From: bureau42 Anonymous Remailer <remailer@bureau42.ml.org>
Date: Fri, 12 Sep 1997 12:50:33 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Bean Counting II
Message-ID: <bvbLgDBYeZtLKxtOwBy+tw==@bureau42.ml.org>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain




Does anyone know if the government has released any firm figures on the
number of lives that would be saved from terrorist activities with the
outlawing of strong encryption and mandatory key escrow?

If we had the proper figures to work with then we could make a valid
judgment as to how many lives anti-GAK supporters would have to put
in danger in order to tip the balance so that it would be in the best
interests of the citizens to allow strong non-GAK'ed crypto.
I, for one, would hate to see lives lost needlessly merely because 
those opposing GAK did not have the proper figures to work with.

I think that in the interests of the greatest number of citizens, the 
government should supply solid figures as to the body count that would
be required to negate the need for laws against strong encryption.
Also, the government should provide a separate figure for how many 
lives of legislators would need to be lost in order to balance the
threat of strong encryption. I imagine that it would take far fewer
Congressman's lives to balance it out than it would average citizen's
lives.

Call your Congressman and ask if these figures are available.
In order to get the most help possible, begin the conversation by
asking the Congressman if he is in favor of saving lives.

BeanCounter