In case you haven't been following the news for the past two days or so, Secretary of Defense Les Aspin has resigned, and Clinton has already nominated Bobby Inman, a retired 4-star Navy admiral, as his replacement. Inman was NSA director during the Carter administration. He is probably best known for his outspoken calls for draconian laws regulating private cryptography. He wanted all cryptographic research, public or private, to be "born classified", just like nuclear weapons, with NSA given authority over all publications. He lost, of course, but his becoming Secretary of Defense just as the issue of private crypto regulation is coming to a head again does not bode well at all. Phil