EFFector Vol. 14, No. 24 Sep. 17-18, 2001
editors@eff.org
A Publication of the Electronic Frontier Foundation ISSN 1062-9424
In the 184th Issue of EFFector (now with over 29,000 subscribers!):
* ALERT: Ask Congress to Legislate to Improve Security Not Eliminate
Freedoms
* Administrivia
This issue was released Sep. 17, 2001, and updated Sep. 18, 2001.
For more information on EFF activities & alerts: http://www.eff.org/
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ALERT: Ask Congress to Legislate to Improve Security Not Eliminate Freedoms
Congressional Response to Terrorism Threatens Privacy
Electronic Frontier Foundation ACTION ALERT
(Updated: Monday, September 18, 2001 / Deadline: Friday, September 20,
2001)
Introduction:
San Francisco, California - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF)
today urged governmental officials to act deliberately in the coming
days and to approve only measures that are effective in preventing
terrorism while protecting the freedoms of Americans. Your urgent
action is needed TODAY.
In a press conference earlier today, Attorney General John Ashcroft
indicated that he would be asking Congress to expand the ability of
law enforcement officers to perform wiretaps in response to the
terrorist attacks on the United States on September 11, 2001. Ashcroft
asked Congress to pass anti-terrorism legislation including "expanded
electronic surveillance" by the end of this week.
Ashcroft's comments come in the wake of the Senate's hasty passage of
the "Combating Terrorism Act" on the evening of September 13 with less
than 30 minutes of consideration on the Senate floor.
EFF believes this broad legislation would result in unintended
negative consequences for civil liberties of law-abiding citizens by
making it unnecessary for law enforcement officers to obtain a court
wiretap order before requiring Internet Service Providers (ISPs) to
release e-mail message header information and Internet browsing
patterns of their subscribers. The bill would also authorize local
U.S. attorneys to authorize certain surveillance orders.
The Combating Terrorism Act is presently a Senate-passed amendment to
a House appropriations bill. It is expected to be voted on in joint
conference committee this week, or early next week at the latest. The
House has already passed the "base" bill, while the Senate has passed
it plus the wiretapping amendment. The House delegates several
Representatives to meet with several Senators, who will collectively
decide what amendments the final, joint version will include. This
final version is then voted on by the full House and Senate. This only
real pressure point is the conference committee; whatever emerges will
almost certainly pass both houses near-unanimously.
What YOU Can Do Now:
* Contact the conference committee members and your legislators
about this issue AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. Call them, and fax and/or
e-mail the EFF letter below today. Postal mail will be too slow on
this issue. Feel free to use this letter verbatim, or modify it as
you wish. Let them know that you do not believe liberty must be
sacrified for security. Please be polite and concise, but firm.
For information on how to contact your legislators and other
government officials, see EFF's "Contacting Congress and Other
Policymakers" guide at:
http://www.eff.org/congress.html
* Join EFF! For membership information see:
http://www.eff.org/support/
Sample Letters:
There are two sample letters below, one to the conference committee
members, and one to your own legislators.
