🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <2476@jade.BERKELEY.EDU>, jmm@thoth16.BERKELEY.EDU writes:
>                      Why shouldn't people at NSA be reading postings?
> And what's wrong with them using keywords to find articles that might
> be of interest to them?  In fact, having this ability would be nice in
> standard rn.

(1)  It's not that the NSA reads public postings; they also read all
the personal email that crosses the US border (e.g. by phone or
telegram).  If you send some mail via utzoo or seismo!mcvax, they
probably see it.  It would be nice for civil rights if this was against
the law, but the NSA is too wired into Congress to see that happen.  It
takes at least a bureaucrat's signature (not a judge or the Attorney
General, since the ECPA) to tap communications between citizens, but
they can tap anything between a citizen and a non-citizen.  Of course,
they find it hard to tell who outside (or inside) the US is a citizen,
so they err on the side of listening to citizens too.

(2)  I've heard that the NSA has more than a few IMPs and hosts on the
Arpanet.  For example, "dockmaster.arpa" is an incognito NSA site.  My pet theory
is that they get copies of all the packets that go in or out of the
Arpanet.  This could explain why the net is so clogged -- and why the
government is being so nice about letting the Arpanet be the long
distance backbone of everybody's noncommercial TCP/IP networks.  If it goes
through their facilities, they can read it legally!!!  If I was funding
the Arpanet and I was the NSA, I for damn sure would be getting copies
of all those packets by all those subversive researchers and students :-).
Remember too, Arpanet access is Nirvana for "WarGames" style system
crackers -- and the NSA can watch *them* learn and explore.

(3)  I agree that keyword scanning software and hardware would be nice.
Maybe we can get the NSA to post some of their programs.  Since they
were written by the government, they are public domain (because the
copyright law doesn't allow the government to own original copyright
in a work -- if our taxes payed to have it done, it's ours.)  We could
request them under the Freedom of Information Act.  I doubt a keyword
scanner would be held by a judge to be privileged under "national insecurity"
guidelines.  Maybe a simple request would pry things loose:

	Dear NSA:

		We know you're out there.

		Please post some good programs for scanning text based
		on keyword searches.

		Thank you.

				Sincerely,

				John Gilmore
				citizen and loyal subject
-- 
John Gilmore  {sun,ptsfa,lll-crg,ihnp4}!hoptoad!gnu    gnu@ingres.berkeley.edu
  Overheard at a funeral: "I know this may be an awkward time, but do
  you recall him ever mentioning source code?"		-- Charles Addams