Congressional investigators looking into the White House campaign scandal have discovered that convicted Whitewater figure, and former assistant Attorney General, Webster Hubbell had access to national security secrets. The documents involve top secret materials of high value to China or to banking interests such as the Lippo group owned by Moctar Riady. Investigators report that Hubbell played a major role in a secret computer security project called CLIPPER. CLIPPER was an effort to "mandate" government computer security and ban all other computer products. The CLIPPER chip was designed to allow the US government to monitor all phones, faxes and computers, according to recently declassified Department of Justice documents. CLIPPER used a special technology called encryption to scramble any information passing through it, including voice, fax or computer data. CLIPPER also had a special feature which allowed the government to monitor any information passing through it. US Commerce Department official Raymond G. Kammer denied in April 1993 that CLIPPER contained a "trap door" or "back door". However, declassified documents show that Kammer's statement was false. US government Officials knew that CLIPPER had a special back door feature. FBI agent J. R. Davis, wrote in a 12/23/92 Department of Justice report, "The most serious concern is that the scenario regarding the use of the 'exploitable' chip could surface publicly during the transition period or shortly after the Clinton administration arrives, but before they approve the proposed overall solution." Hubbell's CLIPPER work at the Justice Department also raises questions about Attorney General Reno and conflicts of interest, according to Larry Klayman of Judicial Watch. Klayman noted Ms. Reno was Hubbell's direct superior during his 1993 and 1994 CLIPPER work. Any investigation into Hubbell's role in CLIPPER will also involve investigating the Department of Justice and Janet Reno. The Justice Department has so far refused to release documents on Hubbell to Judicial Watch, and to several privacy activist groups who have sued in Court for their release. In addition, according to Klayman, who is a former Justice Department prosecutor, Whitewater Special Counsel Ken Starr can now investigate directly into the White House campaign scandals involving Huang and Lippo because of Hubbell. Hubbell is currently being investigated by Starr for possibly taking money from Lippo in 1994 to not testify in the Whitewater scandals, involving the President and the First Lady. Unlike Whitewater, however, Hubbell's work on CLIPPER involves the activities of Huang and Clinton inside the White House. It was known that Hubbell attended at least one meeting at the National Security Administration (NSA) on May 2, 1993 along with Vince Foster and Bernard Nussbaum. Now, documents from Hubbell's personal schedule from 1993, show that the Whitewater figure met multiple times at the White House on a top secret project called CLIPPER. Hubbell met with the then National Security Council advisor George Tenet who is currently the Director of the CIA. Hubbell resigned from the Justice Department in April of 1994. In late June 1994, Lippo Chief James Riady met with John Huang, and Bill Clinton in five days of White House visits. Early the next week, a Lippo unit paid Hubbell about $100,000. In December 1994 Hubbell pled guilty to several felony charges relating to illegal billing in the Whitewater affair. Webb Hubbell also cited his Fifth Amendment rights to not testify before the Senate Congressional hearings. The "exploitable" feature of CLIPPER worried US government officials about potential security breaches. Then FBI Director William Sessions wrote two secret papers to George Tenet early in February of 1993. The FBI documents reveal that CLIPPER had flaws which could compromise all the systems equipped with it. Webster wrote "This design means that the list of chip keys associated with the chip ID number provides access to all CLIPPER secured devices, and thus the list must be carefully generated and protected. Loss of the list would preclude legitimate access to the encrypted information and compromise of the list could allow unauthorized access." The CLIPPER flaws also worried other US government agencies and the space agency, NASA, even declined to use CLIPPER because of security concerns. In 1993 NASA's Benita A. Cooper, Associate Administrator for Management Systems and Facilities, wrote a letter rejecting CLIPPER. Ms. Cooper referenced Soviet spy John Walker as an example of why NASA would not adopt the chip. Walker is currently serving life in prison for disclosing US Navy secret codes to the former Soviet Union. Ms. Cooper wrote "There is no way to prevent the NSA from routinely monitoring all (CLIPPER) encrypted traffic. Moreover, compromise of the NSA keys, such as in the Walker case, could compromise the entire (CLIPPER) system." In early May, 1994 Assistant Attorney