Subject:         OECD attack on privacy, Echelon, CAF, and other news
   Date:         Fri, 28 Apr 2000 16:42:22 -0400
   From:        JBJ

[A few selections from Bob Bauman's newsletter and Free Matt's list
regarding a variety of privacy-related issues - JBJ]

[editor's note: see also  PRIVACY IN THE YEAR ORWELL PLUS 16  -  part I
part II:  OECD's genesis, original purposes & secretive conversion into an Orwellian tool
part III:  Why and how U.S. lawmakers may help to re-establish real wealth privacy]

===============================================
THE SOVEREIGN A-LETTER
              A Web Publication of the Sovereign Society, Ltd.
 Your Link to Freedom, Privacy & Prosperity in the Offshore World
                  Vol. 2 No. 17 - April 29, 2000 (abridged)

===============================================
OECD 'Black-List' Sanctions Postponed
============================
    Although the OECD still plans in June to issue its much vaunted "Black List" of what it claims are suspect offshore haven nations, it has called off the planned imposition of sanctions on these nations.  This was learnedthis week from letters sent to the offshore jurisdictions and was confirmed in Paris by the head of the OECD's Tax Competition Unit. He said haven nations were being given one further year to conform with OECD guidelines because of their generally co-operative attitude towards the OECD initiative.
     The OECD's 'Harmful Tax Practices' crusade began in May, 1998, and has been attacked as an attempt by rich countries to stunt the growth of offshore nations and the possible loss of tax revenues by major states.  For the late breaking story, see LINK: http://www.tax-news.com/html/stories/st_oecd_26_04_00.html

=================================
Controversial Offshore US Banker in Vancouver
=================================
A controversial US businessman who sells advice on how to hide assets in offshore tax havens is working in Vancouver, BC with a local man who was involved in a major offshore stock scam several years ago. JEROME SCHNEIDER, who has been the subject of several media exposes including ABC-TV's 20/20 program, is working as a "senior financial consultant" at Premier Corporate Services Ltd.  For the story from the Vancouver Sun, see (slow loading) LINK: http://www.vancouversun.com/newsite/business/000420/3964953.html

=================
Nauru Banking Reforms?
=================
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation reports (April 26) that the Pacific island tax haven of NAURU, (which has 400 offshore "banks" registered to a single post office box) says it will undertake wholesale financial reforms. Nauru's new president elected last week says his new cabinet is concerned by reports of the Russian mafia and other criminals using the country's offshore banking facilities. Story LINK: http://www.abc.net.au/news/newslink/weekly/newsnat-26apr2000-73.htm

=============
Bermuda Downturn
=============
A leader in the Bermuda business community has issued a warning about a potential downturn in the island's economy. LINK:
http://www.accessbda.bm/01/01010302.htm#10000S

================
Austria Stands Up for Its Rights
=====================
The Chancellor of one of Europe's prime banking havens, WOLFGANG SCHUESSEL, has appealed for an immediate end to EU sanctions against his country, saying his country would defend itself "by every available means."  For his ringing declaration, go to LINK: http://sg.dailynews.yahoo.com/headlines/world/afp/article.html?s=singapore/headlines/000424/world/afp/Austrian_chancellor_calls_for_immediate_end_to_san
ctions.html

================
US Civil Forfeiture Reforms Become Law
============================
President Clinton signed a major softening of US strict civil forfeiture laws forced on him by irate members of the US Congress, both Right and Left.  For more about the "Civil Asset Forfeiture Reform Act of 2000" signed into law April 25: Forfeiture Endangers American Rights LINK: http://www.fear.org/menuidx2.html

