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


