DRAFT - PLEASE DO NOT QUOTE OR REDISTRIBUTE Mostly to find out what the process was like, I recently applied for, and received, a temporary export license for a so-called ``exportable'' telephone voice encryption device to take with me on a business trip to England and Belgium. I returned from the trip last week, device in hand. Here's how it went. The device in question is an AT&T ``Telephone Security Device (TSD)'', model 3600-F. This is the ``bump in a cord'' voice encryptor. The ``F'' model is supposed to be approved for ``fast track'' export; it doesn't use Clipper or DES, but rather some ``exportable'' algorithm. This model is aimed primarily, I presume, at international business travelers who want to communicate in a reasonably secure manner with their home offices in the states. In other words, a typical user carries it with him or her when traveling abroad. The particular options that I got for the device included a James Bond-ish looking acoustic coupler and handset for dealing with the hardwired phones that are common in European hotel rooms. About two months before my trip I called our (AT&T's) export lawyer division. It turns out that while there was some discussion in the government about exempting from the export licensing process temporary exports of cryptographic equipment used on business trips, this exemption never actually took effect. So even though the device I had was already approved for sale abroad, I still needed to get a temporary export license. But they assured me that ``this is an easy, routine process''. Well, sure enough, about two weeks before I was to leave I got back my official US State Department ``license for the temporary export of unclassified defense articles''. So far, so good. According to the information printed on the license and additional information from the lawyer, I have to leave from an international airport with a customs agent present (no problem there). At the airport, I have to fill out a form called a ``shipper's export declaration'' (SED) on which I have to declare that ``these commodities are authorized by the US government for export only to Belgium and the United Kingdom [the countries I'm visiting]. They may not be resold, transshipped, or otherwise disposed of in any country, either in their original form or incorporated into other end-items without the prior written approval of the US Department of State''. Then I'm to present the SED and export license to a customs official at the airport before I leave. The Customs officer is supposed to take my SED and endorse my license to show what I'm actually taking out of the country. On the way back in, I'm supposed to ``declare'' my item (even though it was manufactured in the US) and show them my license, and they're supposed to endorse the license again to show that I have, in fact, returned the ``defense article''. The first hitch I ran into was that no one could actually tell me where I could get an SED form. But when I called customs they assured me that this was no big deal. ``Just come by customs at the airport, and we stamp the form. I guess you can just fill out the SED there'' they said, assuring me this is not a big deal. I made sure to get to the airport early anyway. Although there was moderately heavy traffic near the airport, I made it to JFK two and a half hours before my 10pm flight. I was flying United, which has their own terminal at JFK, so Customs has an office right there in the same building from which I was to depart (JFK is awful to get around, so I was glad for this). I checked in for my flight (and got upgraded to first class, which bolstered my expectation that everything was going to be really easy from here on). Then, luggage, license and TSD in hand, I made my way downstairs to Customs, expecting to fill out the SED form and ``just have my license stamped'' as they had assured me earlier on the telephone. I explained my situation to the security guard whose job is to keep people from going in to the Customs area, and he led me to ``the back office'' without much argument or delay. The head uniformed customs guy in the back office (which I think is same office where they take the people suspected of being ``drug mules'' with cocaine-filled condoms in their stomaches) looked approachable enough. He had a sort of kindly, grandfatherly manner, and he was playing ``Doom'' on a laptop computer. I got the impression that most of the people he encounters are suspected drug smugglers, and he seemed pleased enough to be dealing with something a little different from the norm. When I explained what I was doing he looked at me as if I had just announced that I was a citizen of Mars who hadn't even bothered to obtain a Visa before leaving. He explained, carefully, that a) I really do need the SED form; b) Not only that, I should have already filled it out, in duplicate; c) He doesn't have blank SED forms; d) he, like everyone else in the entire US government that I had spoken to, has no idea where one gets them from, but people must get them from somewhere; and e) it doesn't really matter, because I'm in the wrong place anyway. I asked him where the right place is. ``The cargo building, of course,'' he explained patiently. I remembered the cargo building because we passed it in the taxi just as the traffic jam began, about half an hour before I got to the United terminal. The airport shuttle bus doesn't stop there. I'd have to call a taxi. ``But I think they're closed now, and even if they were open you'd never make it before your flight'' he helpfully added, saving me the trip. He also complemented for going to the trouble to get the license. I must have looked hurt and confused. Eventually he called in some fellow in a suit