What NAI is telling people

[codehead at ix.netcom.com]

I just got off the phone with one of the customer service people at 
NAI, who informed me that "Encrypted e-mails from certain countries 
aren't accepted in the US" and that accepting encrypted email from 
one of the "black list" (i.e., North Korea, Libya, Iran, Iraq, China, 
etc.) is illegal under US law.

When queried about the issue of *accepting* encrypted e-mail from a 
"black-list" country, the customer rep stated that this is what he 
was told by higher-ups in the company.

Never mind the issue of web-based email, mail originating from the 
dot-com, dot-edu, dot-net or dot-org TLDs, spoofed headers or open 
relays.  It was impossible to resist quoting Tim May on the 
transparency of national borders, and to point out that so far, 
anyway, there was no ubiquitous filter at the borders.  The rep 
backpedaled and stated that "some" ISPs, specifically AOL, were 
choosing not to accept such email.

Anyone have any idea if any ISPs are refusing to accept encrypted 
email from "black-listed" countries?

Or is this just a matter of NAI cluelessness?