🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1993Jan7.230612.12564@netcom.com> strnlght@netcom.com (David Sternlight) writes:
>beyond the reach of the law, unless we search everybody as they
>leave the country--a remedy I'd recoil from.

Why do you "recoil" from this? It's obviously the only technique that
could possibly make a ban like this meaningful. The search, of course,
would have to include every international phone trunk as well as every
parcel, letter and suitcase. Remember, you only need *one* master to
make an unlimited number of copies.

>In passing, a word to those who may not fully understand the U.S.
>system. The export laws aren't the result of some anti-democratic
>Administration, but the result of laws passed by a democratically
>elected Congress, after extensive public hearings and testimony.

That's the theory. In practice, the line of accountability of the
bureaucrats making the decisions is awfully long and thin.  NSA calls
the shots on crypto export decisions. Their obsession with secrecy is
legion, and they need not explain the reasons behind a decision to
anyone. The phrase "national security" is the most you'll get. Let's
face it -- that's the de-facto "root password" to the protections of
the Constitution.

Nor is there any provision for direct judicial appeal from an
unfavorable NSA decision. The only way to get one is to deliberately
violate the ruling, get hauled into court as a criminal defendant, and
hope you can persuade the judge to overturn the rule. Not many people
want to take that risk, which is why NSA has been able to exploit the
FUD (Fear, Uncertainty and Doubt) factor so successfully even when the
rule in question is totally bogus and they've never actually
prosecuted anyone. They milk the 'chilling effect' for all it's worth.

This may nominally be a democracy, but doesn't this type of secret
policymaking remind you just a little of the former USSR?  Remember
that the standard excuse for denying Soviet citizens the right to
emigrate was that they carry "state secrets" from their service in the
military. Pretty soon I expect Mr. Sternlight to argue that anyone who
knows how to write a cipher should need an exit visa to leave the US.

Phil