Re: How I Would Ban Strong Crypto in the U.S.

[tcmay@got.net (Timothy C. May)]

At 7:29 PM 7/16/96, Declan McCullagh wrote:

>(Note that Leahy is only occasionally a friend of the Net. His original
>crypto bill had troubling additional criminal penalties; he shepharded
>Digital Telephony through Congress; he is a co-sponsor of the vile
>copyright bill pending right now. In sum, he'd hurt the Net more than help
>it. This becomes a problem when netizens hold him up as an champion of our
>freedoms -- and then when DT II comes along his fellow senators think it's
>okay to vote for it 'cuz Mr. Net, Leahy, is a cosponsor.)

By the way, I certainly don't hold him up as a champion of views I can
support; I vividly recall his role in the disastrous DT Act.

>My rebuttal to Gorelick's fantasy is: well, what about Japan, where the
>country's constitution forbids wiretapping?

Many countries have constitutions which say fine things, even though the
reality is quite different. Some even constitutions which are in many ways
better than the U.S. version...until of course the reality on the street is
taken into account.

Japan has an active SIGINT capability, called Chobetsu, directed
domestically at U.S. installations (a la NSA's own SIGINT facility at
Misawa AFB) and at domestic companies. Whatever their constitution may say,
intercepts are used. Chip companies with facilities in Japan communicate
with their facilities with the expectation that MITI and Chobetsu are
making all attempts to intercept useful economic intelligence.

Information on the intelligence agencies of various countries may be found
in the standard reference by Jeffery Richelson, or on the Web at such URLs
as http://www.onestep.com/milnet/iagency.htm

Here is one entry for Chobetsu:

Chobetsu   Ground Self-Defense Forces       Investigation              Japan
                      Division,
                      Second Section,
                      Annex Chamber

In short, I don't believe that a New Crypto World Order, with buy-ins
already apparent from most European and Asian countries, will be deterred
by Japan's nominal promise in its constitution not to wiretap.

As a friend of mine who spent the last nine years working for an American
chip company in Tsukuba and Tokyo puts it, "Japan is a fucking police
state."

--Tim May


Boycott "Big Brother Inside" software!
We got computers, we're tapping phone lines, we know that that ain't allowed.
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Timothy C. May              | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money,
tcmay@got.net  408-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero
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