LEGI-SLATE News Service staff
Updated April 24, 1998

FBI Director Louis Freeh has opposed measures that would relax export controls on strong encryption technology without enabling authorized law enforcement officials to somehow break that cryptography. His arguments have persuaded many members of Congress.

Although Freeh recently has eased up on his advocacy to allow administration officials to pursue talks with the industry, it is possible he still could step up lobbying efforts on Capitol Hill if legislation he believes is detrimental to law enforcement begins to move.

Freeh first started working at the FBI in 1975 as a special agent in the New York City field office. He went to law school and in 1981 joined the U.S. attorney's office for the Southern District of New York, where he eventually became lead prosecutor in the "Pizza Connection" case involving a Sicilian organized crime ring that used pizza parlors as fronts for drug-trafficking activities.

Former President Bush tapped Freeh to become a U.S. District Court judge for the Southern District of New York in 1991, and President Clinton nominated him to become FBI director in July 1993. Freeh was quickly confirmed by the Senate and was sworn in as director in September 1993.

The FBI does not provide a way to e-mail Director Freeh, but correspondence may be sent to FBI Headquarters, Correspondence Unit Room 6236, 935 Pennsylvania Ave. NW, Washington, D.C. 20535.