Re: The Politics of Export Restrictions

[Declan McCullagh <declan@pathfinder.com>]

Agreed. It's the Republicans who are the most adamantly pro-crypto. They'd
love to use it as a noose to hang Gore in 2000. If Gore switches positions
-- which I think unlikely -- it'll just be another area where both parties
agree. A minor point: since Gore has been the chief crypto-critic of this
administration, if he switched he'd leave himself open to charges of
waffling. 

Then again, some administration officials tell me they expect this debate
to be resolved within a year, so go figure.

-Declan


On Wed, 29 Jan 1997, Greg Broiles wrote:

> At 09:44 PM 1/29/97 -0800, Rick Hornbeck wrote:
> 
> >Is it possible the unreasonable crypto export restrictions are simply being
> >imposed at this time for the purpose of making Al Gore look good when he
> >runs for President in 2000?
> 
> I suppose it's plausible, but it's an opportunity open to both candidates,
> and more plausibly (because of lack of collaboration) to the Republicans -
> e.g., Dan Quayle and the "Crypto Freedom For Americans" platform, promising
> to rescue Silicon Valley from those evil regulatory Democrats. 
> 
> If I were an evil politician trying to set up a trick like you suggest, I
> think I'd want a scheme that my opponent(s) couldn't hijack and use against
> me.
> 
> --
> Greg Broiles                | US crypto export control policy in a nutshell:
> gbroiles@netbox.com         | 
> http://www.io.com/~gbroiles | Export jobs, not crypto.
>                             | 
> 
>