Bobby Inman

[karn (Phil Karn)]

In case you haven't been following the news for the past two days or
so, Secretary of Defense Les Aspin has resigned, and Clinton has
already nominated Bobby Inman, a retired 4-star Navy admiral, as his
replacement.

Inman was NSA director during the Carter administration. He is
probably best known for his outspoken calls for draconian laws
regulating private cryptography. He wanted all cryptographic research,
public or private, to be "born classified", just like nuclear weapons,
with NSA given authority over all publications.

He lost, of course, but his becoming Secretary of Defense just as the
issue of private crypto regulation is coming to a head again does not
bode well at all.

Phil