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Cream of the Crop 20
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Cream of the Crop 20 (Terry Blount) (1996).iso
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WIRE
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1996-05-19
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┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
│From newpisgah.keene.edu!mozz.unh.edu!noc.near.net!bigboote.WPI.EDU!news.math│
│howland.reston.ans.net!ix.netcom.com!netcom.com!feustel Tue Nov 8 00:31:25 1│
│Newsgroups: alt.culture.usenet,alt.culture.internet,alt.2600,news.admin.polic│
│c.legal,alt.fan.joel-furr │
│Path: newpisgah.keene.edu!mozz.unh.edu!noc.near.net!bigboote.WPI.EDU!news.mat│
│!howland.reston.ans.net!ix.netcom.com!netcom.com!feustel │
│From: feustel@netcom.com (David Feustel) │
│Subject: Re: Wiretap passes! (Digital telephony bill and privacy) │
│Message-ID: <feustelCynzt3.GH4@netcom.com> │
│Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest) │
│References: <3939pk$h5a@rcp6.elan.af.mil> <1994Nov1.173859.18197@emba.uvm.edu│
│30001@s125.infonet.net> <398alp$bm0@news.duke.edu> <398s0q$83@buchanan07.res.│
│Date: Wed, 2 Nov 1994 23:55:50 GMT │
│Lines: 125 │
│Xref: newpisgah.keene.edu alt.culture.usenet:1208 alt.2600:12980 news.admin.p│
│9285 │
│ │
│ │
│ Unanimous Nod For Wiretap Bill │
│ │
│ [from Technology & Liberty] │
│ [By Clark Matthews ] │
│ [in The Spotlight November 7th, 1994] │
│ │
│The so-called Wiretap Access Bill, S. 2375, passed at 10:30 PM. on │
│Friday, October 7th,1994, with "the unanimous consent" of the U.S. │
│Senate. It is likely to be signed by President Clinton by the time you │
│read this. Two days previously, on October 5th, the U.S. House of │
│Representatives passed the identical bill, H.R. 4922, by an overwhelming │
│margin. There was no floor debate on the bill in either house. There │
│was no reading of the bill. In fact, the final Senate vote happened so │
│quickly that observers watching C-SPAN actually missed it. │
│Nevertheless, a Senate vote unanimously passing the "Wiretap Access │
│Bill" is recorded as having occurred at 10:30 PM, October 7,1994. │
│ │
│MANUFACTURING 'CONSENT' │
│ │
│FBI Director Louis Freeh personally visited every U.S. senator to lobby │
│for the bill. I've even heard reports that Janet Reno accompanied Freeh │
│for some of these little chats. Nevertheless, several senators │
│positioned themselves to stop the vote on the bill, notably Howard │
│Metzenbaum (D-Ohio), Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) and Patrick Leahy │
│(D-Vt.). All of them placed "holds" on the bill in the days before the │
│final vote. These "holds" permitted any of them to prevent a vote and │
│stop the bill in its tracks. But none of them did. Each of these │
│senators received a personal visit from FBI Director Louis Freeh in │
│the days before the senate recessed for the fall elections. and none │
│of them exercised their right to stop the bill. So there were no │
│objections at 10:30 pm on Friday, October 7th, only "unanimous │
│consent." No one in the Senate voted for the Wiretap Accesa Bill (or │
│against it). No one left any fmgerprints. Ask your senators and │
│they'll tell you no one's responsible. We shall see. In the end, this │
│unstoppable bill slithered silently onto the books in the contemptible │
│tradition of the 16th Amendment, the Federal Reserve Act and many other │
│landmark frauds and fixes that have dearly cost our country's liberty, │
│treasury and sovereignty. Late at night and out of sight, no one was │
│responsible for passing the bill. And no one is to blame. A few days │
│after this grubby victory, FBI Director Louis Freeh spoke at the annual │
│A1 Smith dinner in New York City. Flush with his success with the │
│Wiretap bill-and with the amazing silence of key congressmen and │
│senators after Freeh's personal visits-Clinton's FBI director compared │
│himself favorably with J. Edgar Hoover. The audience gave up a big │
│laugh for America's "reinvented" Hoover sans perfume, ponies, peignoirs │
│and roommate Clyde, of course. │
│ │
│DIGITAL TYRANNY │
│ │
│The Wiretap Access Bill, as critics call it, was uroposed by the FBI and │
│Janet Reno's Justice Department as the "Digital Telephony and Privacy │
│Improvement Act" of 1994. The bill took its language from the │
│computerized features of automatic, remote-controlled surveillance and │
│eavesdropping equipment that is now being built into America's new │
│telephone networks to spy on citizens. Freeh's and Reno's "Privacy │
│Improvement Act" had nothing whatever to do with improving people's │
│privacy. Instead, it aimed at eliminating people's privacy by │
│effectively converting citizens' telephones into remote-activated │
│listening devices and call-tracing systems. The Wiretap Access Bill │
│simply legalizes these surveillance devices that are already in use in │
│large parts of our country. It also forces taxpayers to pay $500 │
│million for them. The Wiretap Access Bill effectively eliminates the │
│bothersome Constitutional requirement that the FBI obtain court │
│authorization to tap your phone or bug your house through your │
│telephones. That's because your local telephone company can't tell what │
│the devices are doing and, therefore, can't know whether the │
│surveillance is legal or not. │
│ │
│AUTOMATIC GESTAPO │
│ │
│You see, the new equipment is remote-activated and it's designed to be │
│installed on the telephone network (not in phone company offices). It │
│gathers much of the same information about your calls that your phone │
│company does-but the FBI (or whoever) clearly doesn't want your tele- │
│phone company to know what information it's gathering. Or how much it's │
│gathering. So the devices run "encrypted" to conceal what they're doing │
│from telco employees, some of whom might become alarmed by the extent of │
│federal surveillance or start asking troublesome questions │
│about court orders and warrants. Even if your friends at the phone │
│company were interested in safeguarding your rights, they will │
│probably soon discover the same fundamental truth learned by citizens │
│in places like the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany: It's not a good idea │
│to ask que