========================================
New York Rejects Offshore Creditor's Global Asset Freeze
========================================
A first impression ruling in the case of Credit Agricole Indosuez v. Rossiyskiy Kredit Bank, let the worldwide financial markets know that N.Y. courts cannot be used by general creditors to freeze globally the US assets of a foreign debtor. The Court of Appeals unanimously rejected a plaintiffs' argument that a change in policy was needed in light of New York's pre-eminent position in increasingly global markets.  The Court said adopting such a radical rule, as the British did in 1975, would "drastically unbalance existing creditors' and debtors' rights" under state and federal law, while unwisely interfering with the "sovereignty and debtor-creditor-bankruptcy laws of ... foreign countries." LINKS:  http://www.lawnewsnetwork.com/stories/A20168-2000Mar30.html
Case: http://www.nylj.com/decisions/99/05/051099b2.htm

=========================
Yet Another Reason to Go Offshore
=========================
The top ten jury award verdicts of 1999 in US courts totaled a staggering US$9 billion. That's triple the total dollar value of 1998's top ten and 12 times the total in 1997. These enormous sums include only awards to individuals or families. They do not include class actions or litigation between corporations. The 1999 list includes 2 verdicts over $1 billion and all 10 weigh in at more than $100 million. For the bad litigation news, see LINK: http://www.lawyersweekly.com/00topten.htm

 =========================
Distortions Don't Ease the Tax Agony
=========================
    The Cato Institute shows why recent news stories claiming that US federal taxes have dropped for most are a hoax. "The total of taxes collected from federal payroll and income taxes has almost tripled since the start of the Clinton era." For the unpleasant tax truth, go to LINK: http://www.cato.org/dailys/04-25-00.html
    What are the causes of 17 years of nearly continuous U.S. economic growth, and what could stop it? Cato's W.A. Niskanen tells you at LINK: http://www.cato.org/dailys/04-27-00.html

================================
How to Avoid Financial Sharks in Offshore Waters
==================================
    Noted offshore writer MATT BLACKMAN tells you how to swim with the financial fishes, will avoiding the growing swarms of sharks scamming in the offshore waters. Story at LINK: http://www.goldhaven.com/Sharks.htm
    For a complete digest of major scams now operating offshore, don't miss the Sovereign Society "SCAM ALERT" list at LINK: http://www.sovereignsociety.com/scamalert.html

================================================
UK Inland Revenue Eyes "Secret" Offshore Bank Accounts
========================================
    The Times (London) reports Inland Revenue tax inspectors could soon obtain access to British citizens' secret bank accounts in Switzerland and Luxembourg under radical proposals agreed to by the UK and 25 OECD countries.  LINK:
http://www.the-times.co.uk/news/pages/tim/2000/04/13/timbizbiz01022.html
    A leading British tax advisory service advises anyone with "undeclared funds" to seek a voluntary IR settlement "rather than wait to be caught."  LINK: http://www.lathamsgroup.co.uk/taxinv/newsinfo.htm#0400news06
    More about the OECD anti-bank secrecy report at LINK: http://www.oecd.org/news_and_events/release/gmakhlouf.htm
[and at: http://www.solami.com/ORWELL.htm  und  http://www.solami.com/billiard1.htm]

=================================
E-Mail Anonymity Threatened by EU
=========================
    Under pressure from law enforcement officials, the European Parliament may restrict the use of anonymous e-mail to make police surveillance easier.  LINK: http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,35924,00.html
    US Attorney General Janet (the Gun) Reno has already proposed similar restrictions on US citizens' right to use anonymous e-mail. LINK: http://www.technologypost.com/internet/DAILY/20000320104533470.asp?Section=Main

================================
Government Censorship Threatens Web Liberty
================================
    The human rights group, FREEDOM HOUSE, in a new report warns of increased government efforts to restrict Internet access on the pretext of protecting the public from pornography, subversive material, or alleged violations of national security. LINK: http://www.mediacentral.com/channels//allnews/04_26_2000.reutr-story-N26148714.html
    In an annual survey, released ahead of World Press Freedom Day on May 3, Freedom House said 63% of all nations restrict print and electronic journalists and 80% of the world's people live in countries with a less than free press.  LINK: http://www.freedomhouse.org/news/pr041700.html

