WADD QSSYJEC DQFSEQVUF :)

The US would seem to be making fast and furious backwards progress in the area of crypto these days in the name of 'homeland security'. I have a keen interest in cryptologic history and have collected quite a few volumes on Bletchley Park, The NSA, WWII codebreaker memoirs, signals intelligence, Station Y,Enigma and Purple among others. Since I'm working on several historical cipher Perl modules it makes me concerned as to just how far this 'anti-crypto frenzy' will go. I've asked the people at HavenCo to keep a non-public CPAN mirror just to make me feel better. I also received Cryptologia today in the post so at least there is some hope for the continued flow of journal and historical information.

Jarkko and I visited Kayenta, Arizona on our way to Monument Valley and Kayenta is home to the Navajo Code Talkers Museum. I was rather disappointed and sad that the museum was in the local Burger King until we learned that the owner of the Burger King was the son of a Code Talker. The Navajo language was still considered classified by the US Government until 1967. This year the codetalkers have finally, at long last, received recognition for their invaluable contribution to the success of the Allies in the Pacific Theatre and there is even a movie, Windtalkers , which was about to be released in November but has been moved back to June 2002. Another movie, Enigma about the Bletchley Park efforts to crack the German cipher, was moved back from October to sometime early 2002 as well.

Stay informed on the issues and shop at Bletchley Park for a very nice selection of books and your very own "BP Britain's Best Kept Secret Rubber [ eraser ]" :) And hope that the zeal to protect the US doesn't actually become a war on privacy, civil liberties and the academic freedom to study cryptography outside the boundaries of the NSA.