Date: Tue, 6 Aug 1996 05:15:15 -0700 (PDT) From: Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com> Reply-To: Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com> Subject: Waiting Game on wiretapping and crypto, from HotWired To: fight-censorship@vorlon.mit.edu Sender: owner-fight-censorship@vorlon.mit.edu We have a four-week reprieve until the Senate returns. As I say in the full article at the URL below, they've been worse than the House when it comes to wiretapping/crypto/censorship. For instance, senators already passed the Feinstein Amendment banning bomb-making info (on- and off-line) as part of a defense appropriations authorization bill. -Declan --- http://www.netizen.com/netizen/ HotWired, The Netizen Waiting Game by Declan McCullagh (declan@well.com) Washington, DC, 5 August In a last-minute legislative crunch before the summer recess, House Republicans on Friday outmaneuvered their Democratic counterparts and coughed up a surprisingly reasonable anti-terrorism bill, which the Senate will act on when Congress returns next month. [...] But the Senate has begun its own four-week vacation without voting on the measure, and they'll have plenty of time to reintroduce the missing [wiretapping] language when they return. The outlook, frankly, is dismal, says Don Haines of the American Civil Liberties Union. "The Senate has been much more interested in giving the FBI a blank check. They've been much more sympathetic to increasing wiretapping. They've been much less interested in protecting privacy," Haines said. [...] Meanwhile, Senator Patrick Leahy (D-Vermont) - a staunch opponent of the Communications Decency Act - continues to tout his Digital Telephony legislation, which he shepherded through Congress in 1994... Perhaps Harry Browne, the Libertarian Party's candidate for president, had it right when he said last week: "If we're not careful, half of the Bill of Rights will fall victim to the frantic desire of Republican and Democratic politicians to appear tough on terrorists." The last few years have seen several murderous acts of terror on American soil - and now, with the explosion of TWA Flight 800, in American airspace. Americans should brace themselves for even more... Whether the terror is foreign or domestic in origin, one thing's for certain: cries for a government crackdown will mount. But by granting their government police-state powers, Americans will have awarded terrorists their first substantial victory in the United States. ###