[Peace-discuss] Fwd: [Infoshop News] Behind the USA Patriot Act

Wed Nov 7 10:01:31 CST 2001

>Delivered-To: akagan at alexia.lis.uiuc.edu
>From: Tom_Childs at douglas.bc.ca
>Date: Tue, 06 Nov 2001 20:09:42 -0800
>Subject: [Infoshop News] Behind the USA Patriot Act
>To: mai-list at moon.bcpl.gov.bc.ca
>Sender: owner-mai-list at moon.bcpl.gov.bc.ca
>Status:  
>
>Dear Subscribers,
>
>	Here's somethin' a little off topic for the mai-list listserv, but
>something I have a feeling you'd all be interested to read via AlterNet from
>journalist, Ann Harrison.
>
>Saludos comrados,
>TC @ the Douglas College Library
>
>	"There's no way to delay...that trouble comin' every day."
>				--Frank Zappa
>~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
>   ----- Forwarded message: -----
>>From mail Tue Nov  6 19:28 PST 2001
>From: "Viviane Lerner" <vlerner at interpac.net>
>To: "FAB" <FBOYLE at LAW.UIUC.EDU>
>Cc: "Infoshop" <infoshop-news at infoshop.org>
>Subject: [Infoshop News] Behind the USA Patriot Act
>
>List-Archive: <http://www.infoshop.org/pipermail/infoshop-news/>
>
>
>
>http://www.alternet.org/print.html?StoryID=11854
>
>Behind the USA Patriot Act
>Ann Harrison, AlterNet
>November 5, 2001
>Viewed on November 6, 2001
>
>-------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>Editor's note: This is the first in a series of two articles on the USA
>Patriot Act by Ann Harrison. The second will explore what is known about the
>identity and conditions of the 1,147 people detained in the anti-terrorism
>investigation.
>
>
>Since launching their no-holds-barred investigation into the Sept. 11
>attacks, the FBI has released an astonishing amount of information about the
>men who they have identified as the hijackers. There are photographs of them
>passing through airport security and peering into ATM machines. The FBI has
>records of their cell phone calls, their cash transfers, air travel, credit
>card purchases, car rentals, email messages and hotel bills.
>
>
>Now that the hunt is on for accomplices who could be planning more attacks,
>law enforcement officials have sought the legal authority to collect even
>more information about the minutiae of their daily life. The new
>anti-terrorism law signed into law on Oct. 26 grants law enforcement
>authorities sweeping new surveillance powers that are not limited to
>terrorism investigations but also apply to criminal and intelligence
>investigations.
>
>
>The new law, known as the USA Patriot Act, reaches into every space that
>Americans once imagined was private. For instance, police can now obtain
>court orders to conduct so called "sneak and peak" searches of homes and
>offices. This allows them to break in, examine and remove or alter items
>without immediately, if ever, presenting owners with a warrant detailing
>what they were entitled to do and where.
>
>
>This seismic shift in the government's power of search and seizure also
>extends to the examination of records. Authorities can browse medical,
>financial, educational or even library records without showing evidence of a
>crime. The law overrides existing state and federal privacy laws if the FBI
>claims that the information is connected to an intelligence investigation.
>
>
>In addition, credit reporting firms like Equifax must disclose to the FBI
>any information that agents request in connection with a terrorist
>investigation, without the need for a court order. In the past, this was
>only permitted in espionage cases.
>
>
>Biometric technology, such as fingerprint readers or iris scanners, will
>become part of an "integrated entry and exit data system" to identify visa
>holders entering the United States. Face recognition technology is now being
>installed in several U.S. airports.
>
>
>The legislators who rushed these provisions through the House and Senate say
>that law enforcement authorities need this data to help track down
>terrorists and prevent future attacks. "We were able to find what I think is
>the appropriate balance between protecting civil liberties, privacy and
>ensuring that law enforcement has the tools to do what it must," said Senate
>Majority Leader Thomas Daschle (D-S.D.) in a statement following the passage
>off the bill.
>
>
>But civil liberty groups have been alarmed by this legislation since it
>started whisking its way through Congress. Jim Dempsey, deputy director of
>the Washington D.C.-based Center for Democracy and Technology (CDT), says he
>is particularly concerned about the provision in the law that allows the FBI
>to share with the CIA information collected in grand jury investigations.
>The 1947 National Security Act states that the CIA should have no domestic
>police or subpoena powers. But Dempsey says CIA agents could now use their
>close relationship with the FBI to essentially fill in subpoenas provided by
>prosecutors. "To do this with no prior judicial approval is a fundamental
>change in the way we have set up our police agencies and set them apart from
>our foreign intelligence agencies," said Dempsey. "And it was done with very
>little debate."
>
>
>Legislators who voted for the USA Patriot Act pointed out that the most
>controversial surveillance sections will would expire in 2005. Senate
>Judiciary Committee chairman Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) announced that a
>four-year expiration date "will be crucial in making sure that these new law
>enforcement powers are not abused."
>
>
>Dempsey says the CDT is hoping there will be a Congressional review prior to
>any extension of the provisions. But he, and many others, have pointed out
>that these so-called "sunset provisions" do not apply to the sharing of
>grand jury information, giving the CIA the permanent benefits of grand jury
>powers.
