Re: SecDef on Crypto, Privacy

[Adam Shostack <adam@homeport.org>]

The UNited States has long given far too much emphasis to gadget based 
intelligence.  Theres little conflict between my privacy and a spy in
bin laden's organization.  Its unfortunate that senior officials are
so taken with national technical means, even in the wake of their
utter failure to catch nuclear test preperations in two countries, and 
missle construction in a third.

Adam




On Thu, Sep 17, 1998 at 02:26:27PM -0400, John Young wrote:
| 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)

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"It is seldom that liberty of any kind is lost all at once."
					               -Hume