More on crypto from Bonn

Another story in today's FINANCIAL TIMES

        http://www.FT.com

describes a "clash" between USCommerce Sec'y Daley and German economic
minister Rexrodt on strong crypto. Because the speakers' choices of words
are interesting, I quote from the FT article by Ralph Atkins:

                        On coding technology, however, Mr Daley insisted,
"there are certain
                   legitimate areas where governments have to be involved".
Encryption
                   should be used to protect credit card numbers or
detailed contracts from
                   being read. But, he went on: "We must also make sure
national security is
                   safeguarded by applying those rules sensibly, so that
potential terrorists or
                   other sophisticated criminals cannot hide their work."

                   Mr Rexrodt hinted the European ministers regarded US
policy on
                   exporting encryption technology as discriminatory.

                   He backed "strong" encryption procedures, which he said
were "offering
                   users the only protection that they have, the only
certainty, that their data is
                   not going to be divulged or misused on open networks".

                   Mr Rexrodt was backed by Mr Ron Sommer, chairman of
Deutsche
                   Telekom, Europe's largest telecommunications group, who
said: "Anyone
                   who uses the point of public security as an argument in
this [encryption]
                   issue has not realised or acknowledged that any such
legal requirements
                   stand in the way of the further spread of electronic
commerce." 

Questions for the reader:

        What's a "potential" terrorist? (Is the occasional apparent c'punx
paranoia justified?)
        
        How is the US export policy discriminatory?

        Why is DT coming out on this issue? Who are their strategic
partners for ecommerce among US telecomms? (I'll have to ask around about
that ...) 


cheers



.........................................
Donald Weightman
dweightman@radix.net

In message <3.0.16.19970709093445.23d7be9e@pop.radix.net>, Donald Weightman writes:
> 
>         What's a "potential" terrorist? (Is the occasional apparent c'punx
> paranoia justified?)

I suspect "potential terrorist" is like "alleged criminal"; it's a CYA
statement.

I also think it's particularly amusing that an American is lecturing a German
about terrorism. Who has more experience with the subject, anyway?

Sheesh.

-- 
Harald Koch <chk@utcc.utoronto.ca>

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----

In <97Jul9.143005edt.11649@janus.tor.securecomputing.com>, on 07/09/97 
   at 02:35 PM, "C. Harald Koch" <chk@utcc.utoronto.ca> said:

>In message <3.0.16.19970709093445.23d7be9e@pop.radix.net>, Donald
>Weightman writes: > 
>>         What's a "potential" terrorist? (Is the occasional apparent c'punx
>> paranoia justified?)

>I suspect "potential terrorist" is like "alleged criminal"; it's a CYA
>statement.

>I also think it's particularly amusing that an American is lecturing a
>German about terrorism. Who has more experience with the subject, anyway?

With dealing with terrorist or as acting like terrorist??

- -- 
- ---------------------------------------------------------------
William H. Geiger III  http://www.amaranth.com/~whgiii
Geiger Consulting    Cooking With Warp 4.0

Author of E-Secure - PGP Front End for MR/2 Ice
PGP & MR/2 the only way for secure e-mail.
OS/2 PGP 2.6.3a at: http://www.amaranth.com/~whgiii/pgpmr2.html                        
- ---------------------------------------------------------------

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
Version: 2.6.3a
Charset: cp850
Comment: Registered_User_E-Secure_v1.1b1_ES000000

iQCVAwUBM8PdwY9Co1n+aLhhAQHHRwQAs7nDTaok/4u513w7fmlHlJkSkWvZReto
MjXXuj8yaD/9TfR5WVYYVueGFmiztXklDAYDOeoJPhoTWvA9yaHL1vpoBzGWlW/d
LEQSN91ioyOd1HB1HEWXTyPf1oIss5KUosRKCRgucHkIIAD19ctBQ5oeEZ6dVPY0
COEgjuM/B+s=
=6Pvs
-----END PGP SIGNATURE-----

> In message <3.0.16.19970709093445.23d7be9e@pop.radix.net>, Donald Weightman writes:
> >         What's a "potential" terrorist? (Is the occasional apparent c'punx
> > paranoia justified?)
> 
> I also think it's particularly amusing that an American is lecturing a German
> about terrorism. Who has more experience with the subject, anyway?

	From which side?

>>         What's a "potential" terrorist?

>I suspect "potential terrorist" is like "alleged criminal"; it's a CYA
>statement.

No, they're much different.  An "alleged criminal" is a specific person who
may have really done something illegal, but you're covering yourself
against lawsuits because you haven't yet proven they're guilty in court.
A "potential terrorist" is a bogeyman to scare the public with,
who may or may not exist, and who hasn't done anything scary himself yet.
An "alleged terrorist" is a specific person who may be the one who did some
terrorist action.

On the other hand, a gang of thugs threatening to destroy all life
on the planet are simply referred to as "The Pentagon"....


#			Thanks;  Bill
# Bill Stewart, +1-415-442-2215 stewarts@ix.netcom.com
# You can get PGP outside the US at ftp.ox.ac.uk/pub/crypto/pgp
#   (If this is a mailing list or news, please Cc: me on replies.  Thanks.)