From: Bill Stewart <bill.stewart@pobox.com>
Date: Mon, 22 Dec 1997 17:53:44 +0800
To: "Bruce Balden" <cypherpunks@toad.com>
Subject: Re: Frank Olson
In-Reply-To: <01bd0d9e$6ed6b2c0$69737018@eudoxus.bc.rogers.wave.ca>
Message-ID: <3.0.3.32.19971222014649.0069a4a4@popd.ix.netcom.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
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At 03:24 PM 12/20/1997 -0800, Bruce Balden wrote:
>At that time, snail mail was pretty safe even from the spooks (with certain
>precautions). So what's your point?  If the military-industrial complex
>wants to ruin your life, it's the guns and fences and dogs that ultimately
>tell the story, cause your unbreakable cipher to be compromised yourself
>under truth drugs, etc.  The bureaucractic mess surrounding key recovery
>would probably make most spooks look for much more low-tech methods of
>compromising your security.

I won't comment on the truth or bogosity of the story, 
but as far as snail mail goes, US mail at least into the early 60s
was cheaper if you left the envelopes unsealed (like 4c vs. 5c.)
I got the impression it was a leftover from wartime censorship.

And email to some foreign destinations was inherently suspicious -
like Swiss banks.  I once knew a guy who used a remailer for his
mail to his bank - he'd mail it to Raoul at the Tijuana post office,
who'd take the cash and mail the inner envelope to the bank.

Mail covers have been legal for a long time as well -
as with pen registers on phones, they don't need a warrant to
track your traffic.
				Thanks! 
					Bill
Bill Stewart, bill.stewart@pobox.com
PGP Fingerprint D454 E202 CBC8 40BF  3C85 B884 0ABE 4639