The America Spectator
5/2/2000
Rise of the Surveillance State
High-tech whets all the wrong government appetites.
by James Bovard
While high-tech breakthroughs make business more productive and
life more pleasant, progress
also has a dark side. Technology designed for benign purposes can
be used for ill ones too. The Clinton administration has led the
way, acting as if every new computer and telephone should have a
welcome mat for federal wiretappers. A 1998 American Civil
Liberties Union report noted, "The Administration is using scare
tactics to acquire vast new powers to spy on all Americans."
On April 16, 1993, the White House revealed that the National
Security Agency had secretly developed a new microchip known as
the Clipper Chip. The press release called it "a new initiative
that will bring the Federal Government together with industry in
a voluntary program to improve the security and privacy of
telephone communications while meeting the legitimate needs of
law enforcement." This was practically the last time that the
word "voluntary" was mentioned.
The Clipper Chip's developers presumed it should be a crime for
anyone to use technology -- such as encryption -- that frustrates
government agents. Encryption software allows individuals to send
messages between computers that cannot be read by third parties.
It is vital to prevent fraud or abuse of financial transactions
and is widely used both here and abroad. Encryption has a long
history -- Thomas Jefferson used secret codes in his
correspondence to avoid detection by the British.
"The Clipper Chip proposal would have required every encryption
user (that is, every individual or business using a digital
telephone system, fax machine, the Internet, etc.) to hand over
their decryption keys to the government, giving it access to both
stored data and real-time communications," the ACLU noted. Marc
Rotenberg, director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center,
observed: "You don't want to buy a set of car keys from a guy who
specializes in stealing cars." When the federal National
Institute of Standards and Technology formally published the
proposal for the new surveillance chip, fewer than one percent of
the comments received from the public supported the Clipper Chip
plan.
Although it eventually abandoned its effort to impose the Clipper
Chip, the administration did not give up on trying to tap the
nation's telephones. In 1994 it railroaded through Congress a law
to dumb down phone technology in order to facilitate government
wiretapping. On October 16, 1995, the telecommunications industry
was stunned when a Federal Register notice appeared announcing
that the FBI was demanding that phone companies provide the
capability for simultaneous wiretaps of one out of every hundred
phone calls in urban areas. The FBI notice represented "a
1,000-fold increase over previous levels of surveillance." FBI
Director Louis
Freeh denied that any expansion of wiretapping was planned.
The 1994 Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement law led to
five years of clashes between the FBI and the communications
industry over the new standards. The Federal Communications
Commission was the bill's designated arbiter; in August 1999, the
FCC caved and gave the FBI almost everything it wanted. The FCC
ordered that all new cellular telephones become de facto homing
devices for law enforcement by including components which enable
law enforcement to determine the precise location from which a
person is calling. As Electronic Design magazine noted, "Unlike
the location feature being created for 911 emergency services,
this capability will apply to all calls and users won't be able
to turn it off." Attorney General Janet Reno hailed the decision:
"The continuing technological changes in the nation's
telecommunications systems present increasing challenges to law
enforcement. This ruling will enable law enforcement to keep pace
with these changes." The New York Times noted, "Law-enforcement
officials have asserted that since the location of wired
telephones is already public information, there is no intrusion
of privacy in determining the location of wireless phones." This
is like saying that since police can determine a person's home
addresses by checking the phone book, it is no violation of
privacy to let police follow the person around every place he
goes once he leaves his house.
In addition to telephones, the security of computer software and
the Internet have also been targeted. The administration spent
three years hounding Phil Zimmerman, the inventor of Pretty Good
Privacy, software designed to protect computer data and messages
from surveillance. Someone placed PGP on an Internet site, thus
making it available free to anyone in the world who chose to
download it. For this the feds threatened Zimmerman with a
five-year prison sentence and a million-dollar fine for exporting
"munitions." Noted Zimmerman in a 1999 interview: "In a number of
countries with oppressive regimes, PGP is the only weapon that
humanitarian aid workers have to prevent hostile dictatorships
from monitoring their communications."
Last August the Justice Department submitted the Cyberspace
Electronic Security Act to Congress. The bill would make it
easier for government to intrude on private communications by
allowing law enforcement to obtain search warrants "to secretly
enter suspects' homes or offices and disable security on personal
computers as a prelude to a wiretap or further search." Average
Americans would face to "black bag jobs" previously restricted to
espionage or national security cases. Janet Reno justified the
new powers thus: "When criminals like drug dealers and terrorists
use encryption to conceal their communications, law enforcement
must be able to respond in a manner that will not thwart an
investigation or tip off a suspect." But such searches pose
special dangers because of the opportunities for government
agents to tamper with evidence while manipulating software on a
target's computer.
In October 1999, members of the international Internet
Engineering Task Force revealed that the FBI was pressuring them
to create a "surveillance-friendly" architecture for Internet
communications. The Bureau wanted the Task Force to build
"trapdoors" into e-mail communications programs to allow law
enforcement easy access to supposedly confidential messages.
