Privy Affairs

[John Young <jya@pipeline.com>]

   The WSJ and Financial Times report today on The New
   Transatlantic Agenda, the trade and security pact signed by
   the US and Europe yesterday to "boost cooperation."

      [WSJ] The accord's center piece commits the parties to
      working together on 150 specific policy areas, including
      cutting trade barriers, strengthening cooperation in
      nuclear nonprofliferation and fighting international
      crime.

      "There are mixed urges in Europe right now," says Kirsty
      Hughes, head of the European program at the Royal
      Institute for International Affairs in London. "On one
      hand, the nations of Europe want to keep the U.S.
      involved in European affairs, and on the other, they
      want to develop their own economic, political and
      security arrangements."

   Then, the Fin Times piece, headlined "Clinton and EU
   leaders agree on crime," reports on a variety of issues but
   mentions only in passing the phrase "crime, drugs and
   terrorism."

   This treatment suggests that there is more boosting of
   security and crime-fighting cooperation than the press is
   reporting -- or privy to.

   Recall recent reports on:

      A World Trade Organization cyberspace czar to bring law
      and order to the unruly Net.

      EU plans for setting standards and certifications for
      products, including software for computer security,
      encryption and authentication.

      The future threat to "the West" by a hyper-cyber Asia
      [ex-colonies] deploying information wizardry to level
      the playing field.

   Cooperation on trade and "crime, drugs and terrorism" might
   then be a euphemism for economic aggression -- US-EU
   international affairs arranged to maximize benefits for
   transatlantic self-interests.

   If so, then cryptography is truly a highly valuable
   munitions for economic warfare, worthy of the strongest law
   and enforcement measures, closely fit to the power of the
   weapon. With US-EU GAK and ITAR to protect markets of the
   transatlantic super-nation and selected meta-atlantic
   partners in crime-pure joy.

   Would Michael Froomkin, RIIA Foreign Associate, care to 
   generously unscramble this international affairs sigint?

   Air the pinstriped privy, ahem.