"Lawful access" vs warrants: I found the difference today!
Remember how in the Clipper debate, the government insisted on using the term "lawful access" when talking about what the government had to do to get keys out? They implied it meant a warrant issued by a judge, but actually the proposed rules said any "lawful access" would do. That phrase kept reappearing in government proposals. I've been looking for years in the laws to find what secret loophole they've been trying to protect. Today I ran across it! It's Executive Order 12333, signed by our favorite senile president, Ronald Reagan, in 1981. It says: 2.5 Attorney General Approval. The Attorney General hereby is delegated the power to approve the use for intelligence purposes, within the United States or against a United States person abroad, of any technique for which a warrant would be required if undertaken for law enforcement purposes, provided that such techniques shall not be undertaken unless the Attorney General has determined in each case that there is probable cause to believe that the technique is directed against a foreign power or an agent of a foreign power. Electronic surveillance, as defined in the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978, shall be conducted in accordance with that Act, as well as this Order. In other words, if the Attorney General claims that someone is an agent of a foreign power, no warrants are needed; the target has no Constitutional rights any more: Fourth Amendment The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. You will recall that the Attorney General made exactly this claim about Martin Luther King (that he was an agent of a foreign power), to justify the years of FBI surveillance. For all we know, they have been claiming that anyone who advocates crypto legalization must be an agent of a foreign power. It really wouldn't surprise me. We shouldn't stop looking for more loopholes -- they may have several -- but I think this is the big one. John
At 01:43 PM 4/19/98 -0700, John Gilmore gnu@toad.com wrote:
It's Executive Order 12333, signed by our favorite senile president, Ronald Reagan, in 1981. It says: Reagan wasn't senile yet in 81. :-) But yes, it's scary.
In other words, if the Attorney General claims that someone is an agent of a foreign power, no warrants are needed; the target has no Constitutional rights any more: ... You will recall that the Attorney General made exactly this claim about Martin Luther King (that he was an agent of a foreign power), to justify the years of FBI surveillance. For all we know, they have been claiming that anyone who advocates crypto legalization must be an agent of a foreign power. It really wouldn't surprise me.
Even though there basically aren't any foreign Commies left any more, there's always The Pope, and Zionism, and Foreign Drug Cartels, and foreign embassies*, and foreign-based MultiNational Corporations, and people with accounts in Swiss banks or Anguillan computers. Power isn't just for governments any more. Anarchists distinctly don't work for foreign powers, but it's close enough for government work. And more importantly, if by Executive Order, the President claims that granting the executive branch "access" to things makes it "lawful", then nobody's safe from fiat law. ~~~ * If they clue in to Elgoland and Vargaland, some of us could be in Big Trouble :-) ~~~ Thanks! Bill Bill Stewart, bill.stewart@pobox.com PGP Fingerprint D454 E202 CBC8 40BF 3C85 B884 0ABE 4639
-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- In <3.0.5.32.19980419144630.0084d100@popd.ix.netcom.com>, on 04/19/98 at 02:46 PM, Bill Stewart <bill.stewart@pobox.com> said:
And more importantly, if by Executive Order, the President claims that granting the executive branch "access" to things makes it "lawful", then nobody's safe from fiat law.
We haven't been safe from Royal^H^H^H^H^H Presidential Decree in a very long time (pre Franklin "Dictator for Life" Roosevelt). - -- - --------------------------------------------------------------- William H. Geiger III http://users.invweb.net/~whgiii Geiger Consulting Cooking With Warp 4.0 Author of E-Secure - PGP Front End for MR/2 Ice PGP & MR/2 the only way for secure e-mail. OS/2 PGP 5.0 at: http://users.invweb.net/~whgiii/pgp.html - --------------------------------------------------------------- Tag-O-Matic: OS/2 means...CURTAINS for Windows! -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.6.3a-sha1 Charset: cp850 Comment: Registered_User_E-Secure_v1.1b1_ES000000 iQCVAwUBNTp1ho9Co1n+aLhhAQHaSgQAgcozDPtLGA8pdw40MEUu0hlYsawSilZF JIwKB2qBY15mbwGk+uIod6csSiwW6/7cBxkOjCwrFrWmXxutGvpnAyuCP6nMdh3A fQVxb7wJ3YT6mJOKg0/yLdaE5Ix9uv8gqmtmwqkkiF7WyPP+DuFj2JGjkqJtMbqh odR8OnsML0k= =w1md -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
Bill Stewart wrote: | Even though there basically aren't any foreign Commies left any more, | there's always The Pope, and Zionism, and Foreign Drug Cartels, and | foreign embassies*, and foreign-based MultiNational Corporations, | and people with accounts in Swiss banks or Anguillan computers. | Power isn't just for governments any more. | ~~~ | * If they clue in to Elgoland and Vargaland, some of us could | be in Big Trouble :-) | ~~~ If they had to be logically consistent, then recognizing agents of Elgoland* as agents of a foreign power would require recognizing Elgoland as a foriegn power. That might be worth a few of our spies. * I have no idea where or who Elgoland is. Umm, make that someone else's spies. :) Adam -- Just be thankful that Microsoft does not manufacture pharmaceuticals.
participants (4)
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Adam Shostack -
Bill Stewart -
John Gilmore -
William H. Geiger III