At 9:15 AM -0800 5/2/97, Jonah Seiger wrote:
Looks like the FBI and thier allies have been playing hardball, and have managed to convince a high-ranking Republican member of Congress to buy into their ani-cryto reform arguments.
Solomon is the Chairman of the House Rules Committee.
This fight just got a lot tougher.
Jonah
The Feds want more, a lot more. This is their way. Making crypto a semi-criminalized act was not enough. Including the Emergency Economic Powers Act and "terrorism" provisions to limit export was not enough. At some point, Jonah, you and your colleagues need to figure out what it is you really stand for. I don't think many of us are under any illusions that your organizations are grass-roots, basic rights organizations, given that you're not being funded by the dues-paying memberships of hundreds of thousands of private citizens, but, really, it is too much to have a group with "democracy" so prominently in the name shilling for mere corporate export approvals. At least the tobacco lobbyists are honest in the naming of their lobbying groups. (Not that I have anything against tobacco lobbyists, mind you. Americans should be free to make their own decisions about what they smoke or inject.) Meanwhile, the "Center for Democracy and Technology" went along with the semi-criminalization of crypto, went along with the EEPA/terrorist/military use provisions, and what it did get them? The NSA and FBI want more. Maybe if you throw in your support for crypto use as a basis for obtaining a search warrant, Solomon and the others will temporarily support SAFE again...at least until Aaron, Baker, and the others scare him again. Then maybe you'll have to support "crypto triggers RICO" provisions (after all, most crypto involves more than one person, which makes it a conspiracy to avoid detection or wiretapping...)
---- May 1, 1997
OPPOSE HR. 695 "SAFE ACT"
Dear Colleague:
Earlier this week, after meeting with officials from Defense and FBI, I removed myself as a cosponsor of HR 695. Allow me to explain some of their concerns about this bill.
As with the other "supporters" of the Bill, including the various private groups like Eagle Forum, National Taxpayer's Union, etc., I suspect most of these supporters really didn't know what they were supporting. Now that the Feds are leaning on their friends from one side, and folks like us are leaning from the other side, support for SAFE is probably evaporating (isn't it sublime?).
The Department of Defense believes that HR 695 would increase the export threshold for encryption software to a level which would effectively remove existing controls. This would make unbreakable encryption technology widely available and "have a negative impact on national security, effective law enforcement and public safety". The FBI opposes the bill because, "It would be irresponsible for the U.S. to adopt a policy that consciously unleashes widespread, unbreakable, non-key recovery encryption products that undermine law enforcement in the United States and worldwide."
What's this about "unleashes...in the United States" bit? Does Solomon think there are laws limiting crypto in the U.S.? He must think the "use a cipher, go to prison" provisions are not enough of a restriction on civil rights in the U.S.
I also met with Ambassador Aaron (OECD), who pointed out that many of the major industrial countries have already approved encryption safeguards and the rest are waiting for the United States to act. He believes HR 695 would send the worst possible signal to our allies.
Indeed, Aaron has been globe-trotting to get "buy-ins" on a global key registration infrastructure. This is why the "reject it all" stance is now more important than ever, else the rights of U.S. citizens will be sacrificed to international treaties and misguided legislation like SAFE.
Lastly, Assistant Attorney General Andrew Fois stated in a letter to Chairman Coble, "... the bill would severely compromise law enforcement's ability to protect the American people from the threats posed by terrorists, organized crime, child pornographers, drug cartels, financial predators, hostile foreign intelligence agents, and other criminals... It is difficult enough to fight crime without making criminals' tasks any easier."
The invocation of the Horsemen of the Infocalypse. Apparently criminalizing crypto is not enough...they want more. More, more, more.
In addition to the FBI and DOD the legislation is opposed by the Justice Department, Central Intelligence,. the NSA, the National District Attorney's Association, the International Association of Chiefs of Police and the National Sherrif's Association. Again, I would ask you to oppose HR 695.
This is just another reminder--which I wish you inside-the-Beltway folks would someday really comprehend--that there is no compromising with statists. You give them some of what they want, and they demand more. The NRA learned the hard way, through resignations by many of us, that compromise rarely works. (And one gun vendor, Ruger, learned that its support of restriction on so-called assault weapons backfird, so to speak, as a national boycott of Ruger's products impacted their business. We can only hope that a "Just say "No" to PGP" campaign will have a similar effect.) One last thing. Part of this inside-the-Beltway mindset is the impression, I believe, that no dissenting opinion exists outside the Beltway. Only when folks like us denounce SAFE does it become apparent that the giveaways of basic rights in exchange for "corporate" contributions will not be welcomed. No personal offense intended, Jonah, but CDT has lost any credibility in being a "rights" organization. "Center for Democracy and Technology" indeed! --Tim May There's something wrong when I'm a felon under an increasing number of laws. ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, tcmay@got.net 408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, Higher Power: 2^1398269 | black markets, collapse of governments. "National borders aren't even speed bumps on the information superhighway."