Markoff on Clipper III

[jim bell]

At 02:33 PM 7/14/96 -0400, Duncan Frissell wrote:
>On the Friday "Clipper III" rehash by the Admin:
>
>Balancing Privacy and Official Eavesdropping
>
>          By JOHN MARKOFF
>
>          "The president and vice president took an oath to protect our
>national security," Simon said. "They feel they have to err on the side of
>protecting national security." 
>
>          The government also said that it did not see an immediate
>technical solution to the problems that would result from the global
>proliferation of "strong cryptography." 
>
>**************
>
>Last time I looked, the oath they took was to protect the Constitution --
>not the nation or national security.

It's called "mission creep."  And they didn't quite tell the truth:  Their 
main loyalty is to "government security" or even "job security."


>I don't see an "immediate technical solution" to strong crypto either.  Or,
>indeed, a long-term solution.

Thank heavens for that!
Jim Bell
jimbell at pacifier.com