A local NYC TV show, The Digital Age, today had David Kahn and Steve Levy discussing crypto, bin Laden and 911 with the show's host, James Goodale, former vice-chairman of the New York Times. The topic was what role encryption may have played in 911. Steve was persuasive in noting that crypto should not be singled out as a lethal technology for terrorism any more than other technology that could be put to malign uses. Cypherpunks got a plug from Steve for making encryption "hip." Though Goodale attempted to get Steve to agree that it was not a good thing for crypto to be liberated from government control, Steve wouldn't buy that, and he credited cypherpunks with a principal role in popularizing and spreading the technology, along with Phil Zimmermann's PGP effort. David Kahn agreed with Steve that there was nothing that could be done about loss of government control of encryption, the technology was out there for all to use for good or bad purposes. David reaffirmed his belief that key escrow would have been best for the country's security, but now it was no longer possible. (We heard David state that a few years back at a crypto conference in NYC.) David was emphatic that public key cryptography is the single most important invention in the entire history of cryptography. Diffie and Hellman were cited, but not the British predecessors.