Path: utzoo!utgpu!watmath!clyde!att!osu-cis!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!mailrus!ames!vsi1!daver!mips!sultra!dtynan
From: dtynan@sultra.UUCP (Der Tynan)
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: Re: Soviet Access to Usenet
Summary: US Govt clearance is necessary.
Message-ID: <2680@sultra.UUCP>
Date: 29 Nov 88 00:33:24 GMT
References: <7649@well.UUCP> <8081@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU> <266@sunfs3.camex.uucp>
Distribution: na
Organization: Tynan Computers, Sunnyvale, CA
Lines: 28


Here's my 0.02 ruples worth :-)

In the first place, anyone with a security clearance can forget sending
electronic mail to a 'designated country'.  Talking to citizens of these
countries requires extensive briefing and debriefing.  It could be argued
that someone with a clearance, who posts news with 'world' distribution
has in fact, violated the above, if the USSR is connected.  Personally,
I think it is a good idea to open up links with communist countries.  I
think we could all learn something.  I'd like to see a day, when *every*
country on this planet was connected to USENET (or some variant).  The
problem, as I see it, is not whether it is a good idea, but whether it
is legally possible.  Now don't tell me that USENET is an anarchy, that
doesn't come into it.  I dislike Government of any sort, be it in the USA
or USSR.  So, I allow a Soviet site to poll my machine (or vice versa),
then one day, some unnamed US agency decides that this is a *major* problem.
So, they dispatch half-a-dozen agents, who confiscate every piece of
computing gear I own, and revoke my permanent residency status.  That's
nice.  I don't think it's that far-fetched, either.  There are a *lot*
of paranoid security services on this planet, and in this country.  If
this is to happen, it needs the sanction of the US Government (unfortunately)
unless some European site wants to implement the actual connection.
						- Der
-- 
	dtynan@zorba.Tynan.COM  (Dermot Tynan @ Tynan Computers)
	{apple,mips,pyramid,uunet}!Tynan.COM!dtynan

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