From reading the group it seems to me that there is a need for two styles of data encryption. One style would be something similar to DES, it would be a standard cypher and would be used for encrypting items such as the files on your hard disk. The other would be a public key cypher and would be used for communicating between individuals. Now, as far as selling these two concepts goes one thing that might help is to point out the fact that not only is the government untrustworthy, in the sense that they abuse their power, but that they're also incompetent. Americans have an unfortunate tendency, at least in my eyes to, buy into catch-phrases such as "law and order" or "national security" in a completely uncritical fashion. However Americans also mistrust, and rightfully so, the competence of the government, so perhaps we should point out that since the government can't keep its own secrets very well that it obviously can't keep the secrets of 250 million citizens very well either, which is what the government would be attempting to do if SkipJack/Clipper/Capstone were made the national standard for encryption.

Jamie Jamison WITH STANDARD DISCLAIMER