I think the largest weakness in the whole Clipper scheme, and I am not sure If I am right about this is,.... The NSA knows the family key (the key that is built into each chip; or perhaps large meta batch of chips). The family key encrypts the Law Enforcement Block [LEB] of the message, which contains the serial number for the chip in the device being used to communicate. This key is known to NSA. Thus, the NSA will be able to maintain an active traffic pattern analysis of ALL communications sent via the Clipper chiped devices. I think in many ways that traffic watching can and does often reveal more information about someone than at time listening in to what is actually being said. The big point here is the the press release claims that the Clipper chip doesn't provide anything more than what Law Enforcement already has. That is not true. What they get is a complete serialized, accurate method of traffic analysis. Note: Denning claims that a proper order to wire tap an encrypted communication will be "gotten" prior to decoding the LEB. Then a second batch of paper work will be processed once the serial number is revealed to get the encrypted/escrowed keys. -- Harry Shapiro habs@panix.com List Administrator of the Extropy Institute Mailing List Private Communication for the Extropian Community since 1991