cannabisnews.com: Secret U.S. Court OKs Electronic Spying 





Secret U.S. Court OKs Electronic Spying 
Posted by CN Staff on November 19, 2002 at 15:50:53 PT
By Declan McCullagh, Staff Writer
Source: Business Week 
A secretive federal court on Monday granted police broad authority to monitor Internet use, record keystrokes and employ other surveillance methods against terror and espionage suspects.In an unexpected and near-complete victory for law enforcement, the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court of Review overturned a lower court's decision and said that Attorney General John Ashcroft's request for new powers was reasonable.
The 56-page ruling removes procedural barriers for federal agents conducting surveillance under the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA). The law, enacted as part of post-Watergate reforms, permits sweeping electronic surveillance, telephone eavesdropping and surreptitious searches of residences and offices.At a press conference Monday afternoon, Ashcroft applauded the ruling, characterizing it as a "victory for liberty, safety and the security of the American people."Ashcroft said the ruling marks a new era of collaboration between police and intelligence agencies such as the CIA and the National Security Agency. "This decision allows law enforcement officials to learn from intelligence officials, and vice versa, as a means of sort of allowing the information to flow from one community to another," Ashcroft said. "This will greatly enhance our ability to put pieces together that different agencies have. I believe this is a giant step forward."The lower court, called the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court, had said there must be a well-defined wall separating domestic police agencies from spy agencies. It accused the FBI of submitting incorrect information under oath in more than 75 cases, including one signed by then-FBI Director Louis Freeh.The lower court's decision, written in May, went so far as to say that changes to the Justice Department's procedures were necessary "to protect the privacy of Americans in these highly intrusive surveillances and searches."Justice Department lawyers argued that the USA Patriot Act, signed by President George W. Bush last fall, made any such wall obsolete and unnecessary. The Patriot Act also changed the requirements for FISA surveillance, saying that espionage or terrorist acts did not have to be the primary purpose of the investigation but only a "significant purpose."The review court agreed with Ashcroft, even suggesting that greater use of FISA surveillance conceivably could have thwarted the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks. It ruled that Ashcroft's proposed procedures, "if they do not meet the minimum Fourth Amendment warrant requirements, certainly come close."Civil libertarians said they were alarmed by the ruling, the public version of which was censored for security reasons. The American Civil Liberties Union and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers had filed friend-of-the-court briefs urging the appeals court to uphold the lower court's decision.Robert Levy, a senior fellow at the Cato Institute, said, "Because the FISA now applies to ordinary criminal matters if they are dressed up as national security inquiries, the new rules could open the door to circumvention of the Fourth Amendment's warrant requirements. The result: rubber-stamp judicial consent to phone and Internet surveillance, even in regular criminal cases, and FBI access to medical, educational and other business records that conceivably relate to foreign intelligence probes."FISA authorizes judges on the secret court, which always meets behind closed doors, to authorize electronic surveillance for foreign intelligence purposes if "there is probable cause to believe" that a terrorist, spy, or foreign political organization is involved. Police are not required to meet the same legal standards that are required under the Fourth Amendment, which prohibits unreasonable searches and eavesdropping, when conducting surveillance in normal investigations.During the 1980s, the Justice Department began interpreting the law as limiting FISA orders to cases in which no criminal prosecution was planned. In 1995, then-Attorney General Janet Reno ordered a wall created between FBI intelligence agents--who have security clearances--and Justice Department prosecutors in FISA investigations.But by mid-2001, attitudes inside the Justice Department began to shift in favor of eroding that wall, and Congress virtually eliminated it when enacting the Patriot Act. In March 2002, Ashcroft responded with new "Intelligence Sharing Procedures" that allowed the free exchange of information among the FBI, spy agencies and prosecutors.The initial FISA court rejected Ashcroft's procedures as not authorized by the Patriot Act, adopting the 1995 Reno guidelines instead. The review court rejected that analysis Monday, saying that Congress "clearly did not preclude or limit the government's use or proposed use of foreign intelligence information, which included evidence of certain kinds of criminal activity, in a criminal prosecution."Note: A secretive federal court grants police broad authority to monitor Internet use, record keystrokes and employ other surveillance methods against terror and espionage suspects. Source: Business Week (US)Author: Declan McCullagh, Staff Writer, CNET News.com, News.com Published: Tuesday, November 19, 2002 Copyright: 2002 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc.Contact: bwreader businessweek.comWebsite: http://www.businessweek.com/Related Articles & Web Sites:ACLUhttp://www.aclu.org/The Cato Institutehttp://www.cato.org/ 'A Supersnoop's Dream' http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14760.shtmlU.S. Hopes To Check Computers Globally http://cannabisnews.com/news/thread14733.shtml
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Comment #3 posted by FoM on November 19, 2002 at 21:18:35 PT
Now Look What's Going On
Hi Everyone,This isn't about drug policy issues but you might want to read it so here it is.Texas Firms Line Up U.S. Aid in Peru Gas Project's Damage to Rain Forest Assailed 
 
