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From: henry@utzoo.UUCP (Henry Spencer)
Newsgroups: net.crypt,net.politics
Subject: Re: Libyan Crypto-Systems (was Who can be secure?)
Message-ID: <6663@utzoo.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 7-May-86 12:17:47 EDT
Article-I.D.: utzoo.6663
Posted: Wed May  7 12:17:47 1986
Date-Received: Wed, 7-May-86 12:17:47 EDT
References: <3221@reed.UUCP> <13462@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU> <782@mmm.UUCP>, <953@cylixd.UUCP>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
Lines: 15

> ... We did the same thing in WWII, with Navajo.  It
> worked for us, because no Navajo expatriates (if there were any) decided
> to work as a translator for Japan or Germany...

One of the reasons Navajo was picked, as I recall, was that it was possible
to confirm that no German or Japanese citizen or resident spoke it well.
(Other reasons:  large tribe with a considerable number of draft-age men;
difficult language that non-native speakers find hard to learn and impossible
to pronounce precisely enough to pass as a native.)

Also, it was used for tactical communications in a large war, where one or
two enemy citizens knowing it would not have been a disastrous defect.
-- 
Join STRAW: the Society To	Henry Spencer @ U of Toronto Zoology
Revile Ada Wholeheartedly	{allegra,ihnp4,decvax,pyramid}!utzoo!henry