Here is what I want to do.
Im viewing usenet lists, compiled of many mails from many sources, from
all sorts of people. Or a digest of mails, in RFC 934 format, obtained
from an ftp source.
Ronald Reagan <reagan(_at_)eop(_dot_)gov> says in one forwarded mail I read
"Lets
bomb Russia", or at least thats what the forwarded From field implies.
Now, I want to know whether or not its reasonable to believe that the
US President (the person suggested to me by the From field) originated
that memo, and thereby the comment, or not. I have a built in tendency
to believe that a US president would not say such a thing. However,
this may be my error, or an error introduced by an imposter. Or perhaps
its an original private joke amongst friends, which should not have
been forwarded to a public outlet. Who knows?
So I need reassurance from my security service given my natural
tendencies - in order to override my scepticism of the RFC 822's
liability to messaging fraud and imposture.
Thats all PEM has to do at heart to achieve its original Internet
mission.
Now, will the design on the table do this when we deploy it, or not?
or are their modes which break this goal?
There are no valid ifs, or buts, from the designers or service
operators when users are reading offline digests of messages.
Now, I'm a journalist who has just received a signed (old) forwarded
siged memo from deepthroat2(_at_)eop(_dot_)gov, saying "GianFranco, Assasinate
JFK
in Dallas", seemingly From: Hoover <hoov(_at_)mcimail(_dot_)com>,
(a) can I believe my anonymous source is in the Executive Office, and
(b) can I believe Hoover was the originator of the comment, all those
years ago.
(c) should I assume a connection between the Mafia, and the
Hoover vacuum company, and sell all my shares in this manufacturing
company?
(d) or is some politician trying to discredit the Hoover
Foundation with the unwary, perhaps?
Once again, strained humour aside, does the design on the table do this when we
deploy it?
Do we care any more about these goals?