NSA old boy Stewart Baker is a fascinating character. Here's what he said at the Economic Warfare Institute at American Center for Democracy in 2012 (before Snowden leaks):
"We will map your social graph, compromise every computer and smartphone in your country"
He is a long-time proponent of export controls for cryptography and government mandated escrow-keys. In 1994, he wrote an article for Wired Magazine titled:
"Don't Worry Be Happy: Why Clipper Is Good For You". This guy is a cryptowars veteran.
So, in a sense--you're right, he's not incompetent. Rather, he is a professional ideologue: making the case against privacy rights that crypto-tech enables. If you have experience with KGB "agitprop" and "active measures", you'll be very familiar with the techniques that these sort of people employ for their cause. We should promptly react to his demagoguery by showing it for what it is--sophistry.
"We will map your social graph, compromise every computer and smartphone in your country"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mu9puGKfdZE
He is a long-time proponent of export controls for cryptography and government mandated escrow-keys. In 1994, he wrote an article for Wired Magazine titled: "Don't Worry Be Happy: Why Clipper Is Good For You". This guy is a cryptowars veteran.
So, in a sense--you're right, he's not incompetent. Rather, he is a professional ideologue: making the case against privacy rights that crypto-tech enables. If you have experience with KGB "agitprop" and "active measures", you'll be very familiar with the techniques that these sort of people employ for their cause. We should promptly react to his demagoguery by showing it for what it is--sophistry.