>
>
>The so-called "sneak and peak searches" are permanent as well. And further,
>the sunset provisions do not apply to ongoing cases. This means that
>intelligence investigations, which often run for years, would continue to
>operate under the law even if provisions are not extended past 2005. Also
>exempted are any future investigations of crimes that took place before this
>date.
>
>
>Internet surveillance via "pen register" devices, which capture phone
>numbers dialed on outgoing telephone calls, and "trap and trace" devices,
>which capture the numbers of incoming calls, are also exempt from the sunset
>provisions. These orders were originally used to provide investigators with
>telephone numbers dialed by suspects. They can now be used to monitor email
>addressing information and Web pages visited, in some circumstances without
>judicial oversight. Investigations approved by the secretive FISA
>intelligence court would also not require notification.
>
>
>Lee Tien, senior staff attorney for the San Francisco-based Electronic
>Frontier Foundation, notes that this type of surveillance requires mere
>certification with no evidence that the person being monitored is involved
>in criminal conduct or is a suspected member of a terrorist organization.
>While this online surveillance requires a judge's approval, the law mandates
>that the judge must approve every request and is not required to evaluate
>how the order was carried out.
>
>
>Tien said he will be working with other online civil liberties groups to get
>the government to notify targets of pen/trap surveillances and increase
>judicial oversight. "The potential for pen/trap surveillance on the Internet
>is enormous," says Tien.
>
>
>The new law also permits any U.S. attorney or state attorney general to
>order the installation of the FBI's Carnivore Internet surveillance system,
>which also has the capacity to capture the contents of email messages. The
>agency says the public must trust that investigators will not review this
>information.
>
>
>Unlike trap and trace orders, Carnivore requires that investigators set up
>an audit trail which includes what information was gathered, by whom and
>when. But Tien notes the court is not required to review the information and
>make sure that it complies with the terms of the certification. "No one has
>that oversight role," says Tien.
>
>
>While the government has the power to snoop, citizens who engage in similar
>activities now fall under the government's new definition of terrorists. The
>current definition of terrorism has been expanded to include hacking into a
>U.S. government computer system or breaking into and damaging any
>Internet-connected computer. Prison terms of between five to 20 years can
>now be used to prosecute the new crime of "cyberterrorism," which covers
>hacking attempts causing $5,000 in aggregate value in one year, damage to
>medical equipment or injury to any person.
>
>
>Even Internet Service Providers, universities and network administrators are
>authorized under the new law to conduct surveillance of "computer
>trespassers" without a court order. The new law compels any Internet
>provider or telephone company to turn over customer information, including
>phone numbers called, without a court order, if the FBI claims that the
>records are relevant to a terrorism investigation. The company is forbidden
>to disclose that the FBI is conducting an investigation, has immunity to
>provide any sensitive data and is not bound by statutory rights to suppress
>the information. "There is no incentive for anyone to know about it, or
>challenge it or rein it in," says Dempsey.
>
>
>Prior to the passage of the USA Patriot Act, Laura Murphy, Director of the
>ACLU Washington National Office, wrote letters to the House and Senate
>warning that the bill would give enormous power to the executive branch
>unchecked by meaningful judicial review. "Included in the bill are
>provisions that would allow for the mistreatment of immigrants, the
>suppression of dissent and the investigation and surveillance of wholly
>innocent Americans," said Murphy.
>
>
>Civil liberties groups point out that the government has a history of
>launching investigations against political dissidents. These include the FBI
>investigations of Martin Luther King and other civil rights leaders in the
>1960s, illegal spying on anti-war protesters in the 1960s and 1970s and
>surveillance on the sanctuary movement that provided asylum for those
>fleeing Central American death squads during the 1980s.
>
>
>Attorney General John Ashcroft has brushed off these concerns and issued a
>directive to law enforcement investigators, urging them to aggressively use
>the new powers, which he says will be used to launch a "law enforcement
>campaign."
>
>
>Steve Shapiro, national legal director for the ACLU, says Congress should
>use its unique subpeona power to get information about investigations and
>exercise its oversight authority on investigators. "Congress has given them
>these powers," said Shapiro. "And it has a big responsibility to make sure
>these powers are not abused."
>
>
>Tien said the EFF would also be actively opposing calls for national ID
>cards, for biometric systems and for mandatory record keeping by ISPs, which
>has already been discussed seriously in Europe.
>
>
>Dempsey says the CDT is concerned about the possibility that because the FBI
>has not been able to get to the core of the suspected terrorist cells, they
>will cast an even wider net. Cut loose from past standards and judicial
>controls, investigators, he fears, will collect more information on innocent
>people and be distracted from the task of actually identifying those who may
>be planning future attacks.
>
>
>"That is where the law allows them to take it," says Dempsey. "And that is
>bad for civil liberties and bad for anti-terrorism investigations."
>
>
>Ann Harrison is a San Francisco journalist who writes regularly for
>SecurityFocus.com and BusinessWeek.com.
>
>*** NOTICE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material
>is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest
>in receiving the included information for research and educational
>purposes.***
>
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