Stewart Baker
NSA general counsel during the Crypto Wars and the Clipper chip's most outspoken defender.
Stewart Baker was general counsel of the NSA from 1992 to 1994, just as the Clinton administration rolled out the key-escrowed Clipper chip. His Wired piece "Don't Worry Be Happy" (1994) dismissed critics as paranoid and became one of the most quoted texts of the Crypto Wars – mostly by his opponents. The same year, Matt Blaze showed that Clipper's LEAF field could be bypassed.
Baker went on to become the first Assistant Secretary for Policy at the Department of Homeland Security (2005–2009) and has since hosted the Cyberlaw Podcast from the law firm Steptoe & Johnson. He is that rare voice who has argued for lawful access for three decades without changing sides, which makes him a useful counterweight for anyone trying to understand both camps.