The following appeared in the Letters to the Editor column of the New
Zealand Herald (a large daily paper) in response to a pro-crypto article "Vital
business in cryptography being denied to Kiwi experts" which had appeared the
week before. Unfortunately the original was edited and some parts were
removed, which gave MFAT the chance to leap in with their usual "terrorists and
criminals" line. I've quoted two relevant sentences from the article here
under fair use
Control obligation
[...]
The requirement to screen exports of strong (highly scrambled) cryptography
under the Wassenaar Arrangement is intended to prevent systems being used for
terrorist and criminal activities. If we are satisfied with the bona fides of
the end user there is no restriction on exports.
[...]
Bruce Middleton
International security division,
Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.