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Steven Levy on Louis Freeh's position
From: David Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu>
Date: Fri, 21 Oct 1994 20:47:45 -0400
Note: Levy is doing a book on the cypherpunks. --Mike Topic 577 [eff]: Dispatches from the CyberFront #822 of 825: Steven Levy (steven) Fri Oct 21 '94 (13:36) 58 lines Further clarification of Director Freeh's comments at the Global Cryptography conference Sept 23: I got a call from a Public Affairs official of the FBI who told me that in the circumstances I specified-- Digital Telephony passed, criminals not using Clipper, FBI finding encrypted conversations when it wiretapped -- Freeh was not necessarily saying that he would seek legislative means of regulation. I had assumed this was so because the context of his remarks were of Digital Telephony, where a legislative remedy to law enforcement's problem was sought. In any case, the transcript of the original remark (supplied to me by the FBI) had this. I asked the question whether the Administration policy of not regulating domestic cryptography would change if in the future FBI wiretaps yielded only encrypted converations. Director Freeh wasn't sure of the question, but when I clarified it he asked, "the terms of encryption being a voluntary standard"? which seemed to indicate he got my drift, asking whether that voluntary nature would change if the FBI couldn't get clear conversations. I said, "Yes," acknowledging that that is what I meant. He then said, "Oh yeah, definitely. If five years from now we solve the access problem, but what we're hearing is all encrypted, I'll probably, if I'm still here, be talking about that in a very different way: the objective is the same. The objective is for us to get those conversations whether they're by an alligator clip or ones and zeros. Whoever they are, whatever they are, I need them." The FBI Public Affairs Office also provided me some points that it wanted to emphasize (here I paraphrase a bit) (1) The Director will continue to advocate public safethy through lawful electronic surveillance while also "insuring the needs of industry and the privacy of our citizens" (2) While the Director supports Clipper, he encourages the developement of alternative key escrow schemes that would also meet the needs of law enforcement (3) The Director encourages what he sees as the current process of government and industry working together to find a balance that would let business flourish, allow citizens to communicate securely, and insure public safety. "He is confident that solutions can be reached that will satisfy these requirements." Hope this all makes sense.
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- Steven Levy on Louis Freeh's position David Farber (Oct 21)