Congress mulls crypto restrictions in response to attacks

[Tim May]

On Thursday, September 13, 2001, at 01:58 PM, Declan McCullagh wrote:

> http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,46816,00.html
>
>    Congress Mulls Stiff Crypto Laws
>    By Declan McCullagh (declan at wired.com)
>    1:45 p.m. Sep. 13, 2001 PDT
>
>    WASHINGTON -- The encryption wars have begun.
>
>    For nearly a decade, privacy mavens have been worrying that a
>    terrorist attack could prompt Congress to ban
>    communications-scrambling products that frustrate both police 
> wiretaps
>    and U.S. intelligence agencies.
>
>    Tuesday's catastrophe, which shed more blood on American soil than 
> any
>    event since the Civil War, appears to have started that process.
>
>    Some politicians and defense hawks are warning that extremists such 
> as
>    Osama bin Laden, who U.S. officials say is a crypto-aficionado and 
> the
>    top suspect in Tuesday's attacks, enjoy unfettered access to
>    privacy-protecting software and hardware that render their
>    communications unintelligible to eavesdroppers.
>
>    In a floor speech on Thursday, Sen. Judd Gregg (R-New Hampshire)
>    called for a global prohibition on encryption products without
>    backdoors for government surveillance.

This is the main reason it is ESSENTIAL that the "rest of the world" NOT 
(repeat NOT) support the U.S. in their upcoming actions against the 
likely WTC terrorists.

If Russia, China, India, Pakistan, the Arab countries, and of course the 
European nations "sign on," this will truly usher in a New World Order. 
Strong crypto will be banned so quickly our heads will spin (those of us 
not already arrested and dealt with).

I have no idea how to derail this freight train that is beginning to 
gather speed.

Dark times are coming. I'll bet a complete ban on strong, unescrowed 
crypto is passed in all European countries, Russia, China, Japan, and 
the U.S. by, say, December 15th. Congresscriminals are stumbling over 
their feet in their race to repeal big chunks of the Bill of Rights. For 
most countries, with no real Bills of Rights, the statists will use this 
to cement their own power.

Dark times.

--Tim May