From EPIC newsletter
======================================================================= [3] EPIC Obtains U.S. Crypto Czar's Travel Records ======================================================================= Following a year-long legal battle, EPIC has obtained over 500 pages of materials from the U.S. State Department on the international travels of David Aaron, the former U.S. Envoy for Cryptography. Aaron also served as U.S. Ambassador to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development when the OECD was developing its encryption policy guidelines. The released documents show Ambassador Aaron made frequent trips around the world lobbying for international adoption of key escrow encryption. He visited Australia, Belgium (both the European Union & Belgian governments), Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. The documents also indicate that he went to South Africa, and met with the counselor of the Latvian embassy in Paris and with Russian Finance Ministry officials. Even before Aaron was appointed as President Clinton's "Special Envoy for Cryptography," U.S. State Department messages indicate that the United States was making overtures to various countries via American embassies around the world. These include the diplomatic posts in Canberra, London, Tokyo, Ottawa, Tel Aviv, Paris, Bonn, The Hague and Moscow. One message to these foreign posts announced the revised U.S. cryptography export policy (the key recovery within two years or "no export" rule). The public announcement of that policy was made on October 1, 1996. Aaron apparently was not always greeted warmly in his travels. In Japan, the government requested that the meetings be kept secret and that the press not be informed. Even the U.S. Embassy in Japan was less than enthusiastic -- the embassy suggested that Aaron and his delegation could take the airport bus to their hotel rather than be picked up by an embassy driver.