=================================
Police Handbook on Electronic Evidence Seizures
=================================
    The latest in modern office procedures comes from the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) and the US Secret Service. They just published a readable little document entitled "Best Practices for Seizing Electronic Evidence." Better get yours now before heading back to the office. LINKS: http://www.tax-news.com/html/stories/st_aicp_27_04_00.html
    Full report at: http://www.theiacp.org/pubinfo/pubs/bestpractices.htm

======================
Cato on How Big Brother Began
======================
    The NSA now acknowledges the existence of its international spy program, Echelon, despite having long denied it. Meanwhile, the FBI has demanded surveillance powers far beyond those it has a lawful right to claim, writes David Kopel in "When You Call, Who Is Listening?"  LINK: http://www.cato.org/dailys/7-09-98.html
    In "How Big Brother Began," Solveig Singleton explains how seemingly innocuous government measures can lead to an Orwellian state. LINK: http://www.cato.org/dailys/11-25-97.html

===============================
US DOJ Pays $6 Million for Privacy Violation
===============================
The US Dept. of "Justice" has agreed to pay US$6 million to a former McDonnell Douglas consultant who says his privacy was invaded and his reputation damaged by the FBI. The settlement is believed to be the largest ever paid by the US government for a violation of the Privacy Act. LINK: http://www.postnet.com/postnet/stories.nsf/ByDocID/6C540D1BC312F9EA862568CE00084CDD

=================
Transparency Ends Here
=================
It turns out that the Clinton gang, loud in its demands for an end to offshore banking and financial privacy, definitely does not want offshore transparency in the Clinton White House. A former official who managed the installation of a costly new White House phone switch system and its AT&T contractors claims software that formerly recorded phone call details was altered as part of a scheme to hide the origin of White House calls made overseas, including calls to China concerning Clinton-Gore fundraising. LINK: http://www.worldnetdaily.com/bluesky_sperry_news/20000427_xnspy_new_coverus.html

==============================================
            We welcome your comments. Bob Bauman, Editor
              E-mail to: sovereignsociety@compuserve.com
  Find out more at: http://www.sovereignsociety.com/whatisit.html
       *    Back issues of The Sovereign A-Letter available at:
            http://www.sovereignsociety.com/a-letter/index.html
        *   Send an E-mail friend The Sovereign A-Letter free *
      Sign up LINK: http://www.sovereignsociety.com/free.html
===============================================
                     THE SOVEREIGN SOCIETY, Ltd.
                       5 Catherine St. Waterford, Ireland
               TEL: 353-51 844 068 FAX: 353-51 304 561.
                MEMBERSHIP: One year, US$195 / ?119
                   WEB: http://www.sovereignsociety.com
  Copyright (c) 2000. All domestic & international rights reserved.
===============================================

Activist Mailing List - http://get.to/activist
============
 

Revelations about Echelon spy network intensify US-European tensions
By Steve James  -  12 April 2000  -  WSWS

The British government is losing its fight to suppress debate in the European Parliament on the role of US intelligence gathering, particularly a spy system known as Echelon in which the UK has long been a crucial partner.

Last week, 171 out of 626 European MPs signed a petition calling for two further debates and a public commission of inquiry into Echelon.  This easily exceeded the 160-signature requirement to inaugurate an inquiry, and was supported by the regionalist UK partiesthe Scottish National Party and the Welsh Plaid Cymru, along with the Green party.  Labour, Conservatives and Liberal Democrats all fiercely opposed it.

The debate threatens to undermine the UK's efforts to integrate more fully into Europe while maintaining close economic and military connections with the United States. It would expose Britain's role as an American ear in Europe.

The call for an inquiry into Echelon was led by the Portuguese presidency of the European Union (EU)each country holds the post for six months after several years during which Echelon has emerged from complete obscurity to become a source of economic and political tensions between the United States and Europe.

