New Docs Reveal NSA Role in

[Dave Banisar <banisar@washofc.cpsr.org>]

  New Docs Reveal NSA Role in Telephony Proposal
>From the CPSR Alert 2.06 (Dec. 1, 1993)

New Docs Reveal NSA Involvement in Digital Telephony Proposal

  A series of memoranda received by CPSR from the Department of
Commerce last week indicate that the National Security Agency was
actively involved in the 1992 FBI Digital Telephony Proposal. Two weeks
ago, documents received by CPSR indicated that the FBI proposal, code
named "Operation Root Canal," was pushed forward even after reports
from the field found no cases where electronic surveillance was
hampered by new technologies. The documents also revealed that the
Digital Signature Standard was viewed by the FBI as "[t]he first step
in our plan to deal with the encryption issue."
  
  The earliest memo is dated July 5, 1991, just a few weeks after the
Senate withdrew a Sense of Congress provision from S-266, the Omnibus
Crime Bill of 1991, that encouraged service and equipment providers to
ensure that their equipment would "permit the government to obtain the
plain text contents of voice, data and other communications...." The
documents consist of a series of fax transmittal sheets and memos from
the Office of Legal Counsel in the Department of Commerce to the
National Security Agency. Many attachments and drafts, including more
detailed descriptions of the  NSA's proposals, were withheld or
released with substantial deletions.
  
Also included in the documents is a previously released public
statement by the National Telecommunications and Information
Administration entitled "Technological Competitiveness and Policy
Concerns."  The document was requested by Rep. Jack Brooks and states
that the proposal
  
  could obstruct or distort telecommunications technology development
  by limiting fiber optic transmission, ISDN, digital cellular services
  and other technologies until they are modified, ... could impair the
  security of business communications ... that could facilitate not
  only lawful government interception, but unlawful interception by
  others, [and] could impose industries ability to offer new services
  and technologies.
  
  CPSR is planning to appeal the Commerce Department's decision to
withhold many of the documents.

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