mbelmonte@ucsd.edu

							UCSD 0608
							La Jolla, California 92093-0608

							Tuesday 23 May 1995

Senator Dianne Feinstein
fax 231-1108

I was disappointed to learn of your attack on the First Amendment during the
recent hearings on the avilability of explosives information on the Internet. 
Information by itself causes no evil; it's people who misuse information.  If
the United States continues down the path of censorship and intolerance that it
seems to be choosing, it will only alienate more of its people and thus create a
vicious circle of frustration and more violence.

Explosives manuals have been on the net, in groups such as
rec.arts.pyrotechnics, for at least the past decade.  Why are you so suddenly
interested in banning them?  The Encyclopedia Britannica contains all the
information necessary to manufacture ANFO, the explosive used in the Oklahoma
bombing.  Would you like to ban the Encyclopedia Britannica?

The Information War is as misguided and counterproductive as the Drug War.  It
must be stopped.  Listen to what Senator Leahy, the Center for Democracy and
Technology, the American Civil Liberties Union, the Electronic Frontier
Foundation, and other responsible commentators are saying.  Don't be fooled by
shortsightedness and media-fuelled hysteria.

I couldn't find your email address anywhere; please let me know what it is. 
Thanks.


					Matthew Belmonte