The WSJ and Financial Times report today on The New Transatlantic Agenda, the trade and security pact signed by the US and Europe yesterday to "boost cooperation." [WSJ] The accord's center piece commits the parties to working together on 150 specific policy areas, including cutting trade barriers, strengthening cooperation in nuclear nonprofliferation and fighting international crime. "There are mixed urges in Europe right now," says Kirsty Hughes, head of the European program at the Royal Institute for International Affairs in London. "On one hand, the nations of Europe want to keep the U.S. involved in European affairs, and on the other, they want to develop their own economic, political and security arrangements." Then, the Fin Times piece, headlined "Clinton and EU leaders agree on crime," reports on a variety of issues but mentions only in passing the phrase "crime, drugs and terrorism." This treatment suggests that there is more boosting of security and crime-fighting cooperation than the press is reporting -- or privy to. Recall recent reports on: A World Trade Organization cyberspace czar to bring law and order to the unruly Net. EU plans for setting standards and certifications for products, including software for computer security, encryption and authentication. The future threat to "the West" by a hyper-cyber Asia [ex-colonies] deploying information wizardry to level the playing field. Cooperation on trade and "crime, drugs and terrorism" might then be a euphemism for economic aggression -- US-EU international affairs arranged to maximize benefits for transatlantic self-interests. If so, then cryptography is truly a highly valuable munitions for economic warfare, worthy of the strongest law and enforcement measures, closely fit to the power of the weapon. With US-EU GAK and ITAR to protect markets of the transatlantic super-nation and selected meta-atlantic partners in crime-pure joy. Would Michael Froomkin, RIIA Foreign Associate, care to generously unscramble this international affairs sigint? Air the pinstriped privy, ahem.