China, CALEA, and FBI Internet wiretapping demands [priv]

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

Previous Politech messages:
http://www.politechbot.com/2005/10/24/wiretapping-rules-face/
http://www.politechbot.com/2005/10/24/making-universities-pay/

-------- Original Message --------
Subject: Fwd: [chineseinternetresearch] giving them ideas, state 
subsidies, and having them manufacture the equipment ...
Date: Mon, 24 Oct 2005 16:20:24 +0100
From: Greg Walton <jamyang () openflows org>
To: Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>
References: <093AD9CE-CBAD-43E2-8ED7-A625C9CB59C7 () openflows org>

Declan,

Below is thread from the Chinese Internet Research group that you may
find relevant to your message, [Politech] Making universities pay for
FBI surveillance, thank you very much FCC [priv].

All the best,

Greg Walton
http://gregwalton.civiblog.org



Begin forwarded message:

> From: Greg Walton <jamyang () openflows org>
> Date: 23 October 2005 08:11:36 BDT
> To: chineseinternetresearch () yahoogroups com
> Subject: Re: [chineseinternetresearch] giving them ideas, state  
> subsidies, and having them manufacture the equipment ...
> Reply-To: chineseinternetresearch () yahoogroups com
>
>
> ... and that's the tip of the iceberg.
>
> Thank you, Anne. I think the article is perhaps more on topic that
> you suggest.  CALEA originates in 1988, so your criticism is of the
> Bush administrations (plural, all 3 - er...so far). In China the PSB
> and the MSS is responsible for wiretapping, rather than the MII.
>
> With regards to the internationalization of CALEA as it relates to
> China in particular I would like to quote a summary of the respected
> privacy expert and Sun Microsystems employee Susan Landau, speaking
> at the 8th USENIX Security Symposium, August 23-26, 1999 in
> Washington, D.C.,
>
> -----
> . . . Landau is often asked for her opinion of what the future holds
> here. She feels there is a race going on. This race involves what the
> NSA and/or the FBI are trying to get away with, and what happens in
> Europe. If enough European competition starts taking away US
> business, then Congress may pass a certain set of laws. She also
> feels the FBI has a much more polarized view than the NSA; the NSA
> knows the game is lost as far as crypto goes, and it has a vested
> interest in the security of the US industry. A weak US computer
> industry makes the job of the NSA that much more difficult. Export
> controls that hamper the US computer industry are problematic
> precisely for that reason. She also feels that the currently admired
> practice of open source may change or influence the policy. If source
> code becomes public information, it will be harder to enforce export
> control, since the reason to do so will become less relevant.
> She ended her talk with a poignant story that took place shortly
> after CALEA passed. The FBI invited law enforcement from around the
> world to learn how to install and use similar wiretapping
> capabilities of digital switching technology. One of the police
> forces invited belonged to Hong Kong, which is now under Chinese
> jurisdiction; every year the State Department lists human-rights
> abuses from around the globe, and China is consistently at the top of
> this list. She ended with twin questions, "What are the technologies
> we're exporting, and what are the values we're exporting?"
>
> ------
>
> There is nothing new in the following, its all in fact extracted from
> China's Golden Shield:
>
> As you are probably aware,
>
> "there is increasing concern that much of this surveillance
> technology is being exported, without any end-use criteria, to
> countries that flagrantly abuse the fundamental human rights of their
> citizens. Governments of countries with poorly developed
> infrastructures rely on industrialized countries to supply them with
> surveillance equipment. The transfer of surveillance technology from
> the developed to the developing world is now an important component
> of the post-Cold War arms industry. (8) With scant attention given to
> differing levels of human rights compliance, standardization across
> national borders is leading many to argue that a global architecture
> of electronic surveillance is emerging, with its origins in the US
> law enforcement community."
>
> As early as 1988, in a program known internally to the US Federal
> Bureau of Investigation (FBI) as "Operation Root Canal," US law
> enforcement officials demanded that telephone companies alter their
