RE>>Clipper trapdoor? Marc - You wrote:

As for the example of snooping on Hussein and his officers, you know exactly how much legal authorization the NSA needs to conduct that wiretap. Exactly none. Hence, it needs no paperwork to get the key to Hussein's phone.

How the escrow agents make the NSA prove that the keyid in question belongs to Hussen's phone is an exercise left to the legislature :-/

As you (and others) noted in response to my posting, there is either a trapdoor *or* a "national security exception" to the warrant/escrow arrangement. As your comment suggests, NSA has heretofore been able to act unilaterally in exercising its "legal authorization" to intercept communications overseas, but with the Clipper scheme must obtain assistance from a third (and fourth?) party -- the escrow agents. I think the question you raise is a critical one -- under what guidelines will the escrow agents determine the validity of an NSA request for the key without a FISA warrant? - David