Slashdot Mirror
Interim Response from Philip Zimmermann
Overreaction to Washington Post ArticleIt seems that my recent clarification of how I was represented in the 21 September Washington Post article has itself created a deluge of harsh criticism of the Washington Post and the reporter who wrote the article.
People seem to be assuming the Washington Post is part of some grand conspiracy to restrict the availability of strong cryptography. I would like to say that this is an overreaction and a misinterpretation on the part of these critics.
I believe this was an honest misunderstanding by the people at the Post, and I never meant to imply in my previous clarification that this was done on purpose or with any malicious intent. On the contrary, I believe the Post worked hard to be fair in the story and had the best of intentions when they ran it.
Further, I'd like to say that all the individual facts and quotes were reported correctly. But the Post connected the dots in a slightly different way to conclude that I was feeling guilty even though I was simply feeling grief and anger just like everyone else since the attacks occurred. Overall, I thought the article was fine except for that one line that says I was "overwhelmed with guilt."
My purpose for sending out my original clarification was not to criticize the Post but to assure everyone that I am still standing firm on my convictions that PGP and other strong encryption products should be available to the public, with no back doors.
Through the years of coverage the Post has given the issue of cryptography restrictions, I have never detected any bias at the Post to promote restrictions on crypto. In fact, if they have any bias at all, it seems to be in the other direction. They helped me when I needed to keep the Justice Department at bay in 1995. We will need them again in the coming weeks as we in the crypto community attempt to keep the freedoms we have, as legislators try to impose new restrictions on strong crypto.
I find this jihad of criticism of the Post to be inappropriate. I can easily tell from talking with the reporter that her intentions were good. It is grossly unfair to punish her with all this hate mail. It's embarrassing to me and damaging to her. If anyone in the world of journalism wants any further clarification from me on that reporter's competence or journalistic integrity, feel free to call me directly and I will explain it to you in more detail.
I am in London at a data security conference, without as much Internet access as I have at home, so I cannot keep writing about this matter for much longer. I hope this letter is enough to put this matter to rest.
Sincerely,
Philip Zimmermann-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: PGP 7.0.3iQA/AwUBO7ILqcdGNjmy13leEQLryACfffYuStFXNTC0aWnJStMEAWsbQSgAn0ID d2bqoxnEbABk+1V/edlzC84A =uBHG
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
That's the BEST time to interview someone, sure the answers you get might not make sense sometimes, but it really shows how a person feels, which is the point of the interview! And plus, you'd think someone with the smarts of Zimmerman would be able to articulate himself in any situation! Is he scared of what might happen to him if he says what he really thinks?? Labeled as a terrorist??
Pretty Good for Pterrorism.
Him and all the other paranoids imbeciles in the
US who have whined on about their "rights" to
100% privacy so the nasty (democratically elected)
government can't snoop on their email. How many
more people will have to die before this childish
1960s obsession with the government being some
clandestine organisation hell bent on oppressing
its citizens finally goes the way of the dodo.
If any of you morons really believe you live in
an oppresive state go live in afganistan and you'll
find out what oppression really means.
If PGP was used in the setting up of the WTC
terror then Zimmerman has blood on his hands
whether he likes it or not.
youth tho theckthy mithther commanther thacko, thtick your corncob up my cornhole.....there ya go thweetie
In one the recent articles about the FreeCDDB situation, Taco mentioned that he used to contribute information to Gracenote's CDDB. After spending all night ripping my CDs to MP3, I was shocked to discover how many spelling errors are in the meta-data, i.e. I have several albums from "Chris Isaak" and one from "Chris Isaack". It all makes sense now...
"I find this jihad of criticism of the Post to be inappropriate. I
can easily tell from talking with the reporter that her intentions
were good. It is grossly unfair to punish her with all this hate
mail."
Smells like slashdot crowd usual reactions to similar matters.
Can't we expect a little more from this crowd?
Can't we have a dialog without having the word "hate" mentionned?
go ahead and mod me as flambait...
I piss on Mecca. I menstruate on the Koran. I shit on Mohammed.
Sorry for the anonymous post, but it often seems the people who defend the absolute right to cryptography are a lot like fundamentalist religious zealots who will tolerate no differing opinion from theirs and nothing short of 100 percent of what they believe is the only way. Why all the urgency? Your personal email needs to be strong-encrypted? How important are you? The government wants to read your messages to friends about the new Star Trek? Gimme a break.