Telephone switch capacity -Reply

[Lucky Green]

At 18:43 11/3/95, Rich Graves wrote:
>[about the FBI supposedly wanting the ability to tap 1% of all phones in
>the US simultaneously]

[...]
>Of course the FBI doesn't have the staff to listen to all these lines, and
>they need an individual court order to authorize each individual
>interception, so this numbers game is a bit of a joke.

One more time. Despite what you read in the papers, despite what most
people - even in the legal profession - believe, telephone wiretaps do
_not_ require a court order. They haven't required a court order in over a
year. The Digital Telephony Bill, which passed Congress by an overwhelming
margin, _explicitly_ allows for wiretap authorizations other than a court
order. The law does not impose any rules for these "other forms of
authorization".

"The captain signed it off" may suffice.


-- Lucky Green <mailto:shamrock at netcom.com>
   PGP encrypted mail preferred.