CDR: NZ: Sweeping powers for spy agencies
http://www.stuff.co.nz/inl/print/0,1103,460236a10,FF.html 29 OCTOBER 2000 Police and government spy agencies are pushing for major new surveillance powers - including the ability to intercept e-mails. In a move the Council for Civil Liberties labels a "major and disturbing intrusion" new surveillance laws are being planned which will allow police and intelligence agencies to hack covertly into home computers and intercept email and other electronic communication. Researcher and author Nicky Hager, says the proposed legislation strongly resembles the British Regulation of Investigatory Powers Act passed amid huge controversy three months ago. But he says unlike the British experience, the New Zealand legislation is being slipped through in stages, as extensions of present laws. The first is to be tabled in parliament in about 10 days. The laws were devised under the National government and can be traced back to a push by the FBI in the United States for standardised spy systems to intercept mobile phones and emails. The changes are now being promoted by Associate Justice Minister Paul Swain, and would also impose "requirements" on Internet service providers and phone companies to co-operate with intelligence agencies and police and install systems to assist spying on their customers. Hager, whose 1996 book on the global Echelon surveillance network prompted a year-long investigation by the European parliament, said the public had a right to demand proof that the new intrusive powers were so crucial that individuals had to give up privacy and freedoms. He said the way the changes were being introduced, piecemeal and in secret, was "a model of bad government". The first legislation expands the interception powers of the police and the Government Communications Security Bureau to cover all forms of electronic communications (including email, faxes and text messaging) and, for the Security Intelligence Service as well, to cover hacking into computer systems to view and copy people's files. This would be achieved by amending the Crimes Act to make it illegal to intercept emails or hack into computers - and then exempting all the intelligence and law enforcement agencies from the new law. The legislation will also increase the status of the GCSB, moving its existing powers into the Crimes Act. The other half of the plan is changes to the Telecommunications Act, requiring telephone companies to make systems "interceptable". Hager says New Zealand officials secretly agreed to implement the surveillance changes after attending a meeting at the FBI headquarters in Quantico, south of Washington DC, in 1993. Swain says the driving force of the law changes is the wish to protect privacy because there is no legislation to say "wandering into someone's internal communications system is illegal". The exemptions for the government agencies came later, he said.
This report is consistent with DoJ's advocacy of a US national, as well as international, system for police agencies to collect and share criminal justice information, and to do so while there is no law against using advanced technology for this purpose. As noted here recently, see a presentation by DoJ on how to override with a PR campaign citizens' concerns with privacy violations of such systems: http://cryptome.org/doj-ji-pi.ppt This continues the transfer and use of technology developed for national security purposes to law enforcement agencies, worldwide, with the initiative being taken by DoJ and FBI, assisted and advised by DoD and the intel community (with former members of the latter now employed by domestic agencies or running companies selling natsec-derived services to domestic customers). What is fascinating about this evolution is the screaming by domestic victims when they learn that means and methods are being applied to them that they wholeheartedly approve when aimed at foreigners, immigrants, criminals and other stigmatized targets such as radicals, anarchists, commies, neo-nazis, dissidents and whoever is different from you and me, well, no doubt you include me in your bullseye and me you when we get a whiff of the terrifying scent spread by the malodor-spreading criminal justice mongerers. Nothing about this whipsawing of terror and anti-terror technology is new to this forum, but the news reports do confirm the need to keep grinding out new outlaw means and methods to defy the inlaw ("justice", crime-fighting) initiatives that just cant spend money fast enough to abrade and salve. The invention of new (advanced-tech) criminality is high on the agenda, right up there with the propagation of assurance that only governments can combat burgeoning national and economic security-threatening outlawry. What is not said, or maybe only whispered to oversighters hairy ears, is do not ask us to look into mirrors to see true outlaws agrinning. Do not ask us to conduct our affairs in non-outlaw secret settings. Turncoats are a special feature of the official outlaw cartel, when those who once faught official criminality are recruited to ID, track, provoke, gather evidence, indict and convict former associates. Read Michael Froomkin on ICANN's board members who cant forgo power- wielding: http://personal.law.miami.edu/~froomkin/boardsquat.htm This is a tip of the iceberg of large numbers of means and methods technicians being drawn into the global justice system with sweetheart contracts and jobs and places on advisory boards. To serve the national interest and to get regular whisperings from those in the know it all business. Here's a recent article on the price paid by scholars to see CIA classified material: http://cryptome.org/cia-price.htm
At 6:36 AM -0500 10/30/00, John Young wrote:
What is fascinating about this evolution is the screaming by domestic victims when they learn that means and methods are being applied to them that they wholeheartedly approve when aimed at foreigners, immigrants, criminals and other stigmatized targets such as radicals, anarchists, commies, neo-nazis, dissidents and whoever is different from you and me, well, no doubt you include me in your bullseye and me you when we get a whiff of the terrifying scent spread by the malodor-spreading criminal justice mongerers.