Echelon is an information processing system that relies on a network of spy satellites and ground listening stations operated under the terms of a 1947 UK-USA treaty. Full details of the agreement remain secret, but it was intended to build on the transatlantic intelligence cooperation established during World War II. It was aimed primarily at spying on the Soviet Union and Warsaw Pact countries of Eastern Europe. The network also monitored parties, groups and individuals opposed to aspects of US and British foreign policy.

The UK-USA treaty allows the US National Security Agency (NSA) and the British Government Communication Headquarters (GCHQ) to share information and resources. A series of spy bases were established, the most important being Menwith Hill on the North Yorkshire moors in England, which is directly linked with the NSA headquarters in Fort Mead, Maryland. Other listening posts were set up around the globe, as other countries became involved in spying operations. Canada, Australia and New Zealand were significant participants in the scheme, along with Turkey, Germany, Denmark, Norway, South Korea and Japan.

Over the years, the system has acquired an extraordinary degree of sophistication and information gathering capacity. Ground-posts collect transmissions picked up from spy satellites, the first of which was launched in 1968. Menwith Hill alone has around 30 radio receivers pointing in different directions, indicating it is receiving data from many different satellites. The system can monitor telephone conversations, faxes, email and cell phones, and can decrypt secure communication and generally intercept most transmitted data.

Using "dictionary" programmes to sift through the billions of transmissions received every hour, the Echelon system attempts to identify information of interest to the spy services and their national governments.

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union and the end of the Cold War, Echelon has been increasingly reporting on so-called "economic" intelligence. It is this, and not the subversion of the democratic rights of the world's citizens, which has provoked opposition from some EU governments. They have become concerned that European companies are losing contracts to US companies because of information supplied by Echelon.

In 1998, the European Parliament received a report it had commissioned "An Appraisal of the Technologies of Political Control" by Steve Wright of the Omega Foundation, a UK-based human rights organisation. Wright comprehensively summarised developments in crowd control, sub-lethal weapons, torture, prison control, DNA databanks, and mass surveillance. Within the last category, he reviewed Echelon and noted the decades of effort by investigative journalists who had painstakingly collected and collated data on the system. Wright was highly critical of many aspects of European policy, including the export of torture and sub-lethal crowd control equipment, and the formation of an all-European spy organisation, Enfopol.

In September 1998, when the European Parliament debated the matter, very little of Wright's report was mentioned. However, a resolution was passed which called for "surveillance technologies to be subject to proper open debate both at national and EU level, as well as procedures which ensure democratic accountability".

The resolution, a copy of which was forwarded to the US Congress, went on to state, in point 14: "[The European Parliament] considers that the increasing importance of the Internet and worldwide telecommunications in general and in particular the Echelon System, and the risks of their being abused, require protective measures concerning economic information and effective encryption."

In February this year "Interception Capabilities 2000", another report prepared by the European Parliament's Justice Committee with assistance from investigative journalist Duncan Campbell, focussed more closely on Echelon and other communication interception systems.  This report comprehensively charted the growth of the network of ground-bases and satellite surveillance (presently around 120 satellite systems are thought to be in operation). Submarine telephone cables have been subject to interception from 1971 onwards.

The Internet is particularly vulnerable to surveillance, because the majority of its traffic passes through the US at some point. Even data packets transmitted between addresses outside the US often pass through American-based routers. There are nine points at which this traffic is routinely picked up. From 1995, the NSA has employed "packet sniffer" software to identify traffic of interest to its sponsors. Leading US software companies are also implicated. Campbell stated that Netscape, Microsoft and Lotus reduced the encryption capacities of their exported versions of e-mail packages to facilitate NSA decryption.

Section 5 of the report deals with "economic intelligence" and cites a series of instances in which European-based companies have been undermined in favour of US outfits. In 1993, the "Panavia European Fighter Aircraft" was specifically targeted. In 1994, the French company Thomson CSF lost a $1.3 billion contract to Raytheon of the US after the NSA intercepted their phone calls. In 1995, the European Airbus Company lost a $6 billion contract to Boeing, after the NSA intercepted its fax transmissions. Campbell stated that there have been numerous other instances when the US has used information picked up by the NSA operations during trade negotiations.