Several high-tech experts publicly warned: "We believe that such
a development would harm network security, result in more illegal
activities, diminish users' privacy, stifle innovation, and
impose significant costs on developers of communications." The
ACLU's Barry Steinhardt said, "What law enforcement is
asking...is the equivalent of requiring the home building
industry to place a 'secret' door in all new homes to which only
it would have the key." Although the task force managed to rebuff
the pressure, the fact the FBI even attempted to have software
engineers sacrifice e-mail reliability for the sake of government
intrusions is a warning as to how audacious the feds have become.
Last fall news broke about the existence of Echelon, a spy
satellite system run by the National Security Agency along with
the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada. Echelon
reportedly scans millions of phone calls, e-mail messages, and
faxes each hour, searching for key words. The European Union and
the governments of Italy and Russia loudly protested Echelon's
intrusions into their sovereign domains. European Parliament
Speaker Nicole Fontaine harumphed: "We have every reason to be
shocked at the fact that this form of espionage, which has been
going on for a number of years, has not prompted any official
protest." One Portuguese paper complained that Echelon is "like a
technological nightmare extracted from the crazy conspiracy
theories of 'The X-Files.'"
Rep. Bob Barr, a former CIA employee and the most vigilant
congressman regarding federal high-tech intrusions, attached a
rider to an appropriations bill last year that required the NSA
and the CIA to report to Congress on the standards Echelon used
to tap Americans' communications. In a February letter, the NSA
assured members of Congress that "the NSA's activities are
conducted in accordance with the highest constitutional, legal
and ethical standards, and in compliance with statutes and
regulations designed to protect the privacy rights of U.S.
persons.'' Even as it professed it would never act
unconstitutionally, the NSA sought to block further House
inquiries into Echelon's operations.
A February report by the European Union alleged that Echelon has
been used for economic espionage. Former CIA Director James
Woolsey told a German newspaper in early March that Echelon
collects "economic intelligence." One example Woolsey gave was
espionage aimed at discovering when foreign companies are paying
bribes to obtain contracts that might otherwise go to American
companies. Woolsey elaborated on his views in a condescending
March 17 Wall Street Journal op-ed, justifying Echelon spying on
foreign companies because some foreigners do not obey the U.S.
Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. To add insult to injury, Woolsey
noted there's no reason for U.S. companies to steal backward
Europe's secrets.
The most egregious examples of governmental invasion of privacy
relate to two of the most intimate areas in life -- your money
and your body. In September 1999, Marvin Goodfriend, a senior
vice president at the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, proposed
that government use new technology to penalize citizens who do
not spend their cash as fast as government wanted. "The magnetic
strip [in new U.S. currency] could visibly record when a bill was
last withdrawn from the banking system. A carry tax could be
deducted from each bill upon deposit according to how long the
bill was in circulation." Wired News noted that a federal "carry
tax" would "discourage 'hoarding' currency, deter black market
and criminal activities, and boost economic stability during
deflationary periods when interest rates hover near zero." Rep.
Ron Paul, a member of the House Banking Committee, denounced the
proposal: "The whole idea is preposterous. The notion that we're
going to tax somebody because they decide to be frugal and hold a
couple of dollars is economic planning at its worst."
Lastly, the Customs Service recently began deploying BodySearch
equipment that allows Customs inspectors to see through the
clothes of designated lucky travelers. The ACLU's Gregory Nojeim
warned that the new body scanners could show "underneath clothing
and with clarity, breasts or a penis, and the relative dimensions
of each. The system has a joystick-driven zoom option that allows
the operator to enlarge portions of the image." Customs spokesman
Dennis Murphy explained: "What [BodySearch] does is alleviate the
need for us to touch people, because people don't like to be
touched, and we don't blame them, because our inspectors also
feel uncomfortable touching people." The BodySearch system has a
feature that can potentially violate travelers more than a
pat-down from a Customs agent: the capacity to save images of
what it views. Travelers can now look forward to a new kind of
trip souvenir: a picture of their privates on file at a federal
agency.
James Bovard is the author of Freedom in Chains (St. Martin's
Press).
=================================================================
Kadosh, Kadosh, Kadosh, YHVH, TZEVAOT
FROM THE DESK OF: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
*Mike Spitzer* <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
~~~~~~~~ <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
The Best Way To Destroy Enemies Is To Change Them To Friends
Shalom, A Salaam Aleikum, and to all, A Good Day.
=================================================================
<A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A>
DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER
==========
CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic
screeds are unwelcomed. Substance�not soap-boxing�please! These are sordid
matters
and 'conspiracy theory'�with its many half-truths, misdirections and outright
frauds�is used politically by different groups with major and minor effects
spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought. That being said, CTRL
gives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and always suggests to readers;
be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no credence to Holocaust denial and
nazi's need not apply.
Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.
========================================================================
Archives Available at:
http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/CTRL.html
<A HREF="http://home.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html">Archives of
[EMAIL PROTECTED]</A>
http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
<A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/">ctrl</A>
========================================================================
To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Om
