<nettime> FC: House armed services committee members tie crypto to kidnappings

[Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>]

[originally To: politech@vorlon.mit.edu]


[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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