[1897] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
Re: BXA denies my administrative appeal
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Miles Vorkosigan)
Wed Nov 26 11:35:07 1997
Date: Tue, 25 Nov 1997 22:05:53 -0500
From: Miles Vorkosigan <miles_w@anon.efga.org>
To: ;@undisclosed-recipients
In message <v03007800b09f865249e2@[172.17.1.150]>, Rick Smith writes:
>
> I recently spoke informally with a couple of sub-Cabinet level officials on
> crypto policy. Their comments indicated that the FBI et al are dominating
> internal meetings on the subject with the same polarizing rhetoric they're
> using in Congress. One official said that he was accused of intentionally
> aiding terrorists at one of these meetings.
During a recent application for crypto export approval, which should have
been routine, we were contacted by an individual from the *FBI* (not from
BXA) who refused our export license because we didn't have a key recovery
system *in place now*. This is despite the facts that:
- the export license was to use our strong cryptography products for
communications between our international sales offices and head office;
this used to be a rubber-stamp license, and
- we are in the process of implementing key recovery technology as part of a
a seperate export approval for our DES-56 products.
I couldn't even get an answer as to why the FBI had jurisdiction over our
export approval.
--
Miles
