Re: NSA/CIA to snoop INSIDE the U.S.???

[declan@well.com (Declan McCullagh)]

This is a fucking big story.

Allowing the CIA and NSA to snoop domestically, and using only a handful of
suspicions and anecdotes about cybernastiness and evil cryptohackers to
justify this major policy shift -- well, it's fucking amazing.

Nunn's proposal, unfortunately, was more than a "suggestion."

But Rory's right. DC *is* in the throes of Internet fever, and it'll just
get worse as the summer gets hotter and hotter. It's almost 80 degress
right now.

-Declan



>What?!  What the *@#!! is wrong with the people who supposedly smart
>people representing us?!
>
>Ern
>
>-------- From SJ Mercury:
>
>    NET FEVER ON THE HILL
>
>    Published: June 6, 1996
>
>    BY RORY J. O'CONNOR
>    Mercury News Washington Bureau
>
>    WASHINGTON -- The White House wants a coordinated task force to fight
>    terrorism on the Internet. Some senators think the CIA should be
>    allowed to work hand in hand with the FBI to fight computer crime on
>    U.S. soil. Meanwhile, the federal courts are deciding a major First
>    Amendment case that might ban certain information from the Net.
>
>    The nation's capital is in the throes of Internet fever.
>
>    For the past several months, the condition has become acute, and by
>    the end of the year the Internet itself may look far different as a
>    result: more tightly regulated, more carefully monitored and more
>    expensive.
>
>    The latest symptom: a suggestion Wednesday for the elimination of laws
>    that prohibit U.S.  intelligence agencies -- notably the National
>>>> Security Agency and the Central Intelligence Agency -- from snooping   <<<
>>>> on home soil. The reason: The potential for computer crime and         <<<
>    terrorism is so great, and the Internet so decentralized and
>    international, that police and the FBI must combine forces with spy
>    agencies in order to successfully analyze the threat and investigate
>    criminal activity.
>
>    ''If we're going to live in this kind of world, we're going to have to
>    link the intelligence world with law enforcement,'' said Sen. Sam
>    Nunn, D-Ga.
>
>    For many people in government who work on computer and law-enforcement
>    issues, the course of the disease seems painfully slow. They often
>    describe the Internet as the Wild West that's sorely in need of a good
>    marshal. But for many people who use the Internet, the government's
>    efforts are moving far ahead of any real knowledge of a technology
>    that, two years ago, almost nobody had heard of.
>
>    ''There are not dead bodies in the street,'' said Donna L. Hoffman, a
>    professor at Vanderbilt University who studies the Internet. ''It just
>    doesn't make sense to rush into legislation.''
>
>    [ SNIP ]