[118052] in Cypherpunks
Sept. 22 column -- cryptography
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Vin_Suprynowicz@lvrj.com (Vin Supr)
Sat Sep 18 09:16:43 1999
Message-Id: <4.2.0.58.19990918083959.00a21d10@pop-server.tampabay.rr.com>
Date: Sat, 18 Sep 1999 08:40:13 -0400
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
From: Vin_Suprynowicz@lvrj.com (Vin Suprynowicz) (by way of "Edwin E. Smith" <edsmith@tampabay.rr.com>)
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii"; format=flowed
Reply-To: Vin_Suprynowicz@lvrj.com (Vin Suprynowicz) (by way of "Edwin E. Smith" <edsmith@tampabay.rr.com>)
FROM MOUNTAIN MEDIA
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE DATED SEPT. 22, 1999
THE LIBERTARIAN, By Vin Suprynowicz
Surrendering to the inevitable
For years, the control freaks who dominate federal law enforcement and
"defense" policy have imposed sharp restrictions on American software firms
wishing to "export" encryption technology -- the formulas which allow
Internet users to encode their electronic messages.
Such technology could be used by terrorists or drug-runners to hide their
doings from the FBI, government agents have squealed as they rushed to
stick their fingers in the dike. Therefore, American high-tech firms have
been required to apply for a special "munitions export license" each time
such technology -- or computers containing such software -- are shipped
overseas.
But the effort proved completely futile. The encryption codes in question
are, in fact, mathematical formulas. How is one to keep a mathematical
formula secret, in an age when a high-school kid in Iowa can ship it to
multiple, unknown recipients around the globe without leaving his bedroom,
simply by pushing the "send" key?
In fact, hostile foreign states, terrorists, and drug runners are already
acquiring encryption systems. They're simply buying them from providers
outside the United States.
The end result? "A slow, grinding disappearance of the U.S. crypto
industry," explains Stewart Baker, who once served as general counsel to
the National Security Agency, but now represents private, high-tech firms.
"In the end, I think everybody realized that."
What a prospect -- the foreigners we were attempting to embargo getting
free access to the stuff (folks are demanding such security safeguards just
to use their credit cards over the Internet, after all), while the American
firms were left to wither on the vine, leaving this country to inevitably
fall behind in a technology which we pioneered!
(Let's not get into machine gun development, another field once dominated
by amateur Americans working in home workshops, but an undertaking now
effectively outlawed for any private American -- the price to be paid in
the next big war, which we'll enter with largely 1940s technology.)
Finally last Thursday the Clinton administration caved in, eliminating
the requirement for individual "munitions export licenses" (though crypto
manufacturers will still have to apply for a one-time certification of
their products.) The administration even abandoned -- at least officially
-- its attempt to require American manufacturers to design secret "back
doors" into their programs, through which the FBI could have disabled
secrecy codes and secretly searched remote computer files.
(After all, who would pay for a "secrecy" product like that? It would be
like buying an imported padlock after learning that extra numbered keys had
been provided to representatives of the Gestapo, the Stasi, the Red Guard,
France's Deuxieme Bureau ...)
Defense Secretary John Hamre and Attorney General Janet Reno tried to put
the best face on the official turnabout Thursday, Ms. Reno insisting that
"Law enforcement maintains its ability to protect public safety." Her
previous concerns have been assuaged by the promised introduction of the
new Cyberspace Electronic Security Act of 1999, which would provide $80
million over the next four years to establish a new FBI code-cracking unit,
she explained.
So they bought her off for $80 million -- which the FBI will now use in
an attempt to undo all the sensible decisions in favor of freedom and
privacy announced in Washington Thursday. How reassuring. Imagine the
Founding Fathers being allowed to initiate the U.S. Post Office only after
allocating $80 million for use in developing ways to steam open our
letters.
If the FBI had its way, would manufacturers be required to formulate
bedroom curtains out of some special material which G-men could peek
through when the spirit moves them? Could we buy them off with $80 million
for a new "Peeping Tom Unit," do you suppose?
In fact, the Clinton administration deserves no credit at all for bowing
to the inevitable with Thursday's attempt at a "least harm" compromise. The
Washington Post reports: "The administration's shift may also be attributed
to the momentum that has developed for industry-backed legislation that
would have gone even further to remove export limits -- a fact noted
Thursday by Rep. Robert W. Goodlatte, R-Va., sponsor of the Security and
Freedom through Encryption Act (SAFE.)"
Rep. Goodlatte says he's not going to withdraw his bill, since "There
have been incidents where the regulations that have been implemented
haven't lived up to the billing."
Good for him.
For his part, President Clinton promises to veto the Goodlatte bill if it
reaches his desk, describing it as a dangerous rollback of law enforcement
authority.
Now, that's more like it -- the old police-state Clinton we know and love.
Vin Suprynowicz is the assistant editorial page editor of the Las Vegas
Review-Journal. His new book, "Send in the Waco Killers: Essays on the
Freedom Movement, 1993-1998," is available at $21.95 plus $3 shipping
through Mountain Media, P.O. Box 271122, Las Vegas, Nev. 89127; through web
site http://www.thespiritof76.com/wacokillers.html; or via 1-800-244-2224.
***
Vin Suprynowicz, vin@lvrj.com
"The evils of tyranny are rarely seen but by him who resists it." -- John
Hay, 1872
"The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed -- and
thus clamorous to be led to safety -- by menacing it with an endless series
of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary." -- H.L. Mencken
* * *
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
If you have subscribed to vinsends@ezlink.com and you wish to unsubscribe,
send a message to vinsends-request@ezlink.com, from your OLD address, including
the word "unsubscribe" (with no quotation marks) in the "Subject" line.
To subscribe, send a message to vinsends-request@ezlink.com, from your
NEW address, including the word "subscribe" (with no quotation marks)
in the "Subject" line.
All I ask of electronic subscribers is that they not RE-forward my columns
until on or after the embargo date which appears at the top of each, and
that (should they then choose to do so) they copy the columns in their
entirety, preserving the original attribution.
The Vinsends list is maintained by Alan Wendt in Colorado, who may be
reached directly at alan@ezlink.com. The web sites for the Suprynowicz
column are at http://www.infomagic.com/liberty/vinyard.htm, and
http://www.nguworld.com/vindex. The Vinyard is maintained by Michael Voth
in Flagstaff, who may be reached directly at mvoth@infomagic.com.
