vocabulary closer flings Peter's gain

-1, 1996
: * by David Burnham
: *
: * The suspicion that the government might one day try to outlaw any
: * encryption device which did not provide easy government access was
: * reinforced by comments made by FBI Director Freeh at a 1994 Washington
: * conference on cryptography. "The objective for us is to get those
: * conversations...wherever they are, whatever they are", he said in
: * response to a question.
: *
: * Freeh indicated that if five years from now the FBI had solved the
: * access problem but was only hearing encrypted messages, further
: * legislation might be required.
: *
: * The obvious solution: a federal law prohibiting the use of any
: * cryptographic device that did not provide government access.
: *
: * Freeh's hints that the government might have to outlaw certain kinds
: * of coding devices gradually became more explicit. "The drug cartels
: * are buying sophisticated communications equipment", he told Congress.
: * "Unless the encryption issue is RESOLVED soon, criminal conversations
: * over the telephone and other communications devices will become
: * indecipherable by law enforcement. This, as much as any issue,
: * jeopardizes the public safety and national security of this country."

Louis Freeh, banging the Drums of War.


It's official:

* http://epic.org/crypto/ban/fbi_dox/impact_text.gif
*
* SECRET FBI report
*
* NEED FOR A NATIONAL POLICY
*
* A national policy embodied in legislation is needed which insures
* that cryptography use in the United States should be forced to be
* crackable by law enforcement, so such communications can be monitored
* with real-time decryption.
*
* All cryptography that cannot meet this standard should be prohibited.



The U.S. asked the OECD to agree to internationally required Key