From: Brian Davis <bdavis@thepoint.net>
Date: Thu, 17 Aug 95 00:53:42 PDT
To: Cypherpunks Mailing List <cypherpunks@toad.com>
Subject: Re: FBI Files on Clipper Release
In-Reply-To: <9508170022.AA19096@cs.umass.edu>
Message-ID: <Pine.D-G.3.91.950817035141.3096A-100000@dg.thepoint.net>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain


On Wed, 16 Aug 1995, Futplex wrote:

> Dave Banisar quotes FBI documents obtained via the FOIA:
> >      Technical solutions, such as they are, will only work if 
> >      they are incorporated into *all* encryption products.  
> >      To ensure that this occurs, legislation mandating the 
> >      use of Government-approved encryption products or 
> >      adherence to Government encryption criteria is required.
> 
> ...meanwhile...
> > Testifying before a Senate Judiciary 
> > Subcommittee on May 3, 1994, Assistant Attorney General Jo Ann 
> > Harris asserted that:
> > 
> >      As the Administration has made clear on a number of 
> >      occasions, the key-escrow encryption initiative is a 
> >      voluntary one; we have absolutely no intention of 
> >      mandating private use of a particular kind of 
> >      cryptography, nor of criminalizing the private use of 
> >      certain kinds of cryptography.
>        ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ 
> By exactly what mechanism are appointed (hired ?) officials such as AAG Harris
> supposedly accountable to the public ?  Can they be brought up on perjury
> charges ?  Just what real legal recourse do we have against lying scum in the
> bureaucracy ?  Are we stuck unless we can get some Congresscritter to cry
> foul on the floor of the House or Senate ?

You sure are anxious to prosecute government officials.  What is untrue 
about her statement.  Maybe she meant it's OK to use ROT-13 but nothing 
else ...

And you guys complained about the Jake Baker prosecution!

BTW, Harris is no longer AAG-Criminal Division.  She went back to 
teaching, keeping a commitment she made to her family.  And yes, she was 
appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate.


 
> -Futplex <futplex@pseudonym.com>
> "you said too much; and what you said, it was a lie" -EMF
> 

EBD