(Tim May said:)
One of the interesting things about the whole crypto debate, going back at least to the Clipper announcement (and actually some months before) has been that the pro-restrictions, pro-GAK side of the argument has almost no defenders! Except for David Sternlight, Dorothy Denning, and Donn Parker ("attack of the killer Ds"?), there are almost no public spokesmen for the pro-restriction, pro-GAK side.
This is interesting. My theory is that they know they can't win a fair and open debate, so they force us to fight straw men and try to bamboozle politicians with ritualistic secret briefings. The secrecy adds credibility to weak arguments and heads off those of us who would try to point up the flaws in them. You can't critique what you haven't seen. I think that one of the planks of the pro-crypto platform ought to be a call for the NSA to explain and defend their position publicly, and to engage in a dialogue on a moderated mail list.