[3439] in cryptography@c2.net mail archive
Re: House Passes Roving Wiretaps
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Alan Davidson)
Thu Oct 8 21:14:30 1998
In-Reply-To: <199810080233.TAA07928@toad.com>
Date: Thu, 8 Oct 1998 20:43:37 -0500
To: cryptography@c2.net
From: Alan Davidson <abd@CDT.ORG>
This evening the Senate passed the Intelligence Authorization Conference
Report (they had almost no choice) and now the roving wiretaps provisions
will almost certainly become law.
Perhaps even more disturbing than this expansion of federal surveillance
authority is the way that it happened. Even though neither the House nor
Senate version of the authorization bill contained roving wiretaps, and
even though a similar provision was rejected by the full House in open
debate just last Congress, this FBI-wish list item was snuck onto the
must-pass conference report behind closed doors. Those Members of Congress
who even knew it was there were faced with no choice but to approve it or
reject the authorization bill and shut down the entire intelligence
establishment (as attractive as that latter option might sound at times(!),
you can understand why most of Congress did not vote that way...)
As I said in one wire story today: To take a controversial provision
that affects the fundamental constitutional liberties of the people and
pass it behind closed doors shows a shocking disregard for our democratic
process.
Unfortunately, this is an instructional lesson about how the FBI goes about
pursuing its agenda. And crypto controls are at the top of that agenda.
-- Alan
Alan Davidson, Staff Counsel 202.637.9800 (v)
Center for Democracy and Technology 202.637.0968 (f)
1634 Eye St. NW, Suite 1100 <abd@cdt.org>
Washington, DC 20006 PGP key via finger
At 7:33 PM -0700 10/7/98, John Gilmore wrote:
>http://www.cdt.org/legislation/calea/roving.html
>
> House Passes Roving Wiretaps, Expanding
> Federal Surveillance Powers
>
> October 7, 1998
>
> In a closed-door manuever, controversial "roving wiretap"
> provisions have been added to a major Intelligence authorization
> bill and passed by the House. Current wiretapping law allows
> tapping of a particular person's phones. The new provisions would
> dramatically expand current authority by allowing taps on any
> phone used by, or "proximate" to, the person being tapped -- no
> matter whose phone it is. Such a broad law invites abuse.
>
> In the last Congress, the full House of Representatives rejected
> these provisions after an open and vigorous debate. This week,
> behind closed doors, a conference committee added the provisions
> to the important Intelligence Authorization Conference Report,
> almost certain to pass the Congress. The provisions were not in
> either the original House or Senate versions of the bill. CDT is
> particularly concerned that such an expansion of federal
> authority should take place without a public debate.
>
...
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