[1441] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
Re: Administration backs away from FBI on crypto, by A.Pressman
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (David Hayes)
Mon Sep 8 17:57:53 1997
Date: Mon, 08 Sep 1997 16:31:07 -0500
To: Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>, cryptography@c2.net
From: David Hayes <david.hayes@mci.com>
In-Reply-To: <Pine.GSO.3.95.970904170623.22903G-100000@well.com>
At 05:06 PM 9/4/97 -0700, Declan McCullagh wrote:
>"What [FBI Director Louis Freeh] proposed was not the administration's
>policy," Commerce Undersecretary William Reinsch told reporters during a
>break at a congressional hearing.
Not Administration policy _yet_, and only because they don't think they
could pass it. Make no mistake, GAK would be the law of the land in seconds
if Bill Clinton and his underlings thought they could get away with it.
> Reinsch said Freeh's proposal was also unlikely to pass.
> "If the committee were to report that (bill out), I think that would be
>something we would look at very seriously," he said.
So the Administration sends Freeh out with their most outrageous proposal,
to see how much flak he attracts. Reinsch didn't say that Freeh was wrong,
or that he had been given new instructions on this topic.
> "The administration has been very clear to the director that he has an
>obligation to tell the Congress what's in the interests of law enforcement,
> and he did that," Reinsch explained. "That doesn't mean he was speaking
>for everybody."
I see the Commerce Secretary's statement as just more self-serving
platitudes, while the not-so-hidden crypto control agenda continues on
course. Bill Clinton remains blissfully undisturbed by thoughtful
contemplation of the impact on constitutional rights and democratic
government.
--
David Hayes David.Hayes@MCI.Com
Switch Systems Engineering voice: 972-918-7236
MCI Communications, Inc. VNET: 777-7236
--If these thoughts were MCI's official opinions, the line above would
--read "MCI - Law & Public Policy Department".
