Posted on 09/23/2001 12:32:07 PM PDT by t-shirt
DOJ brewing expansive anti-terror proposal
Doug Brown, Interactive Week
September 20, 2001 1:43 PM ET The proposal should be officially released on Thursday said a DOJ official. It would apply telephone wiretapping rules to the Internet and it would formally endorse Carnivore, the e-mail surveillance tool of the department that has been vehemently denounced by civil liberties advocates since its discovery last year, said David Sobel, general counsel for the Electronic Privacy Information Center.
Until now, Attorney General John Ashcroft had not announced whether he would permit the use of Carnivore.
The pending proposal has spawned the birth of an unlikely confederation of organizations ranging from the left-leaning American Civil Liberties Union to the staunchly conservative Free Congress Foundation called the In Defense of Freedom coalition.
Alarmed by the fevered race toward passing anti-terrorism legislation, much of which could affect civil liberties, coalition members have banded together to try to persuade lawmakers to slow down.
Sobel said he had been studying drafts of the document throughout the day Wednesday. Late Wednesday, he said sources in the department told him the drafts were "changing hourly."
"I think it's going to take some time to see the final introduced version and to fully analyze the potential impact on communications privacy," he said. "But the early indications are that the proposal is far reaching, and it remains to be seen whether a need for these sweeping changes can be demonstrated."
Particularly troubling, said Sobel, are attempts to remove the traditional line between domestic law enforcement and foreign intelligence.
One lawmaker, Sen. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., chairman of the Judiciary Committee, plans to submit legislation this week with the dual aim of protecting civil liberties while still giving law enforcement sufficient surveillance rights, said spokesman David Carle.
Carle said Leahy is "working as rapidly as humanly possible" on proposals to temper the Aschcroft proposal, but added that "it's a mistake to set artificial deadlines on this legislation, particularly with the delicate balance between civil liberties and law enforcement" under enormous pressure to shift.
The Senate has already passed one anti-terrorism amendment to the Commerce-Justice-State appropriations bill that expands the wiretapping and cybersurveillance powers of law enforcement officers.
"There's a lot of stuff here that needs to be publicly debated," said Mike Godwin, a policy analyst with the Center for Democracy and Technology. He said the package of legislative proposals was highly complex, and he was taking it home with him after work to read.
Civil liberties activists like Sobel and Godwin are frantically trying to obtain and digest updated versions of the document before it captivates lawmakers, who could pass the legislation as quickly as they choose. Earlier this week, Ashcroft urged lawmakers to pass the legislation by the end of the week. But Sobel said that's unlikely to happen. "I'm hearing late [Wednesday] that the attempt to rush this through has subsided," said Sobel. "It sounds like they have backed off, and there will in fact be hearings."
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Sunday, 23 September, 2001, 16:13 GMT 17:13 UK
Blunkett warming to ID cards
Home Secretary David Blunkett has revealed compulsory identity cards are being considered "very seriously indeed" as a measure to tackle terrorism.
But Mr Blunkett also says he will not be rushed into making a "snap announcement" on cards or any other anti-terror measures.
The home secretary indicated on BBC One's On the Record programme that his personal view was that a voluntary scheme would be pointless.
Nobody need talk about recalling Parliament in this week or in the next two weeks to pass legislation
David Blunkett
He said: "I'm giving it a fairly high priority in terms of the discussions and the consideration behind the scenes.
"There are much broader issues about entitlement and citizenship and not merely security in terms of some form of identity card which we are looking at very seriously indeed."
He also maintained that improvements in electronic thumb or fingerprint technology or even "iris-prints" meant the threat of forgery would not make the system redundant.
'Rushed legislation'
The Liberal Democrats have warned against hurried, badly-drafted security legislation which could harm civil liberties.
Lib Dem leader Charles Kennedy said: "Rushed legislation, particularly if it's got all party agreement, history teaches, is usually bad legislation."
David Blunkett spoke of the need to protect civil liberties
Mr Blunkett maintained there was no need to recall Parliament in the next fortnight to debate new laws as they would take time to draft.
"Whatever we do will take time to put through Parliament even with emergency measures.
"There may be more than one necessary bill."
He said drafting and discussion would take time as was appropriate in a democracy.
"Nobody need talk about recalling Parliament in this week or in the next two weeks to pass legislation."
But the home secretary admitted the "balance" between the Human Rights Act and anti-terror provisions may need to change.
Fighting terrorism
He said : "There will be tensions between the ECHR [European Court of Human Rights] and the Human Rights Act and the necessary protection that we seek.
"It is possible that we will have to change the balance." <> The Conservatives have said they will support whatever steps are needed to fight terrorism.
Shadow foreign secretary Michael Ancram said the country always had to be careful about curtailing freedoms.
But he said the party would look at any proposal for identity cards or any other measure to fight terrorism.
IMO, that's because you're looking at it from the wrong angle.
The goal of most all fedgov legislation/EO is not so solve problems or 'protect us', it is to increase control over the citizenry.
Lots of gov action makes perfect sense when looked at this way.
The could have stopped it from ever happenning.
Worse we have fighter planes in flight DC all the times to defend the Capital, Pentagon, White House, etc, and none were activated and told to pursue or shoot down the plane that hit the Pentagon.
Also there are dozens of bases between DC, VA, MD, DE, NJ, PA, MA, CT, and NY with fighters that could have pursued and if necessary shot down all of the planes involved.
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