IP: Revamped anti-terrorism bill to go to House -- keep away from the keyboard who knows what hacking is ?

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1005-200-7376176.html?tag=dd.ne.dht.nl-sty.0

> Revamped anti-terrorism bill to go to House
> A congressional committee is scheduled to begin reviewing draft 
> anti-terrorism legislation Tuesday that could greatly expand the 
> electronic surveillance powers of police and ratchet up penalties relating 
> to certain computer crimes. An earlier version of the bill, formerly known 
> as the Anti-Terrorism Act, was held up over civil rights concerns last 
> week. By Monday, however, a compromise was worked out, speeding the 
> renamed Provide Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct 
> Terrorism (PATRIOT) Act to the U.S. House of Representatives Committee on 
> the Judiciary.

update U.S. lawmakers introduced a bipartisan bill Tuesday that could 
greatly expand the electronic surveillance powers of police and ratchet up 
penalties relating to certain computer crimes.

Known as the Provide Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct 
Terrorism (PATRIOT) Act, the bill was introduced into the U.S. House of 
Representatives by F. James Sensenbrenner Jr., R-Wis., and John Conyers 
Jr., D-Mich., and is expected to be debated in committee Wednesday afternoon.

"It's incredibly likely to make it through," said an aide to the House 
Committee on the Judiciary.
An earlier version of the bill, known as the Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA), was 
held up over civil rights concerns last week. The members of the House 
Judiciary Committee worked through the weekend and late Monday to draft the 
new PATRIOT Act, said a staffer.

If enacted, the new bill would add to the powers of law enforcement and 
intelligence communities, allowing them to gather and share information, 
detain immigrants, pursue those who cooperate with suspected terrorists, 
and freeze the bank accounts and financial networks of terrorist 
organizations.

The bill was modified to include a narrower definition of "terrorism" that 
could limit some powers granted in the previous draft highlighted by civil 
rights advocates. Those powers include near-blanket rights to wiretap any 
communications device used by a person in any way connected to a suspected 
terrorist; the power to detain indefinitely an immigrant connected to an 
act of terrorism; and the classification of any computer hacking crime as a 
terrorist offense.

"McCarthy all over again"

Despite that change, the newest bill still falls short of clearly defining 
what crimes should be considered terrorist acts, said Michael Erbschloe, 
vice president and analyst at technology market researcher Computer Economics.

The bill lists more than 40 criminal offenses, including computer intrusion 
and damaging a computer, and defines those offenses as terrorism if they 
are "calculated to influence or affect the conduct of government by 
intimidation or coercion...or to retaliate against government conduct."

"It could be McCarthy all over again," he said, referring to the political 
witch-hunts carried out a half-century ago by the House Committee on 
Un-American Activities under Sen. Joseph McCarthy, whose hearings on the 
"Communist threat" led to the jailing and blacklisting of a number of 
Americans. "We need to more clearly define what a terrorist is."




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