-Caveat Lector- from: http://www.wired.com/news/news/politics/story/19018.html <A HREF="http://www.wired.com/news/news/politics/story/19018.html">Political News from Wired News </A> ----- Crypto Cabal: Make Code Not Guns by Declan McCullagh 12:00 p.m. 8.Apr.99.PDT WASHINGTON -- If you haven't heard of the Wassenaar Arrangement, don't worry. Nobody else has either. But this heretofore obscure international treaty will have more impact on your life than you may think. The agreement restricts software that can shield your identity and personal information from prying eyes on the Internet. It also doesn't make a whole lot of sense, some panelists said Thursday at the Computers, Freedom, and Privacy conference in Washington. Bruce Schneier, president of Counterpane Systems, said that the United States backed Wassenaar to keep domestic encryption software out of the hands of foreigners. But overseas security software is now just as good as work done by US programmers, he said. "The quality of work done all over the world is very high," Schneier said. The export restrictions are intended to stop the overseas spread of strong encryption because US intelligence agencies worry that the software will allow terrorists and hostile nations to communicate in secret. Schneier noted that many of the contestants in a competition to become the US government's next encryption security standard come from overseas. Late last year, the Clinton administration announced that it had successfully persuaded 33 nations that signed the Wassenaar Arrangement to follow its lead in restricting encryption exports. In the United States, President Clinton has declared a "national emergency" that allows him to restrict shipments. Congress is considering legislation to override it. But the Wassenaar rule gives countries wiggle room, and some have taken advantage of it. A representative of the French government said that his country chose the wrong path when enacting Draconian restrictions on the use of encryption software a decade ago. Now the French recognize the "need to broadly liberalize" export and domestic restrictions, said Bruno Jactel, a representative from the French embassy in Washington. An online activist from Australia held up a copy of Applied Cryptography , written by Schneier. His country's laws prevent him from letting anyone else read the book, said Michael Baker of Electronic Frontiers Australia. Calling it a "brief trip into a logic-free zone," he said he had to keep a record of his activities while traveling abroad. "If I break these conditions, I might get put in jail or fined or something when I get back to Australia," Baker said. Everyone else was missing the point, a representative from the US government complained. "The issue will be framed by the larger debate over the utility of export controls," said Jim Lewis from the Commerce Department's Bureau of Export Administration. "Wassenaar is very effective in doing what it was intended to do." He said that conservative groups have agitated for even stricter export controls, especially in the wake of the scandal over China receiving US missile technology. Lewis said that the Clinton administration has no "plans to have domestic restrictions" -- even though the FBI and the Department of Justice backed a 1997 bill that, if passed by Congress, would have banned the manufacture, sale, and distribution of encryption products without backdoor surveillance capabilities. Lewis indicated that the White House would further relax rules restricting overseas shipments of encryption products -- but not right away. "For the moment, we still have encryption on the list," he said. 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