The publication of this report has brought both transatlantic and inter-European disputes to a head. France, which operates its own advanced electronic spy system, has been particularly vociferous.  Former Interior Minister Charles Pasqua, a member of the EU Justice Committee, said, "The rules of the game are rigged and they are rigged especially by the British. This is shocking." French Justice Minister Elisabeth Guigou warned European companies, "Communications must never carry vital information, especially when the link is made via a satellite." French lawyer Jean-Pierre Millet is launching a class-action court case against the British and US governments, pointing to Echelon's role in undermining French and European commercial and
trade negotiations.

On March 30, Erkki Liikanen, EU Enterprise and Information Commissioner, told the European parliament that efforts to establish the EU in the "knowledge economy" depended on electronic communication that could be trusted, and that encryption was the key to this.  European encryption should challenge US technology. Liikanen alluded to the suspicions of there being built-in decryption facilities in US software: "Software whose source code is not open, leaves the user in uncertainty, the possibility of built-in circumvention of encryption cannot be excluded."

Liikanen reported that the US government had denied they were involved  in any industrial espionage. But a more frank and bellicose assessment of US operations came from James Woolsey, CIA chief from 1993 to 1995.  Writing in the Wall Street Journal the week before, Woolsey said, "That's right, my continental friends, we have spied on you because you bribe.  When we have caught you at it, you might be interested, we haven't said a word to the US companies in the competition.  Instead we go to the government you're bribing and tell its officials that we don't take kindly to such corruption."

Woolsey's astonishing outburstjustifying spying on the grounds of European corporate corruptionmakes clear that the Echelon revelations, and the transatlantic encryption war now being joined, mark a new and noisy low in US/European relations. European corporate interests will not tolerate having all their internal and external discussions monitored, particularly when they are up against US rivals, as is the case in all strategic areas of economic life.

At the same time, the European governments' new emphasis on encryption poses them with a fresh dilemma. How can they defend corporate, financial and state security from US spying without prejudicing the interception and surveillance efforts directed against their own citizens by all European governments?

The British government seized on this quandary to declare its preference for a discussion that would cover the issue in the round, rather than focusing on just one member state [Britain]. There is no incompatibility between our position as an EU member state and our duty to maintain national security. Others are in the same position."

_________________________________________________________________

Researching Echelon
Nicky Hager   11.04.2000
Copyright 1998-2000 World Socialist Web Site All rights reserved
http://www.heise.de/tp/english/inhalt/co/5993/1.html  [see also Deutsche Fassung]

Don't assume that secretive organisations are impenetrable.  Many people have asked how I uncovered information about Echelon.  They are experiences I think are worth sharing.  The starting point for my research was finding out the names and job titles of all the staff within the New Zealand electronic intelligence agency.  The breakthrough came when I realised that all their names had been hidden within public service staff lists, scattered through pages and pages of military staff. Because hardly anyone knew even of the organisation's existence, they presumably thought the names would never be noticed.

By obtaining other lists of military staff that were compiled without the spies, and subtracting one list from the other, I was left with a near-perfect list of the hundreds of people inside the spy agency; and many more who had worked there in the past. Comparing this list to other public service lists gave me general job titles for all these people. Combined with some early leaks, I was gradually able to construct the entire top-secret organisational plan from relatively open sources. The job then began of identifying people in the various sections willing to talk.

People have varied reasons for deciding to leak information. There is, for instance, simply the relief of talking to someone who knows about their work after years of never being able to tell even their wives or husbands what they have done at work all day. But the main reason in this case was the officers' concerns that an important area of government activity had been too secret for too long, both from the public and Parliament. Some people felt strongly about intelligence activities they regarded as immoral or not in the country's interests.

I decided who might be willing to talk to me, seeking people from all the various compartmentalised sections I wanted to study, and then quietly approached them. I am still surprised that most of the people I approached were prepared to talk to me, resulting in hundreds of pages of interview notes about the high-tech spy systems they operate.

