gpgsm and expired certificates

[Johan Wevers]

On 2-11-2013 15:36, Robert J. Hansen wrote:

> I can't help but think, as I see the tenor of the discussion about the
> NSA, that there are probably thousands of good and decent people in that
> agency who are concerned with following the law and respecting civil
> liberties -- and they probably feel an awful lot like Marshal Kane right
> now, wondering whether it's even worth it.

Perhaps. But those people make me think more off whet we call here
"major in wartime": during WW2, some majors kept their position under
the Germans with the intention to prevent someone worse (like a member
of the local Nazi party) to take the post and to prevent as much cruelty
as possible. This turned out to be nearly impossible, and after the war
those majors were ot looked kindly uppon. You can't keep your hands
clean when you take such a post.

Another example would be the countless Stasi employees who really
thought they were doing the people a favor by defending them against
those evil capitalists. The people mostly didn't agree.

The NSA employees might think they are protecting the people against
someone worse than they are, but in many places outside the US the US is
now seen as the primary enemy. Not that we like terrorists that much,
but we have reached the point where the US causes more problems and
deaths of innocents than its enemies. Especially because they more or
less admit that all non-US citizens are fair game.

> They are not practicing guilt by suspicion.  They are practicing, "hey,
> let's collect as much information as possible on this crime so that we
> can find the truly guilty person."

Another problem with the US, they tend to make out for others what
"crimes" are. The wars on drugs and copyright infringement are typical
examples of where the pressure of the US goes against the interests of
the people in other countries (and even their own).

> Police do not determine guilt.  Courts determine guilt.  Police are in
> the business of collecting information.  In a very real sense, police
> are a domestic intelligence agency.

That would be true in an ideal world. In the real world the police is
often in the buisiness of fabricating and / or witholding evidence.

-- 
Met vriendelijke groet / With kind regards,
Johan Wevers

PGP/GPG public keys at http://www.xs4all.nl/~johanw/pgpkeys.html