[48369] in Cypherpunks
Re: Downsizing the NSA
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (E. ALLEN SMITH)
Sun Jan 28 18:13:54 1996
Date: Sun, 28 Jan 1996 17:53 EDT
From: "E. ALLEN SMITH" <EALLENSMITH@ocelot.Rutgers.EDU>
To: tcmay@got.net
Cc: cypherpunks@toad.com
X-Envelope-To: cypherpunks@toad.com
X-Vms-To: IN%"tcmay@got.net"
From: IN%"tcmay@got.net" 28-JAN-1996 03:47:14.08
>However, as Phill notes, the NSA and other intelligence agencies are now in
that most dangerous of positions: a powerful agency or department casting
about for something to do.
Spying on citizens and keeping the keys to their private communications and
diaries is not an appropriate option.
AT&T is downsizing, IBM downsized a while back, so why couldn't the NSA
just do the right thing: admit that the Soviet threat is no more,
congratulate the victors, and downsize by 20,000 employees?
-------------------
Funny, everyone seems to forget about China. If I were dictating NSA
policies, I'd simply reassign the people to China. Admittedly, modern
cryptography makes some of it useless, but HUMINT to get (parts of) codes
is still quite possible.
-Allen
