Tuesday

Feds listening into ANYTHING THEY WANT

FBI turns to broad new wiretap method

The FBI appears to have adopted an invasive Internet surveillance technique that collects far more data on innocent Americans than previously has been disclosed.

By Declan McCullagh, CNET News.com
Published on ZDNet News: January 30, 2007, 4:00 AM PT


Instead of recording only what a particular suspect is doing, agents conducting investigations appear to be assembling the activities of thousands of Internet users at a time into massive databases, according to current and former officials. That database can subsequently be queried for names, e-mail addresses or keywords.

Such a technique is broader and potentially more intrusive than the FBI's Carnivore surveillance system, later renamed DCS1000. It raises concerns similar to those stirred by widespread Internet monitoring that the National Security Agency is said to have done, according to documents that have surfaced in one federal lawsuit, and may stretch the bounds of what's legally permissible.

Call it the vacuum-cleaner approach. It's employed when police have obtained a court order and an Internet service provider can't "isolate the particular person or IP address" because of technical constraints, says Paul Ohm, a former trial attorney at the Justice Department's Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section. (An Internet Protocol address is a series of digits that can identify an individual computer.)

That kind of full-pipe surveillance can record all Internet traffic, including Web browsing--or, optionally, only certain subsets such as all e-mail messages flowing through the network. Interception typically takes place inside an Internet provider's network at the junction point of a router or network switch.

The technique came to light at the Search & Seizure in the Digital Age symposium held at Stanford University's law school on Friday. Ohm, who is now a law professor at the University of Colorado at Boulder, and Richard Downing, a CCIPS assistant deputy chief, discussed it during the symposium.

In a telephone conversation afterward, Ohm said that full-pipe recording has become federal agents' default method for Internet surveillance. "You collect wherever you can on the (network) segment," he said. "If it happens to be the segment that has a lot of IP addresses, you don't throw away the other IP addresses. You do that after the fact."

"You intercept first and you use whatever filtering, data mining to get at the information about the person you're trying to monitor," he added.

On Monday, a Justice Department representative would not immediately answer questions about this kind of surveillance technique.

"What they're doing is even worse than Carnivore," said Kevin Bankston, a staff attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation who attended the Stanford event. "What they're doing is intercepting everyone and then choosing their targets."

When the FBI announced two years ago it had abandoned Carnivore, news reports said that the bureau would increasingly rely on Internet providers to conduct the surveillance and reimburse them for costs. While Carnivore was the subject of congressional scrutiny and outside audits, the FBI's current Internet eavesdropping techniques have received little attention.

Carnivore apparently did not perform full-pipe recording. A technical report (PDF: "Independent Technical Review of the Carnivore System") from December 2000 prepared for the Justice Department said that Carnivore "accumulates no data other than that which passes its filters" and that it saves packets "for later analysis only after they are positively linked by the filter settings to a target."

One reason why the full-pipe technique raises novel legal questions is that under federal law, the FBI must perform what's called "minimization."

Federal law says that agents must "minimize the interception of communications not otherwise subject to interception" and keep the supervising judge informed of what's happening. Minimization is designed to provide at least a modicum of privacy by limiting police eavesdropping on innocuous conversations.

Prosecutors routinely hold presurveillance "minimization meetings" with investigators to discuss ground rules. Common investigatory rules permit agents to listen in on a phone call for two minutes at a time, with at least one minute elapsing between the spot-monitoring sessions.

That section of federal law mentions only real-time interception--and does not explicitly authorize the creation of a database with information on thousands of innocent targets.

But a nearby sentence adds: "In the event the intercepted communication is in a code or foreign language, and an expert in that foreign language or code is not reasonably available during the interception period, minimization may be accomplished as soon as practicable after such interception."

Downing, the assistant deputy chief at the Justice Department's computer crime section, pointed to that language on Friday. Because digital communications amount to a foreign language or code, he said, federal agents are legally permitted to record everything and sort through it later. (Downing stressed that he was not speaking on behalf of the Justice Department.)

"Take a look at the legislative history from the mid '90s," Downing said. "It's pretty clear from that that Congress very much intended it to apply to electronic types of wiretapping."

EFF's Bankston disagrees. He said that the FBI is "collecting and apparently storing indefinitely the communications of thousands--if not hundreds of thousands--of innocent Americans in violation of the Wiretap Act and the 4th Amendment to the Constitution."

Marc Rotenberg, director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington, D.C., said a reasonable approach would be to require that federal agents only receive information that's explicitly permitted by the court order. "The obligation should be on both the (Internet provider) and the government to make sure that only the information responsive to the warrant is disclosed to the government," he said.

