Anyone know:

A) Is she an expert in cryptography?

B) Is she a college graduate?

C) Was she dropped on her head a lot as a baby?

D) Has she considered the alternatives that suicide offers?

The "Dr." in "Dr. Dorothy Denning" should answer question B. Note also that she's the chair of the CS dept at Georgetown; such positions are not usually given to those without college degrees. The answer to question A is somewhat more subjective. I know enough about cryptography to know that I am NOT an expert in cryptography. And that means I know much more about cryptography than most people -- if you follow my meaning. Although Dr. Denning has written a highly regarded college textbook on cryptography, I have not seen anything to demonstrate her expertise in designing a cipher and evaluating it against attack. This is a far more arcane talent, one shared by a relative handful of people. It should not be confused with the ability to apply existing ciphers to various problems, a skill that she clearly possesses, along with many other people. This is why I questioned her inclusion on the clipper review committee, as opposed to, say, Ernie Brickell, whose destruction of the knapsack public key cryptosystem gives him the kind of actual experience in cryptanalysis that is essential in such a review. As for your other questions, I suggest that the case against Clipper is strong enough that we do not need to resort to ad-hominem attacks against individuals such as Dr. Denning. I agree that she is, at best, seriously misguided, but it is not that uncommon for otherwise intelligent people to disagree seriously on politics. Remember that her technical credentials, whatever they may be, gives her no special insight over the rest of us into the purely political issues here. Don't get mad, get even. Write code! Phil