From: lindat@iquest.net (Linda Thompson, American Justice Federation)

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The National Security Agency presumably can monitor subversive communication on the Internet without leaving any trace by "sniffing packets" at traffic nodes.

Well they are just doing what their charter says they should be doing - gathering information.

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It turns out that computers from inside the White House have kept pretty good tabs on information available on Whitewater, Vince Foster, and Mena at a few key repositories on the World- Wide Web, a subset of the Internet.

I think that's because White House workers has access to net and of course they are surfing like all the rest of us - they are just people you know :-) If that would be part of something hard level information gathering I assure you they would not leave so clear traces.

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Office of the President between August 28 and August 31. If the White House is showing a similar interest in other sites on the World Wide Web, that would amount to a monitoring operation of considerable magnitude.

So are you saying White House by itself checked out those places or are you saying that *people* working inside the White House happened to be interested issues available on those sites and accessed them. And so what it is public information when it is on the WWW - isn't it?

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In light of this information, I have the following questions: My guesses are

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(1) Does this constitute "casual browsing" by White House staff, or is it, in light of the considerable time and effort spent during regular business hours, part of a monitoring or intelligence operation?

Probably both

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(2) For what purpose is the information transferred to the White House used?

Probably to read it and maybe learn something from it :-)

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(3) Does the White House keep information from these web sites on file, and does the White House keep a file on the persons responsible for these web sites?

Hell I am keeping my own records and on the other hand I am in the process to get/buy/snatch/built a system where I could automatically scan all the newsgroups with some kind of AI system and to keep an eye on certain FTP, GOPHER,WAIS, WWW and so on to keep me bether informed. This partly because this information from interne is getting out of proportion AND quite a big part of it is just rubbish and wasting your time.

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(4) Is the April 9 statement by David Lytel of the White House Office of Science and Technology to Amy Bauer of Copley News Service that the administration does not monitor anti-Clinton activity on the web still operative?

Probably they do and they really should. If I was Mr. Clinton (which I luckily am not) I would want my adjudats to prepare a report for me each morning summing up all the possible comments round subject Clinton and The USA from NET: That would be very precisious source of feedback to finetune your acts. And that information is real time. Totally another thing which somehow belongs to this subject should intelligence bodies watch for the net. I am middle reading Spycatcher book. Btw I don't understand all the hype rouund it and I would say in that book there is not enough substance to ban it's printing in certain countries. Anyway again in that book it becomes clear that the most riskiest part of the agent and therefore on of the best way to unweil them is to concentrate on their communications with the coordinators in that particular country or on the communication directed to country behind the operation. So clearly to make agents more succesfull their coummication is the one needing new techniques - how about internet? It is accessible almost everywhere and you can get an account without giving your real identity. By using certain sites you just call in from telephone box give few information or in some places none and you are ready for almost totally untraceable communication. I bet they are using it already a lot to replace clumsy readio communication. Don't get me wrong I vote for freedom of speech(whitch is getting slimmer), privacy (witch there is not much left), no regulation on encryption (which is not going to be) but I don't like these things used against my country's security and steal our intellectual property. Based on this I tend to think every self respecting intelligence organization must have those taps otherwise they are not doing their job properly.

"When even one American -- who has done nothing wrong -- is forced by fear to shut his mind and close his mouth, then all Americans are in peril." Harry Truman

Truman might have been one of the best presidents US ever had but talk is talk and deeds are deeds. Comments and reasoning is totally my own imagination my employer would propably disabprove them and certainly not they don't represent my employers opinions. Be carefull out there ... Best Regards Kari Laine Kari Laine buster@klaine.pp.fi LAN Vision Oy Tel. +358-0-502 1947 Sinikalliontie 14 Fax +358-0-524 149 02630 ESPOO BBS +358-0-502 1576/1456 FINLAND