On Sat, Sep 15, 2001 at 01:04:45PM -0400, John Clark wrote:
> Bin Laden is a hero in much of the Islamic world but that's also a
> society that disapproves of alcohol and is astronomically puritanical,
> so what we need is someone who's good at PhotoShop. What we
> need is a picture of Bin Laden drinking a martini with his arm
> around a beautiful girl in a bikini, or better yet a gay looking young
> man in a Speedo.
I agree with Harvey - deceit is definitely anti-extropian. Personally I
consider the destruction and warping of information literal sins.
Also, there is another factor here. If the US really considers itself at
war with Bin Laden, then the laws of war apply. And one decision that
was made a few years ago when various fake Milosovic statements began to
circulate on the net was to make forging capitulation statements,
pictures or videos of enemy leaders and similar stuff a war crime. So
making a fake picture of Bin Laden might actually be a serious offence
for the moment in the US! Of course, a lot depends on whether the US is
formally at war or not, something everybody seems to be confused about.
Spike's proposal is actually very likely to backfire. Imagine dumping
faked bibles into the middle of the US bible belt. Do you think anybody
would fall for it? In fact, it is the kind of offence that would make a
lot of otherwise moderate muslims angry.
That said, I personally enjoy trickery as a solution rather than
violence. But the trickery should be efficient and more clever.
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