-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Carl Ellison <cme@tis.com> writes
To me, it's obvious that this isn't a real LE problem. That leaves open the question of why the US and others want to limit crypto.
...
My answer: because the Agency advancing it (with cypherpunks as unwitting accomplices) wants to create the perception of a threat of loss of power in those who have power (Congress, President) so that they'll give state-of-emergency powers to the appropriate Agency to fight back.
Net result: no real threat; real increase in power for one Agency.
Don't attribute to a sinister, power-hungry elite that which is a natural consequence of democratic political society. Execution of the voters' orders can be thwarted by strong crypto. This is affirmed by voices as diverse as Donn Parker, who says that a democracy can't operate if people have absolute privacy, and Tim May, who seeks to use crypto as a way to bypass democracy. As long as a large proportion of the people think it's somehow decent or civilized to democratically supplant personal choice with collective dictate in everything from health care arrangements to the elementary school curriculum, there will be a large constituency for limiting crypto to prevent this interference with their tyranny of the majority. The danger of focusing on the intrigues of the power elite is that it diverts attention from the real culprit: democracy itself. John E. Kreznar | Relations among people to be by jkreznar@ininx.com | mutual consent, or not at all. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.3a iQCVAgUBLoJqT8Dhz44ugybJAQHiRgP/Xl+ai++Fp4y+ROs1iv8A8fRIMmTsSOyq +Qjkx3gdfcOeDTgwQq8xMS10yu2wLAul+bZ763p1g+w9aeSjzf41nmKTTvxzSz9+ QQ+2t7MPrza7MtmfdvAf8p8WT94sdqQ21MOC90idxO+PZv0pYI6zn4x1QlQDCfGi kf+JdE4KqBc= =GpUg -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----