Waiting Game on wiretapping and crypto, from HotWired

[declan@well.com (Declan McCullagh)]

Date: Tue, 6 Aug 1996 05:15:15 -0700 (PDT)
From: Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>
Reply-To: Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>
Subject: Waiting Game on wiretapping and crypto, from HotWired
To: fight-censorship@vorlon.mit.edu
Sender: owner-fight-censorship@vorlon.mit.edu

We have a four-week reprieve until the Senate returns. As I say in the
full article at the URL below, they've been worse than the House when it
comes to wiretapping/crypto/censorship. For instance, senators already
passed the Feinstein Amendment banning bomb-making info (on- and off-line)
as part of a defense appropriations authorization bill.

-Declan

---

http://www.netizen.com/netizen/
HotWired, The Netizen

Waiting Game
by Declan McCullagh (declan@well.com)
Washington, DC, 5 August

   In a last-minute legislative crunch before the summer recess, House
   Republicans on Friday outmaneuvered their Democratic counterparts and
   coughed up a surprisingly reasonable anti-terrorism bill, which the
   Senate will act on when Congress returns next month.

[...]

   But the Senate has begun its own four-week vacation without voting on
   the measure, and they'll have plenty of time to reintroduce the
   missing [wiretapping] language when they return.

   The outlook, frankly, is dismal, says Don Haines of the American Civil
   Liberties Union. "The Senate has been much more interested in giving
   the FBI a blank check. They've been much more sympathetic to
   increasing wiretapping. They've been much less interested in
   protecting privacy," Haines said.

[...]

   Meanwhile, Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) - a staunch opponent of
   the Communications Decency Act - continues to tout his Digital
   Telephony legislation, which he shepherded through Congress in 1994...

   Perhaps Harry Browne, the Libertarian Party's candidate for president,
   had it right when he said last week: "If we're not careful, half of
   the Bill of Rights will fall victim to the frantic desire of
   Republican and Democratic politicians to appear tough on terrorists."

   The last few years have seen several murderous acts of terror on
   American soil - and now, with the explosion of TWA Flight 800, in
   American airspace. Americans should brace themselves for even more...
   Whether the terror is foreign or domestic in origin, one thing's for
   certain: cries for a government crackdown will mount.

   But by granting their government police-state powers, Americans will
   have awarded terrorists their first substantial victory in the United
   States.

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