From: Carl Ellison <cme@ACM.ORG>
Date: Wed, 5 Jun 1996 05:00:20 +0800
To: shabbir@vtw.org
Subject: Re: (VTW) BillWatch #48
In-Reply-To: <199606040139.VAA21219@panix3.panix.com>
Message-ID: <v03006f02add9f38467c5@[168.143.8.144]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/enriched

The NRC gets points for putting out a report that will become useful in
the months to come.  The White House gets an 'F' for their handling of
encryption policy.  Even in the face of two expert studies on their policy,
they continue to stick to a failed, unpopular policy.


<<<<

I was at the EPIC conference yesterday (6/3) -- where Whit Diffie, BTW, presented the same argument Steven Cherry gave in this BillWatch  -- but at the end of the EPIC conference we had Scott Charney of DoJ on a panel about what the OECD is doing (pushing Clipper internationally) and we kept going round with him on the administration's pushing of Clipper (N). [One attendee described this as "forum shopping" -- looking for a friendly place to push Clipper.]

There were people battling him over his alleged representation of the USA at the OECD -- claiming he was misrepresenting the country by pushing Clipper.  His response was that the Executive is empowered to do all international meetings/negotiations/....

After the meeting ended it hit me what the problem is and I mentioned it to PRZ.  We're complaining that the Executive has gone rogue -- is disobeying the will of the people.  PRZ likened it to Nixon's war in Cambodia.

So, maybe it's nothing new -- just a new playing field for the same old game.

- Carl




+------------------------------------------------------------------------+
|Carl M. Ellison   cme@acm.org     http://www.clark.net/pub/cme         |
|PGP: E0414C79B5AF36750217BC1A57386478 & 61E2DE7FCB9D7984E9C8048BA63221A2|
|  "Officer, officer, arrest that man!  He's whistling a dirty song."   |
+-------------------------------------------- Jean Ellison (aka Mother) -+