Use this sample letter below to conference committee members or modify
it, and send to all of the following:
Representatives:
Name (State), Phone (202-225-####), Fax (202-22#-####), E-mail
Frank Wolf (VA), 5136, 5-0437, none
Hal Rogers (KY), 4601, 5-0940, talk2hal@mail.house.gov
Jim Kolbe (AZ), 2542, 5-0378, none
Charles Taylor (NC), 6401, none, repcharles.taylor@mail.house.gov
Ralph Regula (OH), 3876, 5-3059, repregula@workinohio.org
Tom Latham (IA), 5476, 5-3301, latham.ia05@mail.house.gov
Dan Miller (FL), 5015, 6-0828, none
David Vitter (LA), 3015, 5-0739, david.vitter@mail.house.gov
Jos Serrano (NY), 4361, 5-6001, jserrano@mail.house.gov
Alan Mollohan (WV), 4172, 5-7564, none
Lucille Roybal-Allard (CA), 1766, 6-0350, none
Robert Cramer (AL), 4801, 5-4392, budmail@mail.house.gov
Patrick Kennedy (RI), 4911, 5-3290, patrick.kennedy@mail.house.gov
For Representatives that don't provide a direct e-mail address, use
this form:
http://www.house.gov/writerep/
Senators:
Name (State), Phone (202-224-####), Fax (202-224-####), E-mail
Robert Byrd (WV), 3954, 228-0002, senator_byrd@byrd.senate.gov
Patrick Leahy (VT), 4242, 3479, senator_leahy@leahy.senate.gov
Ted Stevens (AK), 3004, 2354, senator_stevens@stevens.senate.gov
Mitch McConnell (KY), 2541, 2499, senator@mcconnell.senate.gov
Ernest Hollings (SC), 6121, 4293, none
Daniel Inouye (HI), 3934, 6747, senator@inouye.senate.gov
Barbara Mikulski (MD), 4654, 8858, senator@mikulski.senate.gov
Herb Kohl (WI), 5653, 9787, senator_kohl@kohl.senate.gov
Patty Murray (WA), 2621, 0238, senator_murray@murray.senate.gov
Jack Reed (RI), 4642, 4680, jack@reed.senate.gov
Judd Gregg (NH), 3324, 4952, mailbox@gregg.senate.gov
Pete Domenici (NM), 6621, none, senator_domenici@domenici.senate.gov
Kay Hutchison (TX), 5922, 0776, senator@hutchison.senate.gov
Ben Campbell (CO), 5852, 1933, none
Thad Cochran (MS), 5054, 9450, senator@cochran.senate.gov
Sen. Hollings can be e-mailed via the Web at:
http://www.senate.gov/~hollings/webform.html
Sen. Campbell provides no public e-mail mechanism of any kind.
Dear Sen./Rep. [Surname] and Other H.R. 2500 Conference Committee
Members:
I write to express my gravest concern over aspects of the
Congressional response to the tragedies of September 11. While I
share your grief and anger in no uncertain terms, I do not believe
that sacrificing essential liberties in a vain hope of improving
security is good for America or the world. Security can be improved
without privacy invasion, and we cannot win an attack on freedom by
attacking that freedom ourselves.
I specifically object to H.R. 2500 amendment S.A. 1562 sections
816, 832, 833, and 834, and any similar measures, such as those
proposed by Attorney General Ashcroft, as well as recent calls for
measures that would thwart Americans' use of secure encryption. I
also object to provisions being passed in response to terrorism but
which have nothing to do with terrorism, such as "emergency"
wiretaps against simple computer crime incidents.
I urge you to vote AGAINST incorporating the above-mentioned
sections of S.A. 1562 into the final version of H.R. 2500, and to
vote against any similar amendments expanding wiretap powers,
online monitoring, warrantless pen register or trap and trace
authority, censorship, or restrictions on encryption.
The United States should not take steps toward becoming a police
state, or otherwise undermine our own freedom in the name of
defending that freedom from terrorist attack, or the terrorists
have already won. This is a time for careful consideration, not
passing legislation without debate or careful consideration of the
consequences.
Sincerely,
[Your name & address]
(Be sure to correct the salutation - use EITHER Sen. or Rep., and use
the correct name.) If one of the conference committee members if your
Rep. or Sen., mention that you are a constituent, as in the letter
below.)
Use this sample letter to YOUR legislators or modify it, and send to
their Washington fax and e-mail, which you can get this from Project
Vote Smart:
http://www.vote-smart.org/vote-smart/data.phtml?dtype=C&style=
or the House:
http://www.house.gov/house/MemberWWW.html
and Senate:
http://www.senate.gov/senators/index.cfm
websites.
Dear Sen./Rep. [Surname]
I write as a constituent to express my gravest concern over aspects
of the Congressional response to the tragedies of September 11.
While I share your grief and anger in no uncertain terms, I do not
believe that sacrificing essential liberties in a vain hope of
improving security is good for America or the world. Security can
be improved without privacy invasion, and we cannot win an attack
on freedom by attacking that freedom ourselves.
I urge you to vote AGAINST H.R. 2500 should it emerge from
conference committee with amendment S.A. 1562 attached, and to vote
against any similar legislation expanding wiretap powers, online
monitoring, warrantless pen register or trap and trace authority,
censorship, or restrictions on encryption.
The United States should not take steps toward becoming a police
state, or otherwise undermine our own freedom in the name of
defending that freedom from terrorist attack, or the terrorists
have already won. This is a time for careful consideration, not
passing legislation without debate or careful consideration of the
consequences.
