Re: [SCARE]: "If you only knew what we know..."

Simon Spero writes:
>If I were planning such a briefing I'd probably concentrate on real cases
>that were cracked due to NSA SIGINT - especially terrorist groups
>operating with only limited state sponsorship
>
You might find hints at "the briefing" in some of the recent terrorist-porno
novels by Tom Clancey (for example). Also, "Spike" by Arnaud de Bouchgrave
(apologies for possible misspelling) is an interesting book to read between
the lines

The briefing might go something like this: "Remember the terrorist bombing of
the Libian Embassy? Well, "they" were planning to bomb the <??> embassy,
but we intercepted their messages and prevented the attack.

Martin Minow
minow@apple.com

On Fri, 24 May 1996, Martin Minow wrote:

> 
> The briefing might go something like this: "Remember the terrorist bombing of
> the Libian Embassy? Well, "they" were planning to bomb the <??> embassy,
> but we intercepted their messages and prevented the attack.
> 

Libyan embassies don't get bombed. They just have thugs shooting unarmed 
WPCs from them under protection of diplomatic immunity (I used to live in 
Pimlico, and went to college in South Kensington, and going past the 
Yvonne Fletcher memorial always got me upset

Anyway, they're not just state sponsored terrorists, they're the actual 
terrorist state, and can thus can easily get access to whatever 
crypto they want; in extrimis shipping OTPs by diplomatic pouch; it's the 
smaller, unofficial groups where the case is most easily made.

If I thought that restricting crypto were possible, I might be convinced 
by solid argument along this line, though as a Londoner and having spent 
some time working in Israel, I'm probably easier to convince than most 
people here (just about the only tube station I used to use regularly 
that wasn't hit by the IRA was Chigwell, and that isn't wholly a good 
thing :-). 

However, now that the four horses have gone, and all that's left in the
stable are the my little ponies, why slam the barn door and bop their
noses for no good reason? 

Simon