Once the information had started, it poured in. It became known within the spy agencies that I was reearching them - new staff were warned about me in security briefings although they had no idea how much I had learnt or that I was writing a book - but, if anything, this seemed to help the leaks. For a long time I felt a slight thrill when I put my hand in my postbox in case I found secret papers left anonymously inside.

Some information came because 'high security' can be more about impressions than reality. For example, the spy bosses must surely have wondered why I repeatedly requested the latest copies of the agency's internal newsletters, when they always released them with every meanful word blacked out. These people are our government's chief advisors on security issues, but what they never realised was that by holding the photocopied newsletters up to my desk light I could, with care, read virtually everything - all the details of new or refocussed sections, staff changes, overseas postings and so on - that had been deleted.

High security at the agency's most secret spying facility, the Waihopai station, was also more impression than reality. Despite electric fences, sensors and razor wire, I went there several times while writing the book and later was able to take a television documentary crew inside, where they filmed the Echelon equipment in the main operations room and even the titles of Intelsat (International Satellite Organisation) manuals on the desks (which confirmed the facility's role spying on ordinary public telecommunications networks).

While there was very secret information I could only learn from insiders, a lot of the information came from careful fieldwork (such as observing changes over the years in various Echelon stations around the world as telecommunications technology changed) and collating snippets of information from unclassified documents and news reports.  Various of the inside sources were friends of friends of friends who I located simply by asking around widely. Don't assume that secretive organisations are impenetrable. There is important research work waiting to be done on many subjects in every country.
 

With his book [External Link]  Secret Power, 1996, Nicky Hager has produced the most detailed account about the organisation and operations of New Zealand's Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) and its role in the UKUSA alliance, operating the global surveillance system called Echelon. The STOA-report for the European Parliament's Civil Liberties Commission entitled 'An Appraisal of Technologies of Political Control' made extensive references to Hager's research - and with this Echelon has entered the political stage.

=====================================================================
                                  *  The Activist  *
                 http://get.to/activist  *  http://activist.cjb.net

  This is not about the world that we inherited from our forefathers,
      It is about the world we have borrowed from our children !!
 

**************************************************************************
Subscribe to Freematt's Alerts: Pro-Individual Rights Issues Send a blank message to: freematt@coil.com with the words subscribe FA on the subject line.  List is private and moderated (7-30 messages per month) Matthew Gaylor, 1933 E. Dublin-Granville Rd., PMB 176, Columbus, OH 43229  Archived at http://www.egroups.com/list/fa/
**************************************************************************

[Note from Matthew Gaylor:  This will appear in the May 2000 Issue of The American Spectator and is being sent with permission of Jim Bovard.  You can sample some of Jim Bovard's other writings at http://www.jamesbovard.com/ . Jim's a busy writer and his work has appeared in everything from the Wall Street Journal to Playboy. He has had numerous books published including The Farm Fiasco, Fair Trade Fraud, Lost Rights, & his recent Freedom in Chains.]

THE RISE OF THE SURVEILLANCE STATE
High-tech whets all the wrong government appetites.
by James Bovard
May 2000 American Spectator

While high-tech breakthroughs make business more productive and life more pleasant, progress also has a dark side. Technology designed for benign purposes can be used for ill ones too. The Clinton administration has led the way, acting as if every new computer and telephone should have a welcome mat for federal wiretappers. A 1998 American Civil Liberties Union report noted, "The Administration is using scare tactics to acquire vast new powers to spy on all Americans."

On April 16, 1993, the White House revealed that the National Security Agency had secretly developed a new microchip known as the Clipper Chip. The press release called it "a new initiative that will bring the Federal Government together with industry in a voluntary program to improve the security and privacy of telephone communications while meeting the legitimate needs of law enforcement." This was practically the last time that the word "voluntary" was mentioned.

