IP: IF you only knew what I know

[Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>]

> Date: Sat, 29 May 1999 18:34:23 -0700 (PDT)
> From: Dan Gillmor <dgillmor () sjmercury com>
> To: Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>
>
> http://www.mercurycenter.com/svtech/columns/gillmor/docs/dg053099.htm
>
> IF you only knew what I know . . .
>
> That line is the essence of something powerful and disturbing in our
> society. It's a line that can't be refuted, because you can't prove a
> negative. It justifies secrecy. It shields lies. It muddles trust.
>
> ``If you only knew what I know,'' say law-enforcement officials when they
> insist that encryption, the scrambling of data to keep it from prying
> eyes, is so dangerous that we may have to bar Americans from holding
> private conversations online.
>
> And it's what U.S. Rep. Christopher Cox, R-Newport Beach, is saying when
> he asks us to take at face value a report made public last week by a
> committee he chaired, the Select Committee on U.S. National Security and
> Military/Commercial Concerns with the People's Republic of China. The
> scary tales of nuclear-weapons spying almost certainly will be used to
> justify new restrictions on the export of technology.