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From: Paul Andrew Mitchell [address in tool bar]
Subject: SNET: Online Groups Mount an Effort To Fight Clinton on
Encryption-NYTimes
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Dear Bull,
Take this:
00010101010011010101011110001010101010100100101111110101010110!!!
/s/ Paul Mitchell
At 07:27 PM 9/21/97 -0500, you wrote:
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>Subject: Online Groups Mount an Effort To Fight Clinton on Encryption-NYTimes
>
>September 21, 1997
>
>
>
> Online Groups Mount an Effort
> To Fight Clinton on Encryption
>
> By JERI CLAUSING
>
> WASHINGTON — Online civil liberties groups,
>increasingly alarmed by the momentum that the Federal
> Bureau of Investigation has been building in the
>Congressional battle over encryption, will mount a
> telephone lobbying campaign next week.
>
> On Monday, thousands of people are being asked to place calls
>to members of a key House committee, urging
> them to reject a proposal that the groups fear will lay the
>infrastructure for widespread surveillance of citizens by
> the United States government.
>
> "Stop the government from building Big Brother into the
>Internet," states an alert that went out on Thursday to
> more than 200,000 people on the Internet, urging them to call
>members of the House Commerce Committee.
>
> "In 1948, George Orwell described a future world in which Big
>Brother peaked over the shoulder of every citizen
> -- watching every move and listening to every word," the alert
>states. "Now, in 1997, the FBI is pushing the United
> States Congress to pass legislation which would make George
>Orwell's frightening vision a reality."
>
> The alert, published by the Center for Democracy and
>Technology, the Voters
> Telecommunications Watch, the Electronic Frontier Foundation,
>Wired Magazine and
> Americans for Tax Reform, is just the latest in a yearlong
>campaign to fight the Clinton
> administration's attempts to gain the keys to data-scrambling
>communications technology
> like the software that keeps e-mail private and secures online
>commerce.
>
> But the tone of the campaign is getting more urgent as the
>House Commerce Committee prepares to take a key
> vote Thursday on the Safety and Freedom Though Encryption act.
>
> That bill was drafted by Representatives Bob Goodlatte,
>Republican of Virginia, and Zoe Lofgren, Democrat of
> California, to thwart the Clinton Administration's efforts by
>outlawing any key-recovery systems for encryption
> technology and by relaxing current export restrictions on
>encryption software. It was passed by the House
> International Relations and Judiciary committees earlier this
>summer and picked up more than 250 co-sponsors.
>
> In recent weeks, however, it has fallen victim to intense
>pressure from President Clinton's top crime fighters in the
> FBI and National Security Agency who claim they need immediate
>access to online and other communications to
> catch terrorists and drug dealers.
>
> After a series of classified briefings on Capitol Hill, the
>National Security Committee added an amendment that
> would actually tighten current export controls, and the
>Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence added an
> amendment that would ban any domestic technology that does not
>provide law enforcement officials with
> "immediate access" to the plain text of encrypted information.
>
> An amendment similar to the
>Intelligence Committee's proposal has been
> drafted by two Commerce Committee
>members, Michael Oxley, an Ohio
> Republican, and Thomas Manton, a
>New Jersey Democrat, making the
> Commerce vote a tie-breaker that
>will be key in determining which version of
> the bill gets sent to the full
>House.
>
> "This is not the end game, but it
>is a crucial vote," said Jonah Seiger of the
> Center for Democracy and
>Technology. "We are hoping Monday that we at
> least make some noise."
>
> Seiger added, "The committee
>members should be aware that constituents are
> watching and following this issue
>and have concerns, and factor that into their
> decision."
>
> After the votes in the Intelligence
>and National Security committees, the House
> Commerce Committee won a two-week
>extension of its deadline for acting on
> the bill, saying it hoped to use the time to find a balance
>between law enforcement and privacy concerns.
>
> Both sides said Friday that talks were continuing but that
>little progress was being made.
>
> "It appears we are headed for gridlock, and I think we need to
>call time out here," Seiger said. "Everyone needs to
> focus on what the real issues are. The FBI needs to make its
>case. They have not yet publicly described what their
> problems are. That needs to happen before any law passes."
>
> Seiger said the Oxley-Manton amendment is the "equivalent of
>requiring that all new homes built in the U.S. contain
> surveillance cameras that would be turned on remotely by law
>enforcement if you were suspected committing a
> crime."
>
> The amendment, Seiger's Internet alert asserts, "is a serious
>threat to your privacy and represents the first and final
> step in the construction of a National Surveillance
>Infrastructure."
>
> However, Peggy Peterson, a spokeswoman for Oxley, insisted
>that the amendment was being misrepresented.
>
> "The notion that it would allow the FBI to browse through your
>personal communications is way off base,"
> Peterson said. "The FBI would have to obtain a court order to
>conduct any type of surveillance, just like they
> would now in a wiretap case. That's the only type of
>surveillance that could occur. So to say they could just sit
> there and browse through your e-mail is way off base."
>
> Peterson defended the FBI's secret briefings as necessary for
>protecting crime-fighting secrets.
>
> "Mr. Oxley came away from that meeting alarmed at the notion
>that pedophiles, organized crime, terrorists, illegal
> militias could be and likely are operating on the Internet
>right now, beyond the reach of law enforcement," Peterson
> said.
>
> But Lofgren has questioned the need for classified briefings,
>implying that the FBI has not said anything it couldn't
> reveal publicly and is really using the meetings to spread
>misinformation.
>
> "A lot of members don't understand what is at stake," said a
>Lofgren aide, David Brown. "This is about the privacy
> of your medical records, your banking records, your personal
>letters. If they understood that, if they got the extent
> of it, I think they would come screaming into this debate."
>
>
> Related Sites
> Following are links to the external Web sites mentioned in
>this article. These sites are not part of The New York Times on the
> Web, and The Times has no control over their content or
>availability. When you have finished visiting any of these sites, you
> will be able to return to this page by clicking on your Web
>browser's "Back" button or icon until this page reappears.
>
> Federal Bureau of Investigation
>
> Center For Democracy and Technology
>
> Voters Telecommunications Watch
>
> Electronic Frontier Foundation
>
> Wired
>
> Americans for Tax Reform
>
> Representative Bob Goodlatte
>
> Representative Zoe Lofgren
>
> Representative Michael G. Oxley
>
> Representative Thomas Manton
>
>
> Jeri Clausing at jeri@nytimes.com welcomes your comments and
>suggestions.
>
>
>This mailing list is for discussion of Clinton Administration Scandals. If
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>
>
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