From: nobody@REPLAY.COM (Anonymous)
Date: Tue, 25 Nov 1997 09:49:04 +0800
To: cypherpunks@Algebra.COM
Subject: Re: Iraq and computers
Message-ID: <199711250133.CAA09163@basement.replay.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----

Michael Wilson wrote that Reuters wrote:
>WASHINGTON (November 23, 1997 02:35 a.m. EST http://www.nando.net) -
>To conceal its deadliest arms from U.N. weapons inspectors, Iraq has
>increasingly turned to U.S.-made computers sold in Baghdad since the
>end of the 1991 Gulf War in violation of international sanctions, the
>Los Angeles Times reported in its Sunday editions.
>
>Quoting U.S. officials and U.N. diplomats, the newspaper said that
>Iraqi scientists and defense officials are using Western-made
>computers to transfer data from bulky papers to small disks that can
>be easily dispersed, making the information difficult for inspectors
>to track.

This is an interesting development because it also makes it hard for
the Iraqi government to track what is going on, too.  The government
of Iraq has been aware of the dangers of computers for many years.  At
one time they were tightly controlled.  Even typewriters were
controlled.  The government had writing samples of each one.

Now, apparently, this policy is loosening.  This suggests that U.S.
policy of the last 8 years has managed to achieve what Saddam Hussein
could not - it has made the Hussein regime a genuinely popular
government.

Still, it can't be universally popular.  How many cypherpunks live in
Iraq?

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

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: 2.6.2

iQEVAwUBNHoZopaWtjSmRH/5AQG9ogf9FFdBqiwOk3gekieqIg3+Yr5pdaYM5/4v
lIHPYuPM5IMpe8Wc1DX1FzG4YUC4hGMtj4w6eU8KNc3bSESVDPcU2boUVJtDjQp2
jUh13tKM/s6kwjQXKjH9j5G0cr1fsMrP9v7T4qNSEUA9VV8xI/Zqq7t/jLxncjSC
jodmc/IcO5gPwxuvHLw8FR0/qpxuNJXSNWqzBptbT8vHldyPLg1E6rCOdWdNsDdN
kvzyW9EXLbNWweK3ezFaWniytRbxE99poJN3iNcdsxjg94otIEpS3oCAJjuCmyrf
HYRfv/Z5yzqpY5doAtdfy5RkvREwrINvCtLn+hgcBxQ0YTEDO8zUUg==
=jyt7
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----