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IP: The Crypto Restriction Lobby's new friend
From: Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>
Date: Sun, 04 Jul 1999 09:59:07 -0400
Date: Fri, 02 Jul 1999 12:58:46 -0400 To: politech () vorlon mit edu From: Declan McCullagh <declan () well com> There seems to be some confusion about what happened with privacy and the banking bill. The sequence of events went as follows: 1. Paul/Barr and Markey submit very different proposals to Rules committee 2. Rules says Paul/Barr may be introduced as amendment to bill on House floor but rejects Markey as not germane 3. The Paul/Barr amendment, as I wrote, fails in 129-299 vote late yesterday 4. GOP leaders propose amendment to regulate some bank third-party data sharing practices 5. It is attached to banking bill 427-1, with Ron Paul as sole dissenter 6. Entire banking bill, HR10, passes House 343-83. ************ The New York Post June 28, 1999, Monday Pg. 033 BILL GATES VS. THE DRUG WAR? By Robert D. Novak THE Drug Enforcement Administration's (DEA) Thomas A. Constantine, a career cop, recently complained to Microsoft's Bill Gates, the world's richest man, that encryption devices sold by his company and used by international drug lords are so powerful that they cannot be deciphered by law enforcement. "Well," replied Gates, "you've got to get bigger computers." That is reminiscent of Marie Antoinette's "Let them eat cake!" advice for bread-less French peasants. As Gates knows, no computer is big enough to break Microsoft's new codes. But the Senate and House Commerce committees last week (unreported in the major daily press) approved bills to end export controls over encryption systems to which law enforcement and national security officials have no access. That would give the big drug cartels, now based in Mexico, worry-free communications with their U.S. operatives. Constantine and FBI Director Louis J. Freeh are losing their battle to be able to decipher criminal communications under court order. High-tech campaign money is winning out. The Republican Congress has adopted Gates as its poster boy. Sen. John McCain, seeking the GOP presidential nomination, changed sides three months ago and last week guided anti-control legislation out of the Commerce Committee, which he heads. The normally loquacious President Clinton is silent, as Vice President Al Gore courts Silicon Valley in quest of the presidency. Freeh and Constantine are desperate. Wiretapping is law enforcement's biggest weapon, authorized by court order 1,329 times nationwide in 1998 - 72 percent in drug cases. No longer able to infiltrate the narcotics apparatus, the DEA depends on eavesdropping. But intercepted conversations now are interrupted by a steady buzz, signifying that intelligible conversation is encrypted. What experts call "level-one encryption" could be decoded, but the drug lords have turned to "level two." [...] -------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- the moderated mailing list of politics and technology To subscribe: send a message to majordomo () vorlon mit edu with this text: subscribe politech More information is at http://www.well.com/~declan/politech/ --------------------------------------------------------------------------
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