I have met a few NSA employees and contractors from time to time, and they've all generally impressed me as intelligent and reasonable people who just happen to work for a bad institution -- except Baker. He *is* that bad institution. I had the dubious pleasure of meeting Baker in person a year ago during a CPSR-sponsored conference in DC. I had argued vigorously with him during a break before I realized that he was NSA's general counsel; afterwards, I realized that if I didn't have a file with them before, I certainly would later. :-) I argued that the bad guys would have strong cryptography no matter what laws were passed, so we might as well make sure the good guys could have it too. His retort, repeated quite a few times, was, "So, your attitude toward the government is "Fuck 'em if they can't take a joke?" It wasn't exactly a reasoned, logical debate. One of the most arrogant people I've ever met. He would have been right at home in the old Nixon White House. But then again, I keep remembering the rule: don't get mad, get even. Write code... Phil