Here's something I wrote on Ashcroft's privacy stance when he was appointed: http://www.politechbot.com/p-01607.html It's tempting to over-simplify and say he was great then and awful now, but Ashcroft's record in Congress was hardly spectacular: http://www.politechbot.com/p-01114.html Also remember that Bill Clinton and Janet Reno were around in the late 1990s -- which is one big reason then-senator Ashcroft was railing against the Justice Department. -Declan --- From: "Paul \"Evil Genius\" Music" <evlpawlat_private> To: "DeClan" <declanat_private> Subject: Senator Ashcroft unintentionally defines Irony Date: Mon, 25 Nov 2002 13:22:53 -0600 MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="----=_NextPart_000_0020_01C29485.C2873FC0" X-Priority: 3 X-MSMail-Priority: Normal [Senator Ashcroft takes issue with administration views on the Internet and the use of encryption technology.] . . . . . . . The Clinton administration would like the Federal government to have the capability to read any international or domestic computer communications. The FBI wants access to decode, digest, and discuss financial transactions, personal e-mail, and proprietary information sent abroad -- all in the name of national security. . . . . This proposed policy raises obvious concerns about Americans' privacy, in addition to tampering with the competitive advantage that our U.S. software companies currently enjoy in the field of encryption technology. Not only would Big Brother be looming over the shoulders of international cyber-surfers, but the administration threatens to render our state-of-the-art computer software engineers obsolete and unemployed. More: <http://usinfo.state.gov/journals/itgic/1097/ijge/gj-7.htm>http://usinfo.state.gov/journals/itgic/1097/ijge/gj-7.htm ------------------------------------------------------------------------- POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice. To subscribe to Politech: http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/ Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Like Politech? Make a donation here: http://www.politechbot.com/donate/ Recent CNET News.com articles: http://news.search.com/search?q=declan -------------------------------------------------------------------------
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