U.S. crypto czar's travel records revealed

[Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>]

>From EPIC newsletter

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[3] EPIC Obtains U.S. Crypto Czar's Travel Records
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Following a year-long legal battle, EPIC has obtained over 500 pages of
materials from the U.S. State Department on the international travels of
David Aaron, the former U.S. Envoy for Cryptography.  Aaron also served
as U.S. Ambassador to the Organization for Economic Cooperation and
Development when the OECD was developing its encryption policy
guidelines.

The released documents show Ambassador Aaron made frequent trips around
the world lobbying for international adoption of key escrow encryption.

He visited Australia, Belgium (both the European Union & Belgian
governments), Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Switzerland and the United
Kingdom.  The documents also indicate that he went to South Africa, and
met with the counselor of the Latvian embassy in Paris and with Russian
Finance Ministry officials.

Even before Aaron was appointed as President Clinton's "Special Envoy for
Cryptography," U.S. State Department messages indicate that the United
States was making overtures to various countries via American embassies
around the world.  These include the diplomatic posts in Canberra,
London, Tokyo, Ottawa, Tel Aviv, Paris, Bonn, The Hague and Moscow.  One
message to these foreign posts announced the revised U.S. cryptography
export policy (the key recovery within two years or "no export" rule).
The public announcement of that policy was made on October 1, 1996.

Aaron apparently was not always greeted warmly in his travels.  In Japan,
the government requested that the meetings be kept secret and that the
press not be informed.  Even the U.S. Embassy in Japan was less than
enthusiastic -- the embassy suggested that Aaron and his delegation could
take the airport bus to their hotel rather than be picked up by an
embassy driver.