re govt collection of call-rcds, why hasn't anyone mentioned ...

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Jim Warren <jwarren () well com>
Date: May 12, 2006 4:31:31 PM EDT
To: Dave Farber <dave () farber net>, Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>
Subject: re govt collection of call-rcds, why hasn't anyone  
mentioned ...

In the discussion and posturing about the collection of most (all?)  
Americans' call-records, why has there been so little mention of any  
of the following:

*  Such call records could [will?!] be used against investigative  
reporters and news media, and their whistle-blower sources who  
uncovered these kinds of governmental actions.  (Since they disclosed  
NSA activities and CIA torture operations, it seems certain that  
ferreting out such leaks is a high priority in the administration's  
"anti-terrorism" initiative.)

*  Vice-President Dick Cheney totally refused to give any identifying  
information about the people who attended his secret "energy summit",  
shortly after he took office.  Has the NSA collected and cross- 
correlated all the phone calls of oil-company executives around that  
time?  Will they remain available -- but only inside the [leaky] NSA  
of course -- if some opposing administration is ever able to take power?

*  California's former [Republican] Governator, Pete Wilson,  
absolutely refused to release his own phone records, when requested  
as "public records" by one of the state's major newspapers.  (Similar  
to Cheney, Wilson successfully claimed that even phone records alone,  
would violate his "consultative privilege".)

* Given the example of the IRS being used to attack political  
opponents, Watergate, Nixon, LBJ, J. Edgar Hoover, and so many other  
examples, is there any question that call records of opposition  
political operatives are INVALUABLE -- for anyone in a position to  
access them who might dare to do so?

--jim; Jim Warren; jwarren () well com, public-policy advocate &  
technology writer

[self-inflating puffery: InfoWorld founder; Dr.Dobb's Journal first  
editor;
Soc.of Prof.Journalists-Nor.Cal.James Madison Freedom-of-Information  
Award;
Electronic Frontier Foundation Pioneer Award (1992, its first year);
Playboy Foundation Hugh Hefner First-Amendment Award (1994);
founded the Computers, Freedom & Privacy Conferences; blah blah blah]


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