Today's San Diego Union Tribune has a locally-written article on the investigation into the murder of the Mexican cardinal by drug gangs. The title is "Drug gangs eavesdrop on rivals", and begins as follows:L "TIJUANA - The two rival drug gangs whose attempts to kill each other's leadership have left a Mexican cardinal and six others dead apparently have been using sophisticated electronic gear to monitor each other's movements, Mexican authorities reported yesterday. "In addition to the assault rifles, grenades and police and army uniforms being discovered in a series of safe houses, Mexican federal police are reporting finding devices designed to trace and monitor calls made from cellular telephones. "They also are finding sophisticated communications-monitoring equipment, walkie-talkies, tape recorders and pages upon pages of documents." The article continues with other developments in the investigation unrelated to electronic eavesdropping. A few (semi-serious) thoughts come to mind: 1. Perhaps the government doesn't want secure telephones in the hands of the drug lords not so much because it will thwart wiretapping by law enforcement, but because it will protect the gangs from each other -- and they aren't inhibited by Constitutional requirements. 2. Gee. I thought the cellular eavesdropping problem was completely solved by the recent ban on cellular-capable scanners. 3. I can't wait for the Federales to discover computers with PGP in one of these safehouses. And when it does, expect all hell to break loose in the crypto propaganda war. Phil