Would-be censor, pro-nuke cheerleader, and anti-ERA and anti-abortion stalwart Phyllis Schlafly is in an unusual spot: embraced by civil libertarians fighting the Clinton administration's policy on encryption.
Schlafly's Eagle Forum appears on a 29 March Voter's Telecommunications Watch email alert proclaiming, "The Crypto Battle Has Begun! Clinton Administration Proposes Control of Encryption for Americans on US Soil." Other supporters include the Center for Democracy and Technology, The Electronic Frontier Foundation, and Wired magazine.
Schlafly explained in an interview Monday that she is passionately interested in the issue of preserving individual privacy. "The sort of extravagant snooping Janet Reno, Al Gore and Louis Freeh are proposing is absolutely unacceptable," she said. "The FBI has lost an incredible amount of credibility in terms of respecting people's privacy. The types of invasion they're proposing can't be tolerated."
Schlafly said that's why she opposes a recent administration proposal to extend tight control of cryptography from exported products to those intended for domestic use as well.
But she also expressed reluctance to align herself too closely with the other groups supporting VTW's call to arms against the administration. "Don't get me wrong, I'm not working with those groups," says Schlafly. "They may be wonderful people, but we just happen to line up on this one issue. But I'd never heard of them before I testified"
VTW's Shabbir Safdar approached Schlafly to work with the more well-known cyber-libertarian groups after she testified before the House Subcommittee on Courts and Intellectual Property on 20 March in favor of Representative Bob Goodlatte's Security and Freedom Through Encryption Act. "Her testimony showed real cyber-savviness," Safdar said.
"Her agreement just shows the maturation of Internet politics," Safdar said. "The Internet has permeated political consciousness enough that the Eagle Forum realizes its importance. There's a real cross section of the political world that comes together on Internet issues."
Jonah Seiger of the Center for Democracy and Technology said that though his group is at odds with Schlafly on subjects like freedom of speech - the Eagle Forum has tried to get Of Mice and Men, Lord of the Flies, and other works banned from schools as inappropriate for children - he hopes a dialog on such issues is possible.
"Schlafly does come down squarely on the opposite side of the freedom-of-speech issue than we do," admits Seiger, who has worked closely with Safdar to promote mainstream awareness of Internet issues. "But maybe working with her on encryption will provide a communications bridge to the free-speech issue."
