From: Robert Hettinga <rah@shipwright.com>
Date: Fri, 1 Aug 1997 00:46:12 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Re: House Report on SAFE
In-Reply-To: <1.5.4.32.19970731112509.006d2d0c@pop.pipeline.com>
Message-ID: <v0311073eb0066a2ee9bf@[139.167.130.246]>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



At 8:32 am -0400 on 7/31/97, Declan McCullagh wrote:


> "We are in unanimous agreement that congress must adopt
> encryption legislation that requires the development,
> manufacture, distribution and sale of only key recovery
> products."
>
> Darrell L. Sanders, President, International Association of
> Chiefs of Police.
>
> James E. Doyle, President, National Association of
> Attorneys General.
>
> Fred Scoralic, President, National Sheriffs' Association.

As if these fuckwits had any conception of cryptography at all.

Sheesh. This is truly the revenge of the NSA.

Telling Louis Freeh -- a man who got his 'bones' busting mafiosi with
wiretaps -- that he couldn't do it any more if strong cryptography was
legal was a pure stroke of luddite genius on the part of Stew Baker & Co.

Self-inflicted sabotage if there ever was any. Frankly -- and I'll probably
get shouted down here for saying this here -- the *only* way to shut these
idiots up is for them to be standing exactly on the other side of economic
progress. Which, to me, means, bearer certificate commerce as fast as
possible.

It's impossible to ban aviation if the enemy has strategic bombing, much
less civil aviation. Cavalry charges on tanks look kind of silly.

Economic power is the only power there is.

Cheers,
Bob Hettinga

-----------------
Robert Hettinga (rah@shipwright.com), Philodox
e$, 44 Farquhar Street, Boston, MA 02131 USA
"... however it may deserve respect for its usefulness and antiquity,
[predicting the end of the world] has not been found agreeable to
experience." -- Edward Gibbon, 'Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire'
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