The problem is that the US govt and others have been sucked into a vortex of bad game theory. They believe we the people don't want any terrorist acts against us, or minimized as much as possible, which is roughly: none. This belief is reasonable. Worse, terrorism has become a political weapon against whoever can be characterized as asleep on the watch. The president, DHS, FBI - remember all the news articles asking why the FBI didn't act earlier on the Marathon bombers? etc. Tonight at midnight Janet Napolitano is no longer head of DHS. As many have said: What a bad job she had! Just waiting for a terrorist attack so congress et al can demand to know why. So DHS, NSA, et al sit around dreaming up ways to prevent terrorism which in some cases probably works, and in other cases is probably impossible. They seem to have hit upon this surveillance effort as a "deliverable". The govt is going to resist "engineering" efforts because as I said it's their butts on the line not yours if there's an attack. Or yours only figuratively or by some coincidence (you're actually the victim of an attack.) We have a bad feedback loop going on in govt right now. Did the brains at al Qaeda foresee this in 2001? Possibly. It's not magic -- fear of terrorism creating a feedback loop like this. There are, or were, intellectuals behind AQ, some no doubt bright. So when people ask what is the aim of terrorism I think we're living it right here. I'm not convinced that characterizing "the govt" as the evil here is entirely constructive. -- -Barry Shein The World | bzs@TheWorld.com | http://www.TheWorld.com Purveyors to the Trade | Voice: 800-THE-WRLD | Dial-Up: US, PR, Canada Software Tool & Die | Public Access Internet | SINCE 1989 *oo*