FC: Proposed US military budget will fund domestic wiretapping

[Declan McCullagh <declan () well com>]

http://www.wired.com/news/politics/0,1283,34164,00.html

                       Clinton's Wiretap-Heavy Budget
                       by Declan McCullagh (declan () wired com)

                       1:25 p.m. 7.Feb.2000 PST
                       WASHINGTON -- President Clinton's
                       proposed $1.84 trillion budget includes
                       millions of dollars in new spending on
                       technology and law enforcement
                       programs.

                       The record budget request for the 2001
                       fiscal year, which begins 1 October, asks
                       Congress for more money for wiretapping,
                       police databases, antitrust enforcement,
                       and computer crime forensics.

                       One of the heftiest increases, from $15
                       million to $240 million, will pay telephone
                       companies to rewire their networks to
                       facilitate federal and state wiretapping.
                       Under the 1994 Communications
                       Assistance to Law Enforcement Act
                       (CALEA), Congress may "reimburse" phone
                       companies for their efforts, but the
                       controversial process is the subject of a
                       lawsuit currently before a federal appeals
                       court.

                       Half of that money, $120 million, will come
                       from the Department of Defense's
                       "national security" budget -- a move that
                       alarms privacy groups.

                       "The proposal to use thinly disguised
                       intelligence agency money to fund CALEA
                       confirms what we have suspected all
                       along: the National Security Agency is a
                       silent partner in the government's
                       campaign to make our entire
                       telecommunications system, including the
                       Net, wiretap ready," says Barry
                       Steinhardt, associate director of the
                       American Civil Liberties Union.

                       [...]

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