re DHS: Net monitoring for homeland terror

[Dave Farber <dave () farber net>]

Reply to. dave () farber net

"Those who would give up essential liberty to purchase a little temporary security deserve neither liberty nor 
security.”   Benjamin Franklin 

Begin forwarded message:

> From: "Lin, Herb" <HLin () nas edu>
> Date: June 20, 2010 10:05:23 PM EDT
> To: "dave () farber net" <dave () farber net>, ip <ip () v2 listbox com>
> Subject: RE: [IP] DHS: Net monitoring for homeland terror

> Without commenting on whether Rick is correct, I note that this is the first time I’ve seen any senior government 
> official acknowledge that there are tradeoffs at all.  That in itself has to be a good thing, regardless of whether 
> you believe that the scope will expand or whether Napolitano is right.
>  
> Herb Lin
> Computer Science and Telecommunications Board
> National Academies
>  
>  
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Dave Farber [mailto:dave () farber net] 
> Sent: Sunday, June 20, 2010 11:57 AM
> To: ip
> Subject: [IP] DHS: Net monitoring for homeland terror
>  
>  
>  
> Reply to. <mailto:dave () farber net> dave () farber net
>  
>  
>  
> Begin forwarded message:
>  
>  
>  
>         From: Richard Forno <rforno () infowarrior org>
>         Date: June 19, 2010 9:21:15 PM EDT
>         To: List Infowarrior <infowarrior () attrition org>
>         Cc: Farber Dave <dave () farber net>
>         Subject: DHS: Net monitoring for homeland terror
>        
>        
>  
>        
>         I'm sure the USG will pledge this will be done ONLY for 'terrorism' yet how long before it is extended to 
> other crimes?  Remember that's what happened with the so-called USA PATRIOT act.....how many extensions/abuses of 
> that 'terrorism' law have been discovered? This will be a First Amendment nightmare, IMHO.   -rick
>        
>         Napolitano: Internet Monitoring Needed to Fight Homegrown Terrorism
>        
>         Published June 18, 2010
>        
>         | Associated Press
>        
>         http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/06/18/napolitano-internet-monitoring-needed-fight-homegrown-terrorism/
>        
>        
>         WASHINGTON -- Fighting homegrown terrorism by monitoring Internet communications is a civil liberties 
> trade-off the U.S. government must make to beef up national security, the nation's homeland security chief said 
> Friday.
>        
>         As terrorists increasingly recruit U.S. citizens, the government needs to constantly balance Americans' civil 
> rights and privacy with the need to keep people safe, said Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano.
>        
>         But finding that balance has become more complex as homegrown terrorists have used the Internet to reach out 
> to extremists abroad for inspiration and training. Those contacts have spurred a recent rash of U.S.-based terror 
> plots and incidents.
>        
>         "The First Amendment protects radical opinions, but we need the legal tools to do things like monitor the 
> recruitment of terrorists via the Internet," Napolitano told a gathering of the American Constitution Society for Law 
> and Policy.
>        
>         Napolitano's comments suggest an effort by the Obama administration to reach out to its more liberal, 
> Democratic constituencies to assuage fears that terrorist worries will lead to the erosion of civil rights.
>        
>         The administration has faced a number of civil liberties and privacy challenges in recent months as it has 
> tried to increase airport security by adding full-body scanners, or track suspected terrorists traveling into the 
> United States from other countries.
>        
>         "Her speech is sign of the maturing of the administration on this issue," said Stewart Baker, former 
> undersecretary for policy with the Department of Homeland Security. "They now appreciate the risks and the trade-offs 
> much more clearly than when they first arrived, and to their credit, they've adjusted their preconceptions."
>        
>         Underscoring her comments are a number of recent terror attacks over the past year where legal U.S. residents 
> such as Times Square bombing suspect Faisal Shahzad and accused Fort Hood, Texas, shooter Maj. Nidal Hasan, are 
> believed to have been inspired by the Internet postings of violent Islamic extremists.
>        
>         And the fact that these are U.S. citizens or legal residents raises many legal and constitutional questions.
>        
>         Napolitano said it is wrong to believe that if security is embraced, liberty is sacrificed.
>        
>         She added, "We can significantly advance security without having a deleterious impact on individual rights in 
> most instances. At the same time, there are situations where trade-offs are inevitable."
>        
>         As an example, she noted the struggle to use full-body scanners at airports caused worries that they would 
> invade people's privacy.
>        
>         The scanners are useful in identifying explosives or other nonmetal weapons that ordinary metal-detectors 
> might miss -- such as the explosives that authorities said were successfully brought on board the Detroit-bound 
> airliner on Christmas Day by Nigerian Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab. He is accused of trying to detonate a bomb hidden in 
> his underwear, but the explosives failed, and only burned Abdulmutallab.
>        
>         U.S. officials, said Napolitano, have worked to institute a number of restrictions on the scanners' use in 
> order to minimize that. The scans cannot be saved or stored on the machines by the operator, and Transportation 
> Security Agency workers can't have phones or cameras that could capture the scan when near the machine.
>        
>  
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