Phil Zimmermann Replies To CNet On Biden

A couple of days ago we discussed a CNet article on the tech voting record of Joe Biden, Barack Obama's running mate. Philip Zimmermann, who was mentioned in that piece, sends the following note to set the record straight. "In his 23 August opinion piece in CNet, Declan McCullagh wrote on Joe Biden's suitability as the Democratic VP nominee, Declan quotes me, creating the impression I criticized Biden for some legislation that Biden introduced in 1991. Declan's quote from me is out of context because it does not make it clear that I never mentioned Biden in my original quote at all when I wrote about Senate Bill 266. Second, Declan's quote is drawn from remarks I wrote in 1999. Declan seems to be trying to draft me in his opposition to Biden, and, by extension, makes it seem as if I am against the Democratic ticket. I take issue with this." Read below for the rest of Phil's comments.

When someone serves in the Senate for 30 years, we have to judge them by their whole body of work. Much has happened since 1991. I don't know what Biden's position would be today on the issue of encryption, but I would imagine it has changed, because I can't think of any politicians today who would try to roll back our hard-won gains in our right to use strong crypto. In fact, considering the disastrous erosion in our privacy and civil liberties under the current administration, I feel positively nostalgic about Biden's quaint little non-binding resolution of 1991.

Declan's article seems to imply that I would prefer McCain over the Democratic ticket. But McCain's stated policies on wiretapping, the Patriot Act and other policies that undermine privacy and civil liberties are a seamless continuation on the current administration's policies.

Comments

Re:The fight isn't over!

[ppanon]

Given that after 9/11 polls showed many (the majority?) Americans were indifferent at best about terrorist suspects being tortured I'm not sure how well Obama could counter such an ad.

I would be interested in seeing these poll results since

• Most interrogation experts criticize torture as ineffective because the information that is extracted is unreliable
• A number of interrogation experts were quite vocal about the previous point to whover would be willing to listen
• The whole point of the Fox show 24 was to sell torture to USA citizens as a valid tool against terrorism using hypothetical "in-extremis" situations
• The prisoner mistreatment and torture that was performed at Abu-Ghraib caused a huge scandal and was widely unpopular (not just worldwide but in the states as well), to the extent that the administration disavowed responsibility and blamed it on "bad apples"

Your claims don't seem to match events, so unless you can point to actual poll results, your claim sounds like the usual GOP apologist and revisionist whitewash to me. Now if that was a typo and you meant GOP pols., I'll believe you.