typed in by DJB, 931015, for the public record
note that this letter was in fact written by Charles Ray

					United States Department of State
					Washington, D.C.  20520

					JUN 22 1993

Dear Mr. Dellums:

   I am responding to your letter of May 24, to Mr.
Richard A. Clarke, former Assistant Secretary for
Political-Military Affairs, which you wrote on behalf of
your constitutent, Mr. Daniel J. Bernstein of Emeryville,
California.  Mr. Bernstein asked for your assistance in
obtaining replies to two letters that he wrote to the
Department's Office of Defense Trade Controls (DTC).

   DTC received two letters from Mr. Bernstein, one
dated March 19, and a second dated April 2 (copies of
which are enclosed).  In his letters, Mr. Bernstein
asked a number of detailed and complicated questions
concerning a hypothetical defense article which he
failed to specifically identify.  A DTC official spoke
with Mr. Bernstein in late March on this subject.  At
that time, Mr. Bernstein declined to identify the
hypothetical article, except to say that he believed
that "it would be in the public domain, and thus, would
not require an export license, if he took action to make
it available to the general public without
restriction."  Without more specific information about
the article, the official was unable to respond to Mr.
Bernstein except to inform him that under the provisions
of 22 CFR 127.1, it is unlawful to export or attempt to
export from the United States any defense article or
technical data or to furnish any defense service for
which a license or written approval is required without
first obtaining the required license or written approval
from DTC.

   After an extensive and careful review of Mr.
Bernstein's letters, DTC informed Mr. Bernstein in a May
27 letter from Mr. Clyde Bryant, Chief of the Compliance
and Enforcement Branch of DTC, that it would be
advisable to submit more detailed information on
the product to enable conduct of a commodity jurisdiction (CJ)



The Honorable
     Ronald V. Dellums,
          House of Representatives.

[page 2; pages not numbered in letter]

review.  In the letter it was noted that on June 30,
1992, Mr. Bernstein requested a CJ determination for
Snuffle 5.0 software.  On August 20, 1992, the
Department of State determined that the Snuffle 5.0
software is designated a defense article under Category
XIII(b)(1) of the U.S. Munitions List.  He was further
told that if his hypothetical article pertains to
software incorporating Snuffle 5.0, or any type of
encryption algorithm designed for data encryption and
decryption or a stand-alone cryptographic algorithm to
be incorporated into a software product, he should
submit it for a CJ determination in the same manner that
he submitted the request on Snuffle 5.0 in 1992.

   We regret the delay in responding to Mr. Bernstein's
letters.  An effort was made to provide useful answers
to his questions, but the complexity of his questions
and his failure to identify the product about which he
wanted information, made this an extremely difficult
task.  Before DTC can proceed any further in responding
to Mr. Bernstein, he will have to provide more detailed
information on the defense article that is proposed for
export.  The CJ determination as described in the
paragraph above is the mechanism by which DTC can answer
his questions.  Determinations are normally made within
45 working days from receipt.

   I hope that this information will be useful to you in
responding to your constituent's concerns.

					Sincerely,

					[signature]

					Wendy R. Sherman
					Assistant Secretary
					Legislative Affairs


Enclosures:
1.  Correspondence returned.
2.  Correspondence between Mr. Bernstein and DTC.