Remembering Oklahoma.

I just want to make one point that the 10th anniversary of the bombing of the Federal Office building in Oklahoma brings to mind. For me it was the first breaking news that I heard over the Internet. I was in the early stage of operating an ISP (rust.net now owned by Verio). In those days, the Internet was so new that the press was looking for any angle on a story that included the Internet. In this case Timothy Mcveigh had ties to the Michigan Militia who used the Internet to communicate! I remember rushing down to the television studios in Detroit to tape interviews (OK, cut to the hand on the mouse shot) on how extremist groups were using the Internet.

Today this seems almost ludicrous. Everyone uses the Internet to communicate. Yet the story never dies. This article resurrects the scare tactics of those days. Other recent press claims that terrorists use web sites and email to organize their efforts. As if communicating via the Internet makes some nefarious behavior worse.

We have entered that era where everyone has finally gotten up to speed on the Internet. For all I know there are wiki sites for plotting terrorist attacks. There are certainly auction sites for stolen credit cards.

Just keep in mind, the bad guys are bad, not the medium they use to communicate.