RE: A Long History for Clipper...

["Pat Farrell" <pfarrell@cs.gmu.edu>]

Timothy C. May) writes:
>George Gleason writes:
>>  Clipper can't have been developed since Inauguration
>>Day; ...
>It's clearly stated that the program is at least 4 years old and that,
>[supporting stuff deleted]
>This doesn't mean the proposal will be casually tossed aside by Clinton as
>some objections are raised. Most policies of this sort percolate up through
>the entrenched bureacracies in Justice, State, Defense, NSA, etc.

I was listening to a lecture by Dr. Denning (Peter J) about a week ago.
He was referencing NREN, not his wife's key registration idea, but
in light of Clipper, the comments are germane. He said that some of  his
left-coast collegues were all concerned about NREN providing equal access
so it won't be a "yuppie-only" communication medium. Prof. Denning said that
these well meaning folks are too late. Gore's data superhighways were
announced as a big deal for political reasons by the Clinton
Administration, but it was actually the result of nearly 10 years of work.
He said these things take years to create, and that the consensus is in
place before it announced so acceptance is assured.

Clearly CLIPPER has been percolating thru the TLAs for quite some time.
I think the self selection process (see The New Republic's Clincest article)
has allowed those who have been sending up trial balloons to think
they've reached an acceptable position. It was clear at last Fall's
National Computer Security Conference (sponsored by NSA) that the TLAs were
going to keep pushing to get this thru.

BTW, I live "inside the Beltway" and have been trying to figure out
a way to use my ability to easily popover the DC for face to face
meetings to help stop this madness. I tried working with EFF last
Fall, but they couldn't figure out how to use volunteer help.
If any crypo-privacy list readers have ideas, please let me know.

Pat
(My pgp key is on the utmb and mit servers.)