Just to respond to this particular part of your good rant, the U.S. Government has not been pushing what we think of as Constitutional rights in other countries for many decades. (Yes, I understand that other countries are not bound by the U.S. Constitution...) For example: -- the aforementioned spying agreements...the U.S. gets around the limits imposed by the C. by having foreign governments do the spying, a la the UKUSA Agreement, etc. -- when the U.S. invades Somalia, they disarm the population -- when the U.S. moves into South America, as "advisors," they educate the secret police in how to create death squads, how to torture suspects, how to assassinate opposition leaders. (Cf. the CIA manuals, College of the Americas, direct testimony, etc.) -- when the U.S. casts its lot with the Zionists, the U.S. supports the forcible movement of Palestinians from their land -- similar anti-B.O.R. measures supported in other parts of Europe, most of Africa, much of Asia, including support for limitations on press freedom, local censorship (so long as it suppresses the opponents of "our" interests), licensing, etc. Basically, the position of U.S. officials is that the rights outlined in the Bill of Rights are meant to apply to U.S. persons. Somalians are to be disarmed, Columbians are to be assassinated, Palestinians are to be herded into camps, and so on. I'm not arguing that U.S.-style approaches should be extended by force into foreign countries, only that certainly the U.S. Government should not be party to setting up regimes inimical to our stated beliefs in what civil rights should be. ---Tim May -- ---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---------:---- Timothy C. May | Crypto Anarchy: encryption, digital money, ComSec 3DES: 831-728-0152 | anonymous networks, digital pseudonyms, zero W.A.S.T.E.: Corralitos, CA | knowledge, reputations, information markets, "Cyphernomicon" | black markets, collapse of governments.
-- At 08:11 AM 10/30/2000 -0800, Tim May wrote:
-- when the U.S. invades Somalia, they disarm the population
-- when the U.S. moves into South America, as "advisors," they educate
The major objective of the intervention was to arrest Aidid, who whatever his sins may have been, was a hero of the revolutionary war against a Soviet aligned tyrant, and the major figure in the revolution that overthrew socialist tyranny in Somalia. A major tactic in this US intervention was to forcibly close down presses and radio stations that gave politically incorrect news -- which tended to be pro capitalist and anti socialist news. Bush's peculiar foreign policy was in line with some of Clinton's recent foreign interventions, notably his installation of a Marxist dictator in Haiti -- though Haiti is fortunately too corrupt to actually practice Marxism. The dictator of Haiti is merely a Batista, not a Castro. The same was to some extent true of Biarre, the muderous tyrant who Aidid helped overthrow. the secret police in how to create death squads, how to torture suspects, how > to assassinate opposition leaders. (Cf. the CIA manuals, College of the Americas, direct testimony, etc.) You should also recall the "Alliance for Progress", which did so much to advance communism and socialism in South America. It seems that the good progressives in the state department believed that communists were popular because the peasants were eager to participate in Stalin style collectives, so if the US would provide stalinist collectivism for the peasants, that would make the US popular. --digsig James A. Donald 6YeGpsZR+nOTh/cGwvITnSR3TdzclVpR0+pr3YYQdkG lVJaQLVcGe46yIXnzqbi8PZ5ihIkwl8GKC4l/sNH 4D99by0sIbMOXYgBa6MN6RGQo275zttfL/9WauIGs
On Mon, 30 Oct 2000, James A, Donald wrote:
The major objective of the intervention was to arrest Aidid, who whatever his sins may have been, was a hero of the revolutionary war against a Soviet aligned tyrant, and the major figure in the revolution that overthrew socialist tyranny in Somalia.
Bullshit. He was a petty war-lord who would have promised anything to anyone who would then sell him the tools he needed to continue his killing of his opponents. Whether the glass is half full or half empty isn't the issue. It's that it's all the water there is. ____________________________________________________________________ He is able who thinks he is able. Buddha The Armadillo Group ,::////;::-. James Choate Austin, Tx /:'///// ``::>/|/ ravage@ssz.com www.ssz.com .', |||| `/( e\ 512-451-7087 -====~~mm-'`-```-mm --'- --------------------------------------------------------------------
participants (5)
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An Metet -
James A, Donald -
Jim Choate -
John Young -
Tim May