DoD on Crypto, Echelon, Secrets

[John Young <jya@pipeline.com>]

We attended Defense Secretary Cohen's talk today at the Council on 
Foreign Relations in New York City on "Security in a Grave World."

While not included in the prepared text, Secretary Cohen remarked 
in the Q&A on terrorism and encryption policy that Americans will 
have to decide how much privacy they will be willing to give up for 
protection against terrorism, and cited the FBI's similar views on 
the threat of encryption use by terrorists. 

Afterwards I had an informative chat with Kenneth Bacon, 
Assistant Secretary of Defense for Public Affairs, to ask about 
interviewing Secretary Cohen on Echelon, the global electronic 
intercept and surveillance system operated by the National Security 
Agency. 

Mr. Bacon said the Department will not comment on such matters. I 
acknowledged that was the case heretofore, but with intense European 
interest in Echelon, I asked if would it be possible for Secretary 
Cohen to give a statement on the topic.

I noted that Secretary Cohen in his talk today had listed international 
cooperation as a principal need of US defense policy, and that Echelon 
had raised considerable suspicion of US interception and surveillance 
prowess which could inhibit international trust and cooperation. 

I also asked Mr. Bacon if Secretary Cohen could discuss as well the 
possibility of further declassification of secret technology, as with 
the Skipjack encryption algorithm, to enhance US economic security and 
for protection against information espionage. 

Mr. Bacon said that others in the Department would be more appropriate 
to discuss such topics in detail then Secretary Cohen. I asked if anyone 
except the Secretary had authority to discuss Echelon and declassification 
of secret technology. Mr. Bacon would not answer that but suggested I 
send a letter proposing such topics for discussion and the Department 
will respond.