Article 39916 of alt.security:
Though  may  be  a  little out of place, the following letter is worth
reading for it's content.

	But before it let me state my reason to post here at  this  time:
	 It lays  on  a private  info i've received recently:
	That had recently been  agreed  by several secret services from 
the NATO alliance, under suggestion by the American Services, to make
efforts to associate  civil  cryptography  with  Drug Crimes and
Sexual Crimes, with preference for child pornography as more
effective... (one at the time to avoid loss of  effect  on  the civil
population) 
	The  objective  in the long run  is  to  make  illegal  enciphered
conversations using Europe as a first step to create precedents in the
Alliance.

	Obviously,  making  something  illegal  will  affect  ONLY  
the  civil populations  NOT  the  criminals...  but  that  may be
logic under  the secret services world needs and profile.
	This lead me to ask WHY?!?

	I recall that many crimes a  legal  and  many  illegalities  are  
not crimes,  but  the confusion between Law and Justice, between 
crime and illegality, are now established for a long time.
	The  psychological   and   financial   aspects,   and the one
of EXERCISE-OF-POWER can NOT be forgotten.
	(We do have a monster to feed with work or he will turn
against us - But who is 'us'? Who feeds the beast?!?)

	Note:
  The  reasons  behind  this  behavior  are  complex  and,  i
believe, related with the secret services psychology and with their
extras done for single powerful persons, organizations and civil
security-information services... but this is a guess.
  The secret service  psychology  reflects  their  relations  with
the crime world, the fact they can commit crimes legally, and the 
need for identification as human as they are (?). The psychological
gap  between them and the civilians is responsible for the filling of
the hole left by the the communist world. A role transposition from
the 'enemy  to  the civilians may take place reenforced by the
identification of the servicewith the  criminals  they  work  with:
same  way  of  life,  methods, dissimulation,   freedom  of  action,
similar  personalities,  etc...
<End-of-note>


Here is the letter:
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Dear DDJ,

The December 1993 "Editorial'' by Jon Erickson, "Cryptography Fires Up
the  Feds"  has  come  closer to the truth than he might imagine. As a
researcher in cryptography and an inventor of  a  patented  public-key
cryptographic  system,  I  have had my own visits from the NSA. I have
read all of the technical and news articles regarding U.S. policy and,
until  recently,  have  been  perplexed  by  the  rationale behind it.

Conversations  with NSA personnel and careful reading of the events of
the last several years culminating in the Clipper/Skipjack initiatives
of this year, lead to the only logical conclusion regarding government
policy on encryption technology: U.S. government attempts  to  control
encryption  technology are directed not at foreign governments, but at
United States citizens.

This  conclusion  is  a  simple  deduction  of  the  facts:  1.  Since
encryption  algorithms  (including  RSA  and  DES)  cannot feasibly be
contained within our borders, restricting products that  contain  them
is  futile,  if  the  goal  is to keep them from being used by foreign
governments. 2. Powerful  encryption  technology  has  been  developed
abroad,  including  some  recent  work  by  an  erstwhile enemy. 3. No
foreign government will purchase equipment  that  contains  encryption
technology open to U.S. intelligence agencies.

These  facts  must  be obvious even to those bureaucrats in Washington
attempting  to  dictate  policy  on  the  exchange   of   information.
Logically,  therefore, the government's attempts to control encryption
technology are directed  at  its  own  citizens.  Limiting  export  of
products including encryption technology inhibits domestic development
of the technology, as do acts such as the Clipper/Skipjack initiative.
Without  the restrictions the government is pursuing, in several years
we  could  buy  a  reasonably  priced  telephone  that  allows  us  to
communicate  securely--free  from  possible  government eavesdropping.
With government restrictions, only gangsters and drug dealers will use
secure  communications  devices purchased abroad. We need to insist to
our legislators and policy makers that we don't  wish  to  purchase  a
false   sense  of  security  at  the  expense  of  our  Constitutional
liberties.

<Enf of Signed Letter>
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