Obama, BlackBerry Staying Together

After much struggle and hard-fought debate, Obama has won a victory over the doubters. He’ll keep his BlackBerry in the White House, after all. A government agency—probably the National Security Agency, The Atlantic’s Marc Ambinder reports—has given the smartphone a super-encryption package to keep sensitive White House communiqués from hackers, foreign governments, and the prying eyes of Research In Motion employees in Waterloo, Ontario. Despite the lifting of the BlackBerry ban, Obama and his staffers are still forbidden from instant messaging. An Obama official says they will try to do more old-fashioned talking on the telephone.