The Spotlight 10/10/94

Privacy Under Attack

Push has come to shove. The FBI's nightmare Digital Telephone
and Privacy Improvement Act is about to reach the floor of both
the Senate and the House. In the House, the bill is HR 4922. It's S.
2375 in the Senate.

I've described the pending legislation before in this column. As a
proposed bill from the FBI, the Privacy Improvement Act (PIA)
was a nauseating fraud with a lot of nasty agendas (and very
powerful forces) pushing very hard behind it.

The draft bill legalized automatic, computerized telephone
surveillance through Americans' telephones and communications
networks. But don't worry--the FBI promised to obtain a court
order from somewhere before switching the system on in your
house.

Well, the FBI's proposed PIA has changed. A key congressional
staffer directed some alterations to the bill's language before it was
introduced to our elected representatives. (And the changes are just
as interesting as the new, high-paying job the staffer obtained after
he convinced his boss to sponsor the bill.)

So take a seat, loosen your collar and get ready for the new, im-
proved PIA. Your elected representatives could enact this thing as
law in the next two weeks if you don't protest this.

PRIVACY IMPROVEMENT'
For starters, the PIA has a new name. Now it's called the Wiretap
Access Bill (WAB). They had to change the bill so it spends more
of your money, too. Now it authorizes the FBI to pay $500 million
taxpayer dollars to America's local telephone companies. This
expenditure accomplishes two important objectives. First, it
establishes the price of your privacy: Nothing. Second, it addresses
the Constitutional and business concerns of America's phone
companies-- the FBI pays them and they shut up.

In exchange for your $500 million, the phone companies will
modify their equipment so you have no privacy. Within four years,
all telephone company switches and networks must be modified so
the FBI can instantly identify who you telephone and who calls you,
according to the provisions of the bill. And your $500 million buys
even more. (Leave it to the FBI to drive a hard bargain.)

Phone companies will also install "special equipment" to allow the
FBI to automatically eavesdrop on you whenever they want. The
phone companies will, in turn, bill you for the maintenance of this
wonderful system.

AUTOMATIC KGB
Now we come to the bill's boring technical details--the sort of
drudgery that legislators routinely delegate to their hapless staffers.
This includes, in this case, a key staffer (he must remain nameless)
who created the language of the WAB and then suddenly departed
for a much better job at a privately funded foundation.

Hidden in the bill's "legalese"--and unmentioned in any of the FBI's
congressional lobbying for its precious PIA--is something even
more sinister: The bill calls for telephone companies to provide
instantaneous, contemporaneous, automatically activated eaves-
dropping on people in their homes or businesses. That's
push-button surveillance from thousands of miles away. It's right
there, in the language of the bill. Phone companies that fail to give
this power to the FBI are fined $10,000 a day.

And our wanna-be secret police didn't pull this language out of thin
air. This grim law was literally dictated by the 1990 design
specifications of the computerized equipment that will breathe life
into this secret, automatic KGB.

The true intent of the WAB is revealed in a little-noticed set of
"Technical Requirements" documents from Bell South, dated 1990.
These documents, summarized in out-of-the mainstream technical
magazines, describe a remote controlled, computerized monitoring
device. It goes on your neighborhood telephone pole--or, even
better, in an out-of-the way underground telephone conduit. It
"runs encrypted"--so even the telephone company can't determine
who activates it, how it's programmed or what it's doing.

This device is called a remote monitor. It's nicknamed the "smart
box." It can eavesdrop on an entire residential neighborhood. And
be assured, fellow citizens, it's a quality product. Unlike our wobbly
B-1 bomber with $700 toilet seats, the smart box documents
describe a grueling six-city test of the device-blanket surveillance of
major metropolitan areas. The smart box passed with flying colors.
Unthinkable Bill Do you like the sound of this? The legislation is
completely unthinkable in a free country And yet it is before
congress now, apparently on a fast track for a quiet vote before The
October recess for the elections. This Teflon coated monstrosity
has arrived on the legislative calendar. despite outrage and disbelief
by citizens and computer professionals who are stunned by the bill's
amazing progress.

The consensus among computerists and citizens is: "This can't be
happening." But it is happening-despite very serious questions and
demonstrable inconsistencies in the testimony FBI Director Louis
Freeh gave before Congress on the bill.

And why the Establishment media silence? You probably heard
about remote monitors and the PIA first in The SPOTLIGHT. I bet
you haven't heard about it anywhere else. Why?

What kind of Congress will we have with invisible, untraceable,
remote controlled surveillance built into our telephone networks?
How independent will our judiciary be when the smallest
peccadilloes of every judge are stored on computer tapes for fast
playback? What sort of free press will we have if the phones are
unplugged or "unofficial" sources are fingered and sandbagged
before they hang up the telephone? Who will dare to call
independent journalists or civil libertarians when all telephone
numbers are permanently recorded and computer scanned?

What legal confidentiality will we have when our lawyers' phones
are automatically tapped and their offices bugged? What business
can we transact by phone or fax or modem when politically
connected competitors could be listening Dare we fax our patents
or proposals? (Ask the folks at Inslaw, Inc.)

And what's the price of freedom? It's $500 million to you; nothing
to Bill Clinton and the FBI.

PERSONAL THANKS
On a personal note, I'd like to thank the infinitely patient editors of
the SPOTLIGHT and the many thoughtful readers who have
inquired after my well-being these past six weeks. I very much
regret that family illness and professional demands have kept me
from my keyboard in these crucial times for all Americans and all
populists. As you see, I'm back and more determined than ever to
set these issues before you as plainly as I can. It's a good fight--one
that we can and must win. And finally, the bill numbers are H.R.
4922 and S. 2375.


Just a note,
saw this in the Cincinnati Enquirer 10/9/94

FBI praises new bill
The Associated Press

WASHINGTON--Passage of a bill allowing
legal wiretaps of cellular phone conversations
removes an important obstacle to effective law
enforcement, FBI Director Louis Freeh said
Saturday
With increasingly sophisticated digital
technology, defeat of the bill would have
thwarted the FBI's ability to use court-ordered
wiretaps, Freeh said.
But some critics--calling the bill an erosion
of individual freedom--said the FBI had not
proved that the bill provided an essential
crime-fighting tool and planned to pursue a
lawsuit.


"We have seen the enemy and he is us"
....POGO



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