General Jo Ann Harris testified before the Senate Judiciary Committee that the Clinton administration did not intend to nationalize the US computer security industry: "As the administration has made clear on a number of occasions, the key escrow encryption initiative is a voluntary one; we have absolutely no intention of mandating private use of a particular kind of cryptography, nor of criminalizing the private use of certain kinds of cryptography." Yet, Attorney General Janet Reno was charged if necessary, to make CLIPPER mandatory, according to a recently declassified Presidential Directive of April 1993 on CLIPPER. The directive states "Should (US) industry fail to fully assist the government in meeting its requirements within a reasonable period of time, the Attorney General will recommend legislation which would compel manufacturers to meet government requirements." Additionally, the CLIPPER documents sent to Tenet in 1993 by then FBI Director Webster state "Technical solutions, such as they are, will only work if they are incorporated into all encryption products. To ensure that this occurs, legislation mandating the use of Government approved encryption products or adherence to Government encryption criteria is required." The White House source of legal advice in the CLIPPER project was the Justice Department. Janet Reno was directed by President Clinton in April 1993 to join the Inter-Agency Working Group (IWG) to set CLIPPER policy. The Department of Justice wrote most of the reports and ran the IWG meetings. Now Congressional investigators know that assistant Attorney General Webb Hubbell was given access to TOP SECRET documents and plans on the CLIPPER chip, including the math algorithm and even the flaws of the system. Of greater concern to investigators is the possible penetration of US economic secrets. For example, one major feature of CLIPPER that is still in use today is an electronic Digital Signature. Digital signatures are used to verify bank money transfers world wide. Trillions of dollars are sent each year using this method. The larger version of the CLIPPER chip, called CAPSTONE, was designed for banks and contained a special digital signature to verify money transfers. In 1993 and 1994 the Clinton administration attempted to purchase the patents on the most popular commercial banking digital signature from a US company called RSA Inc. RSA Chairman Jim Bidzos turned down the offers and the effort failed in March 1994. After March 1994, RSA threatened to sue anyone using the digital signature unless they paid patent royalties. In December 1994 the administration responded by patenting the signature as US government property and simply declared it was free for anyone to use. In addition, the administration put in writing that the Justice Department would defend and pay for any lawsuits involving the contested electronic signature. According to Commerce Department documentation this effort was to make all electronic security free, and not subject to patent royalties. Thus, the government made the signature very attractive to US security software and hardware makers. In December, 1997, this author submitted a legal Freedom of Information request to the Commerce Department seeking all information on "any projects to monitor US financial and banking transactions". Curiously, the Commerce Department replied that one document, which they refused to release, references the patent on the digital signature currently held by the government. This raises the question of whether the government developed digital signature has an "exploitable" feature similar to CLIPPER to allow government interception and decoding of financial transactions. The role of Web Hubbell in the secret CLIPPER project has also raised questions outside of Capitol Hill. "This is a potential economic espionage threat," stated computer expert and President of Delta Tech, Steve Bryen. "US companies doing business in China are most vulnerable," said Bryen who recently testified before Congress on the Clinton exports of super-computers to China. "China can use this to conduct commercial espionage against major US corporations. It is very worrisome that China may have the opportunity to break-in and conduct electronic operations using reverse engineering. The digital signature is widely used by US commercial and financial institutions. China can combine the encryption technology and the 50 plus super-computers the Clinton administration sold them to break into major US corporations." "The public imposes a great deal of trust in US officials and deserves to have persons of the highest integrity to serve in position, such as Assistant Attorney General," stated Michelle Van Cleave, advisor to the House Committee on Terrorism. "I am stunned to learn Whitewater figure Hubbell had access to Clipper," stated Ken DeGraffenreid member of the National Security Research Institute.
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