"An who shall guard the guardians?"

The Latin maxim "And who shall guard the guardians?" has some relevance to
the headlong rush into converting the U.S. into even more of a security
state than it is now.

The investigation in Atlanta is now focussing on a rent-a-cop who may have
planted the pipe bomb and then "discovered" it. Check the usual Web news
sources for more details. Whether he is the bomber or not is not the point,
which is, "who watches the cops?"

A string of arsons up and down the north-south highways of California was
finally shown to correlate with the travels up and down those highways (at
those same times) by a Glendale arson investigator!

And cases where cops have planted evidence, drugs, and guns are almost too
much a part of our culture to even notice anymore.

My point is not that all cops are corrupt. Indeed, I suspect that they are
no more corrupt proportionately than is the general population...which is
not too reassuring to me, though.

ObClipper: "Who shall guard the guardians?" While the various Clipper
proposals have putative safeguards to limit access, think of Craig
Livingstone, a rent-a-cop the Clintons hire to work on their Enemies List.
And think of the dossiers of J. Edgar Hoover. And think of Nixon. And think
of what President Pat Buchanan would do with Government Access to Keys.

No thanks, I'll lock my own doors. I have no plans to "voluntarily escrow"
my door keys with the local cops. "Secure in one's papers and person" rings
a bell, doesn't it?

--Tim May

Boycott "Big Brother Inside" software!
We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, we know that that ain't allowed.
---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:----
Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
tcmay@got.net  408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA  | knowledge, reputations, information markets,
Licensed Ontologist         | black markets, collapse of governments.
"National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."

On Cyperpunks recently, Tim May wrote:

>The Latin maxim "And who shall guard the guardians?" has some relevance to
>the headlong rush into converting the U.S. into even more of a security
>state than it is now.

About 30 (thirty) years ago, I asked the same question at a large
computer conference. Then, a representative of the FBI was presenting
the NCIC computer system that was under development at the time. This
system gives local officials access to a national database of arrest
and conviction information.

I asked the speaker how they would prevent misuse of the system by
people who had legitimate access to it. The example I used was
a deputy sheriff who ran a insurance agency on the side. The FBI
official had no answer. My question was subsequently published
a few months later in a letter to the editor in (as I recall)
Modern Data, February 1966, again without answer.

This question is also relevant to escrowed encryption: how to
prevent misuse of escrowed keys by file clerks and other people
who need access to the keys as part of their legitimate duties.
Since these keys will protect a very large amount of money (consider
the encryption keys used for interbank clearing) and since we
know from the Aldrich Ames case that $3,000,000 can buy a
high-ranking CIA employee, there are significant problems that
need to be addressed. I would suspect that a Baysian analysis
would indicate that the risk of holding (and losing) a key is
greater than the risk of not holding (and needing) a key.

Martin Minow
minow@apple.com

Timothy C. May wrote:
> ObClipper: "Who shall guard the guardians?" While the various Clipper
> proposals have putative safeguards to limit access, think of Craig
> Livingstone, a rent-a-cop the Clintons hire to work on their Enemies List.
> And think of the dossiers of J. Edgar Hoover. And think of Nixon. And think
> of what President Pat Buchanan would do with Government Access to Keys.

What President Pat Buchanan would do with Government Access to Keys, I 
wonder? (seriously)

	- Igor.

On Wed, 31 Jul 1996, Igor Chudov @ home wrote:
> Timothy C. May wrote:
> > ObClipper: "Who shall guard the guardians?" While the various Clipper
> > proposals have putative safeguards to limit access, think of Craig
> > Livingstone, a rent-a-cop the Clintons hire to work on their Enemies List.
> > And think of the dossiers of J. Edgar Hoover. And think of Nixon. And think
> > of what President Pat Buchanan would do with Government Access to Keys.
> What President Pat Buchanan would do with Government Access to Keys, I 
> wonder? (seriously)

     Probably the same as Herr Clinton.
  
Petro, Christopher C.
petro@suba.com <prefered for any non-list stuff>
snow@smoke.suba.com