Date: Tue, 10 Mar 1992 17:47:59 -0500
From: [email protected]
Subject: File 6--CPSR Response to FBI Proposal

                    CPSR letter on FBI Proposal

CPSR and several other organizations sent the following letter to
Senator Patrick Leahy regarding the FBI's recent proposal to undertake
wire surveillance in the digital network.

If you also believe that the FBI's proposal requires further study at
a public hearing, contact Senator Hollings at the Senate Committee on
Commerce.  The phone number is 202/224-9340.

Dave Banisar,
CPSR Washington Office
====================================================

March 9, 1992


Chairman Patrick Leahy
Senate Subcommittee on Law and Technology
Committee on the Judiciary
United States Senate
Washington, DC  20510

Dear Senator Leahy,

    We are writing to you to express our continuing interest in
communications privacy and cryptography policy.  We are associated
with leading computer an telecommunication firms, privacy, civil
liberties, and public interest organizations, as well as research
institutions and universities.  We share common concern that all
policies regarding communications privacy and cryptography should be
discussed at a public hearing where interested parties are provided an
opportunity to comment or to submit testimony.

    Last year we wrote to you to express our opposition to a Justice
Department sponsored provision in the Omnibus Crime Bill, S. 266,
which would have encouraged telecommunications carriers to provide a
decrypted version of privacy-enhanced communications.  This provision
would have encouraged the creation of "trap doors" in communication
networks.  It was our assessment that such a proposal would have
undermined the security, reliability, and privacy of computer
communications.

    At that time, you had also convened a Task Force on Privacy and
Technology which looked at a number of communication privacy issues
including S. 266.  The Task Force determined that it was necessary to
develop a full record on the need for the proposal before the Senate
acted on the resolution.

    Thanks to your efforts, the proposal was withdrawn.

    We also wish to express our appreciation for your decision to
raise the issue of cryptography policy with Attorney General Barr at
his confirmation hearing last year.  We are pleased that the Attorney
General agreed that such matters should properly be brought before
your Subcommittee for consideration.

    We write to you now to ask that you contact the Attorney General
and seek assurance that no further action on that provision, or a
similar proposal, will be undertaken until a public hearing is
scheduled.  We believe that it is important to notify the Attorney
General at this point because of the current attempt by the
administration to amend the Federal Communications Commission
Reauthorization Act with provisions similar to those contained in S.
266.


    We will be pleased to provide assistance to you and your staff.


Sincerely yours,

Marc Rotenberg,
Computer Professionals for Social Responsibility
David Peyton,
ITAA

Ira Rubenstein,
Microsoft

Jerry Berman,
Electronic Frontier Foundation

Mike Cavanagh
Electronic Mail Association

Martina Bradford,
AT&T

Evan Hendricks,
US Privacy Council

Professor Dorothy Denning,
Georgetown University

Professor Lance Hoffman,
George Washington University

Robert L. Park,
American Physical Society

Janlori Goldman,
American Civil Liberties Union

Whitfield Diffie, Sun Microsystems

John Podesta,
Podesta and Associates

Kenneth Wasch,
Software Publishers Association

John Perry Barlow,
Contributing Editor, Communications of the ACM

David Johnson,
Wilmer, Cutler & Pickering


cc:  Senator Joseph R. Biden, Jr
    Senator Hank Brown
    Senator Ernest F. Hollings
    Senator Arlen Specter
    Senator Strom Thurmond
    Representative Don Edwards
    Attorney General Barr
    Chairman Sikes, FCC

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