> equipment to facilitate the interception of messages. All but one of
> the major global telecom companies refused to contemplate altering
> their equipment. The exception was a Canadian company, Nortel
> Networks, which agreed to work closely with the FBI. More than 75% of
> North American Internet backbone traffic travels across Nortel
> Networks systems, and the company derives a significant proportion of
> its sales revenue from the US telecom market.
>
> ....
>
> Given Nortel’s early involvement in the development of standards in
> support of the CALEA legislation, it is natural that the first
> digital switch to reach market, and give service providers and
> vendors the ability to meet basic CALEA compliance, should be
> manufactured by Nortel.
>
> The sophisticated DMS Supernode switching technology is manufactured
> in China through a joint venture with the Chinese government known as
> GDNT (Guangdong Nortel). At the time, Nortel said of this technology
> transfer that it "will contribute immeasurably to the development of
> the Chinese telecommunications industry."
>
> In terms of funding, Nortel invested an extra US$37 million in GDNT
> (on top of funds agreed in a 1993 Memorandum of Understanding [MOU]
> with the state planning commission) – an investment that followed hot-
> on-the-heels of the announcement that the US government would pay
> equipment manufacturers compensation for the implementation of CALEA
>
> ....
>
> Of course, not mentioned in Golden Shield was that the establishment
> of GDNT was skillfully facilitated by the *alleged* double/triple
> agent Ms.Katrina Leung acting as a consultant for Nortel - while
> *allegedly* spying for China, while acting as a spy for the FBI.
> According to allegations, Ms. Leung had affairs with two FBI agents
> over a 20-year period while she was being paid $1.7-million (U.S.) by
> the FBI to spy on China. However, court documents allege that she was
> also spying for China and stole documents from the agents. During
> that period, Ms. Leung, whose code name was Parlor Maid, also ran a
> consulting business and her clients included Nortel, which paid her
> $1.2-million to help open markets in China. She was also active in
> the Republican Party and attended U.S. President George W. Bush's
> inauguration.
>
>   "Mrs. Leung has never been an employee of Nortel Networks. Mrs.
> Leung was the president of a firm engaged by Nortel Networks in the
> early 1990s as a representative to assist us in the creation of a
> Chinese joint venture," said Tina Warren, a Nortel spokeswoman. "The
> firm was paid for its services and our business relationship with it
> terminated in 1996. Documents filed in court show that Nortel hired
> Ms. Leung's company, Merry Glory Ltd., in October, 1990, to help
> establish a joint venture in China: GDNT. Nortel was subpoenaed in
> January and handed over all documents relating to Ms. Leung.
>
> Ms.Leung's defense argued that the alleged double agent is loyal U.S.
> citizen:
>
> "It's not even the tip of the iceberg here," Levine said. "What we
> have here is a woman who pledged her allegiance to this country ...
> for many years she worked at the direction and the control of the
> FBI. "She was used by them to do what they wanted her to do. She
> acted as they told her to act." Levine said the FBI's handling of her
> client now looks like "absolute abuse." She mentioned that Smith, her
> handler, and another FBI agent had been sleeping with her.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On 23 Oct 2005, at 07:21, Anne Stevenson-Yang wrote:
>
>
> > Not on topic, but I can't resist noting that here goes the Bush
> > Admin again,
> > one-upping China in invasiveness and disregard for individual
> > liberties.
> > Imagine if MII tried to do this. I'm curious: who is planning to
> > operate
> > such a "network operations center," and what would its daily
> > activities be?
> >
> > The core of the plan:
> >
> > "But the federal law would apply a high-tech approach, enabling law
> > enforcement to monitor communications at campuses from remote
> > locations at
> > the turn of a switch.
> >
> > It would require universities to re-engineer their networks so that
> > every
> > Net access point would send all communications not directly onto the
> > Internet, but first to a network operations center where the data
> > packets
> > could be stitched together into a single package for delivery to law
> > enforcement, university officials said."
