Obama May Be Able To Keep His BlackBerry After All
This is written by Declan McCullagh, CNET News' chief political correspondent
Obama told us more than a year ago that it was his favorite gadget, and he was rarely without it during the 2008 campaign. In 2001, George Bush famously gave up e-mail, and there was plenty of speculation that Obama would too, either for privacy or open-government reasons. Last week, we suggested the Sectera Edge as a secure PDA-phone--it's rated for SECRET data and TOP SECRET voice--that might do the trick.
Now we're hearing from a report by CBS News chief political consultant Marc Ambinder on The Atlantic's Web site that Obama will be able to keep his BlackBerry after all. Apparently it's been outfitted with encrypted software secure enough for routine personal messages--meaning, if this report is true, there will be no Microsoft Windows Mobile in the president's immediate future.
We're still waiting, by the way, to hear back from the National Security Agency. They said they'd be happy to entertain questions from us, and it's been over a week. We're not holding our breath.