Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!unisoft!hoptoad!dasys1!tneff
From: tneff@dasys1.UUCP (Tom Neff)
Newsgroups: comp.misc
Subject: Re: Soviet Access to Usenet
Message-ID: <7848@dasys1.UUCP>
Date: 21 Nov 88 22:36:52 GMT
References: <7649@well.UUCP> <8081@bloom-beacon.MIT.EDU> <17651@gatech.edu>
Reply-To: tneff@dasys1.UUCP (Tom Neff)
Organization: Independent Users Guild
Lines: 26

I must certainly agree with Ken Seefried's remarks and join in
rebutting Alan Denner.  It's sheerest self aggrandizement to suppose
that anything we talk about in Usenet news would be a threat in Soviet
hands.  (I doubt even the KGB waste their time with it, and if they do,
I have a quick cost cutting measure to suggest to Gorby. :-)  As for
the supposed danger of the Arpanet link - I have no more right to see
what Arpa talks about than Roald Sagdeyev does, but no one suggests
curtailing my net access because of it.  Sensitive info has no business
on the public net - and it's Arpa's job to keep it off, not ours.  We
are already happily exchanging news with UK, Netherlands, Oz and
elsewhere with no problems.  Even Israel, and this after Pollard.  So
don't waste bandwidth arguing it's an unacceptable security risk.

We should concentrate on the stimulus value of the technical and
cultural exchange a USSR/Usenet link would offer.  From Draper's
enjoyable "Hacker's View" article it appears there are some real
hotshot programmers over there, folks not unlike ourselves who,
however, don't have any inkling of how great the electronic community
is.  If the benefits of including them really don't outweigh the risks,
someone will have to come up with some more convincing risks. :-)
Besides which, if it's to be disallowed I'm sure the State Dept. will
eagerly do the hatchet work...  why do it for them.
-- 
Tom Neff			UUCP: ...!cmcl2!phri!dasys1!tneff
	"None of your toys	CIS: 76556,2536	       MCI: TNEFF
	 will function..."	GEnie: TOMNEFF	       BIX: t.neff (no kidding)