Whit Diffie's comments

[Lee Tien <tien@well.sf.ca.us>]

A few days ago John Gilmore forwarded some comments from Whit.

I was curious about one in particular, where Whit said:

"Despite all the assurances, there is another trap door in the 
algorithm that will be used in reading foreign traffic.  A publicly
[sic] explainable mechanism is needed if the intercepts are to be used
in court, but not if they are to be 'Handled Via COMINT Channels Only.'"

I don't understand this comment -- at least I don't think I do.  Is
this a reference to some provision of federal law or a secret directive?
I dimly recall from my reading of Bamford, or some other book about 
the intelligence agencies, that there's a statutory "NSA exception"
re electronic interceptions.  Is that what's being referred to here?
If so, can anyone provide a citation?  I'd like to take a look at it.

Lee Tien