-Caveat Lector- from: http://www.zolatimes.com/V3.33/pageone.html <A HREF="http://www.zolatimes.com/V3.33/pageone.html">Laissez Faire City Times - Volume 3 Issue 33</A> ----- Laissez Faire City Times Aug. 23, 1999 - Volume 3, Issue 33 Editor & Chief: Emile Zola ------------------------------------------------------------------------ FIDNET Another Step Closer to Orwell's Nightmare by Don Lobo Tiggre While the public remains fascinated with such important matters as another death in the Kennedy family and another shooting spree (which, some cynics have observed, just happened to take place during New Hampshire Senator Bob Smith�s filibuster in the gun-grabbing debates*), another story is getting far less attention than it deserves: FIDNET. Remember ECHELON? Well, FIDNET is a new U.S. government electronic data collection program that, coupled with existing spy systems like ECHELON, could push government threats to electronic privacy to new heights and bring us one giant step closer to Orwell�s nightmare. What is FIDNET? Right now, it�s just a Clinton Administration proposal�yes, those noble idealists in Washington are just full of ideas for protecting us from ourselves. FIDNET stands for Federal Intrusion Detection Network, and it�s no surprise that the Administration�s National Security Council (NSC) would come up with such an idea in the wake of all the hacker attacks on U.S. government web sites. The plan�not yet released to the public but leaked on-line by Wayne Madsen of the Intelligence Newsletter, and subsequently covered by the New York Times, Wired, and other news outlets�calls for one software system to watch activity on non-military government networks and a separate system to track the banking, telecommunications and transportation industries. A host of new monitoring agencies with a whole new can of alphabet soup names and acronyms is also called for, all under direction of the FBI. Data would be gathered at the National Infrastructure Protection Center (NIPC), an interagency facility operated by the FBI, beginning no later than the year 2003. This is necessary because terrorists and hackers are plotting evil things, the NCS assures us. Jeffrey Hunker, the NCS "Director of Information Protection" warns, "A number of nations that are hostile to the [US] and several well-financed terrorist groups, and quite arguably a number of organized crime groups, are systematically developing capabilities to attack US information systems. That's something both new and frightening." But it�s not just government computers Big Brother is worried about. Several private sector "industry leaders" (lobbyists from quasi-private telecommunications associations: Harris Miller, president of the Information Technology Association, Matthew Flanigan, president of the Telecommunications Industry Association, Roy Neel, president of the U.S. Telephone Association, and Stephen Katz, vice president for information security at Citigroup) are named in the plan, as is only fitting, since the idea is to protect the national economy, as well as "vital infrastructure". The NSC, White House spokesman Joe Lockhart said, wants "to see if we can work cooperatively with [private industry] to figure out if we can help them." The president, he said, "is committed to doing what we need to do to protect our infrastructure, while at the same time balancing the need for privacy." Fortunately, privacy advocates from many different places on the political spectrum are quite skeptical and are raising a fuss. Even some members of Congress have seized the opportunity to criticize the White House plan. The proposed "monitoring" power is too dangerous, too subject to abuse, and cannot be justified even for seemingly benign goal of protecting private (and government!) computer networks. It also goes farther than ever before toward the automated collection of private information with out any due process: robotic rights violation. Republican Senator Conrad Burns of Montana said that law enforcement agencies should have to get court orders to monitor computer lines (just as they once had to in order to monitor voice communications). "This administration has no respect for privacy. I find that very disturbing," he said. Even a Democrat, Ron Wyden of Oregon, agreed with Burns in saying that the White House proposal is "ill-conceived". Protection from Government Peeping Toms House Majority Leader Dick Armey released a startling statement in which he urged the administration to encourage the proliferation of powerful encryption instead of making secret plans to create new bureaucracies: "I am deeply concerned about reports that the Administration is trying to set up a new Washington bureaucracy to protect the private sector from hackers and computer terrorists. What we really need is protection from government Peeping Toms�. Their plan raises the Orwellian possibility that unscrupulous government bureaucrats could one day use such a system to read our personal