Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!lll-winken!lll-lcc!ames!pasteur!ucbvax!RUTGERS.EDU!bellcore!bpa!vu-vlsi!snark!eric
From: bellcore!bpa!vu-vlsi!snark!eric@RUTGERS.EDU
Newsgroups: comp.society.futures
Subject: Re: Better not - UUCP to USSR?
Message-ID: <8802291850.AA15821@snark.UUCP>
Date: 29 Feb 88 23:50:05 GMT
Sender: usenet@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU
Organization: The Internet
Lines: 33

>> There hae been much talk of setting up a link between
>> West and EE-SU.
>>
>> I'd warn you that it would probably be a big mistake. I
>> would be afraid that they read something in
>> "talk.politics.soviet" and get peoples' names on lists.
>>
>> They have their fingers in more things than you can imagine.
>>
>>    -- Anatole Olczak <metropolis!anatole%sun.com%bu-cs.bu.edu@bu-it.bu.edu>
> 
>I'm not sure just what you're worried about.  By "they" are you referring to
>the CIA?

I suppose the person who emitted this reply thought he was being clever.
Unlike some emigres of my acquaintance, he has never had to live in fear of
KGB goon squads.

Here is a fact: in the Soviet Union, "defamation of the Soviet State" is a
crime for which you can be thrown in jail. Or "treated" with mind-destroying
drugs. Or sent to Siberia. Or simply shot.

And, glasnost or no glasnost, these things are still happening to hundreds
(possibly thousands) of dissidents every year.

It could be *literally* more than a Soviet citizen's life is worth to be a
known participant in some of what goes on in, say, talk.politics.misc. Ask
anyone who has lived there as a native.

Is that clear enough for you?

      Eric S. Raymond              (the mad mastermind of TMN-Netnews)
      UUCP:  {{seismo,ihnp4,rutgers}!cbmvax,sdcrdcf!burdvax,vu-vlsi}!snark!eric
      Post:  22 South Warren Avenue, Malvern, PA 19355    Phone: (215)-296-5718