Doug Henwood wrote:
> Margaret wrote:
>
> >there are still plenty devices and techniques that
> >effectively guarantee absolute voice privacy, even over
> >the public voice network.
>
> I just don't believe that. Maybe I'm overestimating their powers, but I
> always assume the National Security Agency can tap anything it wants to.
All one needs to do is examine the results various people obtained in the '80s of their FBI files from the '60s to know how right Doug is -- and that is without 30 years of technological improvement. But the truly horrifying thing is how deep into triviality "anything it wants to" extends. Personal assumption that what one is doing is too trivial for the FBI/NSA/CIA/DIA/State Red Squad/etc to be interested is all too often quite wrong. They really do want *you*. They wanted me 5 years before I got involved in politics (or had any idea of ever getting involved), just on the basis of a trivial bit of whimsy in a letter to the editor of the newspaper up in Marquette, Michigan.
Carrol