Re: Crypto Advocate Under FBI Investigation (For Treason)

[tytso at mit.edu]

   Date: Tue, 30 Nov 1999 23:40:06 -0800 (PST)
   From: Brian Lloyd <brian at lloyd.com>

   Pardon me but, horse hocky!  We are not talking about objecting to the
   laws but rather how the FBI reacted to a report of a crime.  Even tho'
   they were pretty sure that they had been handed a red herring they were
   still required to investigate.  Makes sense to me.

I'm sorry, but that doesn't strike me as completely accurate either.
The FBI is not *required* to investigate anything.  There are all sorts
of laws on the books which are outdated (including those those which
regulate what two consenting, heterosexual, married adults may do in the
privacy of their own bedroom) which the executive branch at state and
local levels have the discretion not to enforce.  The same is true at
the federal level.

If it's that easy to force the FBI to initiate such "routine
investigations", it would be pretty easy to chew up all of their
resources chasing red herrings.  This was an investigation that spanned
three calendar years, remember!  This couldn't have been cheap for the
FBI.  (Hmm... maybe more people should tell the FBI that so-and-so may
have exported encryption technology on their laptop without filing the
proper export licenses which are required, and make them spend even more
time chasing their own tails. :-)

That being said, I agree with your conclusion that it probably was
someone who got didn't like Simpson's sometimes quite abrasive personal
style, and decided to make some trouble for Bill.  It's not what I would
consider professional behaviour, but there's no way we can really judge
the motives of whoever it was decided to call the FBI and sic them on
Simpson.

The other thing to keep in mind was this was back in 1991, when it
wasn't quite so obvious to all concerned that the attempts by the NSA
and FBI to restict encryption was as misguided and as futile as it is
now.  So what is obviously stupid and ridiculous behaviour on the FBI's
part in 1999 might not have been so ridiculous eight years ago.  As I
recall, back then the FBI was still trying to figure out how to spell
"Internet", let alone figure out what it meant.

							- Ted