snippet illustrates nicely one of the dangers of trusting information
to "legitimate" law enforcement.

-- Begin quoted text: --
[...]
In a 1997 New Year's letter to "friends and clients" of Investigative Group
International Inc., one of the best-connected Washington investigative
agencies, the chairman, Terry Lenzner, noted "increasing interest by
clients seeking to protect themselves from negative campaigns," including
those by "so-called 'whistle-blowers,"' unions and regulatory agencies.
[...]
The promotion brochure features veteran investigative reporters who now
work for IGI. Their role adds a new dimension to the long-revolving door
between law enforcement and private investigations.  IGI's staff, for
example, includes former top officials of the Drug Enforcement
Administration, the FBI and Germany's national police force.

Meanwhile, Ray Kelly, who had been chief of police in New York City before
joining IGI to run its New York operations, now heads the Secret Service,
the Bureau of Customs and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms.
Such ties, along with IGI's assignment from the Democratic National
Committee to probe its campaign-finance mess, inspire some critics to liken
it to President Clinton's private CIA -- a characterization that Lenzner,
who was a lawyer for the Senate Watergate committee, vigorously rejects.
[...]

full article is at:
  http://www.nytimes.com/library/cyber/week/091597privacy.html