in the U.S. Senate and dealt a bitter defeat to crypto supporters.
*
* Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), committee chair and chief sponsor of the
* measure, led the attack, saying Congress must "stop child pornography
* on the Internet."
*
* He warned that "allowing encryption to be exported would permit child
* pornographers to use it."
*
* "If it's being used for child pornography? Are we going to say
* that's just fine? That's it's just business? I don't think so."
*
* Sen. John Ashcroft (R-MO) tried to disagree. "It's like photography. We're
* not going to [ban] photography if someone takes dirty pictures."
*
* At this point, one of the more deaf committee members asked,
* "Pornography? Are we going to ban pornography?"
*
* The Senate Commerce Committee then approved McCain's bill.
*
* For a committee whose bailiwick is commerce, the senators seemed somewhat
* detached from their mandate with business taking a backseat.
*


Thank you once again, oh Free World Leaders, for that intelligent discourse.


* The New York Times, June 15 1997
*
* "Washington Kidnaps Dick and Jane - See How Washington Uses Dick and Jane"
*
* These days much of the nation's political debate focuses on children - or
* on the needs and interests of children as defined by politicians.
*
* Mr. Horn, who was chief of the Childrens Bureau in the Bush Administration
* added, "A cynic would say that children are being used as props or proxies."

Color me cynical.


It should be noted, of course, that uncrackable encryption called PGP is
available worldwide for free for all common platforms of computers, that
McCain's bill would do NOTHING to address that (not possible anyway), and
so his argument WAS A TOTAL SHAM.

No newspaper in the country will explain that in their coverage.