After reviewing the reports filed by our intrepid reporters in the field about the NIST meetings, I am left with a puzzling thought: Why are the NSA and the FBI so very keen on GAK and weak crypto? There was posted on this list some time back a statistic about the number of wiretaps and intercepts requested and authorized in the past year. As I recall, the number was quite small - around 12K [?]. Someone had found this out through an FOIA request, perhaps, (my recollection of it is poor). It was not a large number, anyway. I must conclude that the actual number of intercepts is much, much larger than they are saying, and that they must be getting what they perceive to be good intel from all this snooping. Otherwise, why would the NSA and the FBI be so gung-ho on this, when everyone is telling them it is bad for US software business, abhorrent to privacy rights, unenforceable, and just plain bone-headed in these new international geodesic network times? -- PJ p.s. -thanks for the reports, well done. I think most of the list readers are very appreciative of the coverage provided on Crypto95 and NIST sham.