Paraphrasing the "Wired" item, "No person who has ever received "The Briefing" has ever again argued forcefully for the rights of citizens to use strong cryptography."
I surmise that either Sen. Burns has not yet been given The Briefing, or he is for some reason more resistant than most other burrowcrats to the scare tactics used in The Briefing.
I sure would like to know what's in this briefing.
perhaps the "four horsemen of the infocalypse" (terrorists, child pornographers, drug dealers, money launderers) only scratches the surface. seriously though, it's possible to imagine some things. 1. there could be some info on how the NSA foiled various horrible james-bond like plots for governments to destroy the world 2. information on terrorists using cryptography, to create a kind of link in the mind of the feebleminded 3. nuclear secrets. defense secrets. information on state-of-the-art weapons systems that are subject to spying and espionage. creating the impression that any private crypto would tend to totally destabilize the "stability" of the world, upheld by the NSA of course 4. another classic NSA/secret society trick is to say, "you are a special person. we can't tell everyone what we are going to tell you now, but you have reached a position wherein you have earned this privilege. you are going to become a warrior in the fight against world tyranny. few know about us. we are the few, the proud." in short, I think the Briefing probably has a lot of psychological theater going on to create an aura of reverence even if the info is not all that substantial. things like talking about who else knows the info, how private it is, what the huge stakes involved are of defying the plan, etc.