[Cryptography] NSA voting on TLS encryption at the IETF TLS WG

[Andrew Lee]

Dear Paul,

> On Jul 7, 2026, at 8:02 PM, Paul Wouters <paul at nohats.ca> wrote:
> 
> On Thu, 2 Jul 2026, Andrew Lee wrote:
> 
>> The Clipper chip failed because the very people that are right here, and others, fought it.
>> 
>> It was a great win for the Cypherpunks.
> 
> I agree it was. We did a great job.
> 

This message seems to imply you were directly involved in fighting Clipper chip. Were you?

> That doesn't mean that we should not force everyone to a single
> algorithm combination. Perhaps you have now seen what a large
> overlap between Cypherpunks and IETF there is, and that you
> are not really getting a different response here than at IETF,
> and that asking us with emotional pleas to perform ballot stuffing
> of another organization that doesn't even have a ballot box,

I don’t think this is an accurate description of the record. I shared information about the IETF process to this cryptography related mailing list with a brief description of the events that have occurred. I did not tell anyone how to vote.

Example list of those opposing publication:
Dr. Bernstein
Dr. Tanja Lange
Dr. Nadim Kobeissi
Dr. Orr Dunkelman
Dr. Fabiana Da Pieve (EU Commission PQC Team Leader)
Dr. Jacob Appelbaum
etc.

Example list of those supporting publication:
NSA Employee
NSA Employee
NSA Employee
GCHQ Employee
DoD Employee
Google Employee

> is
> as inappropriate as lifting a single sentence from an IAB appeal
> text to suggest to readers that the IAB granted an appeal when in
> fact they denied that appeal (as did the IESG)
> 

I think the phrase I’ve been pulling from the IAB’s message is that you “did not accurately describe the record,” Paul.

> Paul Wouters (paul at cypherpunks.ca and also the IETF Security Area
> Director for the first two years of this document's drama lifecycle)
> 

This is certainly a cool e-mail address, but I’m confused why you are pasting that e-mail here. Is this some kind of show and tell?

As for the two years of being the IETF SAD in charge of this document, it’s unfortunate that, under your leadership, you were described by the IAB the way that you were and, as a result, this process is in its third WGLC.

Best,
Andrew