fbi, crypto, and defcon

[jim bell]

At 10:13 PM 7/31/96 -0700, Cerridwyn Llewyellyn wrote:

>A more cynical view is that they are there to protect some of the biggest
>institutions of "organized crime" (ie: Congress, At&t, Microsoft, etc) who
>are ripping people off on a daily basis from the other organizations who
>refuse to play by their rules.

Speaking of AT+T, as I recall one of the incidents which preceded the 
introduction of Clipper was the news that AT+T was going to introduce an 
encrypted telephone using DES as the encryption algorithm.  According to the 
story, AT+T was "bought off" by the US government.   I haven't looked into 
that for a couple of years, but if we're looking for co-conspirators that 
would be a good place to start.  

Also:  Clipper was fabbed by VLSI Technology.  A few pointed inquiries might 
work wonders here.

Jim Bell
jimbell at pacifier.com