Path: utzoo!utgpu!water!watmath!clyde!att-cb!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!ames!pasteur!ucbvax!BU-CS.BU.EDU!bzs
From: bzs@BU-CS.BU.EDU (Barry Shein)
Newsgroups: comp.society.futures
Subject: long-distance monitoring
Message-ID: <8804151949.AA15453@bu-cs.bu.edu>
Date: 15 Apr 88 19:49:27 GMT
References: <8804151130.aa03631@note.nsf.gov>
Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
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I suppose part of the problem for NSA et al is not so much hiding the
fact that they are doing such snooping but hiding any actions they are
taking based upon such information (for historical reference, the US
and Britain decided to not take some actions in WWII that had some
fairly serious consequences because it would lead Germany to the
inescapable conclusion that their codes had been cracked, I think this
happened with Japan also.)

Sure, some things can be done, but at some point taking action against
citizens or other agencies might lead to the question of how certain
information was obtained. It seems like a tightrope walk, either you
tip your hand or you limit yourself to only use information which
doesn't tip your hand as to how you got it.

	-Barry Shein, Boston University