Congress mulls crypto restrictions in response to attacks

[Bill Frantz]

At 1:59 PM -0700 9/13/01, Declan McCullagh wrote:
>http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,46816,00.html
>
>    Congress Mulls Stiff Crypto Laws
>    By Declan McCullagh (declan at wired.com)
>    1:45 p.m. Sep. 13, 2001 PDT
>
>    WASHINGTON -- The encryption wars have begun.
>
...
>    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.
>
...
>
>    [...]
>
>    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.
>
>    [...]
>
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------

So the honorable gentlemen are proposing unilateral crypto disarmament?  Or
perhaps a world where many governments can read the business plans and
strategies of US companies?  Or perhaps a world where the terrorists
themselves can read the travel plans of their targets?


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Bill Frantz           | My heart goes out to   | Periwinkle -- Consulting
(408)356-8506         | those directly affected| 16345 Englewood Ave.
frantz at pwpconsult.com | by the 9/11/01 attack. | Los Gatos, CA 95032, USA





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