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Topic: Bush makes last-minute grab for civil liberties (Read 587 times) |
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Fritz
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Bush makes last-minute grab for civil liberties
« on: 2008-08-22 00:38:46 » |
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New Guidelines Would Give F.B.I. Broader Powers
Source: NY Times
Author: ERIC LICHTBLAU
Date: August 20, 2008
WASHINGTON — A Justice Department plan would loosen restrictions on the Federal Bureau of Investigation to allow agents to open a national security or criminal investigation against someone without any clear basis for suspicion, Democratic lawmakers briefed on the details said Wednesday.
The plan, which could be made public next month, has already generated intense interest and speculation. Little is known about its precise language, but civil liberties advocates say they fear it could give the government even broader license to open terrorism investigations.
Congressional staff members got a glimpse of some of the details in closed briefings this month, and four Democratic senators told Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey in a letter on Wednesday that they were troubled by what they heard.
The senators said the new guidelines would allow the F.B.I. to open an investigation of an American, conduct surveillance, pry into private records and take other investigative steps “without any basis for suspicion.” The plan “might permit an innocent American to be subjected to such intrusive surveillance based in part on race, ethnicity, national origin, religion, or on protected First Amendment activities,” the letter said. It was signed by Russ Feingold of Wisconsin, Richard J. Durbin of Illinois, Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts and Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island.
As the end of the Bush administration nears, the White House has been seeking to formalize in law and regulation some of the aggressive counterterrorism steps it has already taken in practice since the Sept. 11 attacks.
Congress overhauled the federal wiretapping law in July, for instance, and President Bush issued an executive order this month ratifying new roles for intelligence agencies. Other pending changes would also authorize greater sharing of intelligence information with the local police, a major push in the last seven years.
The Justice Department is already expecting criticism over the F.B.I. guidelines. In an effort to pre-empt critics, Mr. Mukasey gave a speech last week in Portland, Ore., describing the unfinished plan as an effort to “integrate more completely and harmonize the standards that apply to the F.B.I.’s activities.” Differing standards, he said, have caused confusion for field agents.
Mr. Mukasey emphasized that the F.B.I. would still need a “valid purpose” for an investigation, and that it could not be “simply based on somebody’s race, religion, or exercise of First Amendment rights.”
Rather than expanding government power, he said, “this document clarifies the rules by which the F.B.I. conducts its intelligence mission.”
In 2002, John Ashcroft, then the attorney general, allowed F.B.I. agents to visit public sites like mosques or monitor Web sites in the course of national security investigations. The next year, Mr. Bush issued guidelines allowing officials to use ethnicity or race in “narrow” circumstances to detect a terrorist threat.
The Democratic senators said the draft plan appeared to allow the F.B.I. to go even further in collecting information on Americans connected to “foreign intelligence” without any factual predicate. They also said there appeared to be few constraints on how the information would be shared with other agencies.
Michael German, a lawyer with the American Civil Liberties Union and a former F.B.I. agent, said the plan appeared to open the door still further to the use of data-mining profiles in tracking terrorism.
“This seems to be based on the idea that the government can take a bunch of data and create a profile that can be used to identify future bad guys,” he said. “But that has not been demonstrated to be true anywhere else.”
The Justice Department said Wednesday that in light of requests from members of Congress for more information, Mr. Mukasey would agree not to sign the new guidelines before a Sept. 17 Congressional hearing.
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Where there is the necessary technical skill to move mountains, there is no need for the faith that moves mountains -anon-
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Fritz
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Re:Bush makes last-minute grab for civil liberties
« Reply #1 on: 2008-10-18 21:47:49 » |
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[Fritz]Yet another step closer to a totalitarian world order or job security for them evil DBAs
Das überdatabase: Inside Wacky Jacqui's motherbrain
A two-pronged assault on civil liberties or a necessary upgrade?
Source: The Register
Author: Chris Williams
Date: 16th October 2008
Analysis Home Secretary Jacqui Smith isn't known in these pages for the clarity of her pronouncements on technology. And yesterday, as she confirmed the government's plan to proceed with the Interception Modernisation Programme (IMP), she limited herself to the spin of building a universal communications surveillance apparatus.
The details of the accompanying Communications Data Bill will be opened to consultation in the new year, she said, with the aim of achieving consensus with "interested parties". Smith was keen to emphasise the content of every phone, internet and mobile communication will not be harvested, but the details of who contacts whom, when and where. That distinction is likely be the cornerstone of attempts to sell IMP to MPs and a public wearied by the erosion of civil liberties and major government data losses.
Says who?
Smith was clear that she won't take "no" for an answer. "All this is a reflection of the technological and behavioural changes that the growth of the internet brings. Once again, that is not a Government policy which is somehow optional. It is a reality to which Government needs to respond," she said.
The follow-up propaganda push has already begun today. In The Times an unnamed source, clearly with a strong desire to see IMP built, spoonfed a dubious and old story about the threat posed by Skype and other VoIP applications to counter-terror operations. The hungry Thunderer hacks swallowed the security services' line that "internet phone calls are crippling fight against terrorism". No quotation marks in that headline, no opposing view in the story: it's being crippled people - fact.
Then with impeccable deadpan delivery, we're told in the penultimate paragraph that "The Times has learnt that police chiefs are to begin a discreet lobbying exercise in favour of the new powers". No, really?
Such media glove-puppetry will intensify in the coming months. People with knowledge of IMP developments in Whitehall and industry told The Register over summer that Jacqui and the security services do not speak for the whole of the government on the project. One memorably said the intelligence services' suggestion that IMP would seek to standardise all UK communications data and record details of every chat session had been described as "science fiction" by ISPs. The Cabinet Office and Treasury are also known to have major reservations.
But why?
The reasons why GCHQ and others have been able to persuade ministers that spending £12bn - the budget figure being floated in government - is a good idea despite fierce opposition IMP has and will face demand better illumination. The project is best explained as two simultaneously parallel and intertwining strands which will allow snoopers to very quickly see who their targets communicate with, and - with a warrant - what they are saying:
* The überdatabase
A massive central silo for collecting, processing and cross reference details of emails sent, websites visited, calls made, mobile phone cell locations and more. Probably administered at "the doughnut", GCHQ's iconic Cheltenham spy station. This data won't be intercepted, but ISPs and telcos will provide it in real time from their own back end systems.
* The "black boxes"
This network of wiretaps will put the "interception" into "Interception Modernisation Programme", using the information in the central comunications data silo to target suspects' traffic. It'll be hugely expensive to ensure the complete coverage spy chiefs want, but the plan is that any internet protocol (IP) communication will be available for interception. It means calls, texts, gaming, chat and web browsing will all be laid bare to analysts.
Arrangements have long been in place with major telecoms and internet providers to access a lot of this type of data on a case-by-case basis. It's proved valuable as an investigative tool and as evidence in countless crimes; 95 per cent of serious crimes since 2004, the Home Secretary said yesterday. It's known that major communications firms have people on staff who are effectively employed by the intelligence services, ready to grab any data required.
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Where there is the necessary technical skill to move mountains, there is no need for the faith that moves mountains -anon-
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