This is a fucking big story. Allowing the CIA and NSA to snoop domestically, and using only a handful of suspicions and anecdotes about cybernastiness and evil cryptohackers to justify this major policy shift -- well, it's fucking amazing. Nunn's proposal, unfortunately, was more than a "suggestion." But Rory's right. DC *is* in the throes of Internet fever, and it'll just get worse as the summer gets hotter and hotter. It's almost 80 degress right now. -Declan
What?! What the *@#!! is wrong with the people who supposedly smart people representing us?!
Ern
-------- From SJ Mercury:
NET FEVER ON THE HILL
Published: June 6, 1996
BY RORY J. O'CONNOR Mercury News Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON -- The White House wants a coordinated task force to fight terrorism on the Internet. Some senators think the CIA should be allowed to work hand in hand with the FBI to fight computer crime on U.S. soil. Meanwhile, the federal courts are deciding a major First Amendment case that might ban certain information from the Net.
The nation's capital is in the throes of Internet fever.
For the past several months, the condition has become acute, and by the end of the year the Internet itself may look far different as a result: more tightly regulated, more carefully monitored and more expensive.
The latest symptom: a suggestion Wednesday for the elimination of laws that prohibit U.S. intelligence agencies -- notably the National
Security Agency and the Central Intelligence Agency -- from snooping <<< on home soil. The reason: The potential for computer crime and <<< terrorism is so great, and the Internet so decentralized and international, that police and the FBI must combine forces with spy agencies in order to successfully analyze the threat and investigate criminal activity.
''If we're going to live in this kind of world, we're going to have to link the intelligence world with law enforcement,'' said Sen. Sam Nunn, D-Ga.
For many people in government who work on computer and law-enforcement issues, the course of the disease seems painfully slow. They often describe the Internet as the Wild West that's sorely in need of a good marshal. But for many people who use the Internet, the government's efforts are moving far ahead of any real knowledge of a technology that, two years ago, almost nobody had heard of.
''There are not dead bodies in the street,'' said Donna L. Hoffman, a professor at Vanderbilt University who studies the Internet. ''It just doesn't make sense to rush into legislation.''
[ SNIP ]