Vice President Says Clipper Chip Controls Inadequate
Gore Indicates Administration's Position is 'Not Locked in Stone'

By Jay Levin (C) 1994
From New York Unix Vol 4 #3.  For private use only.

     WASHINGTON, Feb 11 -- Vice President Gore said controls recently
adopted by the Clinton administration that authorise two government
agencies to safeguard the electronic "keys" in an encoding device
called the "Clipper Chip" are inadequate.

     Under the Clipper plan, the keys would be stored at the Treasury
Department and the National Insitute of Standards and Technology (NIST),
whic is part of the Commerce Department.  Both Treasury and Commerce are
from the same branch of government, the executive branch.

	"When I saw that I said 'Wow.  That is not right,' and I raised
hell about that," Gore said in an interview Thursday.

	Having the key holders from the same branch of government raises
concern because there is no systems of checks and balances, Gore said.
"That's going to be changed," he said.

	Clipper gives law-enforcement agencies a key to eavesdrop on
computer comunications under a court order.

	The selection of NIST and Treasury "was spun out of the process
at the low level and was not vetted at the top," Gore said.  Gore's
comments were made after appearing before the first meeting of a private
sector advisory panel on the development of a "national information
infrastructure" in Washington, D.C.

	The administration announced Feb. 4 that it intends to push ahead
with the voluntary Clipper Chip encryption scheme, despite vehement
opposition from computer companies and watchdog groups, such as the
Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and the Computer Professionals
for Social Responsability.

	But Gore indicated Thursday that the administration's position is
"not locked in stone."

	"Our determination to solve the problem is locked in stone, and
our determination to proceed with this in the absence of of a better
solution is locked in stone," he said "...the burden is on those who
say there is a better solution because no solution for the national
security dimention of the problem is acceptable to us."

	Mitch Kapor, EFF chairman and a member of the advisory comittee,
said he was "encouraged" by the vice president's remarks.  "This
signals to me that [the administration] is very ready and willing to
look at alternatives... both to the administrative procedures and the
technology."

	Computer manufactures, telecomunication companies and civil rights
groups argue that Clipper would undermine individuals' rights to privacy
and cripple U.S. exports of computer products.

	"If I'm going to conduct business... engage in confidential
conversations... send money and credit card numbers over this infra-
structure, I want some guarantee that my communications are private and
that some rogue law enforcement officer can't go in and compromise my
information," said Esther Dyson, president of EDventure Holdings, Inc.
and a panel member.