So many thoughts...

This is an unbelievable waste. Whoever was responsible for turning Halvar Flake away should be promoted quickly! (You don't fire someone for this amount of gross incompetence, you promote them to a place where that cannot do any more damage -- see the Peter Principle: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Principle.)

Here we are trying to prepare for a cyberwar (assuming that you still believe it has not started) and we turn away a leading expert. Considering that a significant percentage of Black Hat attendees are government employees, this is a massive disservice.

I cannot wait to see how "Spot the Fed" reacts at Defcon. I wonder if any Customs officials will be spotted...

I also wonder what the impact will be on other conferences -- not just security, but medical, engineering, and every other field. Conferences and training sessions go hand-in-hand. And experts exist all around the world. If every foreign trainer is required to get a work visa (B-1, H-1B, etc.) then they will simply stop coming. It is no surprise that many open source conferences are moving out of the United States.

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Link to this comment: http://www.securityfocus.com/comments/newsbriefs/557/2099#2099