> Clinton and Gore are not stupid. They knew that the crypto export ban
>would not keep crypto out of the hands of criminals. The eventual repeal
>of the ban has been obvious to practically everyone in Washington for
>years.
>
Your faith in government is touching. The fact is, the crypto ban will only
be truly repealed when the NSA has quantum chips that can decode almost
anything in realtime. The government does not care ONE SMEGGING BIT about
'terrorists' or 'criminals' or 'spies'. It cares only, solely, and totally
about being able to spy on average citizens. It wants control, and that's all.
Governments LOVE crime. They create policies designed entirely to increase
crime -- like the 'war on drugs'. Crimes gives them excuses to take
control. The government will never take any action that will ACTUALLY
reduce crime, and, if crime goes down despite their best efforts (as it has
been), they will continue to scream 'Crisis!' at the top of their lungs.
> The problem was that it was billed as a purely civil rights issue. This
>won the argument on the need to change policy but not the issue of timing.
>I spent several years trying to work out an answer to the question 'but if
>as you say it is having no effect, why is there a need for a change now?'.
>
Actually, I found, to my annoyance, it was billed as a competitiveness
issue. OTOH, if it wasn't, NO ONE would have paid attention. At least a few
people in government are more interested in money than in power, but not
enough.
