PANEL WEIGHS MERITS OF WIRETAP, COUNTERTERRORISM PROPOSALS
Senate Intelligence Committee began deliberations on whether to enhance govt. wiretap capabilities for law enforcement and intelligence agencies. It weighed merits of proposal by Attorney Gen. John Ashcroft and bill (S-1448) by Committee Chmn. Graham and Sen. Feinstein (D-Cal.) that focused on revamping Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA), which governs electronic surveillance of foreign agents. Wiretapping provisions of Graham- Feinstein bill would apply “the same civil liberties” protections to intelligence surveillance as currently were afforded to criminal investigations, Graham said. He said critical element of bill was to allow intelligence and law enforcement officials to share wiretap and other terrorist-related investigative information.
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Jerry Berman, exec. dir. of Center for Democracy & Technology, urged committee to reconsider provisions of S-1448 that he said would expand FISA-related interceptions of “any instruction or signal sent to a computer.” In light of lower standard needed to carry out electronic surveillance under FISA, he said that section of the bill would “allow the interception of numerous personal communications without judicial oversight.” Those communications could range from seizure of files being sent to computer to interception of commands and “sensitive information” sent to wireless phones and Palm Pilots, he said. Berman said provision could have “broad implications for the Internet” and urged committee to delete or substantially alter section: “In many, if not in most, cases it will only be possible to see whether this provision applied after the communication is intercepted, read and analyzed.” He warned that could provide “a license for interception of numerous communications that would ultimately be discarded after they are read and analyzed.” Berman said “we note with approval” provisions in the bill that allow the FBI to carry out wiretaps that, “if done properly,” could be used “to allow criminal investigations and intelligence investigations to go forward side by side.”
Arnold & Porter attorney Jeffrey Smith said that section of the bill “seems a sensible provision and should be adopted.” Smith, former Intelligence Committee staffer, said wiretap and antiterrorism laws should enable govt. “to collect and analyze information, then sort out later whether it’s ‘evidence’ or ‘intelligence.'” Whether Congress passes Graham-Feinstein or Dept. of Justice proposal, Smith said “Congress should make clear that with respect to increased electronic surveillance, the government will not adopt technical mandates requiring the information technology industry to build their systems in such a way as to facilitate interception, to enhance security or to control the dissemination of encryption.” Govt. instead should work with industry to “harness market forces to achieve the necessary results.”