Re: What was the quid pro quo for Wassenaar countries?

[Jyri Kaljundi <jk@stallion.ee>]

On Mon, 7 Dec 1998, Peter Gutmann wrote:

> One thing which came to me recently when I was trying to figure out what sort 
> of gun the US held to the rest of the world's head to get them to agree to 
> this: Could the Wassenaar outcome have been a sign of Echelon in action?

Much more I believe it could have been the promise of US to allow the W
countries to use the Echelon system sometimes. Something like in case your
country needs access to the system, it might be possible to order this
service from US Echelon Co. Of course US either would allow it in cases
like international terrorism threats, not for spying on European political
organs, technological and development and research organisations US
probably is using it for today. And it could be just a promise by US. 

Why this thing might have worked would be because the level education and
understanding of US and European representatives at these issues (Echelon,
communications wiretapping) could be very different, so the non-US
politicians might have not understood what they were really voting on. And
of course the government of every country in the world is always happy if
it can spy on anyone. Sad that they do not understand that the crypto
software today is a little bit too advanced and freely available that who
wants can still use it. 

Jyri Kaljundi
jk@stallion.ee
AS Stallion Ltd
http://www.stallion.ee/