[199] in Privacy_Forum
Today's Events -- The Bigger Risks Start Now
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (PRIVACY Forum)
Tue Sep 11 16:31:14 2001
Date: Tue, 11 Sep 2001 12:27:09 -0700 (PDT)
From: PRIVACY Forum <privacy@vortex.com>
Message-Id: <200109111927.MAA10680@chrome.vortex.com>
To: PRIVACY-Forum-List@vortex.com
PRIVACY Forum Bulletin
----------------------
September 11, 2001
Today's Events -- The Bigger Risks Start Now
The death count from today's events seems sure to be at least in the
thousands, perhaps the tens of thousands. It is impossible at this stage to
adequately convey the combination of grief, frustration, anger, and other
emotions that we all feel. Specific recriminations will come in due course
-- now is not the time for them.
But in a broader sense there are significant points worth mentioning now,
while these events are fresh in our minds and in fact still unfolding.
First, today's man-made disasters are more than a stunning success of
terrorist planning and activities. They also represent a stunning
condemnation of our own attitudes as a society. For many years, technology
experts and others who have expressed the view that the biggest risks would
come from relatively low-tech attacks have found themselves routinely
marginalized. Emphasis, in terms of money and political capital, have
continued to be poured into hi-tech systems (e.g. missile defense)
possessing clear conduits for the flow of defense dollars but often very
limited practical value. We saw the results in Oklahoma City, and we're
seeing the even more serious results today.
The unfortunate truth, however, is that such low-technology attacks are very
difficult to defend against. There are too many targets, and too many
opportunities. Explosives are easily available to people who want them.
Airport security has long been known to be largely window-dressing, nor is
it even theoretically possible to plug all possible security holes in such
an environment. Given enough fanaticism and money, terrorists will
frequently find ways to their goals.
The even bigger risks start right now -- not the risks of more attacks today
or tomorrow, though these may happen. Rather, we must not fail to heed the
lessons of today's events, lessons which may be easily misinterpreted. What
we should take from today is not the desire or inclination to convert our
country into a security police-state -- for that would make us little
different from our adversaries and would still not protect against
terrorism. The ultimate lesson is that the United States does not exist in
a vacuum, and must play an active role in world events. Isolationist
attitudes or policies do not insulate us from the rest of the planet, they
merely make us a more tempting target. By often not stepping up to the
plate as leaders, we encourage world events to spin along without our
sincere input, making us even more vulnerable.
We've allowed superstitions, muddy thinking, trivialities, and economic
gamesmanship to override reality and the very real dangers we've long
faced. We have two kinds of enemies in this regard -- the people out there
who want to hurt us, and our own attitudes. We need to deal with both of
these enemies, while keeping in mind the basic principles of civil
rights and responsibilities that make living in this country worthwhile.
My best wishes to you and yours.
--Lauren--
Lauren Weinstein
lauren@pfir.org or lauren@vortex.com or lauren@privacyforum.org
Tel: +1 (818) 225-2800
Co-Founder, PFIR - People For Internet Responsibility - http://www.pfir.org
Moderator, PRIVACY Forum - http://www.vortex.com
Member, ACM Committee on Computers and Public Policy
"Reality Reset" Columns - http://www.vortex.com/reality
