Brock Meeks: "The Encryption Clock"

["Declan B. McCullagh" <declan+@CMU.EDU>]

[Near end, Mike Nelson is quoted insisting that White House wants
voluntary key escrow, etc. --Declan]



http://www.hotwired.com/muckraker/

The Encryption Clock
                
                When US Attorney General Janet Reno held a high-profile  
                news conference crowing about the first successful use of
                an "Internet wiretap," she set the "Encryption Clock" in
                motion.
   
                The Encryption Clock (my own invention) is shamelessly
                stolen from the "Doomsday Clock" ginned up by nuclear
                scientists during the Cold War. Since 1947 the Bulletin
                of Atomic Scientists has moved the minute hand on the   
                Doomsday Clock forward or backward; the placement was a 
                guess by the planet's top minds as to how close the world
                was to full-scale nuclear holocaust. Midnight signaled  
                the end of humanity. At the height of Reagan's "Evil   
                Empire" rhetoric, the clock was 3 minutes from striking 
                12. It was only after the USSR self-destructed that the
                clock was rolled back from the brink, and it now sits at
                14 minutes from 12.
   
                If the Encryption Clock strikes midnight, we will see the
                FBI's crypto wet dream realized: A ban on encryption 
                schemes that were not developed or endorsed by the    
                government.
               
                The ban will be swift and brutal and will come without
                public debate. It will cover the FBI's encryption "hat
                trick," outlawing private encryption during all phone  
                calls, modem communications, and even of files stored on 
                your hard disk.
   
[...]