well-placed explosive device that destroys even one of the two escrow databases, and suddenly the government has supplied us with secure encryption that even they can't break. Of course, that is assuming that the government didn't lie and make extra backup copies (just for safety's sake, you understand, against just

Any reasonable information-escrow agent *would* take reasonable precautions against disasters like fires, floods, power problems, etc., and the fact that what the government agencies are doing with the wiretap keys isn't escrow, just storage, doesn't change that. Doesn't require any lying, because that's proper care of information and thet'd be criticized very stongly for failing to do so. On the other hand, if there's a mysterious narco-terrorist fire and they *claim* that all the copies were burned up, the little shreds of belief that get past my normal skepticism will have no chance at all..... Bill