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List:       cryptography
Subject:    House armed services committee members tie crypto to
From:       Declan McCullagh <declan () well ! com>
Date:       1999-10-22 14:49:08
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[Yes, Virginia, many Congresscritters are babbling birdbrains. Take Rep. Neil
Abercrombie (D-Hawaii). He apparently thinks that encryption export controls
are somehow linked to private-sector databases. Go figure. He's not dumb --
has
a sociology PhD -- but seems to have a thing about terrorists. Co-authored a
novel "Blood of Patriots" in which a pair of 'em wipe out 125 legislators. And
Rep. John Kasich's (R-Ohio) comments are, if possible, even more inane. --DBM]



HEARING OF THE HOUSE ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE
SUBJECT: RELEASE OF REPORT FROM
THE COMMISSION ON NATIONAL SECURITY
IN THE 21ST CENTURY

CHAIRED BY: REPRESENTATIVE FLOYD D. SPENCE (R-SC)
WITNESSES: GARY HART, FORMER U.S. SENATOR;
NORMAN R. AUGUSTINE, FORMER CHAIR, LOCKHEED MARTIN CORPORATION;
WARREN B. RUDMAN, FORMER U.S. SENATOR;
ANDREW YOUNG, FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR TO THE UNITED NATIONS

2118 RAYBURN HOUSE OFFICE BUILDING
WASHINGTON, DC
OCTOBER 5, 1999, TUESDAY

...

REP. ABERCROMBIE: Thank you very much.  I hope you will also take up the
question of encryption.  I probably find myself to the -- as long as we have
syndromes here of left and right and so on -- I'm probably way, way, way to
the
right of most everybody, I guess, on this committee, and certainly where the
administration is at the moment, on the question of encryption.  
I find it ironic that there would be a proposal to give the FBI tens of
millions
of dollars to try to overcome the encryption that we're going to sell to
everybody, so's people can make money while we put our, I believe, put our
security at risk.  Just as a case in point, from today's Miami Herald, on the
kidnapping taking place in Bogota -- in Colombia, rather, by the ELN, the
point
made -- the present kidnapping, guerrillas take -- "roadblocks are common in
Colombia" -- I'm quoting now -- "and guerrillas often take numerous people.
Rebels at roadblocks have begun using portable computers to check databases to
determine the assets of potential kidnap victims." (Mild laughter.)

This, on one hand, is amusing, but in the technological world we're dealing
with
now it's a reality and it has to do with bioterrorism, it has to do with all
the
other possibilities that might be taken up.  So I would hope that you would
address the question of encryption in the overall context.
On that, then, finally, for me, I hope you will take up in the second and
third
phases, when you deal with the question of bioterrorism, weapons of mass
destruction and so on, some of the actual costs and logistical difficulties
that
we will face internally, domestically in the United States. 

...

MR. AUGUSTINE: This is a subject, of course, of the next two phases of our
report.  I'd hate to keep reiterating that, but these are exactly the kinds of
things we are going to try to come to grips with.
I think -- back to an observation I made earlier -- we are going to have
thinkdifferently.  We are going to have to think about the threats that are
new
and
think about them, to use the buzzword of the time, "outside the box" that
is to
say, outside conventional traditional military solutions.
The response to threats of these kinds -- OF cyberthreats, biological,
chemical
-- are going to have to engage the American population.  I am a great advocate
of, I guess, remodeling and revitalizing the National Guard and Reserve.  I --
and I am now just one person talking -- I think the defense of the homeland is
going to have to involve those branches of our Armed Services in ways that the
traditional military cannot, and probably should not, respond to, for a lot of
constitutional reasons.

We are going to have to think of nonmilitary assets; how to engage the private
sector, with all of the talent and capability it has, at becoming part of the
homeland defense; that we can't just say to the Defense Department, "Defend
our
country against these kinds of threats."

...

So if we are entering a century and an era where we at home are under
attack or
could be under attack, we are going to have to think totally different; I
mean,
the only solution isn't the 82nd Airborne Division and Trident submarines and
so
on.  In fact, those are probably not the right solutions.

...

REP. KASICH: ...drive the government, Mr. Augustine, away from sales and more
in the direction
of how we get a handle on proliferation.  They say, well, if we don't sell,
the
British will sell.  Well, I mean, I thought we were a leader of the world.  If
we're a leader of the world, then why don't we break some knuckles and force
some people to understand the consequence of selling high technology items to
the enemy?  And I would hope that you would consider that.  And maybe you
might
comment, Mr. Augustine, about the proliferation, argument, profits, and
what we
can do to march together in the world.  

Technology, Mr. Young, may be -- you know, I know about the tremendous poverty
that we see around the world.  But, you know, the Internet may offer us a
great
opportunity for the American citizen to be able to communicate with citizens
around the world so they can get a better sense of what we're all about.  And
maybe we need to undertake a citizen-to-citizen movement, because I was just
amazed at that New York Times article two, three months ago that said now that
we've conquered the world, the world hates us, and they look at our stealth
technology, which scares us.  And perhaps we need to link American citizens as
much as we can with other citizens.  But yet at the same time if America would
just spend a few dollars in Africa, think of the tremendous goodwill and
impact
we could make with such small investment.  

...


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