e-mail. Let's not undermine the American people's confidence in the security of their most personal communications. Allowing individuals and private industry to use the strongest possible encryption is a more effective way of ensuring privacy from outside hackers." As refreshing as Armey�s statement is, posturing by Republicans who couldn�t even get enough votes to oust a president who was caught with his hand in the�, er�, cookie jar isn�t likely to instill much fear in the White House or cause The Murderer-of-Yugoslavian-Civilians-In-Chief to back off. What might have a chance of working is a massive groundswell of protest such as that which followed the breaking of the "Know Your Customer" snooping plan. Journalists, third parties, and political activists of all stripes should raise hell over this, and demand that the administration scrap the Big Brother approach to "helping" at once. Due to some internal wrangling among various law enforcement agencies, civil libertarians may have time to organize such a protest. According to Wayne Madsen, who first broke the story: "The plan has been withheld from public distribution pending a decision by the National Security Council (NSC) and Richard Clarke, the national coordinator for security, infrastructure protection and counter-terrorism, on whether to eliminate references to protection of the global information infrastructure. The NSC is believed to feel that references to a coordinated effort to protect international information infrastructures could run counter to the plans of the NSA and CIA to conduct offensive information warfare." While the information about the plans of the NSA and CIA to "conduct offensive information warfare" (against whom, one wonders) is hardly reassuring, it does suggest that efforts to organize opposition are not too late. With the congressional attention already given to the matter, funding and energy may even be forthcoming from those who would like to see the president damaged politically. If handled correctly, this situation could result in an even bigger set-back for the administration than the defeat of the Know Your Customer plan, and perhaps awaken even more American bullfrogs to how close the water they sleep in is to boiling. Clinton Gets to Kill FOIAs Another interesting Madsen revelation, for those who think that the water is merely warm and comfortable, is that the plan "calls for a White House-sponsored review of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) to consider changes to prevent certain information shared by the private sector with the government from being released as a result of FOIA requests." And if there can be any doubts about how serious the FBI, the Department Of Justice, and the Administration are about making sure they have a Big Brother screen in every home, consider the recent FBI action against a small telecommunications company from Canada. According to the National Post, TMI Communications, Inc., wants to sell satellite telephone service to customers in the U.S., but its bid to get a license has been blocked by "the FBI, the major U.S. government departments, and ultimately the White House � with nothing less than the integrity of America's national security at stake." Why? Because, "new U.S. wiretap laws demand the FBI be able to listen to all kinds of telephone calls, including ones on satellite telephones." The problem is that the FBI can �t simply tap Canadian phones, and apparently there�s no way they can tell which TMI customers might be calling from within the United States. Remember ECHELON, dear frogs, and that the FBI listens to all kinds of telephone calls already�now they want unlimited access to your Internet communications. That water is pretty near to boiling, and when it does boil, it will be too late to jump out. If FIDNET is to be stopped, it must be stopped now. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ *The gunman also killed his family with a hammer. Anyone want to take bets that the gun-grabbers will use the tragedy for their own ends, but won�t propose banning hammers, not even the dreaded semi-automatic assault hammers and fully-automatic "roof-sweeper" nail guns? ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Don Lobo Tiggre is the author of Y2K: The Millennium Bug, a suspenseful thriller. Tiggre can be found at the Liberty Round Table. -30- from The Laissez Faire City Times, Vol 3, No 33, August 23, 1999 ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Published by Laissez Faire City Netcasting Group, Inc. Copyright 1998 - Trademark Registered with LFC Public Registrar All Rights Reserved ----- Aloha, He'Ping, Om, Shalom, Salaam. Em Hotep, Peace Be, Omnia Bona Bonis, All My Relations. Adieu, Adios, Aloha. Amen. Roads End Kris DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER ========== CTRL is a discussion and informational exchange list. Proselyzting propagandic screeds are not allowed. 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