By James V. Grimaldi, Washington Post Staff WriterWednesday, November 20, 2002; Page A01 Two Texas energy companies, both closely tied to the Bush White House, are lining up administration support for nearly $900 million in public financing for a Peruvian natural gas project that will cut through one of the world's most pristine tropical rain forests.A top priority of Peruvian officials, who view it as key to energy independence, the Camisea project has encountered fierce opposition. Worldwide environmental groups and some members of Congress argue that the massive extraction and pipeline project will destroy the rain forest and the lifestyle of its indigenous people.The project backers' quest for financial support from U.S. development banks will test the political pull of the Texas companies, Hunt Oil Co. and Halliburton Co., which have longstanding ties to the Bush-Cheney administration and the Republican Party. Next month, Hunt Vice President Steve Suellentrop is set to accompany Commerce Secretary Donald L. Evans on a trade mission to Peru, where President Bush traveled in March to promote Andean trade.An international consortia, led by Dallas-based Hunt, Argentina's Pluspetrol and Peru's Tecgas, began work earlier this year on the $1.6 billion project in the southeastern part of Peru's Amazon basin. Hunt brought in Halliburton's Kellogg Brown & Root unit to engineer a proposed next phase, a $1 billion plant from which Hunt hopes to export liquid natural gas to the United States by 2006.The controversy surrounding the project highlights the conflict between Bush's energy policy, which advocates mining fossil fuels globally, and U.S. environmental safeguards, which detractors say the administration plays down. Government spokesmen say that no decisions have been made on public financing and that a careful review is underway.Under federal regulations, projects receiving backing from the Export-Import Bank of the United States and the Inter-American Development Bank must pass rigorous reviews to ensure that they will not threaten rare natural habitats.But officials reviewing the Camisea loan applications, who asked not to be identified, say the project is proceeding despite warnings that it may run afoul of international environmental standards. Independent reviews commissioned by project developers have also noted numerous problems, including fuel spills, unauthorized pipeline route diversions, and destructive erosion and landslides.This month, Peru's energy ministry fined the pipeline consortium $1 million for clearing too much land, including parts of a protected nature preserve, and building unauthorized access roads. The companies have appealed.Concerns about the project have recently generated interest on Capitol Hill. Staffers for Sens. Patrick J. Leahy (D-Vt.), James M. Jeffords (I-Vt.) and Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) have met with representatives of an array of concerned environmental groups, from the measured World Wildlife Fund to the activist Friends of the Earth.Complete Article: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A12381-2002Nov19.html
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Comment #2 posted by DdC on November 19, 2002 at 19:06:57 PT
Tobaccoland U.S.A.
I've got two posters for Chesterfield. One with Ronnie Rayguns and the other with Fred Astair and Rita Hayworth advertizing for Tobaccoland, A cartoonish picturebook on how cigarettes are made. To this day no mention of the hundreds of chemicals added, not added to organic ganja or tobacco. I read when Dupont and the 20's Nazi's and I.G.Farben subsidiaries tried switching from biomass to pushing crude oil the people at first thought they were nuts. A generation later after reefer madness everyone was switched over and the marijuana tax act incorporated. L.S.M.F.T. Now the whorland security rape of the Constitution and a spineless Bushit opposition and an egomaniac D.E.A.th czar American has been found Dead at the Scene. Funeral for Uncle Sam 2pm Saturday 2002. Peace, Love and Liberty or the Murdering D.E.A.thDdCPower concedes nothing without a demand. It never did, and it never will. Find out just what people will submit to, and you have found out the exact amount of injustice and wrong which will be imposed upon them; and these will continue until they are resisted with either words or blows, or with both. The limits of tyrants are prescribed by the endurance of those whom they oppress. 
Frederick Douglass, August 4, 1857The Chemical Manipulation of Human Consciousness
http://schools.limestone.on.ca/sydhs/ChemicalManipulation.htmlSHADOW OF THE SWASTIKA The Elkhorn Manifesto
http://www.sumeria.net/politics/shadv3.html Cannabis Hemp: The Invisible Prohibition Revealed
http://www.sumeria.net/politics/invpro.htmlRon Paul Archives 
http://www.lewrockwell.com/paul/paul-arch.htmlOrganic Cannabis/Tobacco vs Chemical Cigarettes
http://pub3.ezboard.com/fendingcannabisprohibitionwhyitstimetolegalize.showMessage?topicID=310.topicAnything that can be made out of wood or plastic can be made from hemp, and is biodegradable.In 1941 Henry Ford built a hemp fueled and fabricated automobile that weighed only two/thirds the amount of a steel car and could resist blows 10 times as great without denting.Hemp Car
http://www.hempcar.orgHemp.com
http://www.hemp.comHenry Ford built a car that ran on hemp oil and grew fields of hemp to become independent of the oil industry, but
the law caught up with him. In 1937 DuPont filed a patent on nylon, which took over many of the uses of hemp. How different would our world be with hemp oil instead of gasoline to power our cars! (Chris Conrad discussed the history of hemp in Hemp: Lifeline to the Future.)"
http://www.electricemperor.com/eecdrom/HTML/EMP/09/ECH09_15.HTM#carThank you Dupont, Mellon, and Hearst 
http://csf.colorado.edu/mail/bene/1996/feb96/0011.html
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Comment #1 posted by JR Bob Dobbs on November 19, 2002 at 16:37:22 PT
OT: OTR cigarette ads
Apropos of nothing... I've been listening to old-time radio MP3s lately, including a few Jack Benny episodes. Jack's sponsor is Lucky Strikes, and their ads make cigarettes sound like a wonder drug. If you're feeling low, or agitated, or off-center - smoke a Lucky, to "feel your level best". Week after week, the announcer touts how Luckys are made from the best tobacco available, and will perk you up, or calm you down - bringing you to that "level best". The ads got progressively more complex, becoming more like modern "product placement" type ads, as can be heard at the link below. It's an interesting change of perspective from the current spate of anti-tobacco ads, a reminder that not long ago these poison-mongers were singing a totally different tune. You've come a long way, baby.
Lucky Strike MP3 ads from the 1950s
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