The Clipper Chip's developers presumed it should be a crime for anyone to use technology - such as encryption - that frustrates government agents. Encryption software allows individuals to send messages between computers that cannot be read by third parties. It is vital to prevent fraud or abuse of financial transactions and is widely used both here and abroad. Encryption has a long history - Thomas Jefferson used secret codes in his correspondence to avoid detection by the British.

"The Clipper Chip proposal would have required every encryption user (that is, every individual or business using a digital telephone system, fax machine, the Internet, etc.) to hand over their decryption keys to the government, giving it access to both stored data and real-time communications," the ACLU noted. Marc Rotenberg, director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, observed: "You don't want to buy a set of car keys from a guy who specializes in stealing cars." When the federal National Institute of Standards and Technology formally published the proposal for the new surveillance chip, fewer than one percent of the comments received from the public supported the Clipper Chip plan.

Although it eventually abandoned its effort to impose the Clipper Chip, the administration did not give up on trying to tap the nation's telephones. In 1994 it railroaded through Congress a law to dumb down phone technology in order to facilitate government wiretapping. On October 16, 1995, the telecommunications industry was stunned when a Federal Register notice appeared announcing that the FBI was demanding that phone companies provide the capability for simultaneous wiretaps of one out of every hundred phone calls in urban areas. The FBI notice represented "a 1,000-fold increase over previous levels of surveillance." FBI Director Louis Freeh denied that any expansion of wiretapping was planned.

The 1994 Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement law led to five years of clashes between the FBI and the communications industry over the new standards. The Federal Communications Commission was the bill's designated arbiter; in August 1999, the FCC caved and gave the FBI almost everything it wanted. The FCC ordered that all new cellular telephones become de facto homing devices for law enforcement by including components which enable law enforcement to determine the precise location from which a person is calling. As Electronic Design magazine noted, "Unlike the location feature being created for 911 emergency services, this capability will apply to all calls and users won't be able to turn it off." Attorney General Janet Reno hailed the decision: "The continuing technological changes in the nation's telecommunications systems present increasing challenges to law enforcement. This ruling will enable law enforcement to keep pace with these changes." The New York Times noted, "Law-enforcement officials have asserted that since the location of wired telephones is already public information, there is no intrusion of privacy in determining the location of wireless phones." This is like saying that since police can determine a person's home addresses by checking the phone book, it is no violation of privacy to let police follow the person around every place he goes once he leaves his house.

In addition to telephones, the security of computer software and the Internet have also been targeted. The administration spent three years hounding Phil Zimmerman, the inventor of Pretty Good Privacy, software designed to protect computer data and messages from surveillance. Someone placed PGP on an Internet site, thus making it available free to anyone in the world who chose to download it. For this the feds threatened Zimmerman with a five-year prison sentence and a million-dollar fine for exporting "munitions." Noted Zimmerman in a 1999 interview: "In a number of countries with oppressive regimes, PGP is the only weapon that humanitarian aid workers have to prevent hostile dictatorships from monitoring their communications."

Last August the Justice Department submitted the Cyberspace Electronic Security Act to Congress. The bill would make it easier for government to intrude on private communications by allowing law enforcement to obtain search warrants "to secretly enter suspects' homes or offices and disable security on personal computers as a prelude to a wiretap or further search." Average Americans would face to "black bag jobs" previously restricted to espionage or national security cases. Janet Reno justified the new powers thus: "When criminals like drug dealers and terrorists use encryption to conceal their communications, law enforcement must be able to respond in a manner that will not thwart an investigation or tip off a suspect."  But such searches pose special dangers because of the opportunities for government agents to tamper with evidence while manipulating
software on a target's computer.