> > Colleges Protest Call to Upgrade Online Systems
> >
> >    -        E-Mail This <javascript:document.emailThis.submit();>
> >    - Printer-Friendly</2005/10/23/technology/23college.html?
> > ei=5094&en=82e2a961640ae05b&hp=&ex=1130040000&partner=homepage&pagewa 
> > n
> > ted=print>
> >    - Single-Page</2005/10/23/technology/23college.html?
> > ei=5094&en=82e2a961640ae05b&hp=&ex=1130040000&partner=homepage&pagewa 
> > n
> > ted=all>
> >    - Reprints <#>
> >    - Save Article <#>
> >
> > By SAM DILLON<http://query.nytimes.com/search/query?ppds=bylL&v1=SAM
> > %20DILLON&fdq=19960101&td=sysdate&sort=newest&ac=SAM%
> > 20DILLON&inline=nyt-per>and
> > STEPHEN
> > LABATON<http://query.nytimes.com/search/query?ppds=bylL&v1=STEPHEN%
> > 20LABATON&fdq=19960101&td=sysdate&sort=newest&ac=STEPHEN%
> > 20LABATON&inline=nyt-per>
> > Published: October 23, 2005
> >
> > The federal government, vastly extending the reach of an 11-year-
> > old law, is
> > requiring hundreds of universities, online communications companies
> > and
> > cities to overhaul their Internet computer networks to make it
> > easier for
> > law enforcement authorities to monitor e-mail and other online
> > communications.
> >  Skip to next paragraph <#secondParagraph> Phil Sears for The New
> > York Times
> >
> > Larry D. Conrad of Florida State University calls the order to  
> > upgrade
> > Internet systems "overkill."
> > [image: Related] Related Site: Communications Assistance for Law
> > Enforcement
> > Act <http://www.fcc.gov/calea/> (fcc.gov <http://fcc.gov>)
> >
> > The action, which the government says is intended to help catch
> > terrorists
> > and other criminals, has unleashed protests and the threat of
> > lawsuits from
> > universities, which argue that it will cost them at least $7
> > billion while
> > doing little to apprehend lawbreakers. Because the government would
> > have to
> > win court orders before undertaking surveillance, the universities
> > are not
> > raising civil liberties issues.
> >
> > The order, issued by the Federal Communications Commission in
> > August and
> > first published in the Federal Register last week, extends the
> > provisions of
> > a 1994 wiretap law not only to universities, but also to libraries,
> > airports
> > providing wireless service and commercial Internet access providers.
> >
> > It also applies to municipalities that provide Internet access to
> > residents,
> > be they rural towns or cities like Philadelphia and San Francisco,
> > which
> > have plans to build their own Net access networks.
> >
> > So far, however, universities have been most vocal in their
> > opposition.
> >
> > The 1994 law, the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act,
> > requires telephone carriers to engineer their switching systems at
> > their own
> > cost so that federal agents can obtain easy surveillance access.
> >
> > Recognizing the growth of Internet-based telephone and other
> > communications,
> > the order requires that organizations like universities providing
> > Internet
> > access also comply with the law by spring 2007.
> >
> > The Justice Department requested the order last year, saying that new
> > technologies like telephone service over the Internet were
> > endangering law
> > enforcement's ability to conduct wiretaps "in their fight against
> > criminals,
> > terrorists and spies."
> >
> > Justice Department officials, who declined to comment for this
> > article, said
> > in their written comments filed with the Federal Communications
> > Commission
> > that the new requirements were necessary to keep the 1994 law
> > "viable in the
> > face of the monumental shift of the telecommunications industry"
> > and to
> > enable law enforcement to "accomplish its mission in the face of
> > rapidly
> > advancing technology."
> >
> > The F.C.C. says it is considering whether to exempt educational
> > institutions
> > from some of the law's provisions, but it has not granted an
> > extension for
> > compliance.
> >
> > Lawyers for the American Council on Education, the nation's largest
> > association of universities and colleges, are preparing to appeal
> > the order
> > before the United
> > States<http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/
> > countriesandterritories/unitedstates/index.html?inline=nyt-geo>Court
> > of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, Terry W. Hartle, a
> > senior vice president of the council, said Friday.
> > [...]

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