July 7, 2006 6:47 PM PDT
FBI plans new Net-tapping push
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FBI Agent Barry Smith distributed the proposal at a private meeting last Friday with industry representatives and indicated it would be introduced by Sen. Mike DeWine, an Ohio Republican, according to two sources familiar with the meeting.
The draft bill would place the FBI's Net-surveillance push on solid legal footing. At the moment, it's ensnared in a legal challenge from universities and some technology companies that claim the Federal Communications Commission's broadband surveillance directives exceed what Congress has authorized.
The FBI claims that expanding the 1994 Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act is necessary to thwart criminals and terrorists who have turned to technologies like voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP.
"The complexity and variety of communications technologies have dramatically increased in recent years, and the lawful intercept capabilities of the federal, state and local law enforcement community have been under continual stress, and in many cases have decreased or become impossible," according to a summary accompanying the draft bill.
Complicating the political outlook for the legislation is an ongoing debate over allegedly illegal surveillance by the National Security Administration--punctuated by several lawsuits challenging it on constitutional grounds and an unrelated proposal to force Internet service providers to record what Americans are doing online. One source, who asked not to be identified because of the sensitive nature of last Friday's meeting, said the FBI viewed its CALEA expansion as a top congressional priority for 2007.
Breaking the legislation down
The 27-page proposed CALEA amendments seen by CNET News.com would:
• Require any manufacturer of "routing" and "addressing" hardware to offer upgrades or other "modifications" that are needed to support Internet wiretapping. Current law does require that of telephone switch manufacturers--but not makers of routers and network address translation hardware like Cisco Systems and 2Wire.
• Authorize the expansion of wiretapping requirements to "commercial" Internet services including instant messaging if the FCC deems it to be in the "public interest." That would likely sweep in services such as in-game chats offered by Microsoft's Xbox 360 gaming system as well.
• Force Internet service providers to sift through their customers' communications to identify, for instance, only VoIP calls. (The language requires companies to adhere to "processing or filtering methods or procedures applied by a law enforcement agency.") That means police could simply ask broadband providers like AT&T, Comcast or Verizon for wiretap info--instead of having to figure out what VoIP service was being used.
• Eliminate the current legal requirement saying the Justice Department must publish a public "notice of the actual number of communications interceptions" every year. That notice currently also must disclose the "maximum capacity" required to accommodate all of the legally authorized taps that government agencies will "conduct and use simultaneously."
Jim Harper, a policy analyst at the free-market Cato Institute and member of a Homeland Security advisory board, said the proposal would "have a negative impact on Internet users' privacy."
"People expect their information to be private unless the government meets certain legal standards," Harper said. "Right now the Department of Justice is pushing the wrong way on all this."
Neither the FBI nor DeWine's office responded to a request for comment Friday afternoon.
DeWine has relatively low approval ratings--47 percent, according to SurveyUSA.com--and is enmeshed in a fierce battle with a Democratic challenger to retain his Senate seat in the November elections. DeWine is a member of a Senate Judiciary subcommittee charged with overseeing electronic privacy and antiterrorism enforcement and is a former prosecutor in Ohio.
A panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., decided 2-1 last month to uphold the FCC's extension of CALEA to broadband providers, and it's not clear what will happen next with the lawsuit. Judge Harry Edwards wrote in his dissent that the majority's logic gave the FCC "unlimited authority to regulate every telecommunications service that might conceivably be used to assist law enforcement."
The organizations behind the lawsuit say Congress never intended CALEA to force broadband providers--and networks at corporations and universities--to build in central surveillance hubs for the police. The list of organizations includes Sun Microsystems, Pulver.com, the American Association of Community Colleges, the Association of American Universities and the American Library Association.
If the FBI's legislation becomes law, it would derail the lawsuit because there would no longer be any question that Congress intended CALEA to apply to the Internet.
See more CNET content tagged:
CALEA,
Cisco Systems Inc.,
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Internet service,
Internet Service Provider
Worse of all these will only be necessary for US sold routers, so the rest of the planet will be more secure than us. Niiiiiiiiiiiiiice.
Worse of all these will only be necessary for US sold routers, so the rest of the planet will be more secure than us. Niiiiiiiiiiiiiice.
Our fascist masters need something to justify the raping of the Bill of Rights so why not those bogus terrorist plots? I bet they use that excuse to cram this down our throats. But hey, like they keep telling us "You have no privacy. Get over it!"
http://thestressblog.com/2006/07/07/big-scary-fake-ass-terrorist-plot-again-mere-jihadist-bravado/
Our fascist masters need something to justify the raping of the Bill of Rights so why not those bogus terrorist plots? I bet they use that excuse to cram this down our throats. But hey, like they keep telling us "You have no privacy. Get over it!"
http://thestressblog.com/2006/07/07/big-scary-fake-ass-terrorist-plot-again-mere-jihadist-bravado/
If you use a cell phone you have no privacy.
If you use WiFi you have no privacy.
If you have a birth certificate, social security number, address, telephone number, driver's license, an automobile, credit card, student ID, student loan, mortgage... You have no privacy already. Get over it.
Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean anyone's really out to get you...
If you use a cell phone you have no privacy.
If you use WiFi you have no privacy.
If you have a birth certificate, social security number, address, telephone number, driver's license, an automobile, credit card, student ID, student loan, mortgage... You have no privacy already. Get over it.
Just because you're paranoid doesn't mean anyone's really out to get you...
http://democracyrising.us/content/view/525/164/
Our politicians take what represents at least 35 to 40% of everything we make in taxation of some sort, run up ruinous debt and they are decimating the Constitution, especially the Bill of Rights while getting this country into quagmire wars and making more enemies for this country.
How much more of this are we supposed to take? Can you image the people who founded this country tolerating this? The British couldn't have been any worse.
http://democracyrising.us/content/view/525/164/
Our politicians take what represents at least 35 to 40% of everything we make in taxation of some sort, run up ruinous debt and they are decimating the Constitution, especially the Bill of Rights while getting this country into quagmire wars and making more enemies for this country.
How much more of this are we supposed to take? Can you image the people who founded this country tolerating this? The British couldn't have been any worse.
Or, as the late Dwight D Eisenhower said "If you want total security , go to prison. There you're fed, clothed , given medical care and so on. The only thing lacking is freedom."
But then again by building Barrier fencing on all open borders between Mexico and Canada, it makes it far easier to imprison the countries citizens as per pre war Nazi Germanay or the former Soviet Union!
Good old GW, slow imprisonment of all citizens by stealth and disenfranchisement of democracy, except the inmates have to feed , clothe and pay all medical expenses by design, and then be forced to pay for it simultaneously, by creating the illusion of fictitious protection from a nameless designated mystery enemy of the state!
Oh well, what can one say "Welcome to the Soviet States of Amerika" where citizens have no rights or privacy period, should they wish to express any views counter to the ruling elite!".
Choices have just evaporated, at the stroke of one man's grab for absolute power without limit or standing in law!
Or, as the late Dwight D Eisenhower said "If you want total security , go to prison. There you're fed, clothed , given medical care and so on. The only thing lacking is freedom."
But then again by building Barrier fencing on all open borders between Mexico and Canada, it makes it far easier to imprison the countries citizens as per pre war Nazi Germanay or the former Soviet Union!
Good old GW, slow imprisonment of all citizens by stealth and disenfranchisement of democracy, except the inmates have to feed , clothe and pay all medical expenses by design, and then be forced to pay for it simultaneously, by creating the illusion of fictitious protection from a nameless designated mystery enemy of the state!
Oh well, what can one say "Welcome to the Soviet States of Amerika" where citizens have no rights or privacy period, should they wish to express any views counter to the ruling elite!".
Choices have just evaporated, at the stroke of one man's grab for absolute power without limit or standing in law!
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2003/05/18/MN251738.DTL
"The Congress has increased defense spending from $300 billion to $400 billion over three years at the same time that the Pentagon has failed to address financial problems that dwarf those of Enron," said Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Los Angeles, one of the letter's signatories."
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2003/05/18/MN251738.DTL
"The Congress has increased defense spending from $300 billion to $400 billion over three years at the same time that the Pentagon has failed to address financial problems that dwarf those of Enron," said Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Los Angeles, one of the letter's signatories."
But wait! What if another attact occurs despite all the concerted and goodhearted efforts by our vigiliant security forces? Well of course we will need another round of legislation to permit cameras in every home, business, and public space(getting there!). Of course a federal card for everyone that will link to every action taken in your life- financial, medical, educational, penal, vocational, political, and social (already in the works!). This will be purely to catch the bad guys and no one who is honest should have anything to worry about or object. I mean you are either with us or against us, right?
As even these measures come up short in a very few years the use of mind reading devices will become mandatory in "sweeps" to purge the plotters from the pure. Then perhaps we can all really be free- free of choice that is such a burden these days! It's bedtime for democracy, sleep well comrade!
- It's Bedtime For Democracy!
-
by zanzzz
July 7, 2006 11:51 PM PDT
- Let's just say the FBI and the NSA and "dear leader" Bush get all they want from Congress and the courts this go 'round. Then we can all sleep peacefully at night while big brother monitors all communications that go to and fro in the world (been doing it for years!). We happily traded liberty for the illusion of security as most people are so eager to do.
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See all 248 Comments >>But wait! What if another attact occurs despite all the concerted and goodhearted efforts by our vigiliant security forces? Well of course we will need another round of legislation to permit cameras in every home, business, and public space(getting there!). Of course a federal card for everyone that will link to every action taken in your life- financial, medical, educational, penal, vocational, political, and social (already in the works!). This will be purely to catch the bad guys and no one who is honest should have anything to worry about or object. I mean you are either with us or against us, right?
As even these measures come up short in a very few years the use of mind reading devices will become mandatory in "sweeps" to purge the plotters from the pure. Then perhaps we can all really be free- free of choice that is such a burden these days! It's bedtime for democracy, sleep well comrade!