Presidential advisor Jim Steinberg spoke across the street from my office this afternoon at the Mayflower Hotel, addressing the European Institute. He said: ...we will pay a price if the United States and the EU cannot work together effectively to address the problem of encryption in a way that allows our cutting-edge industries to thrive, our citizens to have security in their communications, while at the same time protecting common public security interests. Translation: the government gets a backdoor to your encrypted files. Read on for more. (BTW, Steinberg is deputy assistant to the president for national security affairs. Also Deputy National Security Council Advisor and formerly the director of the State Department Policy Planning Staff.) Background: http://cgi.pathfinder.com/netly/afternoon/0,1012,1626,00.html http://cgi.pathfinder.com/netly/opinion/0,1042,1385,00.html -Declan "We also need to find better ways to harness our efforts to counter the kinds of new crimes looming ahead in the next century. We have made considerable progress through the Summit of the Eight, taking new steps to increase airline security, to protect our infrastructures, to fight cyber-crime and, most important, to promote nuclear safety. We are encouraged that Prime Minister Blair has identified cooperative law enforcement as a major topic for the Birmingham Summit this May. We have been somewhat disappointed that Europe has not strengthened its cooperation with us on the vital third pillar. I am particularly concerned about the lack of enthusiastic support for the U.S.-sponsored international Law Academy in Budapest. Full integration in the Euro-Atlantic community means that all of our police forces must have the confidence to work together against transnational threats. It is vital that the emerging democracies enjoy the rule of law during their transition period, and we will pay a price if the United States and the EU cannot work together effectively to address the problem of encryption in a way that allows our cutting-edge industries to thrive, our citizens to have security in their communications, while at the same time protecting common public security interests. "But the gravest and most immediate challenge before us is to find more common ground between the United States and Europe in dealing with states that threaten our common interests. We have started to fall into a troubling pattern of good cop/bad cop. This pattern, whereby Europe provides the carrot, and the United States is left holding the stick, is unhealthy for both sides, and only benefits our common adversaries. While we all believe that dialogue and engagement are the preferred course, dialogue should not be an excuse for inaction when countries like Iraq fail to live up to Security Council resolutions, and other nations import weapons of mass destruction and export terror. This divergence compromises the effectiveness of our shared efforts." -------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- the moderated mailing list of politics and technology To subscribe: send a message to majordomo@vorlon.mit.edu with this text: subscribe politech More information is at http://www.well.com/~declan/politech/ --------------------------------------------------------------------------