Fw: US Congress already discussing bans on strong crypto

[<mark@xxxxxxx>]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Matthew Keay" <m@xxxxxxx>
To: <mark@xxxxxxx>
Sent: Thursday, September 13, 2001 11:44 PM
Subject: FW: US Congress already discussing bans on strong crypto


> You might want to forward this to the list..? Or maybe a little too
OT?
>
> Matthew.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-advocacy@xxxxxxx [mailto:owner-advocacy@xxxxxxx]On
> Behalf Of Brett Glass
> Sent: 13 September 2001 23:21
> To: advocacy@xxxxxxx
> Subject: US Congress already discussing bans on strong crypto
>
>
> http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,46816,00.html
>
>    Congress Mulls Stiff Crypto Laws
>    By Declan McCullagh (declan@xxxxxxx)
>    1:45 p.m. Sep. 13, 2001 PDT
>
>    WASHINGTON -- The encryption wars have begun.
>
>    For nearly a decade, privacy mavens have been worrying that a
>    terrorist attack could prompt Congress to ban
>    communications-scrambling products that frustrate both police
wiretaps
>    and U.S. intelligence agencies.
>
>    Tuesday's catastrophe, which shed more blood on American soil than
any
>    event since the Civil War, appears to have started that process.
>
>    Some politicians and defense hawks are warning that extremists such
as
>    Osama bin Laden, who U.S. officials say is a crypto-aficionado and
the
>    top suspect in Tuesday's attacks, enjoy unfettered access to
>    privacy-protecting software and hardware that render their
>    communications unintelligible to eavesdroppers.
>
>    In a floor speech on Thursday, Sen. Judd Gregg (R-New Hampshire)
>    called for a global prohibition on encryption products without
>    backdoors for government surveillance.
>
>    "This is something that we need international cooperation on
and we
>    need to have movement on in order to get the information that
allows
>    us to anticipate and prevent what occurred in New York and in
>    Washington," Gregg said, according to a copy of his remarks
that an
>    aide provided.
>
>    President Clinton appointed an ambassador-rank official, David
Aaron,
>    to try this approach, but eventually the administration abandoned
the
>    project.
>
>    Gregg said encryption makers "have as much at risk as we have
at risk
>    as a nation, and they should understand that as a matter of
>    citizenship, they have an obligation" to include decryption
methods
>    for government agents. Gregg, who previously headed the
appropriations
>    subcommittee overseeing the Justice Department, said that such
access
>    would only take place with "court oversight."
>
>    [...]
>
>    Frank Gaffney of the Center for Security Policy, a hawkish think
tank
>    that has won accolades from all recent Republican presidents, says
>    that this week's terrorist attacks demonstrate the government must
be
>    able to penetrate communications it intercepts.
>
>    "I'm certainly of the view that we need to let the U.S.
government
>    have access to encrypted material under appropriate circumstances
and
>    regulations," says Gaffney, an assistant secretary of defense
under
>    President Reagan.
>
>    [...]