It's not just telephones and bank records. FBI wants to keep an eye on you

[Cruzan]

The FBI has drafted sweeping legislation that would require Internet service providers to create wiretapping hubs for police surveillance and force makers of networking gear to build in backdoors for eavesdropping, CNET News.com has learned.

FBI Agent Barry Smith distributed the proposal at a private meeting last Friday with industry representatives and indicated it would be introduced by Sen. Mike DeWine, an Ohio Republican, according to two sources familiar with the meeting.

The draft bill would place the FBI's Net-surveillance push on solid legal footing. At the moment, it's ensnared in a legal challenge from universities and some technology companies that claim the Federal Communications Commission's broadband surveillance directives exceed what Congress has authorized.

The FBI claims that expanding the 1994 Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act is necessary to thwart criminals and terrorists who have turned to technologies like voice over Internet Protocol, or VoIP.

More: http://news.com.com/2100-1028_3-6091942.html

[Selatius]

1. Isn't there a so-called "Agent Smith" who monitors DU? n/t

[RC]

2. It is agent Mike --

Unless he has been replaced.

[ShortnFiery]

4. Hey! Let's not forget Agent Mary ...

She often works the night shift and on weekends. That is, she doesn't enjoy the seniority of our Dear Agent Mike who monitors the "goings on" of DU. ;) :hi:

[unhappycamper]

8. Nope, Mikey's on the job.

Now that the NSA has tapped all forms of electronic communications, he went over to the CIA.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

3. They simply want to crash the class that takes place in here,

since they have little, their patriotism may be brittle, and I care not one whittle.

[Swamp Rat]

5. Quadruple encrypt everything

They'll spend decades trying to decipher messages like: "HAHA! You wasted your adult life trying to unlock this?"

[vickitulsa]

6. I've never known people could have such GALL as to brazenly

and without shame propose in broad daylight that the criminal, shady, wicked spying they've long been doing on us all be made formally legal.

They write these bills (or PNACkers write them for them), and they sponsor them, and they sign their names to them and speak on podiums proudly about such shameful behavior it would make our founding fathers spin in their graves.

What concerns me the most, since I've been giving a lot of thought to these issues of late, is that we should recognize something:

All the "leaks" that have exposed so many blatant acts of illegal spying on its own citizens that our government has done are no doubt coming along way late in the process! What I'm saying is, we know that what finally gets disclosed to the public in any area of technological advances sees the light of day only after some YEARS, in most cases, of common use already by those who have no respect for the Constitution or the principles on which our country has been governed for two centuries.

What we're seeing -- and it's a LOT! -- is still just the tip of the iceberg of what these people are already doing!

Think about it.

The U.S. government -- and the military in particular -- has so many top secret eyes only black operations going on at all times it would probably shock even most members of Congress to learn the truth about all of them. Can we even begin to imagine just how much criminal and venal behavior our government is participating in behind the scenes? I suspect not! Our imaginations aren't that wild. Our minds can hardly get around what has been exposed to date, let alone the ninety percent of that dangerous, frightening iceberg that lies below the surface unseen.

I can think of only one example where horrendous new technologies were disclosed to the public very soon after their development, and that's the Manhattan Project and the production of nuclear weapons. The only reason for that was it was such a "crash" project, needed ASAP in order to beat others to it and use it to end WWII.

(And if you study what went on then, it sends cold chills down your spine to realize just how reckless was that push for The Bomb. What grave risks to all humanity were taken? What violations of all human decency were committed, causing death and great injury to personnel involved in development and testing?)

If all efforts to STOP this trend in spying on American citizens and the use of secret tribunals and torture FAIL, I sure as hell hope someone thinks to make sure members of Congress are not exempted from such outrages. They should think about that as they cast their votes on the floor... just how comfortable would each of them feel to realize their private emails and phone calls and personal behavior of every sort will be "monitored"??

Tip of the iceberg, I tell ya's, tip of the huge, dangerous iceberg....

[magellan]

7. Getting Spooky

[mainegreen]

9. Totally pointless.

Encryption technology today is so secure that if every computer owned by the US Goverment were to be dedicated to monitoring just secure traffic, they would need longer than the entire history of the United States to just monitor one days traffic. All this will do is capture really stupid criminals (like that's impressive) and monitor MP3/MPEG Banditos.

[chill_wind]

10. Tip of the icerberg.

The Emergence of a Global Infrastructure For Mass Registration and Surveillance: 10 Signposts

http://www.i-cams.org/Surveillance_intro.html

Full report (pdf, 1.5 MB) >>
http://www.i-cams.org/ICAMS1.pdf

About:
About ICAMS

The International Campaign Against Mass Surveillance (ICAMS) was founded by the American Civil Liberties Union, Focus on the Global South, the Friends' Committee on National Legislation, the International Civil Liberties Monitoring Group and Statewatch.

ICAMS was launched on April 20 2005 in London, Manila, Ottawa and Washington with the support of almost one hundred groups from around the world.

The ICAMS report, "The Emergence Of A Global Infrastructure For Mass Registration And Surveillance", was published with the launch of the campaign.

http://www.i-cams.org/About_ICAMS.html

[yodermon]

11. pw: impeachbush

U2FsdGVkX1+pCAef0UIZoIvyfysd0sHTsc7VhCTh0F7xaReXOQ1NUmhcWhYWQyRu
SxLELTvSflI+FYk+xUXEGIii0DrXT4PCgYBPKVFEj20TOXVC7luvfpbuD6mbVUMN
UQYjLj1dvgxFsdfxX+dXXohcfc9wk4nKDp1Fzw+i+UIjnDsoSFE9NhSAcEiRTVFt
earPM4LmopeuIfDuElz3guMuJlBU2v+675ROhPd7mlLQTP7syGXLYe+Asor56Dhh
ct/GTimw2quw8/l3Z48TnWjjX2dizS9Pypx1sP/hat1plupGJy9RC9N7xJXfjKBs
m5UaYXook5GgBh9IBruHvukqSVz2NKJPlqaDPLhVivGX4lcp6DtgzRdOGCyvzQbo
plGJ5CPGCgDC/iWns+Rq3vl/Sl2c6GypmQdtPGE6/By/v3AHvuQN56OLl7WNGAN1


tripledes

[mhatrw]

12. Scarier and scarier.

[jean]

13. And what about the location technology in cars?