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Newsgroups: bit.listserv.deaf-l
Date:         Thu, 27 Aug 1992 11:31:00 -0700
From:         "Bryce Carey, CNS,
              Admin. Sys. Group" <CAREY_B@CUBLDR.COLORADO.EDU>
Subject:      Re: cia and soapboxes

From:  carey_b@cubldr.colorado.edu
(NOTE: This is a political comment, and may offend R-people. It has
little to do with Deaf-list.)

Yo, Kirk!

You make some nice points about the Internet and the volume of traffic and
the sheer difficulties of scanning for keywords.

I disagree with you that it would be terribly difficult for the NSA
or the CIA to monitor communications on here to discover who is naughty
and who is nice (THEIR definitions, of course.)

Actually, it would not take very much for the government to monitor all
this Listserv traffic. They don't need to hide in any particular node or
do anything exotic like transparent line monitoring. All they need to
do is SUBSCRIBE to this network just the same as you and I are doing.

True, this might not trap private communications, but if people are
blithely chatting away on open forums about a topic, one can assume
that they are also doing somewhat more in private e-mail, and one can
then target THOSE potential naughty people for special scrutiny. That
narrows down the computing task quite a bit. It isn't the random
reference to terms like CIA or revolution that counts, it is the pattern
of repeated comments that counts.

Smart people are considered dangerous. This network is LOADED with
smart people.

Methinks ye are a little TOO trusting, Kirk!  But then, perhaps in
Wyoming you have not had to learn suspicion of your local coyotes.
Perhaps I am the NSA agent on this network. How would you know?
Any one of us could be a computer composite. Some of 'us' who write
in pidgin English (under the influence of ASL grammar) could be
computer programs connected to Neural programs (there's one for
Bosco...) that are designed to elicit revolutionary commentary
from unwary participants. Maybe Anne, who posted this thread in
the first place, was assigned by the CIA to smoke ME out into the
open. (Howdy, Annie--- you get a raise!)

Yeah, Yeah, I know this is AMERICA and we can all trust the government and
grand-daddy Reagan to take care of us. I lived thru Watergate. My parents
lived thru the Red baiting blackballs of the House Unamerican committee
and the Joe McCarthy years. I read the daily papers. I don't have too many
illusions that it takes HUGE GOVERNMENT secret societies to destroy people
and free speech and personal liberties. Just re-electing George Bush is
GUARANTEED to do a fair amount of further destruction in the Judiciary.
Do you REALLY think Justice Thomas was the "Best" candidate that Bush
could find, as he claimed? Heaven help us all if that is true.

No point in getting paranoid, just vote for the Bill of Rights every time.
Maybe then we will still have it.

Last time I looked, people were still voting in private voter booths,
and out here in Boulder, Colorado, we still use paper ballots.

So just be cheerfully aware that SOMEONE can watch you if you open your
mouth or type on this network. Just be sure what you say is what you are
willing to defend. Free speech isn't so "free" sometimes. Value it.

-Bryce
Comments: Gated by NETNEWS@AUVM.AMERICAN.EDU