who must have been his boss. ``Are you the guy who wants to export the fancy gun?'' the fellow in the suit asked me. ``It's not a gun, it's a telephone,'' I responded, with a straight face. ``Why do you have a license to export a telephone?'' Good question, I thought. I explained about the ITAR, and showed him the thing. He agreed that it looked pretty harmless. The guy in the suit reiterated points a through e almost verbatim (do they rehearse for these things?) and explained about how this is a State Department license, not a Customs license, and this doesn't happen very much because exports usually go via The Cargo Building. He'd love to help me, but the computer in which these things get entered is over in Cargo. ``That's how the records get made. But you do have a valid license, which is nice.'' He also suggested that I would have an easier time had I shipped the device instead of carrying it with me. I asked what I should do, given that my plane was scheduled to leave in less than an hour. Neither was sure, but the fellow in the suit seemed willing leave it to the discretion of the uniformed guy. ``How does this thing work, anyway?'' he asked. I tried to explain as best as I could, trying to make it sound as harmless as it is. ``You mean like that Clipper chip?'' he asked. At this point, given that he has a laptop and knows something about the Clipper chip, I figured that maybe there was some hope of making my flight. Or maybe I was about to spend the night in jail. In my mind, I put it at about a 90:10 hope:jail ratio. Then he asked, ``Do you know about this stuff?'' So we chatted about computers and cryptography for a while. Finally, the two of them decided that it wouldn't really hurt for them to just sign the form as long as I promise to call my lawyer and get the SED situation straightened out ASAP. They assured me that I won't be arrested or have any other trouble upon my return. I made my flight, validated license in hand. An aside: Throughout my trip, I discovered an interesting thing about the TSD and the various options I was carrying with it. Under X-ray examination, it looks just like some kind of bomb. (I suspect it was the coiled handset cords). Every time I went through a security checkpoint, I had to dig the thing out of my luggage and show it to the guard. I almost missed the new ``Eurostar'' chunnel train (3hrs 15mins nonstop London->Brussels, airport-style checkin and security) as the guards were trying to figure out whether thing thing was about to explode. On the way back to the US, it took me a little over an hour to get through Customs. I carried all my luggage with me, and, expecting a bit of a hassle, made sure to be the FIRST person to reach Customs. The inspector was ready to wordlessly accept my declaration form and send me on my way when I opened my mouth and explained that I needed to get my export license stamped. The inspector explained that this had to be done by something called the ``Ships Office''. I was sent to an unoccupied back room (a different back room than before), and told to wait. I thought about the recent Customs experiences of Phil Zimmermann. After about half an hour of waiting, an officer came in and asked me what I needed. I explained that I needed to get my export license endorsed, and she shrugged and told me that she had to ``process the flight'' first. As best as I could tell, her job was to clear the airplane itself through customs, that being, technically speaking, a very expensive import. It would take a little wile. She was pleasant enough, though, and at least didn't look at me as if she intended to send me to jail or have me strip searched. Finally, she finished with the plane and asked me for my form. She studied it carefully, obviously having never seen one before, and eventually asked me what, exactly, she was supposed to do. I explained that I had never actually gone through this process before but I understood that she's supposed to record the fact that I was re-importing the device and stamp my form somewhere. She explained that she didn't know of any place for her to record this. After some discussion, we agreed that the best thing to do was to make a Xerox copy of my license and arrange for it to go wherever it had to go later. She stamped the back of the license and sent me out. It was a little over an hour after I first reached the Customs desk. My conclusion from all this is that it just isn't possible for an individual traveler to follow the rules. Even having gone through the process now, I still have no idea how to obtain, let alone file, the proper forms, even for a device that's already been determined to be exportable. The export of ITAR-controlled items is ordinarily handled by cargo shipment, not by hand carrying by travelers, and the system is simply not geared to deal with exceptions. Technically speaking, everyone with a laptop disk encryption program who travels internationally is in violation of the ITAR, but since no one actually knows this, no mechanism exists to deal with it. While (fortunately) everyone I dealt with was sympathetic, no one in the government who I spoke with was actually able to help me follow the rules. I was able to leave and come back only because everyone involved eventually recognized that my telephone was pretty harmless, that my intentions were good, and that the best thing to do was be flexible. Had anyone taken a hard line and tried to enforce the letter of the law, I simply wouldn't have been able to take the thing with me, even with my license. Had I simply taken it with me and come back instead of calling attention to myself by trying to follow the rules, no one would have noticed. DRAFT - PLEASE DO NOT QUOTE OR REDISTRIBUTE