In October 1999, members of the international Internet Engineering Task Force revealed that the FBI was pressuring them to create a "surveillance-friendly" architecture for Internet communications. The Bureau wanted the Task Force to build "trapdoors" into e-mail communications programs to allow law enforcement easy access to supposedly confidential messages. Several high-tech experts publicly warned: "We believe that such a development would harm network security, result in more illegal activities, diminish users' privacy, stifle innovation, and impose significant costs on developers of communications." The ACLU's Barry Steinhardt said, "What law enforcement is asking...is the equivalent of requiring the home building industry to place a 'secret' door in all new homes to which only it would have the key." Although the task force managed to rebuff the pressure, the fact the FBI even attempted to have software engineers sacrifice e-mail reliability for the sake of government
intrusions is a warning as to how audacious the feds have become.

Last fall news broke about the existence of Echelon, a spy satellite system run by the National Security Agency along with the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada. Echelon reportedly scans millions of phone calls, e-mail messages, and faxes each hour, searching for key words. The European Union and the governments of Italy and Russia loudly protested Echelon's intrusions into their sovereign domains. European Parliament Speaker Nicole Fontaine harumphed: ''We have every reason to be shocked at the fact that this form of espionage, which has been going on for a number of years, has not prompted any official protest.'' One Portuguese paper complained that Echelon is "like a technological nightmare extracted from the crazy conspiracy theories of 'The X-Files.'''

Rep. Bob Barr, a former CIA employee and the most vigilant congressman regarding federal high-tech intrusions, attached a rider to an appropriations bill last year that required the NSA and the CIA to report to Congress on the standards Echelon used to tap Americans' communications. In a February letter, the NSA assured members of Congress that "the NSA's activities are conducted in accordance with the highest constitutional, legal and ethical standards, and in compliance with statutes and regulations designed to protect the privacy rights of U.S. persons.'' Even as it professed it would never act unconstitutionally, the NSA sought to block further House inquiries into Echelon's operations.

A February report by the European Union alleged that Echelon has been used for economic espionage. Former CIA Director James Woolsey told a German newspaper in early March that Echelon collects "economic intelligence." One example Woolsey gave was espionage aimed at discovering when foreign companies are paying bribes to obtain contracts that might otherwise go to American companies. Woolsey elaborated on his views in a condescending March 17 Wall Street Journal op-ed, justifying Echelon spying on foreign companies because some foreigners do not obey the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. To add insult to injury, Woolsey noted there's no reason for U.S. companies to steal backward Europe's secrets.

Some of the most egregious examples of governmental invasion of privacy relate to two of the most intimate areas in life--your money and your body. In September 1999, Marvin Goodfriend, a senior vice president at the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond, proposed that government use new technology to penalize citizens who do not spend their cash as fast as government wanted. "The magnetic strip [in new U.S. currency] could visibly record when a bill was last withdrawn from the banking system. A carry tax could be deducted from each bill upon deposit according to how long the bill was in circulation."  Wired News noted that a federal "carry tax" would "discourage 'hoarding' currency, deter black market and criminal activities, and boost economic stability during deflationary periods when interest rates hover near zero." Rep. Ron Paul, a member of the House Banking Committee, denounced the proposal: "The whole idea is preposterous. The notion that we're going to tax somebody because they decide to be frugal and hold a couple of dollars is economic planning at its worst."

Lastly, the Customs Service recently began deploying BodySearch equipment that allows Customs inspectors to see through the clothes of designated lucky travelers. The ACLU's Gregory Nojeim warned that the new body scanners could show "underneath clothing and with clarity, breasts or a penis, and the relative dimensions of each. The system has a joystick-driven zoom option that allows the operator to enlarge portions of the image." Customs spokesman Dennis Murphy explained: "What [BodySearch] does is alleviate the need for us to touch people, because people don't like to be touched, and we don't blame them, because our inspectors also feel uncomfortable touching people." The BodySearch system has a feature that can potentially violate travelers more than a pat-down from a Customs agent: the capacity to save images of what it views. Travelers can now look forward to a new kind of trip souvenir: a picture of their privates on file at a federal agency.
 

TAGLINE: Bovard is the author of "Feeling Your Pain": The Explosion and Abuse of Government Power under Clinton-Gore (St. Martin's Press, August 2000).