From: Dave Banisar <banisar@washofc.cpsr.org>
Date: Wed, 1 Dec 93 11:43:14 PST
To: Cypherpunks List <cypherpunks@toad.com>
Subject: New Docs Reveal NSA Role in
Message-ID: <00541.2837600133.1215@washofc.cpsr.org>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


  New Docs Reveal NSA Role in Telephony Proposal
>From the CPSR Alert 2.06 (Dec. 1, 1993)

New Docs Reveal NSA Involvement in Digital Telephony Proposal

  A series of memoranda received by CPSR from the Department of
Commerce last week indicate that the National Security Agency was
actively involved in the 1992 FBI Digital Telephony Proposal. Two weeks
ago, documents received by CPSR indicated that the FBI proposal, code
named "Operation Root Canal," was pushed forward even after reports
from the field found no cases where electronic surveillance was
hampered by new technologies. The documents also revealed that the
Digital Signature Standard was viewed by the FBI as "[t]he first step
in our plan to deal with the encryption issue."
  
  The earliest memo is dated July 5, 1991, just a few weeks after the
Senate withdrew a Sense of Congress provision from S-266, the Omnibus
Crime Bill of 1991, that encouraged service and equipment providers to
ensure that their equipment would "permit the government to obtain the
plain text contents of voice, data and other communications...." The
documents consist of a series of fax transmittal sheets and memos from
the Office of Legal Counsel in the Department of Commerce to the
National Security Agency. Many attachments and drafts, including more
detailed descriptions of the  NSA's proposals, were withheld or
released with substantial deletions.
  
Also included in the documents is a previously released public
statement by the National Telecommunications and Information
Administration entitled "Technological Competitiveness and Policy
Concerns."  The document was requested by Rep. Jack Brooks and states
that the proposal
  
  could obstruct or distort telecommunications technology development
  by limiting fiber optic transmission, ISDN, digital cellular services
  and other technologies until they are modified, ... could impair the
  security of business communications ... that could facilitate not
  only lawful government interception, but unlawful interception by
  others, [and] could impose industries ability to offer new services
  and technologies.
  
  CPSR is planning to appeal the Commerce Department's decision to
withhold many of the documents.

To subscribe to the Alert, send the message:

"subscribe cpsr <your name>" (without quotes or brackets) to
listserv@gwuvm.gwu.edu.  Back issues of the Alert are available at the
CPSR Internet Library FTP/WAIS/Gopher cpsr.org /cpsr/alert

Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility is a national,
non-partisan, public-interest organization dedicated to understanding
and directing the impact of computers on society. Founded in 1981, CPSR
has 2000 members from all over the world and 22 chapters across the
country. Our National Advisory Board includes a Nobel laureate and
three winners of the Turing Award, the highest honor in computer
science. Membership is open to everyone.

For more information, please contact: cpsr@cpsr.org or visit the CPSR
discussion conferences on The Well (well.sf.ca.us) or Mindvox
(phantom.com).