SecDef on Crypto, Privacy

[John Young <jya@pipeline.com>]

Excerpt from DoD transcription of Secretary of Defense Cohen's
remarks at the Council on Foreign Relations, New York City, 
September 14, 1998:

[Begin]

Let me say one other thing about terrorism.  We in this country 
much recognize the tension which will exist as you ask us, and 
we will ask all successor administrations, to protect us.  And 
you say, how do you protect someone against terrorists?  It means 
increased intelligence.  It means increased intelligence, having 
greater capability on the ground or from national technical 
sources to find out who is planning and plotting what at what 
place and what time.  

To do that is going to put us in somewhat of a direct conflict 
with rights to privacy, something that we hold very dear in this 
country.  So the more intelligence-gathering responsibilities that 
any administration is going to have, there's going to come a point 
of tension and, indeed, friction between how much are you willing 
to give up in order to be secure.  Those are the kind of unpleasant 
choices that are going to be manifesting themselves in the near 
future.  We haven't really faced up to it yet.  We're starting to 
see some of that conflict at least intellectually develop when you 
see the manufacturers of software who don't like the fact that the 
law enforcement, the FBI, the Justice Department wants to have some 
method of getting into encrypted technology. 
 
You say, "Wait a minute, that's my right of privacy.  I'm a 
businessman or woman.  I want to be able to send information out 
over those -- those airwaves and have them completely protected."  
Our Justice Department says, "Wait a minute, you want us to protect 
you.  But you're allowing criminal elements, terrorists and others
 -- organized crime, drug cartels -- to encrypt their 
telecommunications to the point where don't know what's going on.  
And then something is going to happen, and you'll say, where were you?"

So those are the kinds of tensions that are going to continue to exist.  
But we're going to have to have more intelligence to effectively deal 
with terrorism in the future.  

[End excerpt]

Full transcript:

   http://jya.com/wsc091498.htm  (49K)