Courts have been wrestling with minimization requirements for over a generation. In a 1978 Supreme Court decision, Scott v. United States, the justices upheld police wiretaps of people suspected of selling illegal drugs.

But in his majority opinion, Justice William Rehnquist said that broad monitoring to nab one suspect might go too far. "If the agents are permitted to tap a public telephone because one individual is thought to be placing bets over the phone, substantial doubts as to minimization may arise if the agents listen to every call which goes out over that phone regardless of who places the call," he wrote.

Another unanswered question is whether a database of recorded Internet communications can legally be mined for information about unrelated criminal offenses such as drug use, copyright infringement or tax crimes. One 1978 case, U.S. v. Pine, said that investigators could continue to listen in on a telephone line when other illegal activities--not specified in the original wiretap order--were being discussed. Those discussions could then be used against a defendant in a criminal prosecution.

Ohm, the former Justice Department attorney who presented a paper on the Fourth Amendment, said he has doubts about the constitutionality of full-pipe recording. "The question that's interesting, although I don't know whether it's so clear, is whether this is illegal, whether it's constitutional," he said. "Is Congress even aware they're doing this? I don't know the answers."

http://news.zdnet.com/2102-9595_22-6154457.html

Monday

witch hunts continue .... for real


Three women accused of being witches have been killed and burned in their house in East Timor.

The three women - aged 70, 50 and 25 - were killed on Saturday evening in Liquica, about 40km west of the capital Dili.

Liquica district police investigation unit head Geraldo Soares said on Monday they had been accused of being witches and were attacked by unknown people.

United Nations police were also investigating the murders.

The AFP news agency reports this is believed to be the first case involving witchcraft accusations in East Timor - a country which is overwhelmingly Roman Catholic.

Unrest in April and May last year led to the deaths of at least 37 people and forced about 15 percent of East Timor's population to flee their homes, prompting the arrival of foreign peacekeepers at Dili's request.

© NewsRoom 2007

Sunday






cage prisoners logo

"If I come back,
it will be a miracle of God."
(Majid Khan, one of the 14 'high
value Al Qaeda suspects transferred to Guantanamo in September 2006)
Sail, Fly, Swim with the Close Guantanamo Flotilla!

guantanamo2.jpgHELP US
CLOSE GUANTANAMO!
Join Our Flotilla To the US Naval Base in Cuba


This extraordinary journey will help to pressure the US
government to close its detention camp !

at Guantanamo once and for all.Hundredsof people remain at the camp which
is shrouded in secrecy. Families and human rights organisations have no access,
lawyers are restricted.

Detainees and US official investigators have spoken of torture and other ill
treatment there.

Presumed guilty until proven innocent, no detainee has yet
been given a fair trial.

Join our flotilla in a unique opportunity to gain access to Guantanamo after
its 5 years of existence.

Invite your friends to travel with you to contront justice.

Top Pentagon Official Calls for Boycott of Law Firms Representing
Guantanamo Prisoners

A top Pentagon official last week ! urged U. S. corporations to boycott law
firms whose attorneys represent
detainees at the US prison camp in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. In a radio
interview last week, Assistant Secretary of Defense for Detainee
Affairs Charles “Cully” Stimson said companies might wish to shun firms
that represent “the very terrorists who hit their bottom line back in
2001.” Stimson apologized after his remarks were condemned by the
American Bar Association and deans from more than 130 law schools. We
speak with the co-author of the law school petition and a corporate
lawyer representing six Guantanamo prisoners

Interviewwith H Candace Gorman

H. Candace Gorman is an attorney based in Chicago specializing in Civil
Rights law (among her credits are a successful argument before the U.S.
Supreme Court in Jones v. R.R. Donnelly & Sons, a ! landmark case
on the statute of limitations in employment discrimination cases that
has even impacted my own legal practice). Ms. Gorman represents two
North African nationals detained at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, is the author
of the Guantanamo Blog, and is a regular contributor to the Huffington
Post.

Leaving
on a Ghost Plane

GNN recently asked Stephen Grey, the author of Ghost Plane, an
exposé of the CIA’s rendition program which allegedly sent hundreds
of terror suspects to be tortured in foreign prisons, about how he tracked the
secret program, where the suspects were allegedly taken, and if
torture
actually works like it does on TV.

Wrongly Accused! Ex-Gitmo Chaplain and Spy Target
James Yee Speaks out on Newl!y Revealed Pentagon Surveillance

The New York Times recently revealed that the Pentagon and CIA were
secretly examining the financial assets and transactions of thousands
of American citizens without court approval by issuing national
security letters. We speak to the Center for National Security Studies’
Lisa Graves and one of the program’s most prominent targets: James Yee,
the former Muslim Guantanamo Bay chaplain wrongly accused of espionage.


