FC: Ex-FBI director Louis Freeh still wants your encryption keys!

From: Declan McCullagh (declanat_private)
Date: Thu May 02 2002 - 23:00:39 PDT

  • Next message: Declan McCullagh: "FC: Replies to LA Times columnist wanting to limit anonymity online"

    It was always a real comfort to have Louis Freeh at the helm of the
    FBI, delivering a delightfully predictable sermon on demand about the
    importance of total government surveillance. Oh, it was Big Brotherish
    to the hilt, of course -- but at least with Freeh, you always knew where
    you stood. (You were a permanent suspect with fewer privacy rights
    than an Alcatraz inmate during a body cavity search.)
    
    See also, from 1999:
    
    "Louis Freeh: "I have not given up on encryption'"
    http://www.politechbot.com/p-00232.html
    
    -Declan
    
    ----- Forwarded message from "Trei, Peter" <ptreiat_private> -----
    
    From: "Trei, Peter" <ptreiat_private>
    Subject: Louis Freeh STILL wants your keys.
    Date: Wed, 1 May 2002 12:27:13 -0400 
    
    http://cbc.ca/stories/2002/04/30/elcock_terror020430
    
    - start quote -
    
    In order to fight this threat, says Freeh, companies
    such as Microsoft must be legally obligated to hand
    over the keys needed to decipher encrypted
    messages. He says it could prevent al-Qaeda from
    maintaining encrypted communication over the
    Internet. 
    
    As for individual liberties, Freeh says it would be no
    more of an infringement than a wire tap on a phone
    line. 
    
    - end quote -
    
    [Either Freeh is far more ignorant than he has
    appeared in the past, or the journalist mangled
    his quotes]
    
    Peter Trei
    
    ----- End forwarded message -----
    
    
    
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