Here are some choice excerpts from the headline article of the NY Times Business section, 2/28. A Push for Surveillance Software by John Markoff In the age of computer communications and digital telephone calls, the American people must be willing to give up a degree of personal privacy in exchange for safety and security, the head of the Federal Bureau of Investigation said. In an interview on Friday, Louis J. Freeh (note: is it really pronounced Free?), the FBI director, defended proposed legislation that critics say would turn the nation's telephone network into a vast surveillance system. He said taxpayers would be asked to pay up to half a billion dollars to develop and deploy the necessary network software. The administration wants to impose new technology that would enable law-enforcement agents to gather a wealth of personal information by monitoring citizens' calling patterns and credit card transactions over the telephone network - and over the two-way cable television networks being planned by cable and phone companies. The system would go well beyond current wire- tapping technology, because much of the information could be gleaned without the police or FBI actually having to eavesdrop on specific voice or electronic-mail conversations. "The costs are high, but you have to do a cost-benefit analysis," said Mr. Freeh, who insisted that fighting terrorists and criminals was the governments intention - not playing Big Brother to the citizenry. ... The administration is trying to line up congressional support for the legislation, called Digital Telephony and Communications Privacy Improvement Act of 1994, before having it formally introduced. ... ____________________________________________________________ There's much more but I don't have a scanner handy. I can't believe how quickly this appalling threat has developed. The government always veils its expansion of powers as a need for increased security: the War on Drugs, criminals, terrorists. What I'm really surprised by is that they foresee the endpoint of freely available information technology, a diminishing need for centralized government. If the net contributes to the end of centralized control, it's easy to extrapolate who the target terrorists are going to be. mikemck@mrc.com