WhatTo Do About Torture? Manfred Nowak Interviewed
The post-9/11 era has raised serious questions over western governments'
complicity in secret detention and torture. Manfred Nowak, United
Nations special rapporteur on torture, is one of the people best placed
to answer them. Kanishk Tharoor of Madrid11.net talks t! o him.

Moazzam Begg - UK Events (Winter 2006 - Spring 2007)
Monday 22nd January Peace Centre, Warrington
Wednesday 24th January 2007, 'Detained at Guantanamo Bay'
Applied Section Meeting, Moazzam Begg in discussion
with Dr.James McKeith
8:30pm - 10:30pm, The Institute of Psychoanalysis, London

Thursday 25th January 2007 - Opening of the Museum of
Free Derry, Ireland
The Bloody Sunday Trust (BST) With Gareth Peirce
and Bernadette McAliskey
Sail, Fly, Swim with th! e Close Guantanamo Flotilla!

This extraordinary journey will help to pressure the US government to close
its detention camp at Guantanamo once and for all.


Prisoner of Faith Pack: Sami Muhyideen Al Hajj


Sami Muhyideen was captured for the US on the Pakistan-Afghanistan border in
December 2001 on the charge that he had filmed an interview with Osama
bin Laden. However, he had never done such a thing. This campaign pack
gives a detailed account of the ordeal Sami has endured at the hands of
the U! S military police ever since his seizure.


Open Letter to the People of Canada from the Detainees at Canada's
Guantanamo Bay

In an open letter released yesterday
from the detainees at Canada's
Guantanamo Bay -- the Kingston Immigration Holding Centre, located on
the grounds of Millhaven Penitentiary outside of Kingston, ON --
Mahmoud Jaballah, Mohammad Mahjoub, and Hassan Almrei have asked the
people of Canada to speak up for their rights.


WhyBoth Cully Stimson - Who Suggested a Boycott of Firms R
epresenting Detainees Pro Bono -


and Some of His Critics Are Off-Base

by Vikram David Amar

Last week, Assistant Secretary for Detainee Affairs Cully Stimson, a Defense
Department official, suggested that corporate America's leaders should
think twice about engaging law firms whose attorneys have been offering
pro bono legal services to represent Guantanamo detainees in their
habeas corpus proceedings.


Disloyalty To The Constitution

by Aziz Huq

“Shocking” is what he said. But it was the baldness of Deputy Assistant Secretary
of Defense for Detainee Affairs Cully Stimson’s statement, not what he
described, that proved shocking.


The
Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Suggests A Boycott of Law Firms
that Represent Guantanamo Detainees: Why This Kind of Blacklisting Is
Always Wrong, and McCarthyite

by Anthony Sebok
and Spencer Weber Waller
Last
Thursday, January 11, Charles "Cully" Stimson, the Deputy Assistant
Secretary of Defense for Detainee Affairs, suggested in a radio
interview that U.S. companies should boycott law firms that represent
detainees held at the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Guantanamo
Pro Bono? Atticus Finch Meets Charles Stimson

by Nancy Rapoport
Nancy
Rapoport of the University of Houston Law Center says th! at lawyers
who provide free legal representation for poor and/! or unpop
ular clients - including detainees at Guantanamo Bay - should be
thanked for their efforts, not shunned or sanctioned at the behest of
government officials...


Diary of a Guantánamo Attorney

by H. Candace Gorman
I fell into the world of Guantánamo in October 2005.


'Enemy Combatant' Languishes in a South Carolina Brig

by A.C. Thompson
Three-and-a-half years ago, the Bush Administration
effectively disappeared an al-Qaeda suspect, ! and even the Pentagon’s
own internal report finds fault with his treatment there.


Why I Defend "Terrorists"

by Anant Raut
An open letter to Cully Stimson, deputy assistant
secretary of defense for detainee affairs, from a lawyer representing
five men atGuantánamo.


The Shame of Guantanamo Exposed in Cuba

by Medea Benjamin
³
This is the closest I have been to my son in almost 5 years,² said
Zohra Zewawi, the mother of Guantanamo prisoner Omar Deghayes,
as she stood in front of the gates of the prison on the Cuban side.

MISCELLANEOUS



400 Taleban Suspects Held in Balochistan


Tunisia Denies Massive Wave of Anti-Terror Arrests


Key Taleba! n Comman der Detained, NATO Says



Kenya: Police Arrests 17 Youths Over Terror Link


Citizenship Revoked to Bosnian Jihadists

More News on the War on Terror at
Cageprisoners.com
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