Ok, so we have a wire service report citing unnamed sources that the gov't is trying to find out if Ames could have had access to Clipper, and Denning citing unnamed sources that Ames probably didn't have access to Clipper... IMHO, that's roughly a tie in the credibility race, especially given Denning's known biases on the matter. At this stage in the clipper deployment, it would not be hard for them to "recall" all the outstanding clipper/capstone/etc. chips for an, umm, "bug fix", which installed a new set of S-boxes & a new family key. In any event, anyone who had compromised clipper would be a fool to show his hand now.. it would make a lot more sense to wait until deployment was seriously under way, and clipperphones had gotten into the hands (& electron microscopes :-) ) of at least some anti-clipper activists... that way, it would be impossible for the gov't to dismiss such a compromise as a hoax. - Bill