Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!husc6!bloom-beacon!mit-eddie!uw-beaver!microsoft!w-colinp
From: w-colinp@microsoft.UUCP (Colin Plumb)
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: Re: Soviet Access to Usenet
Message-ID: <1025@microsoft.UUCP>
Date: 28 Nov 88 11:36:52 GMT
References: <7649@well.UUCP> <8081@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU> <17651@gatech.edu> <8114@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU> <268@lloyd.camex.uucp> <2331@cbnews.ATT.COM>  <2337@cbnews.ATT.COM> 
Reply-To: w-colinp@microsoft.UUCP (Colin Plumb)
Organization: Microsoft Corp., Redmond WA
Lines: 26
Confusion: Microsoft Corp., Redmond WA

This discussion seems to have decided that, if the KGB wants Usenet access,
it can very easily get it.  For what it's worth, I've talked to people who
know first-hand that NSA personnel do, indeed, read Usenet.

However, this isn't the sort of connection that is at all interesting.
I'd like to get a connection to the students at Moscow University.
These people don't have the resources to get a Usenet connection, and
may not even know what to ask for, but it would be most enlightening
to talk to them.

So... who knows of a group of Soviet citizens who have the machines
to run Usenet software and would be interested in talking?  That's the
first step.  Then come the technical hurdles of making a reliable
communications link.

Tangent: In my parents' office, there's a guy working who's a Soviet
Citizen.  His passport is stamped "Permanently residing in Canada".
It freaks out immigration people both sides of the Iron Curtain.

Other point: "There's nothing difficult about getting an emigration visa,
it just takes time.  I applied once.  Turned down.  Applied again.
Denied again.  Applied a third time.  Granted.  The Jews aren't treated any
worse than anyone else, they just bitch louder."  (I do not vouch for the
accuracy of this statement.)
-- 
	-Colin (microsof!w-colinp@sun.com)