DT Summary

There are less than 1,000 wiretaps done each year, according to official Justice Dept. statistics. The government is giving the telephone companies $500 million and 4 years to complete the entire rewiring of America.

Well, perhaps that should read _legal_ wiretaps. At least one defense lawyer that I'm aware of over on the Well has asserted that "anonymous informant"'s are frequently (usually?) illegal wiretaps. This skews the economics enormously and simultaneously explains the true "urgency" of this proposal and the desire for remote LE access (originally without TPC support). It also ties in nicely with the denial of legal protection for violations of key escrow in the Clipper proposal. Paul