1997-10-02 - Re: Request for illegal electronic surveillance examples and cases

Header Data

From: John Young <jya@pipeline.com>
To: Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>
Message Hash: 8562d2c119a9c5230a3a1fef8e89600647c5cf7183aec20eb00bf73c766cb99e
Message ID: <1.5.4.32.19971002112355.0085f4b8@pop.pipeline.com>
Reply To: N/A
UTC Datetime: 1997-10-02 11:51:51 UTC
Raw Date: Thu, 2 Oct 1997 19:51:51 +0800

Raw message

From: John Young <jya@pipeline.com>
Date: Thu, 2 Oct 1997 19:51:51 +0800
To: Declan McCullagh <declan@well.com>
Subject: Re: Request for illegal electronic surveillance examples and cases
Message-ID: <1.5.4.32.19971002112355.0085f4b8@pop.pipeline.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



Declan wrote:
>So I'm putting together a special report featuring examples of illegal
>wiretapping by governments -- to show why we shouldn't trust them with
>mandatory domestic key escrow. Also illegal electronic surveillance,
>generally speaking. Especially more recent ones. Maybe non-U.S. examples
>too.

There are a number of US cases in the just published "Secrets:
The CIA's War at Home," by Angus Mackenzie.

What is worth exploring to supplement the perhaps too facile
gov-bash is the burgeoning private industry of illegal electronic 
surveillance, staffed with mostly ex-gov folks (and those not 
deft enough to get a global Cold War sinecure) who are not 
always as scrupulous as the government. These operations are
growing worldwide as governments down-size, up-size and
sneaky-rig their NatSec and LE programs, often most slyly
by privatizing them behind false fronts.

Indeed, the bigger story may be the ways illegal electronic 
snooping is being hidden behind "legal" operations by both
government and industry, often working in concert to
camouflage the bastardly deeds by pointing fingers at
each other to justify higher budgets and higher fees and
more restrictions on free expression. Get Stewart Baker
looped and talkative. Then John Deutch, William Perry,
and on and on.

The media and DC public interest groups are not outside this 
long-running covert loop of mutual back-scratchers. Read "Secrets."

Trace for example where the heads and legal counsels of military, 
spy and law enforcement agencies go in private industry, and 
the affiliations they form in commerce and non-profit orgs, beginning 
with SAIC, say, and the Council on Foreign Relations, the lobby-law
firms and schools, but do not stop  with the obvious, easy to find.

Get Stewart Baker looped and talkative. Then John Deutch, 
William Perry, ex-legislators, and on and on.

Be prepared to have your not-so-secure comm systems hacked 
by the New Terrorists as dirty secrets are threatened. Read "Secrets:"
some of the characters in the crypto debate are mentioned
in earlier disguises and, in a few case, where they show now.









Thread