This guy needs to connect to a clue server soon before it is too late... http://www.wired.com/news/politics/story/4588.html McCain Talks Crypto by Todd Lappin 6:04pm 20.Jun.97.PDT Just got off the phone with Senator John McCain. It has been a big week for the Republican from Arizona. On Monday, he and Senator Bob Kerrey (D-Nebraska) dropped a bomb on the encryption debate. They introduced S909, the Secure Public Networks Act, a bill that would write into law most of the Clinton administration's encryption policy - leviathan key recovery system, continued restraints on exporting strong encryption, the whole bit. Then, leveraging his chairmanship of the Senate Commerce Committee, he pushed the bill onto a legislative fast track. Despite the fact that his bill cuts the legs from under Pro-CODE - a bill by Montana Republican Conrad Burns that would scrap the export controls - McCain said he's eager to negotiate on the issues. Here are the highlights of our 5-minute conversation - during which a certain two-word term was repeated again and again. Let's see if you can spot it. On the rationale behind S909: "I've always said that national security is a primary concern - and based on my own experience [nearly six years as a Vietnam POW], I've had a lot of time to consider how important that really is." On the software industry: "Frankly, I'm somewhat surprised that the software industry would be so willing to downplay the dangers of child porn.... This stuff is out there, and we can't allow child pornographers to hide by encrypting that material." "... I'm astonished that any industry would consider their priorities to be so important that they override national security concerns." On the rival Pro-CODE bill: "I'm all for Pro-CODE - except for its impact on national security. On the future: "I promise you, now that we've adopted this legislation, we will sit down and work this out with all the parties involved. As I've said before, from a practical standpoint, we can't override a presidential veto. With this bill, we've established that the president of the United States has authority over national security."