From: jya@pipeline.com (John Young)
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
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Message ID: <199607011930.TAA03640@pipe3.t2.usa.pipeline.com>
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UTC Datetime: 1996-07-01 23:59:40 UTC
Raw Date: Tue, 2 Jul 1996 07:59:40 +0800
From: jya@pipeline.com (John Young)
Date: Tue, 2 Jul 1996 07:59:40 +0800
To: cypherpunks@toad.com
Subject: Technology and Privacy
Message-ID: <199607011930.TAA03640@pipe3.t2.usa.pipeline.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
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The Washington Post, July 1, 1996, p. A16.
Technology and Privacy [Letter]
In reference to the May 31 editorial "Plant Lights and
Privacy" commenting on an 11th Circuit Court of Appeals
decision to uphold the use of thermal imaging in cases
involving indoor marijuana growing operations: The U.S.
Supreme Court had just declined to review that 11th Circuit
decision.
On June 11, The Post published a letter from Jack King
["When Government Can Look Through Walls"] warning us that
thermal imaging, as developed by the military and as used
by civilian law enforcement agencies with the cooperation
of the military, posed an Orwellian threat to citizens
because the government could use the technology to tell if
two people were making love in the privacy of their
bedroom.
To set the record straight, military thermal imaging is
used to support civilian law enforcement only after other
probable cause for a search warrant, such as power bills,
observation of boarded-up windows, vents on the roof to
draw away heat and buys by confidential informants, are
documented. The military is then called in, using thermal
imagers, to determine if there is an unusual heat source in
the house as detected by heat escaping from the house. In
dozens of cases where thermal imaging was used, I have not
observed one case where it could detect the activity of
people in a house, let alone a bedroom. I also have not
observed the technology to have the ability to detect what
people are doing in any room behind closed doors, covered
windows and walls other than to detect blurs or shadows
moving around behind light curtains.
The United States v. Cusumano language quoted by Mr. King
was reversed last month by the court because the original
three judges decided it was an issue that didn't need
deciding, i.e. the constitutionality of thermal imaging
absent a search warrant, and did not exercise "judicial
restraint."
The trend to Mr. King's "militarization" of the war on
drugs, based on a decision by then-secretary of defense
Richard Cheney that drug use represented a threat to our
national security, is being carried out with restraint,
respect for the law and an appropriate appreciation for the
privacy of our citizens.
Barrie A. Vernon
Alexandria
The writer is an attorney with the National Guard Bureau at
the Pentagon working in support of the counter-drug
directorate.
[End]
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