Bush's anti-terror bill appears not to include crypto restrictions

[Declan McCullagh]

http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,46953,00.html

    Bush Bill Rewrites Spy Laws
    By Declan McCullagh (declan at wired.com)
    2:00 a.m. Sep. 19, 2001 PDT

    WASHINGTON -- The Bush administration will ask for more power to
    eavesdrop on phone calls, the Internet and voicemail messages,
    according to an outline of a bill obtained by Wired News.

    In response to last week's catastrophic terrorist attacks, President
    Bush plans to ask Congress to approve far-reaching legislation that
    rewrites U.S. laws dealing with electronic surveillance, immigration
    and support for terrorists.

    "We will call upon the Congress of the United States to enact these
    important anti-terrorism measures this week," Attorney General John
    Ashcroft said Monday. "We need these tools to fight the terrorism
    threat which exists in the United States, and we must meet that
    growing threat."

    According to the two-page outline -- which lacks key details and could
    change before it's sent to Capitol Hill -- police would be able to
    conduct more wiretaps and use the Carnivore surveillance system in
    more situations without court orders. That section of the bill appears
    to mirror an amendment the Senate approved last Thursday evening.

    No restrictions on encryption products, a prospect feared by some
    civil libertarians, appear in the outline.

    The bill hands prosecutors a courtroom edge, saying that accused
    terrorists should stay in jail by default, that detention of suspected
    terrorists is "mandatory," and that the Immigration and Naturalization
    Service will have more authority to kick immigrants suspected of being
    terrorists out of the United States.

    [...]