On Thu, 18 Apr 1996, some anonymous FUDder sent us this:
------- Forwarded Message Follows ------- Date: Thu, 18 Apr 1996 10:01:03 -0500 From: Al Thompson <alt@iquest.net> To: Multiple recipients of list NEWS <NEWS@AEN.ORG> Subject:
[Congressional Record: April 17, 1996 (Senate)] [Page S3454-S3478]
Specifically, page S3455. But the quote is so out of context as to be inaccurate. For an accurate record of Senator Biden's remarks, plus the full text of the Baby-Food Bomb and Unabomber Wannabe documents, you want to follow the *second* of the *two* TERRORISM PREVENTION ACT--CONFERENCE REPORT links on: http://thomas.loc.gov/r104/r104s17ap6.html I think the following is a permanent URL, but I'm sure you can't make hard links any deeper: http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?r104:S17AP6-332: Also note that this speech concerns an amendment to S735 that FAILED. I.e., the language for which the esteemed [snort] Mr. Biden is arguing IS NOT IN THE BILL AS PASSED BY THE SENATE.
[...] As some people tell it, you would think the FBI and BATF and the local and State police are tapping our phones left and right, that they are riding down the streets in vans with electronic devices eavesdropping into our windows and houses--which they have the capacity to do, by the way.
Mr. Biden's next sentence, which either Mr. Thompson or the anonymous forwarder conveniently left out, is "But that is just not the way it works." It should come as no surprise to anyone on the cypherpunks that such things are technically possible. But do they happen? Does even our friend Senator Joe "You Heard It Here First" Biden approve? Mr. Biden's speech continues, also conveniently left out by Mr. Thompson and the anonymous forwarder: That necessity requirement is meant to ensure that wiretapping is not the normal investigative technique, like physical surveillance or the use of informants. These are very serious protections, Mr. President. I believe that interposing a court between the prosecutor and the wiretap is a citizens' best protection. But even before we get to the judge who makes his decision, there is a very painstaking, stringent process within the Justice Department for determining when to seek a court authorization for a wiretap. First, the agent in the field, under the supervision of his or her supervisor, must write an affidavit, a sworn affidavit, that they must sign that sets out all the particular facts relating to probable cause, because even if an order is granted based on the agent, if he is lying, then that information is gone even if the judge issued the wiretap order. [...] This is painstaking. It is time consuming, as well it should be, for we want to make sure that wiretaps are used in only the most serious cases. We want to make sure that they are used only as a last resort when all other less intrusive techniques have failed, and we want to make sure that the Government is not making unwarranted intrusions into our privacy. But we also need to make sure that law enforcement has the tools, if they meet all these hurdles, to catch the bad guy. [...] You cannot get a wiretap, even if you do all the things I just said, unless you turn to the Criminal Code, and you have all these crimes listed in the Criminal Code. OK. You may find a crime in one section, and then you have to turn to another section, section 251, of the Criminal Code entitled, `Authorization for Interception of Wire, Oral or Electronic Communications.' And then you have to find there in subsection (c) the list of offenses for which you can get a wiretap. Not every crime is entitled to have a wiretap attached to it. So there we are. The next speech is by Orrin Hatch, who doesn't really address any of Biden's points, but that's OK, because I don't agree with them. Oh yeah, and Biden read the full text of the "Attention All Unabomber Wannabes" and "Babyfood Bombs" documents into the Congressional Record, supposedly to underscore the point that those nasty Republicans are endorsing such nasty nasty stuff. Sort of like Exon's little blue book. So if you want to know how to build a baby-food bomb, simply write your congresscritter. -rich