I specifically object to S.A. 1562 sections 816, 832, 833, and 834,
and any similar measures, such as those proposed by Attorney
General Ashcroft, as well as recent calls for measures that would
thwart Americans' use of secure encryption. I also object to
provisions being passed in response to terrorism but which have
nothing to do with terrorism, such as "emergency" wiretaps against
simple computer crime incidents.
Sincerely,
[Your name & address]
(Be sure to correct the salutation - use EITHER Sen. or Rep., and use
the correct name.)
Non-US Activists
Non-US readers can probably have little impact on the US Congress's
votes on these matters, and could even affect them negatively. Your
best course of action is to contact your own
legislators/parliamentarians and urge them to avoid similar policies
in your own country.
Privacy Campaign:
This drive to contact your legislators about unprecedented wiretap
power expansion is part of a larger campaign to highlight how
extensively companies and governmental agencies subject us to
surveillance and share and use personal information online & offline,
and what you can do about it.
Check the EFF Privacy Now! Campaign website regularly for additional
alerts and news:
http://www.eff.org/privnow/
Background:
During the Congressional session considering the Combating Terrorism
Act, which was introduced as amendment S.A. 1562 to an omnibus
appropriations bill, H.R. 2500, Senator Patrick Leahy (D-VT) expressed
concern that he was asked to vote so rapidly on such important
legislation within minutes of receiving it and without conducting
hearings in the Intelligence, Armed Services and Judiciary committees:
Maybe the Senate wants to just go ahead and adopt new abilities to
wiretap our citizens. Maybe they want to adopt new abilities to go
into people's computers. Maybe that will make us feel safer. Maybe.
And maybe what the terrorists have done made us a little bit less
safe. Maybe they have increased Big Brother in this country.
If that is what the Senate wants, we can vote for it. But do we
really show respect to the American people by slapping something
together, something that nobody on the floor can explain, and say
we are changing the duties of the Attorney General, the Director of
the CIA, the U.S. attorneys, we are going to change your rights as
Americans, your rights to privacy? We are going to do it with no
hearings, no debate. We are going to do it with numbers on a page
that nobody can understand.
EFF shares Senator Leahy's concerns in this time of national crisis.
EFF Legal Director Cindy Cohn commented, "These proposals
significantly impact the civil liberties of Americans. We urge
legislators to please slow down and consider the long-term
consequences of your votes."
"I believe that deep in their souls, Americans understand that the
reason this country is so great--is so worth defending--is because it
is free," explained EFF Executive Director Shari Steele. "We should be
very careful to make sure that any legislation that passes is truly
needed to address national security concerns."
During World War I, the US Congress hastily passed the Espionage Act
which was notorious for decreasing freedoms without improving the
security of the American public, under which Congress granted the
Postmaster General (who delegated it to 55,000 local postmasters) the
authority to read any mail and remove any material that might
"embarrass" the government in conducting the war effort.
The relevant portions of the Combating Terrorism Act (S1562) passed by
the Senate:
http://www.eff.org/sc/wiretap_bill.html
To read the entire provisions from Congress's legislation server, go
to:
http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c107:h.r.2500.pp:
They are the very last three sections on the page.
Senator Leahy's testimony on the Combating Terrorism Act:
http://www.fas.org/sgp/congress/2001/s091301.html
EFF analysis of the Combating Terrorism Act [coming soon]:
http://www.eff.org/sc/eff_wiretap_bill_analysis.html
Why "backdoor" encryption requirements reduce security:
http://www.crypto.com/papers/escrowrisks98.pdf
EFF Surveillance Archive:
http://www.eff.org/Privacy/Surveillance/
About EFF:
The Electronic Frontier Foundation is the leading civil liberties
organization working to protect rights in the digital world. Founded
in 1990, EFF actively encourages and challenges industry and
government to support free expression, privacy, and openness in the
information society. EFF is a member-supported organization and
maintains one of the most linked-to Web sites in the world:
http://www.eff.org
Contact:
Cindy Cohn, EFF Legal Director
cindy@eff.org
+1 415-436-9333 x108
Lee Tien, EFF Senior First Amendment Attorney
tien@eff.org
+1 415-436-9333 x102
- end -
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Editors:
Katina Bishop, EFF Education & Offline Activism Director
Stanton McCandlish, EFF Technical Director/Webmaster
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