[iwar] Re: freedom of information


From: Ross Stapleton-Gray
From: amicus@well.com
To: iwar@egroups.com

Wed, 25 Oct 2000 23:51:44 -0400


fc  Wed Oct 25 20:58:14 2000
Received: from 207.222.214.225
	by localhost with POP3 (fetchmail-5.1.0)
	for fc@localhost (single-drop); Wed, 25 Oct 2000 20:58:14 -0700 (PDT)
Received: by multi33.netcomi.com for fc
 (with Netcom Interactive pop3d (v1.21.1 1998/05/07) Thu Oct 26 03:58:09 2000)
X-From_: sentto-279987-704-972532675-fc=all.net@returns.onelist.com  Wed Oct 25 22:57:51 2000
Received: from f19.egroups.com (f19.egroups.com [64.209.169.107]) by multi33.netcomi.com (8.8.5/8.7.4) with SMTP id WAA04892 for ; Wed, 25 Oct 2000 22:57:51 -0500
X-eGroups-Return: sentto-279987-704-972532675-fc=all.net@returns.onelist.com
Received: from [10.1.4.52] by f19.egroups.com with NNFMP; 26 Oct 2000 03:57:55 -0000
X-Sender: amicus@well.com
X-Apparently-To: iwar@egroups.com
Received: (EGP: mail-6_2_0); 26 Oct 2000 03:57:54 -0000
Received: (qmail 59436 invoked from network); 26 Oct 2000 03:57:54 -0000
Received: from unknown (10.1.10.27) by m8.onelist.org with QMQP; 26 Oct 2000 03:57:54 -0000
Received: from unknown (HELO postal.dn.net) (207.153.221.107) by mta2 with SMTP; 26 Oct 2000 03:57:54 -0000
Received: from home (pm-17.ppp.wdc.dn.net [207.226.188.17]) by postal.dn.net (102199-jg) with ESMTP id XAA02252 for ; Wed, 25 Oct 2000 23:57:52 -0400 (EDT)
Message-Id: <4.2.2.20001025233539.00cc18d0@90.0.0.1>
X-Sender: director#embassy.org@90.0.0.1 (Unverified)
X-Mailer: QUALCOMM Windows Eudora Pro Version 4.2.2 
To: iwar@egroups.com
In-Reply-To: <200010242310.QAA08670@all.net>
References: 
From: Ross Stapleton-Gray 
MIME-Version: 1.0
Mailing-List: list iwar@egroups.com; contact iwar-owner@egroups.com
Delivered-To: mailing list iwar@egroups.com
Precedence: bulk
List-Unsubscribe: 
Date: Wed, 25 Oct 2000 23:51:44 -0400
Reply-To: iwar@egroups.com
Subject: [iwar] Re: freedom of information
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

At 04:10 PM 10/24/00 -0700, Fred Cohen wrote:
>Next - information in the national interest:
>
>Freedom of information - as a broad concept - is not only in the
>national interest of the US, it is writen into the Constitution (Bill of
>Rights at least).  But this doesn't mean you are allowed to scream fire
>in a crowded theater when there is no fire and it does not mean that the
>US must be without secrets.

Well, what's prescribed in the Constitution, e.g., as freedom of speech and 
of assembly, is a rather abstract issue; we're seeing various intriguing 
things shake out in the details... the courts, for example, seem to 
supporting the legality of Federal government requirements for Net 
filtering, by recipients of Federal funding.  That I am free to speak does 
not guarantee that it will be easy for you to hear me, even in an Internet 
world.  (Here's as good as any a place to plug the Computers, Freedom and 
Privacy conference -- an annual "summit" for the cyber-civil-liberties 
issues community -- to be held in Boston, March 16-19.  http://www.cfp.org )

I'm intrigued by another facet of "access to information in the national 
interest:" the ability of the U.S. government to project power by "sending 
bits, and not bombs," i.e., to use the enormous leverage the U.S. has in 
access to strategic and tactical information *in lieu* of our own 
forces.  Consider, for example, a situation where the U.S. military stands 
up an operations center specifically chartered to give intelligence to 
non-U.S. forces, from satellite imagery, to early warning reports from 
SIGINT, to mundane stuff like maps.  We offer to give it to nearly anyone, 
IF their actions further U.S. interests, and we choose what it is we'll 
share.  If your country is being threatened by a neighbor, we may give you 
extensive support to your defense, but nothing on targets that would let 
you escalate.  If you're the encroacher, you may suddenly find that those 
lovely strategic sitreps you'd been getting have suddenly been cut off.

Obviously, lots of issues re the potential to degrade sources and methods, 
but just helping other countries get their defense information management 
in hand could be of great benefit.

Ross

_____________________________________________________________________
Ross Stapleton-Gray                     TeleDiplomacy, Inc.
director@embassy.org                    2503 Columbia Pike, Suite 118
                                         Arlington VA 22204
http://www.telediplomacy.com            +1 703 685-5197 / 5257 fax


-------------------------- eGroups Sponsor -------------------------~-~>
eLerts
It's Easy. It's Fun. Best of All, it's Free!
http://click.egroups.com/1/9699/14/_/595019/_/972532675/
---------------------------------------------------------------------_->

------------------
http://all.net/